Sermon "Bread for the Journey"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, October 3, 1999
John 6:35-40
Bread for the Journey
In this week's reading Jesus emphasizes that he is the bread of life. Let us look more closely at why Jesus chose to call his word the "bread of life".
If we look at the various cultures and countries of the world, I think we could safely say that bread is the most universal of all food, in whatever manner it is baked: as a loaf, a biscuit, a muffin, a bagel, a croissant or as a pita.
While in Israel, an Armenian Christian told me that westerners do not understand what Jesus was saying when he said, "I am the bread of life." He went on to say, “You see, in the Middle East, bread is not just something extra thrown in at a meal. It is the heart of every meal. They have those thin pieces of pita bread at every meal. Those strict people would not think of taking forks and putting them in their mouths. To put an object in your mouth defiles it. You certainly would not take a fork out and put it in again and go on defiling yourself like that. Instead, you break off a piece of the bread, pick up your food with it and eat it. Indeed, the only way you can get to the main dish, is with the bread. In the same way, Jesus was saying that we can come to life is through him.”
Now, if you have ever made bread, you know that there is one very essential ingredient without which there would be no bread. And that ingredient is yeast. Does anyone know what a "sourdough starter" is? It is a fermented dough which is comprised of water, flour and yeast, and which is kept from one baking to the next so that you don't have to start with fresh yeast every time you bake. In earlier times, before the advent of processed foods and when mothers had to bake on a regular basis just to provide for their family's needs, they would take out of the dough which they had prepared what they needed for the day's biscuits, bread or pancakes. Then they would give the rest of the starter a stir, "feed" it more flour and water, and stick it back in their frig. In pioneer days, women treasured their "starter" and nurtured it along for years. Sometimes one starter was passed along from one generation to the next and was considered a cherished possession.
Now once the mixture of water, flour and yeast is just right, then the dough must be kneaded to ensure that the yeast is evenly distributed, or the bread will not rise properly. Then the dough must be set aside for a while so that the fermentation process started by the yeast will cause the dough to rise. Only then is it ready to baked in the oven and become bread, the bread which nourishes our bodies and provides us with sustenance. This is our physical nourishment.
But Jesus also uses the phrase "the bread of life" to mean spiritual nourishment. What is it about bread, its ingredients and how it is made, that should remind us of the word of God? In the Bible, bread appears several times as an image of wisdom, or divine revelation: Isaiah says "You who have no money, come, receive bread and eat" (55:1-3); Proverbs states that all should "come, eat of my bread." (9:1-6) This should make a lot of sense to us because we read books, watch movies and television to learn about life (hopefully) and to increase our knowledge. In the same way, we need to read, reflect and pray over the word of God privately so that it can nourish our souls and be our true "soul food".
But we also receive the bread of life at the Communion table of the Lord. And there are three characteristics of this bread: it is personal, communal and universal. It is personal because I know that I am welcome at the table of the Lord just as I am, with all of my faults and failings, with all of my gifts and talents, however many or few they may be. The bread of life is also shared communally, i.e., among a community of believers. It is only shared individually when circumstances prevent a sharing communally, such as in cases of illness, incapacity, hospitalization, or even imprisonment.
Ben Weir, the Presbyterian missionary who was for so long a hostage in Lebanon, speaks movingly about worshiping while in captivity. Every Saturday night, he saved a piece of bread from dinner, and on Sunday morning he would eat that piece of bread and feel moved by the sense of communing with God's people all over the world. Even in prison, he found a way to celebrate being in the presence of the Lord.
Which brings us to the third characteristic of the bread of life, which is its universality. In our gospel reading today, Jesus said, "If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever." Therefore, if anyone can eat it, then no one is excluded and it is universal. In fact, there is one word which crystallizes what happens when we break bread at table with others, or when we break the bread of life with our brothers and sisters around the world at the table of the Lord: we become their companions on the journey of life. The word companion comes from two Latin words "cum" and "panis" which mean to have bread with another person.
Just as bread nourishes our bodies, so does the bread of life in word and sacrament nourish our souls. Jesus, the bread of life, is energized in each one of us by divine yeast - by the spirit of the living God, who sent Christ to be among us, to be for us, to be in us. To benefit fully from this bread of life, we must keep our lives full of the spirit. Just like the sourdough starter must be nourished by water, flour and yeast, so the bread of life must be nurtured by personal, communal and universal prayer. The spirit waits there to bring this precious bread to us, to satisfy us completely and to make us strong.
Let us pray:
"Help us, o God, to live the recipe of good deeds before we give the recipe. Give us the kneading strength of your spirit to work your words into the doughy recesses of our lives. Help us to let it rest awhile in our heart so that it can rise. Help us not to fear the oven of life, so that it can bake through and through. And grant that in the baking, the world would be able to roll down its window and savor the aroma of freshly baked bread, your bread of life." Amen.
