Charles Allen, in his book God s Psychiatry, tells this story: Towards the end of WWII, the allied forces found many orphaned children.

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1 The Bread of Life Pastor Susan Garofalo Charles Allen, in his book God s Psychiatry, tells this story: Towards the end of WWII, the allied forces found many orphaned children. They gathered them up in camps and took good care of them-feeding them and giving them a safe place to rest their heads at night. One thing they noticed was that even though they were well fed, the children slept poorly, and why not, after all they had experienced. So, members of the allied forces tried something: each child received a piece of bread-not to eat-but to hold on to when they went to bed at night. The results speak for themselves. Over time, they found that the children slept better-knowing that when they woke, there would be food-at least the bit of bread they had in their hand for the next day. So,, they were able to sleep better at night. Having that comfort and that confidence made a real difference to these children, whose lives would never be the same again. Thinking of these children who, would eventually leave the safety and the care they received in the camps, to move on to the unknowns of orphanages, new homes with new families, or to living in poverty in the streets after the war was over, I wonder how many of them continued to try to-whenever possible-go to sleep at night with that piece of bread in their hand; with that same kind of assurance. My guess is that it was not always possible. It makes me sad to think of how many of those orphans-how many people throughout history would have done just about anything, how many people today, would give everything they own just to have that same kind of assurance. Bread and grains are staples in every diet. Scripture and physicians tell us that we cannot live on bread alone, but the survival of our physical bodies depends upon it. Ah, but what of our spiritual bodies? Does the bread we eat sustain us spiritually? I think that is the point Jesus is trying to make. By this time-in John 6, news of Jesus healings and the other miracles he performed had spread like wildfire. Large groups would follow he and the disciples wherever they went. John 6 opens with Jesus crossing over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, with the crowd following him. John tells us that Jesus became concerned about the people and wanted to feed them and he does: with 5 loaves of barley bread they mustered up somehow, and two small fishes from the lunch pail of a young boy. From these humble, meager beginnings, all of those people witnessed the miracle of what we call Jesus feeding the 5,000. After he does this, he is concerned that the people will try to make him their earthly king, so he goes to Capernaum, without a boat, mind you, the people follow him and ask him for signs to show them he is the Messiah, as if feeding well over 5,000 people with 5 barley loaves and two small fishes was not a miracle in and of itself. I want to put a place holder here, and with this all still fresh in our minds, I would like you to turn to another story in the Bible: Exodus 16. During much of Epiphany, we turned to the story of Moses, to illuminate the meaning of discipleship. There was Moses and the

2 burning bush, when we spoke of the God s call in our lives, the parting of the Red Sea, following God through the impossible, Moses and God s people at Mt Sinai when they received the Law of God. Today, we reach for another story of Moses and the people of Israel to connect what Jesus says in John 6, with the history of his people. To put this into context, the people had followed Moses out of Egypt, followed him through the Red Sea, and now they were in the wilderness-making their way to Mt. Sinai..grumbling and complaining of hunger and fear of the unknown. What does God do? Does he let them go hungry? Does he allow them to suffer? (Read Exodus 16:1-15) The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, If only we had died by the LORD s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days. 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us? 8 Moses also said, You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD. 9 Then Moses told Aaron, Say to the entire Israelite community, Come before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling. 10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud. 11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God. 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, What is it? For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. So the God of the Old Testament-provided meat each night and bread-in the form of manna each morning; enough food to assure their survival while they were in the wilderness-not an insignificant length of time, if you recall, as the Israelites were in the

3 wilderness for 40 years before entering into the Promised Land. 40 years, of not needing to worry where your next meal was coming from. Talk about miracles. And a bit later, God instructs Moses and Aaron to save an omer of manna in a jar, to preserve it for generations to come. It was a symbol that God will always be faithful, and provide for his people. I bring this story to you from Exodus 16, because in John 6, God does, indeed, remain faithful and provide; only this time, the miracle is performed by the will of God through Jesus. The people: the followers of Jesus, remember the story of the manna in the wilderness. It is a story that they know well, and retell. The problem is this, they did not know the lesson of the manna, because if they did, they would not have followed Jesus, who walked on water, no less, back to Capernaum, so they could ask him for a sign that he is the Messiah. Miracles were happening all around them. God was present and acting in their lives just has he was present and acted in the lives of the Israelites in the wilderness all of those years before. They wanted Jesus to do something as amazing as Moses had done, because; as the story has passed through the generations, it is their understanding that it was Moses who brought the quail and made it rain manna from heaven. Even though the glory of God was visible in the clouds, even though God made his presence known, the hand they saw that fed them, belonged to Moses. Here they were, all of those generations later, asking for the same kind of sign-from God himself-from Emmanuel-which we know means: God with us! Even though they had witnessed the miracle of feeding well over 5,000 people on 5 loaves and a couple of fish; even though Jesus walked on water in order to get back to Capernaum, after everything else they had seen him do, and the teaching and the example he set: They needed a sign-to prove to them that he was, indeed, the Messiah. Jesus says to them, we want to say to them: Open your eyes! The lesson of the manna, wasn t about what was given. It was about who provided it. Yes, Moses was an important figure in the history of the Jews, but Moses did not make it rain bread, and he did not command the quail to come. Everything he had, everything he did, came from God. Everything the Israelites witnessed Moses doing, all of the miracles, came from that incredible, ultimate, divine God-that was more powerful than any God the Egyptians could conjure-including Pharaoh. It was God who sustained them on their journey, literally in terms of the manna and the quail, and spiritually, in terms of his presence, his faithfulness, and his incredible power. He was with them every step of the way. He never left them. The people did not understand this. They heard God s voice, they even witnessed his glory in the clouds. But it was Moses they saw. It was Moses they could relate to. So Moses became the focal point of the story of the Manna. The lesson-that it was God who provided, and would continue to provide for them, was lost.

4 The lesson of the feeding of the 5,000 was not about the bread or the fish, it was about the One who made it possible and in this case, it was God, through Jesus. They had God s Son standing before them, and they were asking for signs he was the One. What more did they need? This after healings, raising people from the dead, teaching and preaching, after all of this, they needed more? I cannot fault the followers, or even the disciples. If Jesus stood before us today, would we be able to believe just on His Word, that it was true? Wouldn t we ask for some kind of assurance, some kind of sign? It is clear those who followed Jesus, who asked him for the sign that he was the Messiah, didn t know what it was that they were looking for. Their eyes, and their expectations were fixed on what they knew about the world and how it worked. Of course, they wanted someone to save them, save them from hunger, save them from their enemies, someone of military prowess, a hero, who would champion them at every turn. That is what they expected of the Messiah. Ah, but to be the champion of their sin? To sacrifice himself so that they could be reconciled to God-the God that fed their ancestors in the wilderness, and fed them on that grassy hill, that would continue feeding them and all of the generations to come.. oh if they would only open their eyes and their hearts so that they would know that Jesus was the Bread of Life-because Jesus was God Incarnate,.the very One who feeds us body and soul. We hunger for this, as God s children and as Jesus disciples. We hunger for this bread of life-we crave it every bit as much the children in those camps during WWII craved that piece of bread in their hand each night, because it served as a promise to them. It gave them much needed assurance that, while they had lost everything they knew about life: their parents, their families, their homes, they could believe that they were not forgotten, and certainly not alone. Because the promise of tomorrow was in their hand. You and I do not go to bed every night with bread in our hands. At least, I know that I do not. There have been days in my life-many in fact, when I did not know where my next meal was coming from. I have moved more times than I care to admit, trying to find where it is that God wants me to be and where it is he wants me to go, and what he wants me to do. There are moments, however fleeting, when I would give anything to have that same kind of assurance that same kind of promise those children were given. But it isn t about the bread. It is about the One that provides it, and our relationship with him. It is about faith. Our believing that Jesus is the Bread of Life-doesn t have anything to do with bread at all-not in a literal way. It is believing/trusting even, that we are filled in the moments we feel the most empty. The hunger we feel in our stomachs is not the same kind of hunger we feel in our hearts, when we know we are not right with God, or with one another. Both lead to our ruin, whether it is in the physical sense or the spiritual. It is in the moments of our greatest need, when we have seemingly lost everything, and we are unsure where it is we are supposed to go, and what it is we are supposed to do, that God gives us the means to be filled; and God does this in the most beautiful and intimate of ways: he gives us Jesus. Because Jesus, through the example of his Love, his Compassion,

5 his Righteousness, his Perfection, and his Sacrifice, leads us to our hearts true desire: eternal life with God in the Kingdom. It is because of this, without question, that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Thanks be to God. Amen.