Gary L. Bagley First Presbyterian Church Cleveland, Georgia August 5, 2018 Our Daily Bread Exodus 16:2-5, 9-15, 35; John 6:24-35 Today s Old and New Testament readings have to do with food. On a deeper level, they have to do with survival. And on an even deeper level, they have to do with quality of life, happiness, and fulfillment. Actually, last week s sermon included repeatedly the 13 th century poem of what you might consider doing if you only have two loaves of bread left and you are physically, emotionally, and spiritually depleted a springboard off of Jesus encouragement for his disciples and him to get away after a trying time. Today and next Sunday, I plan to focus on bread its daily requirement, metaphorically. Next Sunday s repeat of today s last New Testament verse (John 6:35) will have us looking at Jesus teaching that he his Way is like bread. You can t live without it and expect to discover the abundant life, or life in all of its fulfillness. In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, the fleeing, former Israelite slaves have found their new freedom, only to be quite anxious with what that freedom has brought no food, at least nothing like what they had had as slaves under Egyptian rule. Through their complaints, God promised food for the morrow. They were to gather the food they found among the morning dew a quart full only, no more until the next delivery was made on the following day. Some tried to gather enough for several days only to find that it soured and attracted the bugs. Getting food from Yahweh became a daily process. They did it for forty years fourteen thousand, two hundred and forty days, if you take that literally, or for quite a number of years, if you take it as the term meant 3,500 or so years ago. Either way, they mean about the same thing. On the Sabbath, they were to gather two quarts worth, because God wanted them to rest on that day. There is something about buying things in quantities that I like and that Jennifer has a hard time understanding in me. Listerine in the extra large bottle, Nestle s chocolate 1
chips in the commercial quart-size bags, the giant size bag of brown rice. My excuse is always that buying in bulk is cheaper in the long run. My analogy that follows is that you won t spend any more money on gas by filling up the tank, than by buying it a gallon at the time. The truth of the matter is that I m afraid that I might run out of something I need or want, and don t want to have to think about it on a daily basis. I generally like to do things right, once and for all, and not have to think about that one again. You can imagine my worst thought after mowing the lawn each week in the middle of summer when we had a lawn I m going to have to do this all over again next week. I ll never forget my first year in pastoral ministry. Each Monday morning, I had this hangover of a thought only six more days left until the next sermon is due! Now its more like preparing and eating a fine meal. It pushes me to think, study, and grow spiritually and biblically. I know I am in good company with my angst. The Israelites didn t want to be bothered with the cupboard running low. And by the way some of you smiled earlier, I can tell that I m not the only one here who likes those giant size bags of peanut M&Ms. The important lesson God wanted the Israelites to learn was that they needed to depend on God on a daily basis for spiritual and emotional guidance, for inspiration, for knowing how to live fairly and ethically in a community, for forgiveness. That s why they kept two quart-jars of that stuff (manna), placing them by the tablets and alter after coming into Canaan. They wanted to remember the importance of manna in the desert; they wanted their children to ask, What is that? so that they could tell the story of God feeding them each day in the wilderness for forty years with the manna from heaven. Four months or so ago as the Wednesday night adult study focused on Core Values of Vital Mainline Churches, we spent one session talking about some of the differences in the average Mainline Protestant church and the average evangelical church, though most of us in the reformed or Mainline tradition would be quick to say that we are, or should be, evangelical. After all, the word evangel means the messenger or bringer of good news. Look at most orders of worship in reformed churches. Early in the service a unison prayer of confession is provided. It s not there for us to wallow in our guilt. It s there to remind us at the very beginning of worship of the importance of reflecting on the 2
need for regular honesty, openness, guidance, forgiveness, and help of God. Too much emphasis on the once saved, always saved mantra and you think the spiritual life is only about buying your ticket to heaven once and missing out on the deeper spiritual aspect of growth and life in all of is fullness. Too much emphasis on the sole equalizer of confession and you take the road of doing unethically whatever you want to do with the simplistic attitude of I just need to go to confession or simply ask for God s forgiveness. Spend too much time at the foot of the cross bathing yourself in guilt or fanaticizing on the pain and cruelty of Jesus on the cross, and you lock yourself in a prison of the past, missing the whole reality of the living Christ the empty cross, life beyond the execution of a Christian s most beloved person, one who gave himself/his life for others. And, I m not trying to diminish the excruciating painful death by crucifixion, reserved only for insurrectionists against the Roman Empire. The reason Jesus put something so simple and materialistic in the model prayer for his followers was for that precise reason. Being a disciple means depending daily on God, for what seems to be the most obvious basics of life. God doesn t come in the giant monthly size or even Sunday size, for that matter. His relationship, if it is to be rich and meaningful, must be sought on a daily basis. The other side of this coin has to do with accepting the Bread we are given. Over the years, there has been a good bit of speculation about exactly what manna was. The Bible says it was like coriander seed, white and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey (Exodus 16:31). The name comes from the Hebrew man hu which means, What is it? If you go to the Sinai Peninsula, it will not stay a mystery very long. The Bedouin tribes who live there still gather it and bake it into bread, which they still call manna. The flakes themselves come from plant lice that feed on the local tamarisk trees. Because the sap is poor in nitrogen, the bugs have to eat a lot of it in order to live. They excrete the extra in a yellowish-white flake or ball of juice from the tree that is rich in carbohydrates and sugars. It decays quickly and attracts ants, so a daily portion is the most anyone gathers. Does that sound familiar? 3
Some believers have rejected this explanation, because they feel it takes away from the miracle of manna. Would God give bug juice to his wandering people crying in the wilderness? But the real question is What makes something bread from heaven? How you answer that has a lot to do with how you sense God s presence in you life. If your manna from heaven has to drop straight out of heaven and look like buttercrust bread, then chances are you are going to go hungry a lot of the time. When you don t get what you are asking for, you are going to think that God doesn t care or is ignoring you. Meanwhile, you will miss a lot of the other things God is doing for you because they are too ordinary, like an artificial hip or knee replacement surgery. But if, on the other hand, you are willing to look at everything that comes to you as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life. A bag of rice will be manna. Peanut M&Ms will be manna. Bug juice will be manna. Nothing will be too ordinary or too transitory to remind you of God. When you go to bed hungry and you wake up to find a fine, flaky substance on the ground, you will say, What is it? And when someone says, It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat, you will believe it. You will say Thanks be to God, and start trying to figure out how to eat the stuff. Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives some bread, some love, some breath, some wine all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. When Jesus fed the five thousand, they didn t want to leave him. This miracle reminded them of the manna stories they had learned. They thought they had their very own Moses. As a test of his Messiahship, they ask him to produce more bread, right on the spot miracle manna from heaven. But what he gave them instead was himself I am the Bread of Life which sounded more like bug juice to them at the moment. They wanted miracle food, not a relationship with an ordinary looking man. He honored their hunger even as he corrected them. Jesus is God s manna in the wilderness, the one who reminds us day by day that we live because God provides not what we want, necessarily, but exactly what we need: some bread, some love, some breath, some wine, a relationship with this ordinary looking man, who comes from heaven to bring life to the world. AMEN. 4
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 16:2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 16:3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 16:9 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, 'Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.'" 16:10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 16:11 The LORD spoke to Moses and said, 16:12 "I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'" 16:13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 16:14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 16:15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. John 6:24-35 6:24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" 6:26 Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 6:27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." 6:28 Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" 6:29 Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." 6:30 So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 6:31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 6:32 Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 6:33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 6:34 They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." 5
6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 6