[reposted from 2021 cos it’s the summer hols and I need some time off ]
This afternoon, in a rare moment of domesticity, I made bread. I’m about as effective in the kitchen as a butterfly in a sumo match, but technology helps me cheat, so the house has been filled for hours with the drool-worthy scent of warm D’oh. Sorry, dough.
It came out of the bread maker 20 minutes ago and the loaf is already two-thirds gone. (Yes, my children are velociraptors in disguise.)
And so the cunning link to bread, and Jesus’ famous “I am the Bread of Life.”
It’s one of his best-known sayings, but what does it mean? The crowd has no idea. Much the same as Homer Simpson.
To put this in context, Jesus has just fed a football-stadium-sized crowd (pre-pandemic) with the equivalent of one Big Mac and a large fries. But when he starts talking about the Bread of Life, the crowd just don’t get it. They start joining the dots by asking if it was to do with manna in the desert, but they cannot see the big picture. This isn’t about bread, this is about life.
It’s like when Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman at the well. He offered her springs of water welling up to eternal life, and she though he was talking about plumbing! Another D’oh moment.
The crowd of John 6 were similarly slow on the uptake, so Jesus joins the dots in words of one syllable. I am the Bread of Life. It’s me. I’m the point, the focus, the life-sustainer. He even says it three times, just to make sure they have heard.
So what are these dots? The Old Testament reading points to one of them: Elijah, worn out, scared for his life, physically and mentally drained, sits down under a bush and wishes he could die. God’s remedy? Bread.
Maybe his blood sugar was low and he needed some complex carbohydrates inside him. True, but there’s more to it than that. Bread, for our agrarian forebears, was more than just a handy surrounding for my lunch-time cheese and pickle, it was literally the stuff of life.
Also Moses. Bread again. Passover, of course, with the unleavened bread, and the thing in the desert with the manna and quail. But notice that there wasn’t actually any ‘bread of heaven’ as the crowd called it. Manna means ‘what is it?’, so it was not sourdough boule or focaccia with sundried tomatoes.
The word for bread also means sustenance in general. In Greek it’s ἄρτος (artos) and it’s the same word in the Lord’s Prayer: Give us today our daily ἄρτος, not meaning a squishy loaf of Hovis. It means ‘the stuff we need to live’.
We have lots of different types of food these days, and it’s quite possible to have a nutritious meal without bread. Not so our ancestors. For those in subsistence agriculture, your bread (or rice, yam, potato) was not a tasty accompaniment to your meal, it was your meal. Maybe a bit of oil or vinegar to dip it in (see Ruth 2), maybe some seasonal fruit, but mainly bread.
We retain this sense in our language. The word ‘companion’ literally means ‘with bread’. We talk about earning a crust or something being our bread and butter, meaning that which supplies all our needs. Jesus and his hearers knew exactly how important bread was to life.
Other cultures have other staples, without which a meal is not complete. I guess if Jesus had been strolling around Kenya instead of the eastern Med, he might have said , “I am the Ugali of Life.” Interestingly, some Chinese translations render John6:48 as “I am the food of life”, because bread is not their staple. (And “I am the Noodles of Life” might be a bit of a stretch.)
Fun Fact #257: The Korean space agency supplied their astronaut, Ko San, with the Korean staple kimchi for his time on the ISS.
We could get all our daily nutrition from freeze-dried cubes of fortified seaweed. We could. But I don’t think I’d want to. It might be nutritious, but would it be as satisfying, as filling, as comforting as my lovely home-made bread? I think not.
When Jesus said ,“I am the Bread of Life”, he wasn’t talking about filling our bellies but filling our lives, satisfying our deep hunger, sustaining us for Life with a capital L.
“I am the Bread of Life.”
Not a nice accompaniment to a meal; the meal itself. Not an optional extra; the bare necessity. Not the etcetera (and the rest); the sine qua non (without which, nothing).
To live physically, we need bread, rice, yams, noodles. To live the glorious abundant life that Jesus promised, we need the Bread of Life.
Just maybe don’t dunk him in soup.
Liturgy Resources for Proper 14
Turns out I’ve written resources based on Psalm 130 several times recently, so these are all shamelessly copied from earlier posts – blame the RCL for duplicating the psalms.
Confession and Absolution
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
Holy and righteous Lord,
we confess that we have not served you as we should,
we have omitted the good we could have done
and we have chosen to walk away from your paths.
If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
You are right in your sentence and justified in your judgement.
We come before you with broken hearts
and cast ourselves on your abundant mercy.
If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
O Lord, let your ears be attentive to the voice of our supplication.
We wait for you, O Lord;
our souls wait, and in your word we hope.
If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be revered.
With you there is forgiveness.
O people of God, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
With you there is forgiveness.
Amen!
Blessing and Dismissal
May your soul wait for the Lord,
May your soul wait for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning,
and may he raise you up as the sun rises
borne upon arms of steadfast love, carried with power to redeem.
And the blessing …
Go in the power of the one who redeems you,
and live in his strength to be a blessing to the world.
Amen.
Ps 130, Ps 138
Confession and Absolution
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, we cry to you from the depths of sorrow for our sin.
Forgive us, we pray, for all that we have thought, said or done
that is not pleasing to you.
In the silence we name them.
[pause]
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.
In the name of God the gracious and compassionate,
long-suffering and of great goodness,
you are forgiven. Go in peace.
Amen.
Blessing and Dismissal
When you walk in the midst of trouble,
may God preserve you against the wrath of your enemies.
May God stretch out his hand towards you,
his right hand deliver you.
May the Lord fulfil his purpose for you,
his steadfast love endure forever over you.
And the blessing …
Go with strength of soul
to sing of his steadfast love and faithfulness
for great is the glory of the Lord.
Amen and Amen.
The Reflectionary 