[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father,
from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.
Our text for this morning’s sermon
is the gospel reading from the book of John
that was just read.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
During World War II, the Nazis forced
many 12- and 13-year-old boys to join the junior Gestapo.
They were treated very harshly and given inhumane jobs to perform.
When the war ended, many had lost track of their families
and wandered the country aimlessly, without food and without shelter.
As a part of the aid program to post-war Germany,
many of these youths were housed into tent cities.
Here, doctors and psychologists worked with these boys in an attempt to restore their
mental and physical health.
They found that many of them would awaken during the night screaming in terror.
One doctor came up with an idea to help with this fear.
After feeding the boys a very large meal before bed, he put them to bed with a piece of bread
in their hands, which they were told to save to hold on to until morning.
With that, the boys slept soundly, because after so many years of hunger, they finally
had the assurance of food for the next day.
Jesus says, I am the bread of life.
whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never
thirst. To the hungry even a crumb of bread looks good. To those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness that they do not have and cannot acquire on their
own, Jesus brings us words of hope and joy. Jesus further says, this is the bread
that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread
that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This
is indeed good news. Imagine if that news got out. We have a bread here that brings immortality,
eternal life, a cure for death,
a bread that has the power to
raise you to life from death.
Well, it seems the demand would be
overwhelming. The crowds would rival
the crowds at major sporting events.
The clamor here at St. Paul would be
like Black Friday,
that shopping day after Thanksgiving.
This is the bread that Jesus gives,
his flesh given into death for
for the life of the world.
But the world often says,
meh, thanks, but no thanks, Jesus.
We have plenty of bread of our own.
And yet, that’s the bread
that we literally burn ourselves out working for.
Temporal bread, bread for our bellies,
bread that does not last.
Bread that’s gone with the next economic downturn.
It reminds me of a famous author who spoke about a certain friend who devoted so much
time and energy to such a pursuit.
The author said, my friend reminds me of a bulldog chasing a train.
Bulldog chasing a train.
What’s he going to do with it even if he catches it?
This is truly bread that cannot satisfy, cannot rescue us from our condition of sin and death.
It’s bread that fills us for the moment, but the next moment leaves us hungry.
So also then, sometimes we’ll trade off church for work even when that work isn’t totally
necessary.
The old Adam and us will push aside the Lord’s bread for the world’s buffet.
And there’s the problem.
The food we often eat is dead.
and we eat it until our death.
We spend our lives chasing the spoils of food that can’t save.
There always seems to be a promise there, isn’t there,
that this ultimate diet or the next superfood
that promises to be the veritable fountain of youth,
reminds me of the balance of nature commercials
that are often on TV now.
Have you seen those balance of nature commercials?
those capsules that are chock-full of incredible fruits and vegetables right
there in those capsules sounds inviting but aside from helping enrich that
company and indeed providing necessary vitamins minerals and so on they do
nothing for us spiritually or eternally that’s asking too much of bread or
capsules, or any food for that matter.
Indeed, our typical food is dead and perishing.
Our bread on the counter at home, it’s drying out.
We’ll get moldy soon.
That’s why we need our refrigerators and preservatives.
Did anybody else have a power outage in the past week
with the storms, the thunder and lightning
that went through our area?
We at our home had a power outage for about five hours and even our nice LG refrigerator
couldn’t keep some of that sensitive food fresh when confronted with a power outage.
And we had to throw away some of our sensitive food.
Also the manna in the wilderness for the Israelites,
the bread that the Israelites collected in the wilderness,
that went stale and moldy after the day it was collected
and could not be stored, it did not endure to eternal life.
Even though that man in the wilderness
seemed like a wonder bread that came down from heaven,
it didn’t last.
And the wonder bread that we eat from our plastic packages
is for this life and the life to come.
And while it may build up strong bodies
in 12 different ways, it will not lengthen
or bring in eternal life to us.
Jesus says,
Do not labor for the food that perishes,
but for the food that endures to eternal life.
The prophet Isaiah cries out,
Why do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Hearken diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in fatness.
incline your ear and come to me.
Hear that your soul may live,
and I will make you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
You want riches?
Hear the word of the Lord.
You want bread that satisfies forever?
Take and eat.
This is my body, Jesus says.
The bread that God gives is quite unique.
The manna in the wilderness was a preview, a type of it,
but like other bread, it went bad,
and the eater of it still died.
But the manna, that manna in the wilderness,
provided a pattern, a pattern and a picture
of the true bread that God gives in the sending of His Son.
This isn’t bread that you work for,
but bread that is given to you as a gift of God’s grace.
This isn’t bread that fills our temporal hunger pangs,
but bread that goes straight to your soul
and a bread that will raise you up on the last day.
In our Old Testament reading for today,
Elijah was suffering from what might be called
an Elijah complex,
thinking he was the only faithful Israelite
left on the face of the earth, a one-person Israel.
The queen was after him.
He had death threats on his head.
He could not trust friends or family.
He wanted to die.
So he sits under a broom tree in the wilderness
and asks God to take him home, to end it right there.
He’s had enough.
But God sends an angel,
An angel bringing bread and water with the announcement, with the command,
Rise and eat. Rise and eat, Elijah, because the journey is too great for you.
And that often sums up our wilderness wanderings too.
Surrounded by our versions of Jezebel’s idolatry, immorality,
the new normal for our society that once prided itself on being religious,
If not Christian, it’s easy to get into an Elijah complex in this kind of wilderness,
thinking that we’re the only one who gets it, the last faithful Israelite.
Such thoughts often come with malnutrition.
The journey is too great.
Instead, take and eat, Jesus says.
The journey is too great.
This wilderness saps our energies.
We’re hungry, we’re thirsty, and we’re tired.
We need food and drink that endure,
that truly satisfy our need.
We’re dying, and we need life.
We’re sinners needing forgiveness.
We’re captive to sin and death,
and we need redemption, release, freedom, and hope.
And Jesus comes to us.
The Son of God in the flesh comes to us
by way of the cross and the empty tomb.
He extends his hand from the right hand of God
and says, here, take and eat this bread.
This is my body given for you.
my flesh which I gave for the life of the world. Here, take and drink this cup.
This is my blood of the covenant poured out for you and for the world, my life
for your life, my death for yours. Eat this bread, drink this cup, and I’ll raise
you up on the last day, Jesus says. In the name of Jesus, amen. May the peace of
God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds through faith in
Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.
