Sunday August 4th, 2024 Worship

When I was living on campus at Seminary, my roommates and I frequently brought out our little charcoal grill and would cook on our front steps. We lived in a cul-de-sac on campus, so all of our neighbors could see when we were out. Let’s just say, there’s a reason our neighborhood was nicknamed “the Fishbowl.” Now, we had weekly potlucks in our neighborhood anyway, but one of the things that we noticed was that every time we brought our little grill out, all the neighborhood children would flock to us. Usually, it was just to see what we were cooking, but sometimes they would begin helping themselves to our food because their association with eating outside was that it was a communal activity that included them. It’s funny to look back on now, but when you’re hungry and tiny humans come and take most of your food and then run away, it was definitely less funny.
The kids flocking to our food reminds me a lot of the crowd that follows Jesus in today’s Gospel story. We are following up our feeding of the five thousand from last week with this story of the people looking for Jesus, wanting more signs and more food. When they don’t see him, they get into the boat and go to Capernaum to look for him and the disciples. The people are not yet satisfied with what Jesus has done and are so determined for him to keep proving to them who he is and what he can do. They want to see more signs and miracles, almost demanding that he tell them what he will do for them to prove that they can believe that he is the one whom God has sent. For some, I’m sure it was a good way to secure a daily meal, while for others, they wanted to be absolutely certain about who this Jesus guy was before they started turning their backs on the things they’ve always known.
Now, we usually refer to this portion of John’s Gospel as the bread section, when we hear over and over again about the people being fed and Jesus being the bread of life (John 6: 35) and what that means for the people. Although, like most of Jesus’ commentary, there is a disconnect between what he is saying and what the people understand. They are asking that they will always have this bread from heaven that gives life to the world, but they don’t quite understand that this isn’t physical bread. They think it is like what he just did on the hillside. Yet, it makes sense that the people would say “give us this bread…” (John 6: 34) because it sounds too good to be true. Yet, Jesus again reminds them that this isn’t about the physical bread, saying: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (NRSV, John 6: 35).
When we look at the reality of the ancient Israelite times, as well as our world today, we know that people are going without food and water. Those daily needs aren’t being met, for a whole variety of reasons: lack of access, lack of financial resources, environmental pollutants. And, I don’t want to dismiss the very real need that exists in our world still today because we do need food and water to survive. Yet, at the same time, what the crowd doesn’t understand too, is that Jesus is talking about this on a much more spiritual level. Because we need food and water to survive, but we also need spiritual nourishment. No matter how we get that, as humans, we are looking for purpose in the world and for the meaning of why things exist and happen the way that they do. We are looking for an explanation and understanding of why we are here and how we fit into the larger picture of our human existence. We are looking for where we fit in the human story. If you’ve ever spent time wrestling with any of those questions, you’ll understand how exhausting it can be.
When Jesus talks about being the bread of life, it seems to me like he’s talking about how our spiritual nourishment is in fact just as important as our physical nourishment. Otherwise, he would have chosen different wording than this bread language. In the Lutheran Church, we have this item called the Wholeness Wheel that we spend a lot of time talking about as we prepare for ministry, and we especially as enter ministry. It’s getting us to focus on our overall health and well-being, especially paying attention to the areas in which we are doing well and others where we might need to put a little bit more focus. There are seven areas of wellbeing that the wheel focuses on: vocational, emotional, physical, financial, intellectual, and social. Each of the six outer pieces of the wheel are the same size, while spiritual well-being takes center position, because it is meant to show how all of the components are important for our overall well-being, and how our spiritual well-being is at the center of it all. Like the wheel of a bike, ideally, these would be balanced. They emphasize this wheel because our well-being is made up of so many more things than just whether we are eating balanced meals or sleeping enough.
So, while we didn’t always appreciate the kids coming to take our food, I think there was actually something beautiful about the way that the kids had come to grow up in an environment where everyone looked after and took care of one another. Where we made it a priority to gather weekly for meals and a time of fellowship. Our time of food and play really served nourish us in so many ways. I think this is what Jesus is getting at in today’s Gospel as well. Sure, the potlucks were good food, and thanks to the adultier adults, we actually ate well-balanced meals at least once a week, but the food wasn’t what sustained us. At least it wasn’t just the food. It was that intentional time of being in community with one another that we really looked forward to each week.
So, as you look at your lives today, I encourage you to think about what are the things that nourish and sustain you in all capacities in your life. If you were to look at the Wholeness Wheel for yourself, what are the areas where you feel you’re doing well, and what are the areas where you might want to spend a little more time. This isn’t something that they just have us look at once, but they encourage us to return to it throughout the year so that we can see how our overall well-being is being cared for at different times because it will shift around. And, while it’s easy to get caught up in everything else, may we not forget along the way the importance of spiritual nourishment as well, as Jesus reminds us that he is indeed the bread of life.