Just a Taste of Bread

Old Mystic, August 9, 2009
John 6:35-51

Summary

Jesus reminds us that God draws us to him to grant us the most precious gift we have: the gift of life in a personal, permanent, and eternal relationship with the Living God.

Sermon

“Just a taste of bread” was what my friend Alejandro and I used to say on those mornings when we used to walk together to the bakery to buy the daily bread that was always fresh and very often warm, just out of the oven! Our bread tasting, needless to say, would consume a good chunk of our purchase and our bags would have one or two loaves missing by the time we got back home. It was tasty, it was a great thing to share with a friend, it was a moment of joy—a wonderful experience that portrays the beauty of life. And I can’t help to relate life with coffee or mate (South American Green Tea) and bread. In fact I often joke about “bakery” being one of my favorite words in the English language and I share the wisdom of those who in the morning ask the question, is there life before coffee?

In the gospel of John Jesus uses several metaphors, the so called “I am,” to stimulate our imagination, to teach us, to speak to our hearts, and to draw us near to him. In our passage today, he said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” And he makes this statement amid a controversy with the “Jews,” as it is described in the passage, though his opponents were not defined by racial or cultural traits but by their traditional religious stance that was being challenged by Jesus. This controversy has the usual sour taste of religious conflicts and the typical judgment that follows rejection—in this case Jesus’ rejection. There are those who are in and there are those who are out. This approach, however, would lead us to miss the point.

Jesus is God’s gift of life and it is a gift to take, to receive, and to embrace. None of us ignores the significance of bread as a symbol of life and the nourishment that sustains life. Jesus Christ is our life! We can deal, if we so desire, with some of the theological issues in the text. The incarnation, faith and rejection, eternal life and the resurrection of the dead, the bread as sacrament, and/or predestination may be some of the implicit themes in our passage. My focus, however, is about life, existence, our daily experience of being alive. And, again, God gives us that precious gift of life in Jesus who is the Bread of life, the Living Bread, the Bread that came down from heaven. It is the experience of having a daily relationship with the Living God.

Jesus’ invitation to believe is not just an invitation to accept an objective truth that has been eternally established and has become a dogma. We need not see it so much as an invitation to be saved from eternal damnation of which we are spared by Jesus’ work at the cross, but more as an invitation to walk and breathe, to laugh and cry, to rejoice and suffer, to work and play—in a few words, to live with him, in him, and for him. If we can have just a taste of the Bread of Life, our lives will never be the same!

Today’s passage, I suggest, brings forth three points about a life of experiencing the Living God. First, God is the giver of life in Christ. Life is a gift from God. Jesus himself declares, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” Jesus is sent as the gift of life for us by God. It is God’s will for us to enjoy the life He grants.

We can discover the abundance of that life looking into God’s work and revelation. The revelation unveiled to us in the life and example of Jesus through the scriptures but also in what God discloses in His creation. We can “discover” God’s precious gift of life in the simplicity of the good things we enjoy daily. Life is exposed in the beauty of the world, the love of family and friends, the joy we experience in small victories and the overcoming our weaknesses. We must also acknowledge that life is hard and often plagued with thorns; that we have to go through the valley of death. Yet the traces of God’s abundant life can always be found when we have that desire to walk with him in Jesus Christ.

When we feel alone, like going through a desert, let us be reminded that God is the one that draws us to Jesus and to the gift of life. If at a certain point in our lives we suffer loneliness, or we believe we have lost our sense of meaning, or we are uncertain about the future, then it is time to savor a warm piece of bread fresh from the oven and be reminded that even those precious small things in life are a gift from a God who is ever present even when we don’t feel it. He is present and he wants to draw us to life.

Second, Jesus as the Living Bread is what sustains our lives. This could be over spiritualized. We could say that it has to do with the build up of our spiritual lives and, to certain extent, it might be true. At the same time, faith, at a very basic level, is what keeps us getting out of our beds every morning. Even if that faith is just the conviction that the sun will continue warming, that the world will keep on turning, and that we will have enough strength to stand up, walk, and fulfill our daily duties. Life granted by God is a life of wholeness in Christ, confirmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and is life abundant both spiritual and material. And by faith we can experience that life.

As we look at life on this earth, Paul reminds us that “For now we see in a mirror, dimly… now we know only in part.” Yet, faith, hope, and love abide. Yes, they still abide, they can sustain us, and they are the foundation of our peace. In the precious gift of life granted by God, in the relationship with Christ, in that ineffable experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit, we find joy every day. We may have just a taste of what is to come but it can certainly encourage us to enjoy the ride.

Third, Jesus’ metaphor about the Bread of Life, reminds us that life with God is for here and now, not just for the future. Jesus says, “All who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” There seems to be a conflict of continuity and discontinuity in this statement. To speak of eternal life may be understood as living for ever and many were expecting the coming of the Messiah to establish an eternal earthly kingdom. On the other hand, the resurrection on the last day reflects the discontinuity of life; it betrays the deep gulf between the here and now and a hopeful future we can only imagine. We all have to grapple with the inevitability of death; however, the gift of life, of a life in a close relationship with the Living God is an invitation to continuity.

Life has begun and we have to live it here and now. We may ask questions about the future, the uncertainties beneath death, or what lies ahead both for the just and the wicked. We can be utterly concerned about the future. The point is, however, that God wants to relate to us now. And like the daily bread that sustains our bodies, Jesus Christ wants to walk with us closely, inviting us to enjoy every moment, and to live in his abundance.

We are living in an age where everything is open for discussion; where claims about the "truth" can be constantly challenged—to the point that the word cannot and must not be written with a capital t anymore—and our Christian truths are just another competing force in a market of ideas. It is in this particular climate that experiencing the Living God will sustain us and empower us. The world will not be transformed simply by our proclamation, or our careful theological articulations. A serious, deep, and committed relationship with the Living God and with others will make the difference. It is not about recipes to bake bread, or poetic descriptions about its taste; it is about really smelling, tasting, and eating the Bread of Life.