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The best eating I have ever
enjoyed in my life was while I was in the Boy Scouts. Fancy
eating…not by a long shot. Nutritious eating…probably not so
much. But good eating…you bet.
One of the most famous dishes
from my Boy Scout days was Troop 572’s world famous Gumbo
Soup. To make it, every boy was asked to bring one can of
soup from home. When we’d arrive at our camp-out, each boy
would take his can out of his backpack and place it on the
picnic table. There was always a wide variety of soups. Of
course there were the standards: Chicken Noodle, Vegetable
and Tomato. There were the “cream of” soups: Cream of
Mushroom, Cream of Chicken and Cream of Celery. You could
count on a can or two of Bean and Bacon or Split Pea. From
those who had little brothers and sisters at home would come
cans of ABC Soup, Chicken and Stars and whatever the
mid-eighties equivalent to the Campbell’s chicken soup with
the Jimmy Neutron shapes was (I don’t know, probably some
Smurf soup or something). There was almost always a bonus
Campbell’s Chunky soup or two. And, of course, there was
always the poor kid whose folks sent him to camp with the
one can of soup that had been in the cupboard for months. It
was usually Cream of Asparagus or something “real yummy”
like that.
There would be anywhere from
thirty to forty cans of soup on the table. Then, one by one,
each would be opened, its contents dumped into one big pot,
water added, and then the pot was set to cook on the
campfire. This concoction wasn’t pleasing to the sight. The
mixing and matching of all these different soups created a
strange orangey, pinkish broth that had the strangest
combination of random noodles, vegetables and chunks of meat
floating in it. Sounds gross, doesn’t it? But let me assure
you, nothing ever tasted so good.
All of our Boy Scout cuisine was
like that. The breakfasts—runny eggs, burnt bacon and dry
pancakes. When it came to the suppers, it never mattered
what the meat was, the outside was always way more done than
the inside, and you could count on your mystery meat being
thoroughly seasoned with plenty of ash from the campfire.
But once again, I am here to tell you that in all my life,
food never tasted as good as when I was a Boy Scout.
How could that be? How could it
be that food I probably never would have dared to eat under
any other circumstance suddenly was five-star fare? It
probably tasted so good because we were all that
hungry. After a full day outdoors running around with thirty
other teenage boys, we were hungry…so hungry that we would
have gladly eaten anything that was put in front of us.
Let’s face it, if you’re hungry enough, you will eat just
about anything.
Hunger—one of the most powerful
sensations we experience. Hunger is that empty feeling in
the very pit of one’s stomach that starts out small but
grows in intensity with every passing minute. Hunger seldom
goes away until you do something about it. Hunger, if not
attended to, can become all-consuming. We have all had a
moment when we were so hungry that we couldn’t do anything
else until we found something to eat. People will do crazy
things when they are hungry. Some will drive miles in the
dead of the night to satisfy a craving. Others might eat
food that is frozen or stale, just to take the edge off
their hunger. Make no mistake, hunger is a powerful thing.
But here is the thing about
hunger—it isn’t just physical, it is spiritual, as well. It
isn’t just the emptiness in our belly we can be desperate to
fill, but the emptiness of our heart and soul, as well. We
are people hungry for so many things. We are hungry for
meaning and purpose. We are hungry for love and acceptance.
We are hungry for connection and belonging.
And just as people will do some
crazy things to satisfy their physical hunger, they will do
equally crazy, and often destructive, things to fill their
emptiness. In order to fill the emptiness of meaning, some
lose themselves in the adrenaline surge of gambling. To cure
the emptiness of being lonely, some will turn to
pornography. In order to fill an emptiness of wanting to
belong, some will become compulsive caretakers, losing
themselves completely in the needs of others, to the
detriment of their health and well being. Many have sought
to fill their deep spiritual hunger with alcohol, drugs,
food or compulsive shopping. Let’s make it plain:
everybody’s hungry. We are all hungry for something—and at
one time or another, we have all tried to satisfy that
hunger with things that just can’t, and won’t, fill us up.
In the sixth chapter of John, we
encounter people who are wrestling with this whole notion of
hunger. Keep in mind where our story picks up. We are
beginning with the twenty-fifth verse. Some very important
things occurred in the first twenty-four verses of this
chapter. The sixth chapter of John begins with the
miraculous feeding of five thousand people with just a
couple of loaves and a few fish. On that mountainside, Jesus
took care of people’s physical hunger. As the night fell on
this well-fed crowd, Jesus’ disciples climbed into a boat to
go back to Capernaum, leaving Jesus with the once-hungry
crowd. But when the disciples were only halfway across the
lake, Jesus met them, walking on the water. Jesus
completes the journey with his disciples, so the crowd of
once-hungry travelers wakes up the next morning to discover
two things. First, they’re hungry. Second, the guy with all
the bread is gone. This is where our reading picks up.
The crowd tracks Jesus down on
the other side of lake. It took quite an effort to find him.
They seem a bit exacerbated by how hard they had to work to
track him down. “Rabbi,” they say, “when did you get here?”
But Jesus quickly assesses why they have come looking for
him. He says, “You aren’t here because of the miraculous
sign. You’re here for more bread. Do not work for food that
spoils but for food that endures for eternal life.”
“Do not work so hard filling
yourself up on things that will satisfy you. Do not invest
your lives in things that simply will not last. If you are
going to pour your life out for something, pour it out for
something eternal…something that will last.” If there was
ever a line of scripture that jumps right off the page and
speaks to us today, this might be it. The culture we live in
says, “Give it all away for more stuff…work longer so you
can have more stuff…work harder so you can have better
stuff.” And we don’t have to play that game for very long to
realize that stuff, even good stuff, doesn’t last and won’t
satisfy.
Jesus goes on to tell them where
they can find this “food” that will truly fill them. He says
they can find it in him. They don’t need to look any
further. But the crowd, like so many of us, just doesn’t
seem to hear him. They say, “You mean there’s food that will
last forever? We could eat it and never be hungry again?
Where do we get some of that? Tell us. Pleeeease. We’ll do
anything. Anything! You name it and we’ll do it.”
Poor Jesus. He just can’t seem
to get it across to them. “There’s nothing you can do
to get it. It’s free for the taking. You just have to
believe…believe that the one who fed your bellies yesterday
will surely feed your soul today. (Psst…and by the way that
one was me!)”
The crowd still doesn’t get it.
“So you say you have this ‘food’ that will always
satisfy. Prove it! Give us a sign. Do some magic. Make
something disappear. Hey, we know, make it rain bread from
heaven. Just like Moses. Yeah. Do that and we’ll believe in
you for sure!”
Oh, you can almost feel Jesus’
heart break. “Prove it? Why won’t they just take my word for
it? ‘Prove it. Fix it. Change it, Jesus.’ All they
have to do is believe, but they want proof. When will they
get it? A faith based on signs and wonders doesn’t work and
won’t last. And besides, I just fed five thousand people
with some kid’s sack lunch! What more do they want! Do they
want me to rise from the dead or something?”
“Look,” Jesus says to them,
“that bread that fed Moses and the Israelites in the desert,
that bread didn’t come from Moses. It came from God, and
only bread from God lasts forever.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say
so?” says the crowd. “You know we really appreciate that
little picnic you gave us back on the mountainside. But hey,
from now on, just give us that other kind of bread.”
“I am that bread!” Jesus must
have screamed. “I am living bread from heaven. Me. Jesus.
The Son of Man. Prince of Peace. Mighty God. Whatever you
want to call me, I am the one. I am the bread you seek. I
will fill your bellies and your souls. I don’t know
how to make this any more clear. Look, if you are going to
eat anything…eat my flesh…drink my blood.”
“Wait a minute. Did he just say
what I think he said? Eat his flesh. Drink his blood. I told
you this was a cult. I am out of here.”
Jesus must be at his wits end
and says, “Look. I am not talking about literality eating my
flesh or literally drinking my blood, people! I am not
looking to end up on some 20/20 special about
religion gone bad. But I am saying to feast on my life and
my teachings. I am saying to take my spirit into you and let
it change and transform you. That’s what I am talking
about.”
Every time Jesus performs a
miracle or sign in John’s gospel, he doesn’t do it for the
sake of the miracle or even for the sake of the people who
benefit from the miracle. No, in John, Jesus performs these
miraculous signs to reveal the truth about who he is. You
see, Jesus didn’t feed the five thousand people bread that
day just because they were hungry. No, he fed them that day
to show the world where the source of life’s real “bread”
comes from. He fed them bread for life so that they might
come to believe that he was the Bread of Life, so that they
would not only be filled for a day but might be filled
forever. In a world where everybody’s hungry, Jesus says, “I
am the Bread of Life.”
You see, friends, part of my job
as your pastor—and I am afraid I don’t do it enough—is to
tell you, remind you and reassure you that Jesus is the real
deal. He is who he says he is. He will do what he says he
will do. He is the Bread of Life, and putting our faith in
him will satisfy our deepest hungers. You can’t go wrong by
becoming a believer in and a follower of Jesus Christ. I
believe that when we look into the eyes of Jesus, we see the
very face of God. “Come,” he says, “taste and see. I am the
Bread of Life. Eat and hunger no more.”
Before we go any further, I need
to say something very important. While following Jesus will
satisfy our deepest hungers, it will not necessarily make
our lives less difficult, less complex or less painful. I am
not standing up here tonight handing out Jesus like some
sort of placebo, like he’s some sort of sugar pill, lulling
us into some sense of false hope or security. And I am not
suggesting that Jesus is the magic panacea, the universal
remedy for all that ails us. “Just say this little prayer
and Jesus will make life ‘all better.’” Let us be clear.
Life isn’t any easier for those who put their faith in
Jesus. Jesus never promised it would be.
But here is what I am inviting
us to do tonight. I am inviting us to do what Jesus invites
us to do—to feast on his life, to chew on his words, to
taste his spirit. Let him into those deep places where
emptiness and hunger reside. Wrestle with his teachings,
trust his promises and follow his lead, and I believe that
we will discover a way of living that will indeed satisfy
every hunger, even in the midst of life’s uncertainties.
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For
those hungering for purpose, Jesus says, “Come, follow
me and I will make you fishers of people…”
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For
those hungering for life’s meaning, Jesus says, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind
and all your strength, and love your neighbor as
yourself.”
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For
those who hunger for love, Jesus says, “No greater love
has one than this, than to lay down his life for his
friends. You are my friends…”
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For
those who hunger for peace of mind, Jesus says, “Come to
me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.”
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For
those who hunger for justice, Jesus says, “I have come
to bring good news to the poor.”
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For
those hungering for assurance in the face of death,
Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. Those
who believe in me will live…”
In a world where everybody’s
hungry, Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life. Those who come
to me will never go hungry.”
Everybody’s hungry—hungry for
the things only God can provide. People are killing
themselves, and killing each other, because they are
starving. Why not offer them a slice of the good stuff?
There is plenty of it to go around.
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