Jesus is...the bread of life

When God meets Moses at the burning bush at the beginning of the story of Exodus God calls Moses to free to the Israelites from Egypt.  Moses was anxious and tried every excuse in the book to get out of it. Moses wanted God to go find someone else to do the job. But God wanted Moses and had an answer for every objection.  At one point, Moses said, what if I go to the people and they ask who sent me, who should I say sent me, and God says “hayah” which means “I AM.”  Now that sounds like a simple name that might not mean all that much, but in Hebrew, it wasn’t just “I AM” it’s “I AM who I AM” and “I was who I was” and “I will be who I will be” and it’s closely connected to Yahweh, which means Lord.  So God told Moses tell the people that the one who was and is and is to come has sent you. Tell them Yahweh has sent you.  And so Moses did and that’s how God was known, by the name Yahweh as the great I AM.

Now I know you might be thinking, “that’s great for Moses and the Israelites, but why does that matter to us?”  Well, Yahweh is how God is known.  The people heard hayah, or Yahweh, and they immediately thought of God.  So when Jesus begins to say hayah “the bread of life” or hayah “the living water”, the people are also hearing “God is the bread of life” and “God is the living water.”  In making these statements to these people, they are associating Jesus with God and they are meant to.  It might feel like a stretch, especially because “I am” is a statement we use all the time in every day speech.

But, we have to admit, there are certain names and quotes we’ve learned to associate with certain people.  It may not be that they’re the only ones to use those words or to be called that name, but their voice, or even just the words themselves make us think immediately of that person. So then if someone else uses that quote and mixes it with their own words, they’re tying themselves to the other person at the same time.  We have a couple of samples this morning. We’re going to play the voice or the quote and you’re going to tell us who it is.

·         Marsha, Marsha Marsha—Jan Brady

·         Here’s Johnny—we think of Johnny Carson and the person saying the quote is Ed McMahon

·         Ask not what your country can do for your—John F Kennedy

·         May the force be with you (Hans Solo) Obiwon Kinobi, and Luke Skywalker

·         “that’s all folks”—Porky Pig

·         The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—Franklin D. Roosevelt

Now that shows us that simple words and phrases can easily become recognizable not just for the words themselves but for the person who says them. So we might better understand how easily and powerfully associated Jesus becomes with God when he says “hayah the bread of life”.  It’s not just the words, but instead the history of the words tied to God.  For centuries God had been known as the great I AM.  Now, as we see him in the Gospel of John, God is being understood more intimately in the person of Jesus Christ. This connection to God as I AM will weave throughout the whole series. 

For today, we will be focusing on the scripture that was read from John 6. This particular scene takes place right after the feeding of the 5000.  The people come to find him and he’s frustrated because he can see they didn’t really want him….they wanted food.  He shares that he’s the one who’s been sent by God so that they might believe.  And so they ask for a sign, they ask for a miracle so that they might believe.  They say “Moses used to lead the people and he gave us manna, if you give us manna then we will follow you.”  Now Jesus gets a little more firm….it’s not about the food.  Even the manna wasn’t about the food.  The manna was about faith and trust in God.  The Israelites had to believe God would care for them each day. They weren’t allowed to collect extra—if they did it would rot and be filled with worms by morning.  The manna was given to feed them, but to receive the miracle they had to believe God would be faithful to them. 

So when these people asked for physical food Jesus recognized that they didn’t get it. The miracle of the loaves and fishes centered around food, but it was really about trusting God to provide.  Jesus admits he can do signs and wonders but says that really what he’s about is giving soul sustaining food. The gift he brings depends on our faith and trust that he will provide, not just once, but over and over again. 

Part of the question for us is are we seeking physical signs and wonders that last only moments or are we seeking spiritual sustenance where we trust daily that God will provide for and sustain us?  Are we interested in Jesus just so he can do what we want? OR are we ready to depend on Christ daily?  Do we believe he’ll be there or are we overly tempted to take a little extra just in case he fails us?

I’ve gotta say, this is a tough question for me.  I’m not just interested in the individual acts—though I won’t deny their appeal, BUT I don’t know that I’m ready to be dependent EVERY day.  I’m a pretty self sufficient person. I’m capable. I’m willing. And I like getting things done. And generally, I don’t like asking for help.  I don’t like being dependent. I can do it by myself thank-you-very-much. 

Now, I’m sure I’m the only one with this particular problem, right?  Of course, I usually am.  But in case there happens to be another one who’s like me I’ll take a minute to describe the struggle.,  I kind of think God could just stock me up for, I don’t know, a few months and then I’ll do my thing until supplies run low and then I could go back to God. I could manage that.   But what this passage tells us is that it’s not about having the stuff--it’s about having God and being reliant on God every day for just what we need.  Now, that might not seem that complex, but really, it’s counter-intuitive to how we think and act.

Everything our culture says tells us to be independent, self-sufficient, a jack-of-all-trades.  And here is our God in flesh and blood in the person of Christ telling us the opposite.  If we want real satisfaction, if we want to find what we’re looking for, if we want to be full—then we have to stop trying to make it all on our own and we have to go to Jesus for more than signs and wonders. 

To really eat of the bread of life, to partake in the gift Jesus offers—we have to become fully dependent on him.  How do we do that? Well, there’s a lot of different ways and each of us will have different things we need to let go of and different areas where we need to relinquish control and become reliant on God.  One of the ways we seek those specific answers is through the disciplines of Lent. By fasting from technology or giving up a vice, or making a personal sacrifice, we eliminate some of the noise in our lives and in the peace God begins to speak truth into our hearts. Through the disciplines of prayer, reading the scriptures, and journaling, God may speak to us about work, about our marriage, about grief, about our kids, about our parents, about a resentment, or about a callous on our heart.  And when we fight to control those situations, we are reminded it’s not about the thing—God may answer our prayer and give us reconciliation, forgiveness, a promotion, healing, or a miracle, but really what Jesus is asking is that we would trust and have faith that God will supply our needs each day. 

To really share in the bread of life, we have to stop seeking the quick fix and start submitting ourselves daily to be wholly dependent on God.   That’s a tall order.  God knows that. But the greatest gift of a relationship with God is not just coming to God when we want something, but coming daily to have our needs met and to engage the relationship.  This kind of faith and trust often requires a complete shift in our way of thinking and many of us aren’t ready to make that commitment. We’re still doing pretty well on our own.  But what if this kind of relationship could change your life?  Would you try it?  Would you be willing to make a short term commitment to see what happens?  Lent, is an invitation to check it out, to try and let go of our need to control things and instead to let God be in control. Lent offers us a chance to minimize the noise in our lives so that God’s voice might be heard.  And Lent asks us to stop asking just for what we want in this moment, but to look at the big picture and ask God what God wants.  Would you dare to try it?  It will mean some sacrifices. It will means some added faith practices so you can learn the rhythm of dependency.  But the promise is that it will be worth it. 

In a few moments, you will be invited to break-fast and share in Holy Communion.  You will be eating physical food, but I would encourage you to begin this journey of dependence, if you haven’t already, by asking God to be your life source each day and to teach you how to trust in this way. 

Go Team! Commandments 7 & 8

Can I just say, marriage is hard sometimes?  They tell you before you get married that “it takes work”, but really “it takes work” comes nowhere close to expressing the truth of how hard it is to share your life with someone who loves differently, believes differently, prioritizes differently, spends differently, and thinks differently than you. And “it takes work” will never be able to encompass the challenges of loving through miscarriages, foreclosures, bankruptcy, in-laws moving in, job changes, cancer, parenting, and even just every day misunderstandings and miscommunications.  Marriage is hard and demands a lot.

I’m not trying to discourage you who are engaged, but I am trying to state the facts that marriage can be really tough. It requires 100% commitment and effort from both people.  Some say it’s 50/50, but really it’s 100/100—each person has to give of themselves to make the marriage work.  And when you’re giving it all to grow in love—you really have to give it ALL—you’ve gotta give your best to be your best.

Think of it this way—say you’re drafted and sign with the Denver Broncos.  What’s your responsibility?

·         Get to know the team

·         Learn the plays

·         Practice with the team

·         Train for strength and endurance

·         Push through adversity

·         Celebrate the victories with the team

If you want to be any good, you have to put in a lot of work with your team.  But what if you didn’t show up to the Denver practices. Or maybe you just kind of faked your way through it but never really learned the plays and hardly learned what would work well with your team mates?  Instead you decided to start practicing with the New York Jets.  You learn their plays and hang out with those guys, despite the fact that you’re in a lifetime contract with the broncos.  How well would you play with the Broncos if all your time was with the Jets?  Not well.  If you don’t invest in a team, then you can’t expect to succeed with the team. 

Marriage is like that. If you sign on with your partner—you can’t go and spend your time and energy with someone else.  It may sound like a good idea, especially if things are rocky, but at the end of the day, your team isn’t stronger. You need your head in the game. You need to be all in. You can’t split your allegiances and still expect to succeed.

                God knows the power of the covenant of marriage. God knows what it is to be loved for all your strengths and all your failures.  God knows what it is to be accepted and heard and valued when everything is going your way and when nothing is.  Marriage is meant to offer us that deep love and acceptance. But a depth of trust and intimacy don’t just happen by luck, they take work and intentional effort. And so you’ve got to be all-in. 

                Now, just like any good team, even with the right players, and regular practice, and strength and endurance training, and good communication, some plays won’t work, some days you’ll lose.  But you don’t quit the team just because it was hard or just because you lost one game, or even one season.  If you signed on, then you continue to give your best to strengthen the team.

                Now remember what I said in the beginning?  Marriage is hard. Some seasons hit hard.  Some years feel like all you’ve done is lose.  BUT, marriage is also rich with blessings.  The hugs, the listening ear, the companionship, the intimacy, the trust, the adventures, those are the wins.  That’s what make it worth all the effort and sacrifice.  And to know the fullness of what that commitment can offer you have to give it your all, and give it your best.  We won’t know how amazing marriage can be if we are always considering what it would be like to be on a different team. 

God wants you to play for the team to which you signed. 

                To be sure, the 6^th-10^th commandments are pretty straightforward.   It hardly seems like they warrant explanation, but there’s always more than just understanding the letter of the law.  And there’s the fact that we struggle to uphold the laws in their entirety, regardless of how well we might know them. Commandment #8 says, “thou shalt not steal”.  We get that.  No one should take something that doesn’t belong to them.  If I tell you not to steal, you know what that means.  We can readily define what is ours and what is someone else’s and know that we shouldn’t just take that which doesn’t belong to us.  But why not?  Scripturally, we understand it’s because God has made enough for all of us—God’s provision is abundant. And if we understand and live within that, then there’s no need to steal.  To live by God’s law is to allow for God’s provision to provide for all as God planned.  We are invited to believe that playing fair is sufficient and worthwhile because winning isn’t about having more than everyone else.  Winning for God is about being the best of who we are created to be. 

Now that might sound “soft” and like an “everybody wins” mentality.  But it’s not about giving everyone a trophy regardless of performance; it’s about ensuring a fair game.  Think of it this way—this last week the New England Patriots won the AFC championship game—but then a couple of days later, the news broke that Tom Brady, their quarterback, had played with deflated footballs.  There’s some question about who deflated the balls.  Was it Brady?  A coach? The equipment manager? Someone on the sidelines?  I’m not here to solve the mystery, but instead to point out that regardless of who did it—deflating the balls stole the opportunity for a fair game. 

Is it possible that the patriots still would have won, even with the balls fully inflated?  Sure. But that’s not the point.  The point is we don’t know who would have won if it was a fair game. It could have been the patriots. But it’s possible it would have been the colts.  It’s great to win, but if you win you want to know you did it—that you gave your best and played well and the best team won.  Similarly, a loss is a loss—it’s not what any team wants, but a loss is tolerable if you know the other team brought their A game and played a better ball game. But you don’t want to lose because a ref threw the game or because some guy deflated the football.  We all want to win, but we know that can’t happen 100% of the time.  Losing happens.  Most of us can accept that.  But what we can’t accept is not being given the chance, a fair chance, to show our stuff and prove we were the better player or team. 

To live with the satisfaction that what God has provided is enough is to take our share, and use it, to play a fair game, and trust that the highs and lows that will result will pan out in the end.  But your chance to succeed, to be your best, is stolen when someone else rigs the game.  No one wants to play the team that cheats. No one wants to play in the arena where the refs always call for the home team.  Why bring our best if we aren’t given a fair chance in the first place? 

So how does all of that relate to the 8^th commandment?  How does cheating in a game relate to everyday life?  Well, in how God designed life, everyone has a chance, everyone has gifts and talents to use, and everyone should be given the chance, a fair chance, to be their best.  But institutionally and systemically, we have rigged the game.  Now, not necessarily us personally and individually, but companies, governments, and some groups have stolen the opportunity for everyone to play a fair game.  Now some of those structures and injustices have been around a long time.  It’s hard to undo systemic injustice.  But if we want to have an honest conversation about playing fair and providing an opportunity for everyone to live into the world God designed, then we have to acknowledge that for a lot of folks, the game is rigged.  If they don’t have clean water, or enough food, or access to education, then how can we expect them to bring their A game?  We’ve been taught to absolve ourselves of responsibility for them.  We are responsible for us and they are responsible for them.  But, as Christians, we are called to see the world not just for what it is, but for what God wants it to be, and that means everyone should have a fair chance.  And a fair chance includes access to the necessities of everyday living.  You wouldn’t expect a fair game if one team had all the best pads, shoes, and equipment, while the other team played barefoot, with cardboard pads, and equipment that’s falling apart.  Each team may be coming with what they have, but really, it’s not a fair game.  We can see that.  So, how can we think that a fair chance is offered when they have to walk a mile to get a few gallons of river water, while we have purified water anywhere anytime.  The game has been rigged around the world.  And part of our responsibility is making sure we play fair and that our brothers and sisters around the world have a fair chance to become their best.  That means we invest in wells for clean water, schools for education, and food for their tables. And it means we look at the systems that promote and protect inequality and injustice and work against it. 

As a church, we’ve worked hard to help create opportunities and chances for people to be their best.  We have given nearly $200,000 through our Christmas Miracle offering over the years, and more throughout the year, to create a fair chance for people to have employment, education, housing, and basic necessities.  As a denomination, we have given millions of dollars to fight malaria in Africa so people have a chance at a healthy life.  United Methodists have built schools, hospitals, shelters, clinics, and churches to help level the field, providing for the everyday needs of brothers and sisters around the world.  We have truly been about God’s work.  And at the same time, we know that we enjoy more riches in one year than most will enjoy in a lifetime.  The game is getting better, but it’s still not fully fair.  

There's no "I" in Team (Commandments 5 & 6)

Football is a team sport.  We know this, right?  11 for each team on the field and a gazillion on the side lines (NFL 53, college 80 on the roster). Generally a few players or positions are known and get all the glory, but every one who is worth his salt knows he can’t do his job if they aren’t doing their job.  We learn the names of quarterbacks, receivers and running backs and they get the glory. They throw and catch the ball and make the game exciting.  At least on a surface level, but really, if the linemen don’t block, the quarterback gets sacked and the ball doesn’t move down the field, generally, it moves back up the field.  And if you’re playing defense, if the big linemen don’t hold their line, your linebackers and safetys won’t ever make it to sack their quarterback or the defensive backs won’t be able to catch the running backs.  Every position on the field has a responsibility and work to do, and only when they do it well together, not just for themselves or their own glory, is it really a good team that makes for a good game.  But beyond what happens on the field, there’s a dynamic of teamwork that cultivates the culture of sportsmanship for the whole team.  And beyond one team are so many more, for if there are no opponents, there’s no game. And beyond the NFL teams, there’s the college teams that create excitement and energy around the sport and who nurture those who will one day play in the NFL, but before them there’s the high school teams and before them there’s the junior league teams. And really, before them there’s countless coaches, players, refs, and fans who have followed, played, and participated in the game for years.  In some form or fashion, every game that we watch on TV today stands on the shoulders of every game that’s been played before.  Those men on that field wouldn’t be able to do what they do, or make the money they do, if there weren’t a long history before them. 

That’s a pretty obtuse way of thinking about the game, but hopefully it helps us understand that no person, no play, no game, no team stands alone as independently strong. No matter how great they are, they wouldn’t be able to be that without all the others who have gone before them.  And, in team sports, even as the weakest team in the league, no one person can take the full blame.  Each one is part of a team, and the team rises together and it falls together.  Each individual is interdependent on the others who stand beside him.

All of that is true, but we aren’t really talking about football, are we?  After all, life is a team sport too.  We often like to think we are there on our own.  We celebrate independently wealthy, or independently successful. But really there is no such thing.  Because without the others on the field of life, no single person could be who they are or do what they do.  We are dependent on others for everything. We rely on others to cultivate, harvest, ship, and sell our food. We rely on others to build our homes, our schools, our cars, and our offices.  We rely on others to be at the gas station at midnight when we need a quick stop. We rely on others to make sure the electricity, gas, and sewers are all working properly.  And if we run away to the woods to live by ourselves, to get away from it all, claiming that we are really on our own and independent, we forget that someone built the roads we would drive, or built the car we would drive, or taught us how to walk. Someone manufactured the tent, or at least the fabric of our clothes and our blankets, and someone made our supplies. Someone taught us to garden, start a fire, cook, look for food, and protect ourselves. We are only able to be who we are today because of those who have gone before us. 

When God gives us the commandment to honor our mother and our father, we are asked to do that—to honor them. But doing that means appreciating who we are and where we come from. Honoring our parents means honoring the whole of our past.  Because who would our parents be without their parents and their parents without theirs before them? But of course it’s not just a 2 parents and a child, but there are brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and second cousins.  The web of people that form our family is immense.  And we would not be who we are today without them. We have learned our values, our manners, and our habits from them.  From a young age we picked up on sayings, quirks, and customs without even realizing it.  We are who we are, in so many ways, because of our parents.  Now that doesn’t mean that we have to love everything we were taught or believe everything they believe.  We have become our own persons. We are independent and responsible for our own lives.  But no matter how far we might move from the place of our childhood, it is still part of us.

Some of us are more eager to celebrate that than others.  Some of us had a great childhood with happy memories.  We can remember the time our parents spent with us, family game nights, cooking in the kitchen together, talking about our day, and taking family vacations.  And others of us had a much harder time.  Others of us faced arguments and abuse.  Our parents didn’t ask us about our day, they yelled at us because the chores weren’t done or the food wasn’t right.  Some of us parented our parents in the midst of an illness or an addiction.  Our childhoods were not universally good or rosy.  But, for better and for worse, they have shaped us to become who we are today.  We learned love, we learned fear. We learned perseverance. We learned hard work. We learned communication. We learned to fend for ourselves.  We learned to trust.  And we learned to doubt. 

All of us come from somewhere and were shaped by someone, normally a lot of someones, and it’s important to remember that we are part of a team, whether it feels like it in our daily work or not. We are part of a bigger story. And we are invited to honor that story.  The details of that get a little complicated.  In honoring our parents, we ask questions about whether we should be supplying their needs, moving them into the extra bedroom, moving in with them, taking them on daily errands, or putting them in a care facility.  Those questions are not easily answered. And each of us will need to answer them differently, based on our own circumstances, just like our parents had to decide what was best for each of us on a daily basis.  How much instruction, how much help, how much discipline, how much indulgence. Our parents, and the others who raised us, had to make those decisions each day.  And we, as we honor our parents, we are faced with our own set of decisions.  The specifics will differ for each of us. But the foundation and premise of how we answer must be based on an awareness of and appreciation for the story that comes before ours.  Our decisions are more likely to honor our parents if we understand how our story is intricately woven with theirs. 

You shall honor life—every life—and recognize the value of each life.

It sounds so simple and yet clearly, we have a problem with this one.  We all know this is not how the world works. No sooner have we uttered the commandment “thou shalt not murder” do we begin to voice objections:

·         What about self defense?

·         What about just war?

·         What about cases of incest and rape?

·         What about for mass murderers?

The law sounds well and good until we think about the complexities of life.  We think we’d like there to be no murder, but realistically it seems too idealistic and utopian for most of us, not all of us, but most of us.  Thou shalt not murder.  It just doesn’t seem possible. I mean maybe I’d never kill anyone, and maybe you’d never kill anyone—but what about the military?  What about the officer who’s called to a hostage situation?  What about the parent protecting their child from violence or abuse?  What about the doctor trying to save a mother’s life even though the baby won’t make it?  What about them and those circumstances? Certainly, killing is bound to happen—someone is going to have to do it because not everyone values life like God commands. And not every situation has a simple peaceful ending.  There are countless exceptions to the rule. 

So then how are we to understand the spirit of the law if we can’t foresee holding to the letter of the law?

Think of it this way—honor and respect every life equally.  It still probably sounds overly simplistic but if we lived by this rule, we’d be a lot closer to fulfilling the 6^th commandment. 

To think of it in context, we’re going to look at some recent events, events that challenge what many of us believe about “rightful” death and “wrongful” death.  And events that often stir our politics.  I’m not trying to be political.  I’m wanting us to think about the commandment in concrete terms, not just in theory. The recent events and court decisions around Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York have reignited the #blacklivesmatter movement across the country.  The movement is founded upon the belief that some lives are treated as more valuable than other lives.  And so there is a clear response to declare that black lives DO matter.  Now, some of you are ready to argue, “Why can’t we just say, “All lives matter”?” 

We can.  And they do. All lives matter.  Black lives matter.  And white lives matter.  Brown lives matter. And Asian lives matter.  Young lives matter.  Old lives matter.  Famous lives matter and unknown lives matter.  American lives matter and Iraqi lives matter.  Military lives matter and terrorist lives matter. 

That one got you, didn’t it?  Terrorist lives matter.  And so do the lives of those they threaten and those they kill.  Every life matters. The objections that are surfacing in your mind are only a sign that we struggle to embrace God’s truth that all lives matter equally.  In human terms, we think there have to be exceptions.  Terrorists. Mass murderers. Pedophiles. How can their lives matter in equal portion to innocent victims?  That logic doesn’t even hold up in our minds. For most of us, it doesn’t even count as logic.  But God’s truth is that every person, every single person, is a beloved son or daughter of God and every life matters.  Sinners and saints.  Believers and non-believers. Insiders and outsiders.  Every life matters.  And if they matter to God then they should matter to us.  And if we saw with God’s eyes, and loved with God’s heart, we would see that every life matters.  And we might not be so quick to make the exception about which lives we could sacrifice.

I’m not saying that is easy or simple. But it is our work, as followers of Christ, to live God’s laws and to share God’s love. And when we do that, genuinely and whole-heartedly, we begin to see with God’s eyes and we see the value of each person. 

All lives matter equally. Maybe we can say that, but we struggle to live it.  All of us.  If we didn’t struggle to respect and value each life on the same level, then we wouldn’t have to make claims reminding ourselves or our society that blacklivesmatter, young lives matter, LGBT lives matter, or disabled lives matter. All lives matter.  Lives that look like ours and lives that don’t. Lives that speak our language and lives that don’t. Lives that worship like ours and lives that don’t. Lives that think like we do and lives whose beliefs trample ours.  God’s standard is not one of “either/or” but instead one of “both/and.”  To live the 6^th commandment, is to look with the eyes of Christ.  It is to see that those we hate and those we scorn are also beloved children of God.  We don’t have to agree with their politics, or their actions, or their beliefs.  But our arguments, discord, and bitterness do not affect their inherent value as a child of God.  Everyone, every single person, matters equally to God. And to honor each life is to recognize and respect how beloved they are.