Miracle Bread

"MIRACLE BREAD"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

August 4, 2024

John 6: 51-59 NRSV

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. 

Doesn’t “Miracle Bread” sound fantastic?  I’ve heard of Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip, but how about “Miracle Bread?”  What miraculous properties would you like your miracle bread to have?  Heal your gluten-sensitivities?  Cause you to lose weight instead of gain?  This morning Jesus promises us that if we eat his flesh like bread we will live forever.  That’s would be “Miracle Bread” wouldn’t it?  I wouldn’t mind a miracle bread that made people less greedy, less violent, or even less likely to drive 35 miles per hour on the Stretch.  Now that would be a miracle.

I understand if your first reaction to this Scripture Reading was somewhere between “What?” or worse.  Maybe you would agree with the little girl who was sitting in church one Sunday when the preacher read these verses.  She suddenly shouted out, “ew, yuck!”  Sure, you might think that is an unspiritual exclamation, but if you were honest and really listened to those words you might agree with her.  “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you!” Ew, yuck indeed! 

On the other hand, probably all of us would sign up for the benefits of this Miracle Bread, if we could get beyond the immediate reaction.  So let’s move beyond that obvious, first reaction to try to understand just what this Miracle Bread is, what it does, and why Jesus says this stuff.  There’s a lot of what we might call weird or even combative language in this reading.  Let me remind you of some things I have told you about the Gospel of John that may help us understand the language of these verses.

Remember the Gospel of John was written probably 50-60 years after Jesus’ crucifixion.  It was probably a difficult and scary time for the people for whom John wrote this Gospel.  Biblical scholars who have studied the history of these times and the language of this writing tell us several things.  There was persecution from Rome.  Many believe that there was significant conflict between the leaders of the Jewish community and those who had come to profess faith in Jesus as the Messiah.  The language of the Gospel suggests that those who professed faith in Jesus had been run out or had chosen to leave the synagogue.  This meant separation from families, neighbors, life-long friends, and being condemned as blasphemers, and worse.

This leap of faith meant these believers in Jesus needed reassurance that they were not hated by God or condemned by God.  John repeatedly shows Jesus affirming that Jesus and his followers, were not separated from God, but were one with God.  Jesus and his followers were not hated by God but were loved by God.  And the best way they could demonstrate that was by loving each other.  In fact, that was the commandment Jesus had left them:  love one another as I have loved you.

The other element that we can feel and sense in John’s Gospel is that there is a constant interplay between the spiritual and the physical.  At one level the spiritual and the physical are very different.  Remember Nicodemus coming to Jesus and being told he had to be “born anew from above,” yet he thought Jesus meant he had to be born again physically from his mother’s womb.  At another level John affirms again and again that the physical and the spiritual are one and that one without the other is incomplete.  That brings us to this passage where Jesus seems intent on shocking the crowd with the image of literally eating his flesh and drinking his blood.  Some of them are confused, and some are horrified.  Remember when I told you a few weeks ago that the enemies of the Christian community accused them of being cannibals because they claimed to eat the flesh and drink the blood of their Messiah?  Well, this is what led to that accusation.

Beyond all this theological background, so what?  Let’s go back to where we began.  Don’t you wish someone would offer you some miracle bread?  Well, the good news is Jesus is still offering this bread of life, this living bread that if you eat it, you will live forever.  I sense some doubt in some of you, maybe even some complete disbelief.  What should I say?  Should I condemn you for a lack of faith?  Should I tell you that if you don’t buy it, you aren’t a real Christian?  I won’t do either one.  I would rather talk about how badly the world needs Miracle Bread.

I think we need Miracle Bread to be able to truly live the life God wants us to live.  I think our hungers and our thirsts are as real spiritually as they are physically.  I think the life we long for is one that transforms us completely to God’s love.  I like the way one writer put it [davidlose.net, Aug. 10, 2015].  He said that faith in God calls for us to know God’s love will satisfy everything in us.  At the same time “God will be satisfied with nothing less that our whole selves.”  He says, “This is why Jesus speaks of giving us his flesh and blood, you see, for ‘flesh and blood’ is a Hebrew idiom which refers to the whole person.  It means hearts, minds, spirit, feelings, hopes, dreams, fears, concerns, everything. In Jesus, you see, the whole of God meets us to love, redeem, and sustain the whole of who we are, good, bad, and ugly.”

The sacrament we will share in a few minutes is a symbol of that.  It is both spiritual and physical.  It points to a time when we will be completely satisfied spiritually and physically.  It is a symbol of the body and blood of Jesus.  And he reminds us he gave his body and blood up physically on the cross to accomplish both a spiritual and a physical reunion of God with humanity, and all humankind with one another as siblings.

A few years ago, pollster George Barna conducted a national survey asking simply, “What is the phrase you most long to hear?” The overwhelming answer was rather predictable: “I love you.”  In a solid second place was “I forgive you,” also not surprising. But the third most longed-for phrase is a bit surprising, perhaps: “Dinner is ready!”  But if you think about it, Jesus, …  didn’t need Barna’s research to address our deepest longings: love, forgiveness, and sustenance.”

So how are we to respond?  Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to become like Jesus.  I’d settle for us all becoming prophets.  Recently another UCC minister, Quinn Caldwell, [ “Prophet,” dailydevotional@ucc.org, July 27, 2024 ] wrote about the work of the Hebrew prophet Elisha.  Elisha was “hanging with the Hebrews” having chow when disaster struck.  In 2 Kings we read “While they were eating the stew, they cried out, ‘O man of God, there is death in the pot!’ They could not eat it. Elisha said, ‘Then bring some flour.’ He threw it into the pot and said, ‘Serve the people and let them eat.’ And there was nothing harmful in the pot. [ 2 Kings 4:40b-41 ].

What happened there?  You see, there was “a famine in the land. The prophet Elisha sent somebody to gather wild herbs for stew. The guy came back with gourds he doesn’t know are poisonous, cuts them up, and tosses them in. The food is deadly, until Elisha steps in.

Elisha did a lot of miracles like this.  He “helped a poverty-stricken widow with a miraculous amount of oil she could sell. He helps a woman conceive. Elisha brings a dead child back to life. Purifies a pot of stew. Feeds a shocking number of people with very little food.

“Sometimes we get confused and think that prophets are primarily people who speak for God.  That ‘prophetic’ just means ‘yelling in a sermon.’ But prophets are people who act for God. too. Here’s how a prophet acts: they help poor people without regard to their deservingness. Help people become more fruitful, more creative. Save people from death. Clean the poison out of the world. Feed the hungry.

Rev. Caldwell goes on to say that Jesus’ life echoes a lot of the stuff Elisha did, and that’s no coincidence.  He says, “those touched by our God tend usually to do the same kinds of things. And if the details change, if what you’re doing is cleaning up a toxic environmental site or a toxic something in yourself instead of purifying a poisonous pot of stew, well, that doesn’t mean you’re not being a prophet anyway.”

In other words, when you get a taste of who and what Jesus was and is, it can change you.  It should change you.  It can make you feel like you have eaten Miracle Bread.  Miracle Bread can move our lives to a different level.  Miracle Bread, the kind Jesus offers, can move us to show the love of God to others in ways that open channels of grace we may never have imagined. 

So come taste the bread, drink the cup, and know that you too are a prophet.  You and I aren’t just consumers of this Miracle Bread.  We are the ones who share it, with everyone and anyone.  Some want to keep this bread for only a few.  We know Jesus invited everyone to have this Miracle Bread.  So let us be sure to taste and see the goodness of the Lord so we can share the good news with others, and invite them to this table as well.  God can always use some more prophets.  AMEN.