The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.

Pentecost 10, Year B

John 6:27-29, 35

Why is it that when you need something urgently, you can’t seem to find it anywhere? A family on vacation were sight-seeing when the children became hungry. They couldn’t find a place to buy food. Just then, they saw a sign “Bread for Sale”. They stopped their car to ask if they could purchase bread. The owner of the place said: “I don’t sell bread; I sell signs. I’m a sign writer.”

Things we pin our hopes on often turn out differently from what we expected. We can all too easily over-invest our time and energy into causes and activities that fail to deliver what they promised. Look at what you’re spending time on in your life right now. How will it look in ten or 12 years from now? Will you regret having spent time on activities that, in hindsight, weren’t worth the effort? Work, recovering from work, talking about how good or bad one’s work is, takes up a lot of our time, doesn’t it? God never meant work to become the “be all and end all” of life. We weren’t created to be workaholics. Our Creator wants us to take a day off from work so we think about God and God’s purpose for our lives. Our Lord reminds us: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word God speaks (Mathew 4:4).”

We worship God wellalso when we rest. When we cease working, then God has a chance to work on our conscience, our heart and our mind. We work so that we have enough to eat. We need food to live, but in the end, earthly food won’t stop us from dying. All our work is a gathering up of God’s gifts to us. Jesus says: “Don’t work for food that perishes. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food (v.27).”

Perhaps you feel that’s a bit unrealistic. You’re struggling just to survive the next couple of weeks. You feel you have no spare energy to think about anything long-term. It’s difficult, isn’t it, to set aside time for God. We get so caught up in meeting deadlines or work commitments that God’s constantly in danger of taking a back seat in our lives.

You don’t have to look far around you to see people who have an abundance of this world’s material possessions, and are still not satisfied or happy. Many of these folk have everything to live with, but little or nothing to live for. We were made for God, and nothing less will bring us lasting satisfaction. Our hearts will be restless until they rest in the Lord. We were created to enjoy our Creator and to bring Him honour and glory. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says: “I am the Bread of Life” because only He can satisfy our spiritual hunger. In the Bible, “bread” always means more than food. Bread represents God’s gracious care for us. It stands for something that’s a necessity for each day, rather than a luxury.

Jesus is the Bread of Life for us when He becomes an essential part of our life each day. Our Lord Jesus begins to bless us in ways we never anticipated or expected when He’s a natural part of each day in our lives. What we receive from Jesus will depend, in part, on how much we long for and desire what He offers.

The more we desire Jesus and His gifts, the more we receive from Him; and the more we receive, the more He enables us to receive and share with others what He gives us. Bread is furthermore a symbol of sharing table fellowship together, as in the petition “give us our daily bread”. It’s much better, isn’t it, to be eating together with loved ones rather than on our own?

In the Bible, to share bread together was an expression of deep, intimate and close fellowship. As the Bread of Life, Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion to bind us together with cords of love that cannot be broken. Holy Communion is a foretaste of that great Banquet in Heaven that awaits us, where love will reign supreme forever. Jesus does more than say “I am the Bread of Life”. In Holy Communion, He gives Himself to us in His body and blood, as a gift and His feast of love. Holy Communion is the richest legacy our Saviour has left for us to enjoy.

A member of a church had fallen away from the Faith. But one Sunday, after a long absence from church, lonely and in a strange city, he wandered into a Communion service. Not quite knowing why, he came to the altar for Holy Communion. And then it happened – through the receiving of the Blessed Sacrament. There was no high drama or highly emotional activity. But through the Sacrament, God stole into his heart. He said, “I left the Table a new man, forgiven and restored to my God.”

The forgiveness Christ gives us so fully and so freely in Holy Communion is wonderful balm for a guilty conscience. The Lord’s Supper is the closest Christ comes to us in this life. In this Sacrament, Christ becomes a part of us and we share in His life. Jesus says: “Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry.” In Holy Communion, all who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the free gift of Christ’s righteousness, will have their hunger satisfied. Pastors are privileged to see this hunger for Holy Communion among the sick, the dying, and those unable to leave their homes. And with what deep joy and gratitude these members of our church receive Holy Communion.

When a devout Christian woman was moved into Intensive Care, she immediately asked for Holy Communion. When her pastor came, the doctor thought she was unable to receive Holy Communion. Tears rolled down her cheeks. The doctor consented. When the Communion was completed, the woman shed tears of joy. The Lord’s Supper is treasured so deeply because it is the greatest anchor and support we have for our faith, now, in this life, as well as helping us prepare for the life of the world to come.

Just before today’s Gospel, Jesus performed the miracles of the five loaves of bread and two fishes to feed 5,000 people. That event points to an even greater miracle where Jesus feeds His faithful followers in the Sacrament of the Altar all over the world today.

No other invitation has been as widely accepted as Christ’s invitation to “Take and eat, this is My Body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” As we remember that Christ, the Bread of Life, is truly present here, we look forward to that Day when we will share in “the Feast to come” in heaven. Holy Communion is our heaven on earth until we reach our permanent home in heaven.

And may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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