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| "Don't waste bread! 1917" by kitchener.lord, on Flickr |
John 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were [beside the sea,] they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
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It is week two of our five weeks of "bread of life" gospel readings, and week two of our stewardship emphasis, as we consider Jesus as the bread of life not just for us but for the whole world.
Last week, Jesus fed the crowds with a meager offering of loaves and fishes, and we considered the question, "What do we have to offer?"
The responses to that question were varied and wonderful. You all offered up up gifts of cookie baking and card making; volunteering with youth events and other church activities; gifts of money and of increased pledged giving; gifts of hard work, of time, of a spirit of adventure; hearts that seek to serve others, to show compassion, to pray, to show love, to offer a smile, a handshake, a listening ear; organizational skills and serving in worship; working with the food pantry and participating in mission projects.
All of these responses show an expansive ethic of generosity in this congregation, of both stuff and of spirit. They show your faith that God is able to bless what we offer and turn it into a miracle of abundance.
Today, we take up a harder question: "What is enough?"
It is a timely question. Look at the current state of our world. The gap between the richest and the poorest continues to widen. Our planet grows ever more fragile and volatile due to our increasing demand on its resources. Younger and younger children are being treated for anxiety and depression brought on by increasing pressure to succeed and increasingly busy schedules. For most of us in this place, our overstuffed closets and bellies stand in stark contrast to gaunt faces and naked bodies in other parts of our community, nation, and world.
I suspect that most of us in this room, myself included, function under a false understanding of "enough." In a middle class community here in the United States in the year 2015, our problem is that we are too often told that "enough" isn't "enough." We are bombarded every day by messages that perpetuate a myth of scarcity, trying to convince us that we always need to be saving more money for infinite rainy days ahead, that we need to keep putting additions onto our houses and building bigger closets, that life should be a relentless pursuit of self-improvement and achievement. It is often hard for us to believe that we have enough, and even worse, it is sometimes difficult for us to see that even having "enough" is a profound blessing and gift of God.
The crowds in today's gospel had just been satisfied by a miraculous meal. They'd eaten their fill of bread and of fish, they were satisfied, the'd received enough food to quiet their hungry bellies. But it wasn't enough for them.
They chase down Jesus, who rightly interprets that their enthusiasm is merely for the bread that they have eaten, and not for the the bread of life who performed the miracle. The crowds keeping asking Jesus for more signs, for more proof that he is who he says he is. They keep asking for the bread that endures for eternal life, for more manna, for more miracles.
Even though their bellies are full and Jesus has offered his very self for them, they still seem unsatisfied. They keep asking for more.
"God gave our ancestors manna in the wilderness," they say to Jesus. "What are you going to give us?"
And Jesus points back to that formative story, of the manna and quails that we heard about in our first reading, to remind them that the manna was, and still is, a deep sign of God's continued trustworthiness as gracious provider.
When the Israelites wandered in the desert after Moses led them out of Egypt, they grew tired and grumbly and hungry. God listened to their hungry cries and provided them quail and manna. He gave them what their bodies and souls needed to thrive; enough for each day, so that they didn't need to gather any extra or store any away. In fact, God told them that if they were to gather more than they needed, it would spoil overnight anyway. It was an exercise in trust. And God proved that he was trustworthy.
Time and time again in our history of faith, we hear about how God provides; how God gives us enough; how our world produces enough and how we are called to seek "enough" for our neighbors.
In Leviticus, we find laws about leaving the edges of your crops available for gleaners, and we find laws about cycles of farming and fallow, and debt forgiveness and about the resting of both slaves and the land; that all might have a share in the abundance of God’s hand.
Think about the parable Jesus tells about the man who, at the harvest, finds himself with an abundance of grain. He has a little conversation with himself about how wealthy he is, and he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones to store all of this extra grain for himself. And then God comes and says, “you fool - tonight, your life will be taken from you.”
Or how about when Jesus talks about how God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the fields, and if God cares for the birds and the flowers, how much more will he provide for you and me?
We could talk of Elijah and the widow of Zarepeth, and the oil and flour that never ran out; or the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turns water into wine; or the ram caught by its horns in the thornbushes that saved Isaac's life at the very last minute; or any of the Psalms that sing about the abundance and generosity of God, who stretches out his hand, yielding crops in due season.
The lesson, over and over again, that God is a trustworthy provider, and we do not need to hoard the gifts of creation, for God has and will continue to provide enough for us.
According to 2015 statistics provided by the World Hunger Education Service, there is enough food on our planet to provide each of the world’s 7 billion people between 2500 and 3000 calories a day. Distribution is the challenge, and making food affordable, but the fact remains that there is enough food to feed us all. Enough food for all, enough wealth for all, enough to go around.
This question of "enough" is perhaps the most fundamental question of stewardship. Because being a good steward, a faithful manager of God's gifts of creation, wealth, and opportunity, mean that we take what we need and leave behind what we don't; that we share the world's resources and that we trust God to provide for us instead of hoarding creation out of a fear of our own scarcity.
Because, truthfully, how many bedrooms and closets do we actually need? How big of a yard do we need and how often do we actually need to water it? How many cars do we need and what kind? How much is a responsible amount to keep in our savings and retirement accounts?
Where is the line between "enough" and "extra?" And when we find ourselves with "extra," how do we manage that excess to the glory of God and to the service of neighbor?
Are we good at figuring out where the line is between "enough" and "extra"...and do we do a good enough job of managing the "extra" to the glory of God and to the service of neighbor?
Friends, is it not enough of a miracle for us that our bellies our full, our bodies are clothed, our water is clean, our families have roofs over their heads, and our spirits are nourished with the bread and the wine of Christ's very body and blood, given to us as the bread that endures for eternal life?
Our stewardship challenge today is to break free from the myth of scarcity and instead to recover a deep sense of gratitude for the miracle of "enough" that we each have been given. It is from God's hand that you have been given even the most basic necessities. It is the easier work to see God's blessing in seasons of abundance, when there are twelve baskets overflowing after 5000 have eaten their fill. But it is the deeper work of faith to see God's blessing in the "enough." For God is our trustworthy provider, the one who gives us the richness of the earth, that we might both be satisfied and also seek the satisfaction of our brothers and sisters.
Questions for reflection:
What does “having enough” mean for me?
What is keeping me from being satisfied with what I have?
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sermon