Perishable Food (or, From Hunger to Hope: Jesus' Lessons on Abundance) - John 6:24-35 (Proper 13B)

    I hope last week’s message was satisfying for you - but thanks for getting hungry for more Jesus because there are two more weeks in our food and faith series.

    Last week, more specifically, we talked about food insecurity and how a significant portion of our community struggles with affordability and access to fresh food. We may have needed to talk about how for some, it’s not quite as dire as not knowing where your next meal is coming from, but sometimes about tricky choices - do I eat or pay rent? Do I eat or buy school supplies? When resources are scarce, food gets placed on the table, though not in the way we’d like it to be. One facet is in an area where fresh and affordable food is inaccessible. These places are called food deserts, which means that there are no local means to get groceries. They either have to drive far out of their neighborhood or use fast food or gas station food, which is not the healthiest.

    According to a study put out by United Way of Allen County, 1 in 3 people in our county live in a food desert. That means that they either live in a low-income area or have low access to food, defined as living more than 1 mile away from a supermarket or grocery store. 

    Most of downtown Fort Wayne is a food desert. Many people live down there, but are there any options for a grocery store or supermarket? Not really. Like I said last week, thanks to some nonprofits like Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana, they decided that one of their goals was to put on a farmers’ market because of this need that they saw. The project was started in about 2004, which revived the historic Barr Street Market. It was a place of vitality before it was shut down in the 1950s when the rise of the supermarket happened. Full disclosure - I was a committee chair for the Barr Street Market for three years, from 2010 to 2013, which is one reason this issue is so close to my heart.

    Even here in our ZIP code, how many places to get fresh produce or meat are there? Beyond that, if they exist, how much of the meager resources someone has will be used? If someone has food stamps, the programs can be limited to what people buy, which famously doesn’t include non-food items like toilet paper, feminine products, diapers for children, or soap. 

    Another nonprofit called Forward Indiana has established some mutual aid food pantries around the city. These are just plastic storage cupboards, brilliantly painted by a local artist within the nonprofit and filled by volunteers. The idea is to Take What You Need and Supply What You Can. There are no restrictions or even security on them. I’ve been in contact with the group leader, with hopes to have one installed here. Is that something you would be in support of? Think about it, and feel free to reach out with any feedback you may have. I believe this could be a great asset to our community. These places can help supply food and even some of the gap materials needed throughout our neighborhood. This is just one idea of how Bethany Church can work within our social principles to reach the community. And it may seem strange, but just imagine it as a bird feeder. Just because you fill the bird feeder, birds may not come. But the longer it stays there, the more birds can find it and use the resources.  

    In our reading today, Jesus is still dealing with kind of the same situation. Jesus, just coming off his great miracle of feeding the massive crowd, is trailed by the same group who want more from him than just his culinary skills. This situation also has a very human response. In case you didn’t know he had some sass, Jesus talks down to the people at some of their questions. The crowd wants more food - why can’t he do more miracles if he did them once? They even are looking for a transactional relationship - what can we do to get what we want? What is it that Jesus can’t get through to these people about what God is like? This misunderstanding is similar to the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman begins not knowing who Jesus is at the beginning of their conversation, will end up being a witness to his mercy and grace by the end. That was a story of living water. And now Jesus says that he is the bread of life? In Jewish custom at the time, all you needed to be fed was water and bread. Jesus repeating this - not in the same conversation yet - shows that he can meet the most basic needs. 

    The bottom line is this: While most people are out looking for physical bread to take care of their physical hunger for their perishable life, Jesus provides NOT ONLY THAT but provides spiritual bread which will sustain us for a life that cannot perish. As a side note: the term “eternal life,” like it is found in verse 27, would not speak to the crowd as immortality or a reward in heaven. This is more of a metaphor they would have understood as the binding, inseparable presence of God. I connect with this so much more than the others, because what we should be desiring is that relationship with God. 

    Despite all this happening, God is still working, even now, with US - the miracles of Jesus weren’t just because of Jesus; God gave them. Jesus may have delivered the fish and bread, but the gift was from God. We also have the chance to have an inescapable presence of God in our lives! 

    What does our gospel Scripture say about God? God asks, on the one hand, very little from his followers. As verse 29 says, belief in the one God has sent is the work we need to do. But is it work to believe? It can be. God does not just call us to believe blindly, and that God wants us to believe in who He IS, not just what we can get from him. Being caught up with your basic needs is human, but Jesus wanted the people to dig deeper and work for things that last. Food is temporary; we all know this. There is the possibility of spoiling if we don’t eat it. Once we DO eat, the food will only sustain us for as much energy has the food holds.

    It’s good to have our three meals a day, but for this food that Jesus speaks of - are we praying three times a day? Are we studying Scripture three times a day? Are we delighting in the grace that is given to us through Jesus from God three times a day? Does our joy fulfill our soul and sustain our faith? Because that’s what God wants from us. Our dedication and communion with the Lord will feed us much longer than the bread for our stomachs will. 

    What is significant about Jesus feeding people? As I mentioned last week, he recognizes our internal struggles and wants to relieve us. We may think that hunger is something that wouldn’t matter to the Lord and Creator of all, but he wants to be hospitable to his creation because he loves us. Jesus wants to be a host to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. When hosts are at work, there’s probably food involved. It also is a common theme, even through the Old Testament scriptures. The people remind Jesus of how God fed the Israelites while wandering in the wilderness, looking for the Promised Land. Jesus counters this with the fact that the manna (or bread from heaven) was still perishable. It was only meant to sustain them for a specific time until God the Father sent the Son of Man! He reveals that he is that bread to offer freedom from eternal suffering. 

    How does this relate to the manna in Exodus (16, specifically vs. 2-4, 9-15)? 

The verses Exodus say: "There in the desert, they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, “We wish the Lord had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve.” The Lord said to Moses, “I will send bread down from heaven like rain. Each day the people can go out and gather only enough for that day. That’s how I will see if they obey me.” Moses turned to Aaron and said, “Bring the people together because the Lord has heard their complaints.” Aaron was speaking to them when everyone looked out toward the desert and saw the bright glory of the Lord in a cloud. The Lord said to Moses, “I have heard my people complain. Now tell them that they will have meat each evening and each morning they will have more than enough bread. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.” Many quails came and landed everywhere in the camp that evening, and the next morning dew covered the ground. After the dew had gone, the desert was covered with thin flakes that looked like frost. The people had never seen anything like this, and they started asking each other, “What is it?” Moses answered, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

    The story of the Israelites in the Old Testament is unique to the ancient world. No other people were willing to be so self-critiquing. Other religious writings from other people were much more inclined to be self-glorifying. Not the Israelites. They knew they were hard to please and not as trusting as they could be. Instead of thanking God for their freedom, they acted as though God took them from the comforts of Egypt. They forgot that they were starving and dying at the hands of the Pharaoh. In this account, they don’t even ask for help; they complain. However, God hears the people’s complaints and steps in to care for them and feeds them morning and night. How has God blessed and provided for you during your mornings and nights?

    We’ve gotten better about complaining since then. What do you complain about most? Our expectations don’t always get met, so we are ripe to let someone know about it. But in the moment of complaint, we are missing the grace God gives us. Whether it’s about the weather, the speed of your brunch today, or the drivers around you, complaining seems for us to elevate ourselves and feeds our pride. Do you think that’s what the Israelites were missing? God is trying to give them a gift, but they can’t see past their own noses to receive such a gift. 

    Since there had been generations between this Exodus story and Jesus’ time, the oral nature of the messages could have altered the story. Maybe the storyteller changed the words so that Moses brought the manna instead of it being a gift from God. Jesus corrects them, in which he tells them that bread, as a gift of God, was a sign of God’s mercy to his people and the grace bestowed to them. The crowd misses this point because they respond with, “Well, that’s what we want!” And Jesus finally gives up and reveals, “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE! I HAVE COME FROM HEAVEN… WITH ME, YOU WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!” Can I get an amen? I can only imagine a fraction of his frustration with the situation. 

    What does feeding the people have to do with the spiritual understanding of Jesus being the bread of life? Jesus speaks of bread as a symbol. Throughout the conversation, though, the people are not picking this up. In their culture, bread is symbolic of wisdom as well, so I’m not sure how this was lost on the crowd. But - looking at it through the spiritual lens - Jesus knows that he will sacrifice himself for this community and all of humanity. He knows the end of his story. Feeding people is a way to satisfy them so much that they can look deeper, that they can focus on more significant ideas, more than just what their body needs, or even what their community needs. We all need to eat, but how much of our days are filled with planning these things? I know I need to start meal planning for my family in the transition since we will have more limited resources as soon as my other employment ends. But every day, it is still a prominent occupier of time and brain space - and that’s just people like us with many resources. Just imagine how much harder it is for those who struggle with food instability. Not are you balancing what resources you have, but extra anxiety because it is not enough.

    I came across a quote from the author Zadie Smith, in whose book, Swing Time, she writes, “When you are poor, you must think through every stage. Wealth is the opposite. With wealth, you get to be thoughtless.” This hit me so hard because it speaks to the invisible privilege that those of us with a stocked pantry (myself included) forget or ignore.

    As Methodists, let’s look to see what our social principles say about this. 

Social Principle 163 E states, “As a church, we are called to support the poor and challenge the rich. Since low wages are often a cause of poverty, employers should pay their employees a wage that does not require them to depend on government assistance such as food stamps or welfare for their livelihood.”

163 H says in relevant part, “We call upon our churches to do all in their power to speak prophetically to the matters of food supply and the people who grow the food for the world and to develop ministries that build food security in local communities.”

And finally, Social Principle 164 A states, “We hold governments responsible… to the guarantee of the rights to adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care.”

    Bread is universal around the world. I’m not sure how it happened, but every culture seems to share a love of baked dough. May we connect with those around us with the bread that we share, and remember that Jesus will feed us eternally when we live into the Spirit and the connections coming with it. 

    People want to be given the bread; they don’t care about the recipe or how it is made. We’ve been conditioned as a society to enjoy the bread, but not the bread provider, the farmers who grew the wheat, or the bakers who formed the dough, and the delivery driver taking the finished loaf to the store. We have a disconnect between how we grow and create food and how people are fed. Let us be more thankful for those who prepare our food and build a larger table to commune with God’s creation so that everyone has their daily bread. Amen.