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​Bread, Bread, and More Bread!

This Sunday, August 26, we will finish reading through the 6th Chapter of the Gospel of John. For the past five weeks, we have been hearing Jesus speak of being the bread of life. Now, as glad as I am to be just about finished with preaching about bread, I do have to say I am going to miss it because, even though the teachings Jesus offers in John 6 can be difficult to follow, they are also very comforting to me.

Bread makes up a significant part of the daily diet of people around the world; it is a staple food item for many. Every culture seems to have their own unique way of offering bread, such as baguettes, bagels, pitas, naan, tortillas, biscuits, focaccia, and, of course, that bread so many of us grew up on, Wonder Bread! Although, at times, bread might seem boring, there are many ways we make it interesting, such as serving it as biscuits and gravy, bagels and lox, French toast, or how about a baguette with a warm bowl of soup, just to name a few. Even though bread is everywhere, we often overlook it. It is a staple of life (though boring at times) that is often the core of our diet.

In scripture, even though bread is mentioned time and again, I think we often just skip right over it and forget how important it was to God’s people and how it sustained them through times of joy and difficult times. When God was preparing the Israelites to flee from Pharaoh, God ordered them to bake bread without yeast (Exodus 12). In the wilderness, God sent them bread (manna) to sustain them (Exodus 16). David ate bread in the Tabernacle as he fled from King Saul (1 Kings 21). And, of course, when the people turned from God’s ways in the time of Ezekiel, God instructed Ezekiel to bake bread (Ezekiel bread) to eat during their time of exile, and when the bread ran out, the people would starve (Ezekiel 4). Jesus spoke of bread when tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4), and he taught us to pray for bread when he taught us the Lord’s Prayer, “give us today or daily bread…”. And as we heard at the beginning of this five-week series, Jesus fed the 5,000 with five barley loaves of bread. Throughout the scriptures, bread demonstrates God’s love for God’s people.

So, as boring as bread might seem at times, what I find so comforting when Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life” is that I hear God saying to me, “I know what you need, and I promise I will always provide you what you need and you will thrive on my bread.”

Life is filled with hurdles and struggles, and at times it can seem as if we are starving to death because we don’t know what to do or how to do it, and when I get to those points in my life, I remember Jesus’ words, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).

As we bring these readings on bread to an end, my hope and my prayer is that we all can remember that, no matter how difficult life seems, no matter how hard the next step in our lives seems to be, God has promised to be our bread. God is the staple of our life, and in Christ Jesus we have all the substance we need. May we all learn to place our trust in God in all times and in all things.

Shalom, Pr. Dave

Tags: Weekly Word