Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Psalm 78: 1-25
Ephesians 4:17-25
John 6:24-35
The crowd went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. They'd hung around after Jesus fed them with the loaves and fishes to see what he might be up to next. But when they realized he'd somehow slipped away from them, they went looking for him.
People are still looking for what Jesus has to offer. People who are bored and tired. People who are hungry and discouraged. People who are frightened and lost. People everywhere are looking - for something.
And the Church exists in order to give them what they're looking for - in order to give what Jesus was offering to people two thousand years ago and what he's still offering today " ...the food which lasts, and which gives eternal life, that food which the Son of Man will give ..."
When we come to be fed on Sunday mornings, we're given the sustenance and nourishment that we need in order to see and hear what God is calling us to do - so that the work of Jesus Christ can continue in the world ...and all of God's children can be fed...
In the early church, after the bread was given to the faithful at the Eucharist, they took what was left over and they shared it among themselves - not to eat, but to take with them so that when they met the lost and the lonely during their week , they could offer it to them while sharing the good news of Jesus Christ - and thus bring hope and love to those who had lost hope and who believed that they could not be loved.
It's such a simple and lovely idea. Taking bread from the meal of Christ - taking it out of this lovely old church building into the streets where those most in need of God's nourishment are to be found.
Of course we no longer do such things today. In fact most of us would be aghast at such an idea - each of us taking the body of Christ with us when we leave on Sunday mornings. Yet is it hidden away in this building where only certain special people are allowed to touch the Bread of Life - that Jesus intended that it be kept?
The hosts [bread] from the Eucharist are, of course, only a symbol. Some of us believe that once sanctified, they do become the body of Christ - some of us do not. But in either case, it's still about a deeper meaning..it's about an intimate relationship with God It's about knowing that Jesus is God incarnate, and it's God alone who can truly satisfy the hunger of our souls.
There are so many people who are hungry for what Jesus has to offer them. People who keep looking in all the wrong places - in wealth and success, in power and control, in drugs and chemicals; looking for it in the empty promises of a culture which preaches that if we just take the right pill, meet the right people or buy the right car we will somehow fill the emptiness in our lives.
Author, Fredrick Buechner says that the "place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.." I ‘ve often pondered that idea - and wondered just what that place looks like....where my deep gladness and someone else's deep hunger might meet.
It's tempting to think it must be a rather spectacular kind of place - like Mother Teresa with the dying on the streets of Calcutta or Harriette Tubman leading slaves to freedom. But I strongly suspect that temptation keeps us from seeing the opportunities that God places in our path every day.
Years ago when I was a freshman in college, God put such an opportunity in my path when a sociology professor gave a pop quiz on a Friday afternoon. Now I was a good student and had no trouble with the quiz - that is until I came to the last question - which asked for the first name of the woman who cleaned the room each day after our class was over.
At first I thought it must be some kind of a joke. I'd seen her, of course - she was usually waiting for us to get out of the classroom so that she could come in and clean it. She was a small woman with graying hair. She was usually kind of stooped over and looked tired and rather sad. But I had no idea what her name was. I'd never spoken to her, and people didn't wear ID badges back then the way they do today.
So I left the question blank. But I noticed that I was feeling a bit irritated and even a little depressed about that question. It kept bugging me all weekend. I just couldn't seem to shake it off. And I had no idea why it was bothering me so much.
I knew that I had an A going in the class and that I'd done fine on the quiz - even though I hadn't known the name of the cleaning woman. So why was it still bothering me so much? The professor never said a thing about the question until the very last day of the term. And then he asked if we'd learned anything from it.
I know I learned more from that question than anything else that year. When I was young I was painfully shy. To initiate conversation, or to even make eye contact with someone I didn't know was absolutely miserable for me. But it wasn't until I'd finally forced myself to talk with that woman - that the cloud which had descended with the question began to lift.
That evening when I finally took a deep breath - smiled - and thanked her for the work she did cleaning the classroom - turned out to be a very remarkable evening. The woman was clearly surprised that I'd spoken to her...that someone had even noticed her. But when I did, she straightened up and smiled back at me and we chatted about something for a few minutes. I don't remember what. But what I do remember is that after that evening, - I felt a whole lot happier, and she looked a whole lot taller than before. Oh - and by the way - her name was Dolores.
So when you take the Bread of Life into your hands this morning at communion, remember that it's Jesus you will be taking with you throughout the coming week, and it's Jesus who will lead you to the Dolores-es of this world...where your deepest gladness and someone else's deepest hunger will meet. AMEN.