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August 13, 2006, All Souls' Episcopal Church, Pentecost 10    

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”         

      This past week, one of the men working downstairs at our renovation project was using a gas powered drill to cut through concrete. The exhaust fumes made their way upstairs to our offices. I walked out from my office into the hallway and took a deep, delicious breath. I loved it. However, I seemed to be alone in my appreciation of the odor. This was not an unusual event for me. I enjoy all sorts of smells which make others gag – exhaust fumes, cigars, gasoline, tar, and incense, among other things. In any event, a few of the staff members and I began talking about smells which we all enjoy, and one of the ones we could all agree upon was the smell of baking bread. There is just something about the smell of bread baking in the oven which brings to mind wonderful memories. Of course, bread has become synonymous with food itself. When we speak of sharing a meal, we might refer to breaking bread together. This is an ancient way of speaking. You will recall that when the people of Israel sojourned in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, they were hungry and in need of nourishment, and the Lord God fed them with manna or bread from Heaven. And of course, we remember that our Lord Jesus fed more than five thousand hungry people who had come to hear him in a desert place. He fed them with loaves of bread.

      We should have all this in mind when we read the words of our Lord in today’s Gospel lesson. Our Lord says that he is “the living bread which came down from Heaven.” He says that whoever partakes of this living bread will have everlasting life. What our Lord says is part of a series of “I am” statements. You might remember that, at the burning bush, when Moses asked God his name, the Lord God replied “I am.” This became a way in which the Hebrew people referred to God. Instead of assigning a name to God, which quite properly would be seen as the height of hubris and blasphemy, they simply called him “I am.” When the Lord Jesus uses the expression, we are supposed to have this in mind. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world, I am the gate for the sheep, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and I am the true vine.” In today’s reading, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.”

      Our Lord Jesus refers to himself as having come from Heaven. It is crucial that we remember this. The history of religion might well be the story of humanity’s spiritual quest and search for God. But, the Christian gospel is the reverse of that. The Christian good news is not that we have found a way to God and that we know how to reach him. If this was our message, then claims of exclusivity would seem outrageous indeed. But, the Christian Gospel is something quite different than that. The Christian message is that God has come to us. If anyone asks me how to find God and to come to God I tell them that God has already found them and come to them. Just stop trying to hide. If you wish to hear God’s voice, just be quiet and listen, and stop being so busy and distracted. God has spoken to us in his word. We do not have to find God. He isn’t lost. We are. Or, we were lost, but God has found us and has come to us. Don’t worry about trying to come to him, just try instead to stop running away.
      The Lord Jesus says that he has come from Heaven and will receive all those who have been given to him by his heavenly Father. He says that no one can come to God except the Father draws them. And, those whom the Father has drawn to himself and given to his Son shall never be lost. Have you ever gone somewhere and worried about whether you would fit in or be accepted. Have you ever gone to some function and made extra sure that you had your ticket or your invitation? I think most of us have. Well, the point of what our Lord is telling us in today’s reading is that if we have faith in God and are drawn to him, it is only because God himself has taken the initiative and drawn us to himself. We do not have to worry about being invited or accepted. We have been chosen by God and loved by God since long before we were born, since before the foundation of the world. And, if God loves us in this way, he will never lose us. He loves us with a love which will never let us go.

      Our Lord Jesus speaks of us partaking of the bread of life. He speaks of us partaking of him. We are drawn to him and receive him in faith. He dwells in us by the Holy Ghost. We receive him in this sacrament of Holy Communion, “that we may dwell in him and he in us.” You see, being a Christian means dwelling in Christ and Christ dwelling in us. We must be in communion with Christ.
      So often, people think about following Christ as a matter of following his example and asking what Jesus would do. Well, that’s okay as far as it goes. People also think of being as Christian as a matter of trying to remember and apply his teachings to a given situation or event. That’s okay as well, as far as it goes. However, being a Christian is so much more than that. Being a Christian means being in Christ. It means being a member of the Body of Christ. It means that Christ dwells within us by his spirit. It means that Christ himself feeds and nourishes our soul with life giving bread.

      Parents often must remind children about manners and about such things as saying please and thank you and waiting their turn and being polite. Children, being children, require reminders about this. But, eventually these reminders become less and less necessary as the children develop in their understanding and personality and these good manners become a part of their own character. Eventually, it is hoped, these manners become a part of them so much so that they see it as a perfectly natural way of behaving. In a similar way, growing as a Christian – growing in Christ – is a matter of dwelling with him, of feeding on his presence and on his word through prayer, habitual recollection, meditation, study, and reflection. Eventually, we do not have to ask ourselves what Jesus would do in a given situation. We begin acting like him, thinking like him, responding like him, as if it was natural to us. It becomes natural to us because our nature slowly is being transformed. We are growing in him. This is what sanctification means. His teachings become less and less abstract and more and more real. We even begin to see others the way he sees them. And, miracles of miracles, we even begin seeing ourselves as he sees us. We begin loving others as he loves us. This is what it means to grow as a Christian. This is what it means to be fed with the bread of life.

      Now, bearing this in mind, hear once again the words of St. Paul from this morning’s Epistle. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you. Be followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us.”       

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