Sunday 18th August 2024. A sermon on being spiritual, the word, wisdom and bread of life

 Sunday, 18 August 2024. The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

A sermon on being spiritual, the word, wisdom and bread of life.

Among many folks who don’t go to church, surveys will often say that many of them will profess to be spiritual but not religious or a Christian.

Quite frankly, not being religious can seem quite appealing. The established church seems to shoot itself in the foot quite a lot. When the national church is in the news, it’s not usually good news, to say the least. Often another safeguarding scandal, or divisions over topics which make us seem more and more irrelevant or out of step with society.

Then are those news stories making claims on behalf of all Christians, which make me wonder if we even believe in the same God!

Having said that, I’m not going to get into the rights and wrongs of each issue in a sermon which is going onto YouTube. I do have some answers to the whole ‘being spiritual’ bit though.

Many people would say John’s Gospel is more spiritual than the others, and today’s reading is quite a good example.

In it we continues the Jesus is the bread of life discussion, which takes up the whole of John chapter 6, and today we learn that, much like if we always carry a water bottle, with Jesus with us, we will never be thirsty, or go hungry, so long as you remember your lunch money.

One of the things we see is the illustration about the difference between a miracle and a sign. This chapter in John begins with a story which is in all the gospels, the feeding of the 5000, a miracle which demonstrates Jesus’s power and his compassion and can be seen as proof that Jesus is God.

For John though, a miracle isn’t quite enough, so as he writes Jesus’ words, he reflects and mulls over the meaning of the living bread. As a miracle, a sign, a symbol and wonder, but also as reflection on the nature of Jesus, we also get the idea of this being a sign, a spiritual sign.

Then as both miracle and sign, we go more deeply into the nature of Jesus than any other Gospel.

Firstly though, a few crumbs about bread; In Hebrew or Old Testament teaching, bread is often used as a metaphor for Sustenance and Freedom.

It has a pivotal role, especially in the observance of the Sabbath (Shabbat) and festivals like Passover. Challah, a special braided bread, is traditionally consumed during Sabbath meals.

It symbolizes joy and the special status of the day, reminding the faithful of the double portion of manna that God provided to the Israelites on Fridays during their desert sojourn.

Passover presents a different symbolic use of bread with Matzah, unleavened bread. Matzah recalls the Israelites' hurried departure from Egypt, not having time to let their bread rise. It symbolizes freedom, simplicity, and the haste with which the Israelites left bondage, serving as a poignant reminder of deliverance and hope.

Jesus would have known this but is adding a new dimension, of himself. When he describes himself as the bread of life, this is where he can fill a spiritual hunger with wisdom.

One source I read noted that the Greek for the phrase, I am the bread of life, puts a huge amount of emphasis on the word THE. So that Jesus is THEE bread of life, the only one.

John chapter six is often known interchangeably as both the bread of life discourse, but also the Eucharistic discourse. Understanding Jesus as living bread enables us to more fully understand what is happening in holy communion.

This also helps bind together the physical world with that part of the mystical divine realm which is unseen and doesn't register with our senses, so can be easily missed and means we can end up misunderstanding Jesus, making it more difficult to receive and believe in him, almost stuck on the material plane.

There is this struggle in faith between either a material or a spiritual relationship with God. And I’m generalising, exaggerating and polarising to make a point, because I’m sure many of us would accept that Jesus was a man who lived 2000 years ago, so if we believe that, then all I need is a personal relationship with Jesus as a friend and guide.

But if that is it, then we could risk missing a whole spiritual side to faith.

The word seen is used a lot in John’s Gospel, but in last week’s Gospel (v.46) Jesus made a very bold claim when he said I've seen the unseen God, another huge claim to make and to help wind up the authorities even further.

Remembering that in the Hebrew Bible one of the big things repeated several times is that you can't look at God and live, the closest anyone gets his Moses who still had to hide in a cleft of rock as God passed by.

Then we consider the idea that if no one can look at God, and the people who did meet and see Jesus have also died, including Jesus himself, who was admittedly resurrected but then ascended leaving the Holy Spirit as his advocate.

What are we left with? It’s worth remembering Jesus’ words to Thomas, ‘‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus though, also left the statement that he is the bread of life, now I’m fairly sure that Jesus isn’t encouraging cannibalism, either real or symbolically, so what’s going on?

There are many planes of understanding being explored here, but simply put, today we’re talking about Jesus as soul food which is a kind of food for the innermost person.

John’s Gospel begins with the words, ‘in the beginning was the word,’ followed a few verses later with, ‘the word became flesh and lived among us.’

Then in chapter 6 Jesus says, ‘⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

This could be a bit messy, but if we remember the word became flesh, or human, then Jesus as word or flesh, is also the bread of life, things get a bit clearer.

This adds a layer to our understanding of holy communion, the eucharistic feast, in it we are feasting on the word of God, which was there at the beginning. The word of God, the wisdom, the way, the truth and the life.

In these words, we have heard the fundamentals of our faith. That in Jesus, we have the word and wisdom of God, we have the body and blood of the sacrament of Holy Communion, spiritual food and drink.

The events in John all took place around the time of the Passover, which also places Jesus, spiritually, as the Passover lamb. In Judaism, the Passover lamb was sacrificed and doorposts marked with the blood meant they were passed over from destruction,[1]

This is why we sing, later in the service, lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, words said by John the Baptist.

In all of this, Jesus is not just telling us to eat and drink of symbols representing his body and blood, but to be fully immersed in a faith which at its heart is shrouded in mystery.

After all, depending which Christian church you go to, will depend on the emphasis given to some of these theologies.

But I also quite like the mystery of it all. That we can’t quite pin down who, or what or why. That we can’t always pin down why we believe, but that we do have faith, and we do come back each week and gather around the Lord’s table.

Surely though, when people say they are spiritual, some of their answers are here. In the spiritual wisdom of the word made flesh to bring us eternal life.

For all its faults at the wider level, the church when gathered as community like we are now, is something to give thanks for.

We bring all the messiness of our lives with us each week, give them to God for a bit and share some time together, as spiritual people of God.

When we do this in the name of Jesus, we partake in a heavenly food for the innermost person.

Never hungry or thirsty, receiving divine wisdom.

As Paul said to the Ephesians, may you be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In all of this, I give thanks everyday.

Amen.

Psalm 34.9–14

  ⁹  Fear the Lord, all you his holy ones, ♦︎
   for those who fear him lack nothing.
¹⁰  Lions may lack and suffer hunger, ♦︎
   but those who seek the Lord
      lack nothing that is good.
¹¹  Come, my children, and listen to me; ♦︎
   I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
¹²  Who is there who delights in life ♦︎
   and longs for days to enjoy good things?
¹³  Keep your tongue from evil ♦︎
   and your lips from lying words.
¹⁴  Turn from evil and do good; ♦︎
   seek peace and pursue it.

Ephesians 5.15–20

¹⁵ Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, ¹⁶making the most of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, ²⁰giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6.51–58

 ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ ⁵³So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; ⁵⁵for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’

---

[1] for many Christians, Jesus took the place of the lamb on the cross, as an atonement for our sins.  Personally, while believing this, I probably hold it more lightly than others, which I’m happy to chat about while mentioning that googling, why did Jesus die will give you quite a lot of different results.