Reverend
Debbie Cato
John 6:22-35
Fairfield Community Church
August
11. 2024
Holy God,
we are hungering and thirsting for hope and peace. Our hearts long for your
nourishing presence in our lives. Give us your living bread and open our eyes
and ears to all you have for us. Open our hearts to joyfully receive your
life-sustaining love. Amen.
Bread
I suspect
it’s not just ministers who regularly find their time and energy consumed by
trivial matters. From time to time and in a variety of ways we all become
consumed by the wrong stuff. We lose sight of what really matters.
In this week’s Gospel lesson, Jesus faults those who want to be near him for being more interested in their stomachs than their souls. They were present for the feeding of the 5,000 last week; they feasted on the bread and fish that Jesus miraculously multiplied. Now they’re waiting for Jesus to do another trick and feed them again. It happens throughout the Gospels, people flocking to Jesus to have their immediate needs satisfied. Whether it’s an illness or disability or hunger, people come to Jesus for instant satisfaction. Jesus knows what their motives are. He knows the crowds come to him more for the wonders he can work, than for the message he brings.[1]
As they come to Jesus in this passage, Jesus challenges them to examine their motives. What is the real reason they are following Jesus? He says they are preoccupied with the wrong stuff, being more concerned with the food that perishes, that doesn’t last, than with the food that endures for eternal life.[2]
We know about the food that perishes, don’t we? (And I’m not talking about fruit and vegetables!) We know about the search for immediate satisfaction and instant gratification. We need to buy more, get more, have more. And we need to do it now. More, more, more. Right now. Getting and gaining and grabbing and attaining and achieving and acquiring and having and holding. We can’t get enough, and we can’t get it fast enough. It’s the craving that fuels our economy, it runs our lives. In fact, it can actually ruin our lives because it robs us of appreciation for what we have. It robs us of happiness. Of satisfaction. We think the next thing we buy or do is what’s going to make us happy. We think we need more, more, more. Right now!. All this stuff is the food that perishes. That’s why we have to keep going after it. Because it perishes. That’s why the feeling of satisfaction it brings doesn’t last very long. It’s the food that perishes. That’s why we feel so empty. Always searching for what will make us happy but finding it doesn’t satisfy us. We focus on the wrong stuff. We lose sight of what really matters.
Someone in the crowd hears Jesus speak about a different kind of food, a food that doesn’t perish. Food that lasts. How do we get that food, Jesus? What must we do to get the bread that truly satisfies? What must we do?
We hear the question and immediately sigh. What must we do? Aren’t we doing enough? Not another thing. Please. We really can’t do anymore. Jesus responds graciously to the question. Graciously and mercifully. It’s not about doing something else, something more. It’s about believing.
“This is the work of God,” he says, “That you believe in the one whom God has sent” (John 6:29). This is how we get the food that endures – we believe.
Jesus
says, the work of God is believing in Jesus Christ, the one whom God sent.[3] "A piece of bread, an
ounce of juice. It looks pretty meager. It looks like it’s not enough. But it
is."[4] It doesn’t perish. It feeds your soul. It fills you up.
If you ask people what the work of God is; what we “need to do” you would get different responses. I bet each of you have an answer that’s different than the other people at your table.
Some of you might say that the work of God is mission, reaching out, serving others; and you would be right. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus – helping those who have less than we do. Or, perhaps some of you would say that the work of God is evangelism, sharing the good news; and that’s correct as well. The good news of Jesus’ Gospel is the most important thing we can tell – or better yet show to others. Maybe some of you would say that the work of God is living a holy life, a selfless and simple life; and it is! That is also correct! After all, that’s how Jesus lived.
But while these are all good things, and absolutely part of being a Christian and sharing the Good News of Christ, none of these is the answer Jesus gives when he is asked how to you can get the food that endures. Instead, Jesus says the work of God is believing: Believing! Believing that our lives are in God’s hands in the darkest valleys and on the highest mountains. Believing that God still seeks our good when the chips are down, when the diagnosis is bad, when the opportunity seems to have slipped away. Believing that God is offering us something more, something better, something different amidst our gaining and grabbing and attaining and achieving. Believing that what we see isn’t all there is. Believing that God is lingering in the corners of our lives, faithfully, mercifully, graciously. Believing that God can break through our preoccupations. Believing that God can help us see the wrong stuff for what it is. Believing.
That’s what God wants us to do. Believe. Just believe. After all, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”[5]
If we focus on Jesus’, if we are consumed by the knowledge and comfort we find in him, if we turn to him to fill the empty spots, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Come to me when you are hungry; when you are seeking something to fill you up. If you do, you will not be thirsty. I can satisfy you. I am the bread of life. I do not perish, I do not go away or get used up. I will be here. Just believe and turn to me. I will fill you up. Amen.
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