8.09.09
WESTMINSTER PULPIT
The Rev. Robert H. Fernández
August 9, 2009 “Bread for Body and Soul”
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-35 Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:35, 41-51
Sometime this past week many of us may have made a trip to the grocery store to get a loaf of bread. It was readily available on the shelf. In fact there was quite a variety from which to choose. Although we may have winced a little when we saw the price, not many of us realized that the packaging actually costs more than the wheat and other ingredients in the bread combined. All in all, we considered it a very uneventful and ordinary trip, but I would strongly suggest that there is much more to this venture than what appears on the surface.
It is quite difficult for most of us, as average Americans, to understand the importance of bread unless we are constantly reminded by turning on our TV sets and watching or reading in the newspaper about what is going on in so many parts of the world today. When there is no staff of life there is suffering and famine, a simple loaf of bread—something, to which we do not give a second thought, is considered life itself right around us and in many parts of the world.
We are immediately reminded of that late afternoon when Jesus looked out on the huge crowd of hungry people that had come out to hear him preach and see him perform miraculous healings. We remember that he had compassion on them and fed them with the lunch provided by a small boy. Jesus saw the human hunger of one single day, and demonstrated the necessity to meet that need. He saw the importance of feeding the body as a basic human necessity.
But the events that followed the miraculous feeding show another important component of life’s necessities. Besides the physical there is the spiritual Jesus, you will remember, eluded the crowds that wanted to make him king and found a quiet place to withdraw and spend the night. In turn the disciples got into boats and went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to the town of Capernaum to spend the night. The next morning, when the crowds began looking for Jesus, they discovered that he and his disciples were gone. Therefore, they themselves crossed over to Capernaum to find Jesus, demanding to know how he had managed to give them the slip. But Jesus was no fool; he knew why they had followed him. With an astounding and forthright declaration, he said, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” In other words he was saying, “Since I gave you supper, now you want me to provide you with breakfast, and then lunch, and supper again, and on and on.” He would be their “ticket to an endless source of free meals.” But then, as is often the case with Jesus, he took them a giant step forward in discovering the fuller meaning of life. He said that there was a second component to life—bread that feeds the soul. The soul is that mysterious inner essence of a human being—that which gives life to the physical body. Jesus understood the necessity to provide bread for both body and soul.
We come to the inevitable question: What does this account from first century AD mean for us in today’s world?
As followers of Jesus’ way we are called to feed both body and soul with balanced effort, for we must understand that we are not only body and not only soul, but both. Christians are particularly called to provide for both the physical and spiritual in themselves and others, no matter who they are. As we come to the Lord’s Table to celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we are invited to nurture ourselves holistically—the physical and spiritual—woven into a most amazing tapestry.
The Implications for feeding the body:
• The way of Jesus urges us to care for our bodies by eating the nutritious food that the earth so plentifully provides in thoughtful and prudent ways. This is particularly true of Americans who have an amazing variety of foods provided for our use in our plentiful agricultural lands and supermarkets. It is most encouraging to see the increased interest in gardening and growing organic foods free from artificial enhancements whose use often leads to disastrous health results. Even though there is still some debate about this as we have seen in a recently released and controversial study from Great Britain. The report states that perhaps organically grown food is no safer than that grown in the usual manner. That may be the case, and it may not. However, at least we are discussing and investigating more effective ways of growing food so that it is more nutritious.
• The way of Jesus means that we must not waste the abundance of food that is ours. Remember, Jesus asked that the leftovers from the feeding of the 5,000 be gathered, and there were twelve baskets full of pieces!
• The way of Jesus urges us to be mindful of the more than 13 million families in our country who are unable at times to buy the food they need. Finances are so strained with more than 5 million families with at least one member of the family going to bed hungry as a result—perhaps even more than one.
• We must take note that our government also classifies 38 million people as "food insecure," which means that at some point in the previous year they had difficulty finding the money to buy food. This calls each one of us to involve ourselves personally in the alleviation of hunger. Each one of us is urged to joint efforts with others in pressing our government to do what needs to be done to end hunger. Studies indicate that we have the capability to end hunger in our land. What we lack is the will and determination—the political courage, if you will.
• The way of Jesus urges us to expand our vision to see the need of the world. We have discovered that in just a few years, prices for the staple foods needed to feed billions of people around the world have risen to record levels, with prices for wheat, corn and rice increasing more than 80%. The steady increase in prices at one point culminated in food riots and other disturbances in at least 18 countries, threatening to destabilize poor regions, pushing millions more below the poverty line, and reversing years of ground gained in the struggle against global poverty. Yet, strangely enough, there always seems to be plenty of money for guns and bullets in poverty stricken countries! The way of Jesus makes great demands upon us when it comes to feeding the body—that we look for ways to eradicate the hunger of the millions of people facing starvation in the world—a world that could easily feed every hungry mouth.
Some time ago the visiting Presbyterian Peace Advocate from Ethiopia told a group of us that he could not comprehend how we American Christians can pray the petition in the Lord’s Prayer that says: “Give us this day our daily bread.” He continued, “You already know from where tomorrow’s bread, yes even next week’s bread, is coming—it’s in your pantries, refrigerators and freezers; it’s in your warehouses.” It left me speechless! Therefore, when we ask God to “give us our daily bread,” we are committing ourselves to help all hungry people find that daily bread as well!
The implications for feeding the soul:
There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call the heart or the soul. We were born with it; it is never completely satisfied, and it never dies. We are often unaware of it, but it is always awake. And a vital part of the human soul is the desire for love. Every person on this earth yearns to love, to be loved, to know love. Our true identity, our reason for being, is to be found in this desire. In his lyric poem, “The Little Black Boy,” William Blake said, “And we are put on earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.” He was right about the purpose of humanity. We are here to learn to bear the beams of love. There are three meanings here:
• To endure love—to grow in our capacity to endure love’s beauty and pain within ourselves. We must understand that the soul knows both beauty and pain. Love is so much more than a fuzzy warm feeling;
• To carry it—we are meant to carry love and spread it around. Please understand that the love within our soul is meant, not to be hoarded, but to be shared;
• To bring love forth—we are meant to bring new love into the world—to birth new love.
We can find evidence of this longing in great art, music, literature, and religion; a common universal passion for love runs through them all. But for real proof we must look at our own longings and aspirations; we must listen to the deep themes of our own life story. Unfortunately, in many cases the longing for love has often been disfigured or battered. But if we heed the urging of Jesus Christ to feed upon the bread of life we will be nurtured and the hurt healed. If we permit ourselves to contemplate who Jesus Christ was and is and to become united to him in a mystical embrace, we will be fed with him who is the bread of life. It is then that we can look at our own life with open and gentle eyes so that we can discern love in our self as a deep seeking for connectedness, healing, creation, and joy in God, the Source of our being. This is our true identity; it is who we really are; the reason for our existence.
• The soul is nourished by praying and meditating upon the wonder and graciousness of God. This expands our vision of self, of others, and of the surrounding world.
• The soul is nourished by joining with others in the worship of God so that together we praise God and thus increase our understanding of who we are as people of God.
• The soul is nourished by reading the Scriptures and the great classics so that our understanding of life is broadened.
• The soul is nourished by association with other people in the journey of faith—we learn from them, they learn from us, and together we learn more from and about God.
If we pause and look intently, quietly inside, we may be able to sense something of our desire for love right now in this moment. There are times when it is wonderful to the touch; it can be expansive and joyful. At other times it can be painful, lonely, and even somewhat frightening. However, whether it seems joyous or terrifying, its power and depth are awesome. When the desire is too much to bear, we often bury it beneath frenzied thoughts and activities or escape it by dulling our immediate consciousness of living. We might even dismiss it all as a pile of spiritual rubbish and our soul is robbed of nourishment.
Whether we are distracted or not, whether we know it or not, whether we even want it or not, a communication between the soul and God keeps going on beneath the surface of our self-awareness. It is a given, everywhere and at all times. There is no need to attain it; there is nothing we have to do to make it happen. Active awareness of this relationship is nothing other than living, as best we can, in appreciation of and fidelity to the continual heart-to-heart connectedness with God, with the holy Other—the Source of our being—whose presence makes us complete.
Perhaps most of all we remember bread, because it was used on the night Jesus was betrayed in that event we now call the Last Supper. It was a night filled with love as well as betrayal and denial. That is always the struggle of the soul. As he was at the table, he took that loaf of bread and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “This is my body, which is broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.”
We simply cannot escape the significance of bread throughout the length and breath of our Judeo-Christian heritage—both the bread that sustains the body and the bread that sustains the soul.
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