Sermon for August 11th 12th Sunday after Pentecost

John 6 and 1 Kings 19 Elijah sustained by bread/”I Am the Bread of Life”

Have you been watching the Olympics? What are your favorite events? Sarah and I were watching the women’s high-dive the other night and I didn’t recognize the flag and the three-letter country designation that one of the athletes had. So, here’s the flag. I bet some of you know it right away. And the three-letters were “PRK.” I actually guessed correctly, “People’s Republic of Korea???” But it was…North Korea, which it has been their first time competing in eight years. So this inspired me to have a little Olympics geography quiz. This nation is home to 3.2 million people and fielded 9 athletes in the summer games (Eritrea in Eastern Africa). OK, this is an island nation in the West Pacific Ocean home to only 18,000 people (Palau, and they fielded 3 athletes). One more, this is another island nation in the Caribbean (St. Lucia. They fielded only 4 athletes, but won two medals, a gold and silver. Pretty impressive!).

So, this summer we are spending time with the “I Am the Bread of Life” teachings. One of the aspects of wine and bread every Sunday, is remembering that wine and bread were consumed at every normal meal at that time. Bread and wine are not fancy foods like caviar or micro-greens, the whole point is they are common and ordinary. Bread is a staple diet. So again in the spirit of the Olympics and identifying flags, let’s play a different game. I will show you a flag and you name the staple diet. So instead of “I am the bread of life…” here, this first one is easy, “I am the… (China/rice of life).” OK, this one if fun (Ireland/I am the potato of life). I’ve been here, I did a mission trip with Habitat for Humanity (Dominican Republic) and I’ll tell you there isn’t a meal served that you don’t get…rice and beans. Jesus said I am the rice and beans of life! I don’t think you’ll get this one…the three letter Olympic designation is NGR if that helps… (Nigeria/and the staple diet? Cassava. Manioc root. Jesus said, “I am the cassava of life.”) Here in America we recognize bread as a staple diet. Something commonly served and eaten at any given meal, right? In fact, Americans eat 37 pounds of bread a year. That’s 3 pounds of bread a month. However, that is nowhere even close to the country that consumes the most bread per capita. Who is this? The 3 letter designation should give it away…TUR. Yeah, Turkey. Turkish citizens eat… 440 pounds of bread a year! That’s 37 pounds of bread every month! Talk about a staple diet. They eat bread at every meal to dip and scoop and scrape every bite. 37 pounds a month!

So when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” he is saying he is the staple of life. Staple diet means every day, if not every meal, right? Staple means consumed for daily life. Like a staple diet of rice or cassava, Jesus is saying that he is what is necessary and needed in order to live. That is what I love about this Elijah story, that at this moment Elijah needed strength, that Elijah needed encouragement, God didn’t send the angelic cheerleading squad to boost his morale, God met him there in the wilderness and instead sent an angel to…cook for him. Bake a cake of bread on a rock and provide a jar of water. It is no less a miracle than the feeding of the 5000 or the manna in the wilderness. But what I love about it is how simple it is. Just a cake of bread and a bottle of water. God gives Elijah exactly what he needs to sustain him for his journey through the wilderness.

And that is the thing about staple foods, they aren’t anything fancy. When Jesus says, “I Am the bread of life,” he is claiming something common and daily. Jesus is not caviar at $1,300 a pound. Jesus is not our kobe beef or white truffles that only the rich and wealthy can afford…he is plain, ordinary bread. And this matters; Jesus meets us here in the common and ordinary. In the word and in the water and the bread and wine. People like to ask me, for example, if this is “holy” water. They’ve seen too many vampire movies and want to know if the water in the baptismal font will hurt a vampire. I tell them that it comes from the same exact pipes that fill the sinks and the toilets. It is just as plain and ordinary as toilet water. Now, what makes it “holy” is that the spirit has promised to be present every time the promise is proclaimed that here in these waters you are a beloved child of God. The water is not holy, Christ is holy Same with the bread. When, for example, Bev bakes our communion bread, does she use her “holy” oven? Does she have “holy” oven-mitts and a “holy” spatula that she uses? Holy flour? Holy yeast? You see what I mean. The whole point is this is plain, ordinary bread. It is staple food. And how powerful for Bev and anyone else who has ever prepared the communion bread to see something baked in their daily-use oven on the same old baking trays they’ve used a thousand times, suddenly becomes the host, the very body of Christ that we all partake on Sunday morning. This is the gospel. That Christ Jesus meets us here in the common and ordinary. In the staples of life. He even meets us in flesh and bone. Immanuel. God with us. And what is more ordinary than this stuff? This is the gospel because Jesus comes all the way. He doesn’t come half way and then command us to be more holy or be more religious and somehow meet him half-way in the sky, like we’re climbing some ladder to heaven. No. Jesus comes all the way. Jesus meets us here in the bread and wine. And so Jesus insists, “I Am the Bread of Life.” Jesus is the source of life.

We like to say we are a people of Word and Sacrament; what do we mean by that? It means that we give away Christ every time in common ordinary things like words and bread and wine. And really truly, how could we do any other? This coming Wednesday, August 14, is the commemoration of the Saint Day for Pastor Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran Pastor who was executed by the nazi gestapo in 1944. As a critic of the nazi rule, Pastor Munk was ordered to cease public gathering, that is, he could no longer lead church. You know, I don’t think it is insignificant that each of the bread stories this morning is a moment of distress or trouble. Elijah’s escape from Jezebel, in the Psalm today David’s flight from Abimelech, and of course Jesus’ confrontation with the religious authorities and even his own disciples that find his teaching too difficult. These bread stories come in some of the most difficult of times. Times of distress. Times of trouble. And so there was Pastor Kaj Munk, preaching and presiding at the table under direct orders by the nazis not to. But I ask again, if this is Christ we are giving away, then how can we do any other? And so the last thing Pastor Munk did was feed people with the bread of life through pulpit and table. He was found later executed by the gestapo. And so Wednesday is Pastor Munk’s commerative Saint day, but truly we commemorate Christ among us as the Bread of Life. We commemorate God meeting us here in the word and in the bread and wine. Christ is our staple diet. Christ is our daily bread. Christ is our food we turn to meal after meal knowing that here we will be sustained. Here God meets us in our wilderness and provides just what we need for our journey. His body broken for you. Amen.