Sermon: God’s sourdough bread
Text: John 6:25-35
My friend, let’s call her ‘Jane’, has a 6 year old son. Jane’s a writer, and her son plays the violin. She’s a young mom, with a full-time job, yet she makes all the bread she and her son eat every day. Jane’s a baker, engaging in the humble yet noble labour of feeding her family with wholesome food. The kind of bread she loves to make most is sourdough bread. You can imagine the wonderful warmth and flavour as you hold it gently in your hands, touching its sturdy crust and smelling it, putting your nose close to the homey smell. Jane’s son loves both the bread and the excitement that is new and fresh every morning in their cozy kitchen. She told me, one day at school, in his Kindergarten class, her son opened his lunch box and took out his sandwich, made with the family’s sourdough bread. His friends asked him, “Why does your bread look like that?” Of course, we can realize that my friend’s sourdough bread looks different; it definitely doesn’t look like the white bread or Canadian Rye bread, identically sliced and packaged, you can buy from the grocery store. Then Jane told me how she was delighted to hear what her son said next: “Too bad that my friends don’t have parents who can make bread like ours.”. That day, (I imagine) my friend’s son ate his fill before his friends finished theirs, displaying a proud smile as he returned the clean lunch box to his mom in the evening, with thanks and a kiss.
Some bread is made and baked with love, and it’s different. It looks different. Smells different. Tastes different. We sometimes give to our friends who bake compliments such as, “Oh, I really thought this bread was from a bakery, or a restaurant - it’s so perfect.” believing that we’re giving them a true compliment. When we say that, we truly mean it. But really, it’s not true. Everything made in love, baked with love, is different from something you could buy from a store. The reason for the difference is not just a matter of skill or being hand-made, but something else. What is that?
In today’s reading, Jesus encounters a crowd and surprises them with what he says. These are the same people who were at the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. They had an unexpected feast last night with five loaves of bread and two fish supplied by a child, when they were so hungry and it was close to sunset. Jesus and his disciples, and the crowd, were far away from a village where they could get any food. After Jesus blessed the small amount of food the child brought forward, everything became enough for everyone, feeding all, while leaving 12 baskets more for the next day. Then, even before these people, who were not only fed but surprised, stimulated, maybe even shocked by this unexpected miracle, could come together again to discuss and understand what they experienced, the sun rose again and their mysterious host of the feast, Jesus, vanished, leaving the crowd behind. Perhaps he even left them feeling confused and disappointed by his disappearance. Naturally, you would want to get to know your host better. Certainly you would have many questions to ask! And so they followed Jesus, finding him, finally, on the other side of the lake. Then, the sun was already over their heads, and they asked, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” In response, he gave them several answers. “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… The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The people said to him, “Give us this bread always.” Jesus answers them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus wants us to know the difference that the bread of life has from other kinds of food. What he tells us is that the bread that Jesus gives, the true nourishment from heaven, the right kind of spiritual knowledge and activity, has something to do with a quality and substance that endures. Something that lasts until the end of our lives, something that can be tested and true, enduring generation after generation. Something that is persistent and stubborn enough to live, and stay alive, even if it suffers persecution, persistent and stubborn enough to resurrect and rise again to endure until the world ends. It has great stamina to endure and go to the last. The love of God towards us is like that; it endures to the last to reach us, despite our resistance, because of us, within us, and beyond us, through grief, through despair, never dying, but living through our lives. The kind of love God has for us is persistent, stubborn, and so, eternal. It lasts forever, coming all the way “down from heaven” to the earth “to give life to the world.” What makes my friend’s sourdough bread, the product of her honest and diligent labour, because of her love for her son and herself, different, is the persistent, stubborn, eternal love that she has for her son that would last to the end of her life and beyond. God’s song of blessing never ends even after our life’s individual end. The song existed before our birth; it is like the unrecorded cosmic melody the Universe plays before the Big Bang and after the universe’s collapse. If the crowd knew that the bread they ask Jesus to give them “always” is God’s never-ending love song for all humanity and all things in her creation, they wouldn’t need to ask their question, because they are already filled; never hungry and never thirsty.
Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Here’s a question I would like to share: What helps keep your love towards your people, God, and the world, and yourself, persistent and stubborn, enduring to the end? How do you ask for God’s guidance, help, and support in order to share your life more fully with your family and friends, with those you know and those you don’t, in a life-giving way? Can you see, smell, and touch the bread of life… in your life? How? One recent morning, I asked my partner, “How were you so kind and loving to me, today? Why do you love me so much?” And Ianswered, “Well, I just loved myself a lot today.” If Jesus, Living Bread for the world, has the enduring love for all humanity and living-moving-things and beings, equally and a lot, (all are fed, everything is enough, enough to leave 12 baskets of extra, extravagant love even after being broken for billions and billions of blessings) our answer to his love should also be returned by loving ourselves a lot, despite our situations, despite our grief, despite our despair, for the healing and wholeness of our living and being. Just like the great stamina that God has, with an enduring and lasting love for the world, we just need to keep asking, persistently, stubbornly, “Give us this bread, always, Jesus”, the bread of heaven, God’s sourdough bread made in the Mother Baker’s loving, gentle hands, her fingerprints on the soft dough of her making, giving life to the world and singing billions and billions of blessings to our lives.
Ha Na Park
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