John 6:24-35
August 6, 2006
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
One of the most memorable attractions of our CONFAB cruise to the Mexican Riviera a few weeks ago was the food. You can literally eat 24 hours a day! Some of you just came back from a family cruise to Alaska—isn’t that true!
Besides the prepared gourmet meals that were always interesting in the ship’s dining room, there was the Lido Deck where you cruise around for your food. You go from one buffet station to another scooping a little bit of this and a little bit of that until your plate and tray are full. We ask each other where they found what looked so appetizing so that on our second trip cruising for food, we can taste that item too.
My all week favorites were the desserts. It was the crown ending to an already delicious dining experience. To satisfy my sweet tooth, there was always the smooth ice cream machine in the evening and the chocolates on my pillow before going to bed.
Now you would think that after a whole day of eating as if we really needed it when we were only cruising to Mexico that it was not completely satisfying. After the first day or two, the exquisitely prepared entrees and beautifully designed desserts didn’t occupy our conversations anymore. It may have been satisfying for the moment but it didn’t last.
It’s interesting to note that after a whole day of eating, one of the ways we ended each of our days were to gather as conference participants up at the Lido Deck where there was still 24-hour pizza to just talk. We pulled out cashews from Costco. Someone brought almond cookies from Oakland. We all had some comfort food that was nothing like what the cruise gave us. We talked about our families, our churches, our adventures of that day and in the end, we build relationships and friendships that have come home with us and will remain with us long after the food from the cruise is no longer a part of us.
Hungering and Thirsting
We all have hungers and thirsts that mere food cannot fill. We’re fortunate in this congregation not to be physically hungry or thirsty. Even when Joe Chan is taking an August break from cooking breakfast upstairs, we still know how to get to Capital for waffles.
Many people are—far too many people are hungry—around the world. Worldwide, 33,000 children starve to death a day. An estimated 1.3 billion people, one fourth of humankind, live in abject poverty. Tens of thousands of children in our state are malnourished.
But not for us! For us physical hunger or thirst is fleeting: a quick stop at a fast-food joint or a char siu bow at Anna’s and the hunger and thirst disappear…temporarily. But whether or not we experience physical hunger, we can still find ourselves spiritually starving like when we are on a cruise ship.
How do people deal with that inner hunger or thirst? Sometime we try to “fill up” on possessions. Remember the bumper sticker: “Whoever dies with the most toys wins!” It’s no surprise that one of the much toted attractions of a cruise is to shop at the ports of call. There was a seminar on how to bargain down for the best price. We were taught to say, “Lorenzo connected us.” I’m sure Lorenzo gets his commission for connecting us with all of the diamond jewelry stores. And I must confess that I did my share of shopping too.
While we may try to fill our inner most emptiness with possessions, mere possession will not fill our hunger or thirst.
Sometimes we try to fill that emptiness with performance. Former football coach, Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys, knows a lot about peak performance. He was a college football star, and then played for the New York Giants. Later he was the head coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Landry had twenty straight winning seasons, and two Super Bowl victories. He was twice elected NFL Coach of the Year, and inducted into the Hall of Fame. Peak performance. But did it make him happy?
One wonders; he said in an interview: “I wanted to be a good football coach, so my whole life was absorbed in that. As I went up the ladder all the way to becoming a professional football player and winning world championships…I discovered that after the excitement of winning or being successful, there was always an emptiness and a restlessness that stayed with me afterwards.”
He continued, “I didn’t understand that. I thought that somewhere along the way you ought to win a victory that would sustain you for the rest of your life. But I never discovered that kind of satisfaction…” He found that even great success left him feeling empty. Peak performance will not fill our inner hunger or thirst.
So we may pursue fame! That’s the reason why American Idol is so popular. For a while there, Leonardo DiCaprio was the most famous young actor in Hollywood. He still is immensely popular. He was chosen as People magazine’s “Reader’s Choice Best Male Actor of the Year.” Leonardo has been a “hot property, a star of Titanic proportions!
Leonardo DiCaprio is a fine actor. But it’s a pretty good bet that Leonardo’s career will go through a common pattern. I’m sure when he started acting, casting directors asked, “Who is Leonardo DiCaprio?” He has progressed to “Leonardo DiCaprio! Get me him!” But pretty soon it will be “Get me someone like Leonardo DiCaprio.” His fees will become so expensive that fewer studios will be able to hire him. In a few years it will be “Get me a young Leonardo DiCaprio.” Finally sometime in the future, I suspect casting directors will again be asking, “Who is Leonardo DiCaprio?”
Sorry Leonardo. Indications are Hollywood is just “that way.” Fame is fleeting, even for Leonard DiCaprio. Public recognition and popularity will not feed our need inside.
A Good Thing
We all get hungers of the heart. Pleasure, possessions, performance, and popularity will not fill them. But those hungers and thirsts are good things. After eating lavishly all day on a cruise ship, our hunger and thirst for seeing our conference friends is a good thing. Our dissatisfaction and restlessness are good things. When we are tossing and turning sleepless at night, wondering who we are and where we are going is a good thing. After pursuing the many ways of satisfying the emptiness that we feel inside only to discover that we are still hungry and thirsty is at the end a good thing because only then we can realize that we have been seeking to have a real relationship with God after all.
In our passage, John 6 for this morning, we see that the people initially sought after Jesus to satisfy their immediate, tangible need like hunger for physical bread. Jesus had given them bread to eat so they simply and understandably are seeking more of the same. Those who sought Jesus had expended a great deal of effort to locate him, crossing Galilee in boats in pursuit of him and his disciples. If hunger or thirst is great, people will make quite an effort, work quite hard, to get their needs met. Jesus doesn’t criticize them for their quest, but he does try to lift their sights to bigger issues: to find the way to a faith in God that will become the purpose and motive of their lives, through believing in him.
Jesus reminded the crowd that they needed to look longer and deeper—that there was better food for them, better than the manna in the desert, even better than the five loaves and two fish on the mountain side. Jesus taught them to do the works of God by trusting in him to find a deep and meaningful life. The true bread from heaven is more than the manna in the wilderness, more than the bread and fish on the mountain side. It’s Jesus himself—“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (6:35)
Our gratitude for Christ’s work on the cross, and God’s vindication of him in the resurrection, and our discipleship of living out his sacrificial love, give us joy and hope that satisfy our hunger and thirst that nothing else can.
Gift of Relationships
About a month ago, we received a check in the mail for $50,000. In a shaky handwritten check that matched the same on the envelope, it was clear that the check was made out to “First Chinese Baptist Church.” I asked the finance people if they have heard of a person named, Pele Lombardi. No one knew of him. Before we proceeded to deposit this large check, I decided to visit Mr. Lombardi at the VA hospital on Clement Street.
When I entered his room, he immediately assumed that I was from First Chinese Baptist Church. He expected me. I asked him if he was Mr. Lombardi and he said “yes.” I quickly thanked him for his generous gift and asked if I can talk with him. He shared with me that he lived at the YMCA across from the church for 30 years. When he observed that Chinese-Americans were getting married at the church and became enthralled at the fact that Asian Americans would believe in Jesus Christ, his faith was renewed. His gift was to support the work of our church.
I learned that Mr. Lombardi gave four $50,000 gifts—all to religious organizations: St. Anthony’s, Glide Memorial, Jehovah Witnesses (his own church), and to the First Chinese Baptist Church.
I believe that for Mr. Lombardi, possessions or popularity or pleasures were not important for him. None of these things that he could have had for $200,000 would have satisfied his hunger or thirst. Ultimately, it was his love for God that led him to his generosity. Remember I said that he was expecting my visit? He told me that before I arrived, the Jehovah Witnesses have come by, St Anthony’s had called and that I was there. He chuckled and wondered when Glide Memorial will contact him. It seems that Mr. Lombardi hungered and thirsted for one last opportunity to be in relationship with some of the people whom he cared for and wished to thank.
We are Blessed
Physical hunger and thirst are blessed if they drive us to take nourishment. Our spiritual hunger and thirst are blessed if they drive us back to God. When God creates a hunger and a thirst in the soul, it is so that God may satisfy them. When we as sinners are made to feel our need for Christ, it is at the end that we may be drawn to Christ and led to embrace him. We delight in confessing Christ as our new found righteousness and give glory to God alone. We are then filled with the Spirit of God, a peace that passes all understanding.
How blessed you and I are, every week, to be able to come to worship to be set right with God and each other! How blessed you and I are to confess our sins, to acknowledge our need for forgiveness, to lay down our burdens, to have a chance of renewal of life! How blessed you and I are to hear Jesus’ words, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” How blessed we are to be able to feast on God’s Word everyday in the Scriptures. How blessed we are to be in communion with God at any instant through prayer!
Stop cruising for food that only meets our needs temporarily. But know how blessed we are to be in relationship with Jesus Christ as we share the bread of life and drink of the cup of the new covenant at the table of the Lord.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we suffer from many hungers. We come to you, seeking to be fed, hoping to be filled with all that our hearts’ desire. Give us, feed us, bless us, and heal us.
Lord Jesus, come to us, not as we would have you to be, but as you are. Lift our desires above our mere bodily needs and toward your kingdom. Feed us, Lord; be for us that bread of life that satisfies always. Amen.