August 6, 2000
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng of the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
I have never met a bread that I didn’t like. At Red Lobster’s, I like the cheese bread that comes out warm in a basket. Here in San Francisco, sourdough bread soaked in beaten eggs makes wonderful French toast. And every time, I go to Fresh Choice, their homemade blueberry muffins are great. Even MacDonald’s quarter-pounder and cheese with a pickle inside a toasted sesame bun hits the spot when you’re hungry. But the bread that we have all come to know and eat has no special name except that if it wasn’t for the bread, we would not have char sui bows!
I know that as Chinese and Asian Americans, we say that unless we have eaten rice, we haven’t eaten at all. But bread is basic. In eating bread, we are back in touch with the basic stuff of life, the “staff of life,” as bread is sometimes called. Food can get fancy, elaborate, but it never gets much better, certainly not more basic, than bread.
Bread for Food
In today’s gospel, Jesus says that he is bread, bread “that came down from heaven,” “bread of life.” He said that anyone who comes to him will never be hungry or thirsty again.
Some people took offense to Jesus’ claim. They saw him only as Mary and Joseph’s son. They said, “We know his parents. How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven?” They didn’t believe in what Jesus was saying. They were complaining about him.
When the ancient Israelites were in the wilderness, they were complaining too. God sent manna from heaven. They were fed and not allowed to perish while following Moses out of Egypt. Was this the kind of bread that Jesus is talking about?
And then there were some people who followed Jesus to the Sea of Galilee, all 5000 of them. They became hungry so Jesus took five barley loaves and two fish and asked the people to sit down. And when Jesus gave thanks to the food, the few loaves of bread and fish miraculously was enough to feed everyone and with a lot of leftovers to fill twelve big Tupperwares! Was this what the people were looking for again? Food to satisfy their hunger pains?
We may not know much about all the symbolism of “Spirit, truth, and the Word” which occupies much of John’s gospels, but we do know about hunger. We know that gnawing feeling in the pit of the stomach when we go without food. We also know that gnawing pain in the heart of the soul. I know lots of people today who are hungry but not just for bread. Jesus seems to be talking about this kind of hunger here.
Being Nourished at Church
When we are hungry, it’s a reminder that we are creatures, animals that need nourishment or we die. One of my favorite Chinatown fast food lunches on the run is two char sui bows and a Coke. But there’s another kind of death among us when we are not nourished. It is the death of the soul. The death of the soul is that wasting away which comes when we lose our lust for life or when our eyes seem dull looking at the world or when we don’t know if we can go on.
Some of us think that death is the farthest thing from our lives. It is something that happens to others and not to me. But death is very much known to us. Maybe not that dramatic, momentary death, but death that comes day by day, drop by drop.
Maybe you came to church today because you are hungry.
I’ve heard people say that “We are not really being fed at this church.” They didn’t mean that the church fellowship groups were not providing enough pot-luck dishes. Or that we ran out of char sui bows before a membership meeting. They meant that their souls were being malnourished. Perhaps there was not enough substance in the preaching, or in the music, or the worship to sustain them through the week and the daily demands of discipleship.
Jesus promises that he is bread. He is the bread that comes down from heaven, just like the Israelites had manna in the wilderness to sustain them on the exodus from Egypt. Jesus says he is like that bread, coming down from heaven to sustain us.
Bread that Satisfies
What is your image of Jesus? For some of us, Jesus is the bleeding body hanging on the cross. He just hangs there. For others of us, he is the one who sits up on high, God enthroned in heaven. Jesus is from a distance.
Today, I want you to think of Jesus as bread. He is the bread that satisfies you when nothing else can.
You and I have been to these all you can eat buffets: Hometown Buffet or Coriya Hot Pots. There’s an entire section of salads, another section of appetizers, another for all the entrees and main courses, another for baked breads, then a great display of desserts. You find yourself just eating and eating until you are bloated and sick. We live to eat rather than eat to live.
After taking some Tums, we get up the next morning and realized that we are hungry again. All-you-can-eat buffets and all the home-baked breads we consume still leave us hungry again.
Jesus is that bread that satisfies you when nothing else can. You chew on him, bit by bit, take your time and savor each morsel. It is not dramatic like that moment when we are all rushing to the all-you-can-eat buffet lines. Jesus is just life-giving. Take time to enjoy him, to let him become a part of your life and thereby give you life.
Many times, we tend to think of the dramatic conversions when God invades our world with life-changing movements that sweep us off our feet and we turn to Christ. Those transformational moments do happen.
But today, Jesus bids us to think of him as bread, as that char sui bow meal, as that daily, life-giving, sustaining presence that keeps us going.
When I ask people why they are here in church, Sunday after Sunday, this is one of the main reasons they give: “I am here to get nourished to make it through the week.”
In this church, there is rarely anything too dramatic, too striking. Mostly, when we are at our best, it’s just the weekly, ordinary reading of Scripture, praying the prayers, singing the songs or hymns, preaching and listening to sermons. Perhaps this is why the table, the Lord’s table, rather than the pulpit is the true visual center of the church.
For you, it is that which enables you to keep on going as a disciple. It nourishes you. It is your bread. It is your life. Jesus bids us to feed upon him, to ingest him, bit by bit, to take his being into our lives, to let him nourish us unto life.
Memorable Meal
What’s the most memorable meal you have ever eaten? Last Sunday I told you about the Sojourners’ prime rib out of a Webber! That memorable! What’s memorable for you? Maybe it was Jo Jo, a fancy French restaurant on Piedmont Avenue, or a great little bistro in San Francisco, or an elaborate extravaganza in an expensive hotel in New York.
One man said, “The best meal I ever had was in World War II, the morning after a night of a terrible battle. I staggered up over a hill and saw a woman from the Red Cross in a little trailer in a muddy field. I staggered through the muck to her trailer. She was handing out stale doughnuts and cold coffee. When she handed me mine, she smiled. After the night I had suffered, in that place, at that time, I’d have to say that was about the best meal I ever had.”
The most memorable meal that has happened is the supper that Jesus had with his disciples in the upper room. Here, Jesus taught them that he is the living bread that came down from heaven. And whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that he gives for the life of the world is his flesh.
We certainly can remember some great meals that we have had. And these thoughts may be causing you right now those gnawing hunger feelings because it is close to lunch time.
Jesus says, “I am bread. I am bread come down from heaven to nourish you forever.”
The kind of bread that Jesus talked about is not to satisfy our physical hunger. It is the bread that gives us hope and nourishment for life.
Recently a rabbi died in England. His obituary told of his life, how when he was a young boy, he and his family were prisoners in a Nazi death camp. In the camp, the prisoners were given just barely enough food to survive—some grain, a bit of stale bread, and a few grams of lard each week. Despite their harsh environment, this boy’s family continued to observe the Sabbath. Somehow managing to scrounge up a piece of candle and a little food each week, they said the Sabbath prayers and pronounced the Sabbath blessings.
One week, however, there was no candle. So, when the evening came and the Sabbath was at hand, the boy’s father took some of their precious lard and molded it around a bit of string. Lighting this makeshift candle, he began to lead his family in the prayers and blessings.
His son was enraged. When the prayers were done, he confronted his father, “How could you do that? How could you waste what little lard we have to make a candle? It’s the only food we have.”
His father answered, “Son, without food we can live for several days. Without hope, we cannot live an hour.”
Jesus said that the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. And when we eat of this Bread of Life, we will live forever—a hope that sustains life eternally. The Bread from Heaven will not leave us hungry anymore.
Bread of Life
We may think the we really need to have one of those char sui bows to get through the morning. We are very hungry.
But Jesus said, “I am the true bow. I am bread come down from heaven to nourish you forever.” Jesus is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives us hope for tomorrow. All bread is a gift of God. Whether it is the manna that fed the Israelites in the wilderness that gave them hope that the Promised Land will be found. It came down from heaven. Or the bread that is made from the rain, sun that come down from the sky, and soil with the seeds that we only have the hope and faith that wheat is produced. All bread is a gift from God. It all comes from heaven.
Jesus is the bread of life, the bow of life. I believe in such bread. Come to him and be fed forever. Amen.
Let us pray. Gracious and all-forgiving God, with the bread of life in the gift of Jesus Christ, we have eternal life. Lead us to believe that when all else that we have faith in have failed, we know that our thirst and hunger are satisfied in you. Amen.