just a little bread

unless, of course, you attend a mainline church in August, 2015 and then you get bread and bread and bread and bread.  Seems everyone should be full by now.

All of these carbs come from the gospel of John whose author just loves a metaphor with layer upon layer of meaning.  Bread is bread, except when it is Jesus, except when it is life, except when......  The author of John weaves all these themes together, not just here in the 6th chapter, but throughout the entire gospel.

Preachers are asked to preach on 4 weeks of this discourse.....to the same congregation each week. Notice I have chosen the Old Testament text for two of the weeks.

What can be said about bread, you ask?  Apparently, a lot.  We start with feeding the 5000.  This is a story for concrete thinkers.  Here bread is bread.  We have 5 loaves - actually probably small flat barley cakes.  This was intended to be some one's food for the day (we might call it lunch or dinner but truthfully, eating 3 times a day doesn't exist in places where food is not over abundant).

 We start with 5 loaves......and 5000 people.  A word of thanks to God.  A word of blessing over the bread.  Then it is broken and 5000 eat.  Until they were satisfied.  Satisfied.  FULL.  Then 12 baskets of leftovers were collected because, as we know, everyone was going to be hungry again tomorrow.

Perhaps that is a clue to deeper or richer meanings for this familiar story.  Bread which is baked in an oven will satisfy for a day but not for a lifetime.  Each day one must return for another loaf, another bite.  Hunger is always around the corner, lurking.

The folks on the grass were thrilled that they had enough plus extra to eat.  They loved being FULL.  But Jesus wants them to look beyond the pumpernickel and see the one who could provide not just for today's hunger, but for tomorrow's as well.  Jesus wants them to take notice of the one whose blessing and thanks multiplied a child's offering into a feast for masses.  Jesus wants them to realize that in his hands hunger can be assuaged.

Jesus is a smart teacher.  First he makes sure their bellies are full so they can give him their complete attention.  Then he points their attention to the possibility that there are bigger things, greater blessings to be had.

That's how he gets the conversation started.  Good idea; I like a good pumpernickel myself.