JN 6: 56-69 

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 14…Revised 2018

Breathing a sigh of relief that we’ve come to the end of JN for this year? How about going out with a bang rather than a whimper?! Take this opportunity to end on a high that leaves us all waiting expectantly. Not only for Christmas with its ‘In the beginning was the Word’, but our next stretch of JN in 2019!

Our passage is a kind of summary of ‘Jesus the Living Bread’ theme in Ch. 6. More, there’s a progression going on here. On Jesus’ part. Progressions we might consider preaching from:

Jesus encourages His contemporaries to move on from Moses & the Manna from heaven. To  progress from Moses to Him, the Greater than Moses. Something they fail to grasp with a few exceptions. We’re told in our passage that even some of Jesus’ own disciples fail to ‘get it’! ‘Get’ Him! Make the progress He expects of them / us. It’s their turn to appreciate the role Manna plays in their Hebrew forbears’ Faith. And the unique Role Jesus plays as ‘Daily Bread’ on earth in His day.

Now it’s time for us to progress our experience guided by Holy Spirit. From seeing things as 1st C. Christians saw them & on to a new & largely unexplored 21st C. version! Scripture based, of course, & true to the Faith, but a 21st C. version in which Jesus becomes ‘true & living Bread’ for today. ‘Joining all the dots’ necessarily involves risking continuing progress into an unknown future.

Making progress in the context of JN 6, feeding on the Living Bread, entails journeying into God, as much as expecting God to journey with us. Or into us. Aren’t we often told we need to ‘internalise’ understandings these days? Is it stretching the imagination too much to explore ways we can better ‘feed on’, internalise, God the Jesus Way. As Living Bread for our journey? And find ways we can become, in our turn, & as Jesus’ disciples, ‘living bread’ (small capitals) for others round us as we journey together through today’s wildernesses? Wildernesses, as the Hebrews discovered, are for making progress against the odds.

Reading our passage I’m reminded of someone I once knew who gave the appearance of over-preaching the Word & under-celebrating the Eucharistic sharing in Bread & Wine. The very first words of this passage remind us to celebrate both & celebrate them jointly & equally. We may do this in our own style, but do them both we must. To be true to Jesus & what He says in v. 56 about being part of Him & He part of us. 

Afterthought: This is our last ‘ration’ of JN for this year’s calendar. How well we tackle John, & this passage in particular, will inevitably be a test of how our preaching comes across! This will include both preacher & congregation wrestling with the ‘hard bits’! Let’s carry out our Calling by preaching confidently & enthusiastically so we make Godly progress together.

Brian

JN 6: 51-58 

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 13…Revised 2018     

In the very first verse Jesus tells us He’s life-giving Bread; that He’s come (down) from Heaven; that those who ‘eat’ Him will live for ever; & that He’ll give His humanity for the sake of the world! Pretty Deep Stuff! This verse may be a key to opening up the passage. Help us bring all this out of the 1st C. & into ours.

Themes we might build on: 

What does it mean in practice for us to become life-giving bread for the world around us? How many things happening round us are masquerading as ‘life-giving’? Is anyone for whom we have a personal concern caught up in any of these falsehoods? Can we become life-bringing for them? 

How far does Jesus expect us to go / how far are we prepared to go, in giving our humanity for those round us? What might doing so involve? Can we go that far? Do we need better equipping to take that as far as we may need to? Can we identify what any of that equipping may be?

We can’t ‘come down from Heaven’, but do we need to come down from some of our more ingrained theological ‘high horses’ & live & preach at ground level? How down to earth /earthy Jesus is! Can we learn from the approaches He takes to people, to help us help others find heaven on earth? Now, rather than at some ‘last day’? 

What might it mean in today’s language & today’s situations - for people to be able to ‘feed on us’ so they find eternal life? Can we discern any ‘entry points’ for ‘them’ or us? Entry points are really important to discern.

By God’s Grace, preach what Jesus says here as intensely practical! Jesus is no theorist. ’Living Grace-fully’ may well be the key to understanding (& preaching) all this.

Peter Gomes¹ puts it simply: ‘we may need food for our body, & have food for our body; but that in itself won’t satisfy us with life.’ That’s where Jesus being Life-giving Bread comes in. Sharing bread together in our homes, our congregation, & the wider community, is one way we could play our part in bringing this passage to life. Sharing in being raised to new life in the here & now. As a foretaste of being raised at the last day as only Jesus the Christ can raise us!

Afterthought: Yesterday, my wife & I came across a couple - good & religious, in the best sense - folk who need to be helped through a really ‘bad patch’ so they can enjoy God better in more fulfilling lives. Would you, as part of your preparation for preaching this passage, pray that a simple invite to coffee - eagerly accepted - may become a starting point in Jesus becoming life-giving bread beyond the level they’ve been experiencing for some time? Thank you. 

Brian

¹ Sermons, Harper, SF, 1999, p.142  

JN 6: 35 & 41-51 

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 12…Revised 2018. 

Though “I AM the Bread of life” is the first of Jesus' “I AM”s recorded, I do wonder if He may also have said, unrecorded, “I AM the Wine of life” at Cana? A Celebration not only of a wedding, but of Life. For those who don’t normally have much to celebrate. Today, Jesus Himself IS life! Essential as the daily bread He has us pray for. Surely He means we’re to pray for Him, too, to be as much our daily bread as the flour & water kind.

In ancient & widespread tradition, Bread is so at the heart of life that it should be respected & never wasted. Today we might focus on respecting Jesus, the Bread of Life, & never wasting Him. Never being disrespectful of God in any way. Never wasting God in any way. 

Multiple choices of food, & many other things available today to those of us who live in affluent societies, can be a confusing phenomenon of our times. Whereas the only choice for people like Jesus was poor quality bread from the poorest quality flour. Jesus may be one of the ordinariest of us so far as His humanity is concerned, but He is still the Very Best Bread available, i.e. the Bread of life. Do today’s multiple choices in so many areas play their part in our losing focus on God, the Essential at the heart of Life? Bread, representing God, as Jesus represents Himself as Bread, is a great & powerful symbol of God at the heart of Life. Those of us who make our daily bread can vouch for how much better it tastes than much of the mass-produced kind. As God tastes so much better than the many mass-produced idols on offer!

Jesus’ “I AM"s have taken on a deepening significance for me since I began to understand them in Capitals. Jesus can Word-play on the divine “I AM” because YHWH is "I AM”. The Essence of BEING. Because YHWH is “I AM”, Jesus is therefore “I AM”. Because Jesus is “I AM”, I am, too. When I live on Jesus, the Bread of God.

As we celebrate God & our relationship with God & each other in Eucharist we re-enact Jesus telling us He’s the Bread of Life. And, as He is at Cana, the Wine of Life, also. So, do look me in the eye when you pass the Peace to me as we share God in Bread & Wine.

A story from the days of the Desert Fathers - Anthony de Mello has a version - tells of a monk advised by his Abbot not to try any harder to keep the faith, but instead, become fire! Do we need to talk less about bread &, instead, become Bread? For God, for each other, for a hungry world?

Afterthought: Was it Mother Theresa who said, “To pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ & then refuse to share it is blasphemy”? 

Brian