John 6:24-35, Ephesians 4:1-16
We’re all enjoying watching the Olympics, especially seeing our Kiwis athletes winning medals. It was quite exciting in London, where we were a week ago, as the anticipation grew. In fact we arrived home in time to watch the opening ceremony on television.
Now a week into it and things are going really well. Other times there have been scandals involving drugs. They organisers want these to be the clean games and so far, so good. Of course not all substances are cheat drugs. There are all sorts of legitimate products on the market that claim to help athletes do well. Our daughter in law in London is a long distance runner and she has it worked out that as long as she takes in the right amount of carbohydrates at the right phases of her run she can get to the end in good shape. We knew that we would need to keep drinking water throughout our travels in order to avoid dehydration and consequent health problems. In Auckland, on our way to the plane, we purchased some stuff that we added to our water to maintain our electrolyte, mineral and vitamin levels. It seemed to work – we came out ok.
Not everyone is a fan of such products. Consumers could be wasting their money on sports drinks according to researchers at Oxford University. Their investigation into the performance-enhancing claims of some popular sports products found “a striking lack of evidence” to back them up. And yet people still buy those drinks to energize, rehydrate and recover after exercise!
These days it is popular to look to food to cure our ills. Just this week I read articles that connect certain foods with specific health issues. One said that certain probiotics – that is friendly bacteria in your gut – can improve the health of people with Celiac Disease. Another article says that eating fish, omega-3 oils, fruit and vegetables will lessen the likelihood of Altzhiemers and Dementia while consuming too much omega-6 oils will increase your chances of getting dementia. Another says we have traces of antidepressants and other anti-psychotic drugs in our water supply and these are possibly causing problems like autism in children.
We look to food as a solution to our problems – that comes naturally to us. And that includes everything from the ‘comfort foods’ we eat when we’re depressed, to ‘health foods,’ to supposed super foods, and to the broth, or whatever, that your mother fed you when you were ill as a child. If we could but find the right diet, everything would be okay – we would look better, feel better, live better. Really? Think of those things labelled super-foods. Is the humble blueberry, or whatever, really so wondrously potent?
Vegetables and fruit always come out as important. And bread is a basic food – although we don’t want it made of overly processed ingredients. These are the basics we need to sustain us and this is why Jesus had us pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It has to be daily because it goes bad and has to be eaten while it is fresh. We have to eat again each day, we can’t stop or we die. In verse 27, Jesus speaks of food that remains forever and also has the effect of producing a life that lasts forever. When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” he was saying the he can sustain us. But does he mean physically, or spiritually, or what? He confused and confounded people then and we are no smarter than they were. It sounds great not to be hungry again, and not to have to eat every day. Who wouldn’t like that? “Sir, give us this bread always” (6:34). The questions and pleas of his hearers echo in our own hearts as well.
The reality is that we do still have to eat each day. So Jesus must be using a common thing to help us get to a spiritual truth. The manna that fed the Israelites in the desert was a miraculous thing that kept them physically alive. But Jesus is offering food that lasts forever – himself. “The gift and the giver are one and the same” (John Pilch). We are to feed on him.
Eugene Peterson’s translation is helpful here. V35: “I am the Bread of life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.” The people had asked for a sign to show them who Jesus is. ‘We will see, we will weigh the evidence, we will draw the conclusions, and we might even decide to believe’ (v. 30). Does that sound like us, at least sometimes? ‘Decide to believe’ may make faith sound more intellectual than it is. In fact faith is much more than intellectual assent, but authentic and total commitment, loyalty, and solidarity. Believing means sticking with Jesus no matter what!. So, align with Jesus – believe, follow – and find fulfilment in life.
Paul’s exhortation, which we read from Ephesians, amplifies what Jesus was on about. He insists that we are to walk worthily of our calling. In other words the life we actually live needs to match the life God calls us to live. Matching our life and our calling happens as we align with Jesus. We do this humbly, which means esteeming ourselvs as small but at the same time recognising the power and ability of God. Because we have partaken of the Bread of life we have God’s power to live. Because we have all partaken of the Bread of life we are united in God. Therefore we are all “fellow heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:6 NRSV).
Consequently we are reconciled to God and to one another. Reconciliation calls us to remember, to recall, to “un-forget” that we are one, deep down, that there is one body and one Spirit and one hope, and that all our divisions and discord are marks not of God or of God’s dream for us but of human failing, human pride, human striving against that dream. This week, I read that the word anamnesis, which means recalling or remembering, can also be translated as “un-forgetting,” and that does sound better when we look closely at the word itself, and connect it with “amnesia,” or loss of memory. Often, it feels as if we once knew something deep in our souls but our heads have forgotten it, or we have forgotten to live our lives by its truth, and we need to “un-forget.”
Our reading from Ephesians is a good illustration of how important it is to “walk the walk” in addition to “talking the talk.” How easy it is to think that talking, preaching, and proclaiming are all there is to it! How much more difficult it is to live a life worthy of our calling, in humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance. Very little in our culture today exhorts, supports, or even permits us to lift up such virtues when the goal of life is to acquire everything we can and to get ahead of everyone else. Perhaps that brings home best the clear difference in Paul’s claim that Jesus is our one Lord, for, as John Dominic Crossan says in much of his work, “If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not”. “Caesar” today may be materialism and greed, militarism and violence, pride and self-righteousness, as individuals and as communities, too. All of these things, Paul would say, are unworthy of the calling to which we have been called.
Jesus taught us to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The Bible encourages us to love your body and look after it. Today’s culture has taken that to a far greater degree and given us a lot of advice on how to do that. But let me add another dimension. Collectively we are Christ’s body. We are to love Christ’s body, which is also your body and my body. Love your neighbour as yourself and love Christ’s body is the same thing.
So let us grow in Christ, drawing our strength from him who is the source of our life. And let us serve him in love by loving and caring for one another.