Prayer of the Day
Let us pray.
O God, eternal goodness and immeasurable love, you place your gifts before us; we eat and are satisfied. Fill us and this world in all its need with the life that comes only from you, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
Amen
A food crisis becomes a faith crisis for the Israelites in the wilderness. The hungry people forget God’s saving work in the exodus, and they wish for the food they had in Egypt. Nevertheless, God miraculously meets their needs, with manna for bread and quail for meat.
2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’ ” 10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, 12 “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”
13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
23 So God commanded the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 raining down manna upon them to eat
and giving them grain from heaven.
25 So mortals ate the bread of angels;
God provided for them food enough.
26 The Lord caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
and powerfully led out the south wind,
27 raining down flesh upon them like dust
and flying birds like the sand of the seas,
28 letting them fall in the midst of the camp
and round about the dwellings.
29 So the people ate and were well filled,
for God gave them what they craved.
Christians share fundamental unity and diversity. Our unity consists in the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. Our diversity is expressed in various forms of ministry whose goal is equipping the saints and building up Christ’s one body for the work of ministry.
1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said,
“When he ascended on high, he made captivity itself a captive;
he gave gifts to his people.”
9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Word of God, word of life.
Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Alleluia. One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Alleluia. (Matt. 4:4)
The holy gospel according to John.
Glory to you, O Lord.
24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were [beside the sea,] they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The gospel of Christ.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Reflection
In the Gospel According to John, nothing is as it seems; there is always a deeper meaning than what is immediately apparent. Recall that when Nicodemus goes to visit Jesus (which he does at night, by the way, because the darkness represents his fumbling around and uncertainty in his faith), Jesus confounds Nicodemus by talking about being “born again.” Poor Nicodemus cannot understand what Jesus is talking about, but Jesus is speaking at a deeper level.
Likewise, when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman by the well (which occurs in the middle of the day because the daylight represents her openness to Jesus’ words), they engage in a conversation about living water. “Give me this water so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water,” she implores. Of course, Jesus is talking about life giving water that cannot be found at the bottom of a well.
“Give us this bread always!” implore the people who have chased after Jesus following the sign of the feeding of the multitudes. They want bread like the bread that fed their ancestors in the wilderness when manna fell from heaven. But, again, Jesus is speaking on a deeper level. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Even when Jesus is speaking of hunger and thirst, he is speaking at a deeper level.
Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring what Jesus might mean by speaking about bread, hunger, and thirst at a deeper level. Today, we can begin to look at our role as people who seek Jesus out, just as the people sought him out in our reading today.
“What must we do to perform the works of God?” they ask. “Believe in the one whom God has sent,” Jesus replies. Later, he says, “…whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” So, that seems easy enough. Just believe in Jesus. Make an intellectual choice that Jesus is the Son of God just as the Bible and the Church tell us he is. Decide to believe. Is this what Jesus expects of us?
There’s a wonderful exchange between Alice and the Queen in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
“Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'
I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
The word translated in our reading as “believe” is actually the word for “faith.” Unfortunately, in English it wouldn’t make any sense to say “…whoever faiths in me will never be thirsty,” but it does say that in the original Greek. Maybe it would be better translated: “…trust in the one whom God has sent,” and, “…whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty.”
Belief is what we think about something. Faith is how we live our lives based on who we trust and why we trust them. Belief in Jesus is what we have decided to accept in our minds about Jesus. Faith in Jesus is a radical trust based on our relationship with him.
The coming weeks will have much to say about what Jesus means at a deeper level about bread. But we can’t even begin to hear what he might have to say until we are willing to trust (faith) him.
