Since the beginning of time, food has been central to what we believe about God and food influences our relationships with one another.
Adam and Eve, desiring to be as wise as God, disobeyed God and ate the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden.
Cain, who brought an offering to God of the fruit of the ground, killed Abel in a fit of anger and jealousy, because God regarded Abel’s offering of his first-born lambs instead of Cain’s offering.
The Israelites, brought by the strong arm of the Lord out of slavery in Egypt, complained bitterly in the wilderness because they no longer had the abundant food of Egypt to enjoy. And so God rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them grain from heaven. He rained down flesh upon them like dust and winged birds like the sand of the sea. And so they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
As a sign of who he is, Jesus feeds the five thousand with five barley loaves and two fish. He gives thanks, and breaks the bread, and distributes the food to the crowd, as much as they want, and the disciples fill twelve baskets of leftovers.
On the night before he dies for us, our Lord Jesus Christ takes bread, and thanks God for it, and breaks it and gives it to his disciples and tells them to eat. And after supper, he takes the cup of wine and gives thanks to God for it, and gives it to his disciples and tells them to drink.
Our last glimpse of Jesus in the gospels is by the Sea of Galilee. “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus calls out to the disciples. And Jesus takes bread and the fish that he has cooked for the disciples over the charcoal fire, and they share breakfast, there by the water. After breakfast, Jesus tells Peter to feed my lambs, tend my sheep.
In the gospel we have heard today, Jesus says this of himself, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
And this statement is quite controversial. Just a little later in this chapter, we find that many of the disciples who had been following Jesus turned back and no longer went about with him because they did not believe in him.
Food continues to be central to and controversial in the story of the early church. The new Christians in Corinth argue over whether or not believers can eat meat that has been offered to idols.
Today, food is still central to what we believe about God and food still influences our relationships with one another. The Muslims, in an act of unity, fast during Ramadan, the Jews celebrate Passover, and we Christians gather week by week to celebrate the Eucharist, to share bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus, with one another.
And , like the early Christians, we still disagree over issues that involve food.
As some of you may know, an issue at General Convention involved food—should those who are not yet baptized receive communion?
When I heard the Presiding Bishop speak in Richmond Friday before last, she was quite clear about what the norm in this church is—baptism, then Eucharist. Baptism changes us, makes us part of one body. Baptism is central to who we are as Christians. But she was also quite clear that, as she put it, “The rail is not the place for discipline.”
Issues around food and religious beliefs in our country have also made the news this week. A front page Free-Lance Star article on Thursday read, “Chick-fil-A Locations Packed.”
The article explained that last Wednesday had been declared Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and that people were flocking to the restaurant to support the company, which the article tells us “has been criticized for taking a public position about same-sex marriage.” And on Friday, the article said, people who opposed the company’s position were to show up at Chick-fil-A locations to demonstrate by having people of the same sex kiss one another.
This article caught my attention because it’s a great illustration of how we tend to deal with our disagreements.
Maybe it’s just human nature, but the temptation is to take a stand, draw a line in the sand, and there you have it, an either/or situation in which two opposite sides, each convinced that their side is the right one and the other side is wrong, stand opposed to one another with no opportunity for further discussion.
Now the last thing we want to do as Christians is to be ambivalent about who we are and what we believe. Wishy washy thinking and acting has no place in the lives of Christians who strive to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
And if we truly believe that Jesus is the bread of life, and that we are taking Jesus into ourselves, experiencing the fullness of God in our lives, then we can be clear about the stand that all of us as Christians are to take, regardless of which side we may find ourselves when it comes to current issues about morality that are so divisive.
This stand is spelled out in our lessons today.
Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Believe in me.
Paul says, “There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
And to be one body, we really do have to believe that Jesus is the bread of life, and take him into ourselves. Because when Jesus is our bread, and we take Jesus into ourselves, we take in the following nutrients that help us maintain our unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace: and these nutrients are humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing one another in love
Humility is “not arrogant in relation to others. It is not ‘puffed up.’ It does not use difference to destroy community.”
Jesus describes himself in the 11th chapter of Matthew, as being gentle and humble in heart.” Paul tells us in Philippians that Jesus did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but humbled himself. Jesus came among us to serve.
Gentleness is the second nutrient. Gentle Christians do not condemn or despise others for being different. Gentle Christians are not rude. And when corrections are required, then we find that they should be done with a spirit of gentleness so that we can maintain our community.
Allen Verhey and Joseph Harvard, who have written an insightful commentary on Ephesians say that “Difference is not to be an occasion for boasting. It is to be an occasion for gentleness.”
Jesus practices the art of gentle correction. Just a little farther on in John’s gospel, in Chapter 8, in the story of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus provides gentle correction, both for the woman and for her accusers. “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And to the woman, “Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on, do not sin again.”
Patience means to be “long tempered”—to patiently forbear one with whom you disagree. Verhay and Harvard put it this way.
“To be patient is to be magnanimous, broad-minded, and big-hearted, to be ready to ‘endure’ a little discomfort for the sake of community with others rather than to assert one’s own ways and rights.”
One of our duties as Christians is to learn to speak the truth to one another in love, with gentleness. We see ample examples of Jesus being patient throughout the gospels, in the ways that he deals with his wayward and uncomprehending disciples.
And last, bearing one another in love—that we should bear one another, even when the other is a heavy burden to us. In the early church, Gentiles could be considered a burden to the Jews, or vice versa. The temptation was to discard or exclude the group that was a burden. “But the peace created by Christ and the new humanity in Christ required and empowered to people to “bear one another”—and more, to bear one another “in love,” which fulfills the law of Christ.
Christian love (as Paul tells the Corinthians) is humble and gentle; it is not boastful or arrogant, it is not irritable or resentful—but it is patient, and gracious and generous. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony. Love is the gift of the Spirit. And the way to peace is through the gift and the practice—the performance—of Christian love.
Verhey and Harvard say that “taking a stand for Jesus and practicing Christian love in this world is to practice peace, and to live in peaceable difference.”
In our day and age, we tend to fill up on the junk food served up in our culture—strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, self centeredness, bitterness, hatred for those who are different, and this list could go on forever.
But Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and God rains down this gentle, humble, patient and loving manna from heaven for us, even today, and like the Israelites we are to gather up our daily bread, and eat until we are full, to fill ourselves with Jesus, so that we can practice peace, and live bound together in peace—as one body, under one God and Father of all.
Amen.
Reference: Ephesians, by Allen Verhey and Joseph S. Harvard
Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY: 2011