Sermons

August 8, 2009

“Hungry Among Us”

Ephesians 4:25-5:2; John 6:35, 41-51

Rev. Cheryl Magrini

Saint Patrick, who lived about 385-461 AD, is the most commonly recognized patron saint of Ireland. The Feast of Saint Patrick is celebrated on March 17. There are of course traditions around this Feast Day on March 17. One of these is to bake a particular kind of bread called Irish Soda Bread. It is unusual in that it does not use any yeast, which makes the bread rise. For three years in a row, I made Irish Soda Bread. However; something always went wrong. The bread loaf was as heavy as a brick. I kept trying, but I finally gave up.

Where is the bread that will feed me physically? Where is the bread that will feed me spiritually?

Where is the water that will quench my thirst? From were does the water that fills my spirit to overflowing come?

For each of us, these are questions to ask each day. There is no question that our bodies physically need bread and water. Jesus filled these physical needs as he fed the masses on the green hillside. Andrew, a disciple, found a boy with three barley loaves and two fish. A dinner for the many empty stomachs, whom then followed Jesus because of what he had done for them.

In the heat of the mid-day, Jesus offered water to the Samaritan woman drawing water at the well. As Jesus drew water and offered it to her, the woman’s thirst was satisfied. Then being offered water of eternal life, she finally realized that the one before her was the Messiah, the one whom she had been waiting for. Off she went to tell the town the good news.

Here now, we have Jesus declaring without a doubt, who he is as one sent by God and as one who took on the sins of the world to be among us. His identity is definitively showered upon us so that we can bask in the love that he brings to us.

“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.” (John 6:35) Jesus pulls back the veil between heaven and earth, between his divinity and humanity. We see that he is indeed among us, and yet is also offering us a divine gift of knowing his identity. The bread of heaven that is offered in the body of Jesus, here still in his earthly body yet revealing the divine identity, is the way to eternal life. He declares the offer of his very flesh so that we may live and not die.

I truly believe that eternal life begins today. Why would we wait to offer water to one who is thirsty? Why would we wait to offer a sandwich to someone, adult or child even, whose stomach is distended from malnutrition? Eternal life is today and tomorrow.

Living – does your day matter? Living – how has God touched you in your life? Living – Has Jesus fed you spiritually in the quiet moments of the day or night? How are we joined together in Christ’s communion bread? We celebrate Holy Communion this evening. As we share the bread and the cup, may we be filled with the grace that is the real presence of Christ among us.

Let us not waste the gift and the grace that is given to us. Jesus declares that he is the bread of life. He is the bread that came down from heaven. He is the living bread. Are we left with any doubt that our lives are grace-filled because of who Jesus is as we see a glimpse of the divine, the thin veil lifted between heaven and earth?

“I Come With Joy” (UMH 617) (Brian Wren text)

Stanza 2:
  “I come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread, in Christ’s communion bread.”
  In the self-given bread and body of Christ, we are indeed the Body of Christ for the world.
              “Bread and Justice” (UMH 639) by Rubem Alves, Brazil, 20th cent.
  AMEN.

(Alternate ending)
  “Our hunger is so deep. We are dying of thirst. We are bundles of seemingly insatiable need, rushing here and there in a vain attempt to assuage emptiness. Our culture is a vast supermarket of desire. Can it be that our bread, our wine, our fulfillment stands before us in the presence of this crucified, resurrected Jew? Can it be that many of our desires are, in the eternal scheme of things, pointless? Might it be true that he is the bread we need, even though he is rarely the bread we seek? Is it true that God has come to us, miraculously with us, before us, like manna that is miraculously dropped into our wilderness?”
        William H. Willimon, Feasting on the Word, Year B, volume 3, page 337.

My Heart in My Mouth: Prayers for our Lives, by Ted Loder

O God of watchful care,
      night is as day for you,
            and no sparrow falls beyond
                  the catch of your eye,
      so you know us all together,
            though our attention to you
                  is partial, jumbled, and short.
We gladly gather in this place and time
      set apart for the worship of you,
            while sadly confessing
                  that we have been mindless of you
                        in most other places and times
                              where we live and work,
                                    speak and spend and play.

We sensed your grace and glory
      in the beauty of the seasons
            but missed it in the people around us,
                  the struggles within us,
                        the challenges before us.
In confusion of pride, we have stumbled,
      surrendering to our fears
            more than striving in faith;
      succumbing to the counsels of comfort
            more that rising to the appeals of love
            and the claims of justice;
      cleaving to our impulses for security
            more than our longing for freedom
                  and the challenge to use it creatively;
      bowing to our addiction to blaming
            and the illusion of innocence
                  more than taking responsibility
                        and attending to our need
                              to forgive and be forgiven.
Still, we hunger now
      for what you mercifully offer:
            a new beginning in living fully,
                  loving generously, justicing passionately,
                        sharing peacefully, making merry       inclusively
Lord of atoms and galaxies,
      societies, families, and these poor hearts of ours,
            by your power and in your purposes,
      begin this new creation in us today
            and through every tomorrow,
                  liberating us to risk whatever
                        letting go and taking up it requires.
Unburden us from the guilt and self-pity,
      the arrogance and defensives
            that drains our energy to be compassionate
                  and our honesty to be humble.
Refresh our hope, renew our wonder,
      expand our gratitude, sharpen our discernment,
            nurture in us the will to be trustworthy
                  and the capacity to trust,
      and make clear our vision
            that we may see you in all we meet,
                  all we do, all we are, all we can become;
                        through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.