Slices of Bread, a Sermon by Deacon Terry

​While we were away on vacation I watched the ten o’clock service on line. I listened to Fr. Harvey’s sermon, in which he talked about Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians. He shared how Paul became a bit too proud of himself, maybe forgetting people and most notably God the Father who helped develop him along his Christian journey.
Fr. Harvey talked about “people in our lives, people who have made a difference to us, people that helped us grow and in some cases answers to our prayers”, spiritual companions.
I’d like to build off some of what Fr. Harvey was saying as a base for today’s reflection.
 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus said that, not once but three times in this morning’s Gospel reading. “I am the bread of life.”
What is the bread of life to you?
Is it our weekly Eucharist?
Is it some kind of communion with God, or with others?
Is it Valerie Clapp’s Ham Sandwiches? – They are really good!
The Eucharist is a huge part of our Christian feeding, but open your mind and spirit up that maybe it’s one slice of bread in the loaf.
Maybe the bread of life is the Eucharist and more than the Eucharist,
Maybe you and I are to become the bread of life, just like Jesus as he teaches us to follow his examples.
Think about all the people, relationships, and experiences that have fed, nourished, and sustained your life. Think about a time when someone else fed and nourished your life and I mean more than they fixed your lunch or your supper.
I’m talking about the kind of people that spend their time and their presence with us. They love us. They teach us. They care for us. They encourage us. And our lives are fed and nourished by them.
Sometimes it’s not even what they say or do, just being in his or her presence is itself bread that sustains us, that feeds us. Aren’t there some people that when you spend time with them you just feel well fed and full?
I often feel that way when I am with Fr. Harvey. I know it’s hard to believe but there are some Sunday mornings when I may not be as jovial as I may seem, I simply wake up on the wrong side of the bed. In my little world I get overwhelmed, egotistic, and self-centered. My mind wanders at times and I do the “poor Terry” deal.
When I speak with Fr. Harvey, I am quickly reminded of who I am, what I am supposed to be and who’s I am. I am reminded that even with some juggling going on in his life, he remains a faithful servant of God.
This example, even without speaking, “rubs off” on me and I am a more faithful Christian because of Fr. Harvey.
Recall someone who offered you wisdom or guidance, who listened to your life, or spoke a word of hope or encouragement that nourished and sustained your life. They were bread for you.
Think of the people that supported you without saying anything, simply being there and caring for you in a spiritual way, a way you can’t explain.
Or maybe there was someone who helped you discover meaning or purpose in your life. Perhaps it was someone who said, “I forgive you” and you were strengthened to move forward. Maybe someone believed in you when you weren’t so sure about yourself. Our lives are nourished and fed by others in thousands of ways. 
How have you been fed by the life of another?
What if that’s what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of himself as the bread of life?
Throughout the gospels we see him feeding and nourishing life in so many ways and circumstances: through his love, presence, guidance, and teaching; through his healing, forgiveness, and mercy; through his generosity, compassion, and wisdom. This is the bread that feeds the soul. 
Speaking of bread - I need to let you all know that according to Maxwell our 8 year old grandson, “Pop makes the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches”.  Now – in full disclosure, I use the same jelly, same peanut butter and the same bread as Nana and his mother, But, Pop makes the best ones”. He doesn’t use that cheap jelly, he uses Smuckers”, PS – so do they.
That peanut butter and jelly sandwich to Max, is the bread of life at lunchtime, but as good as that sandwich is, maybe Maxwell believes the love and care of the people making that sandwich is what makes it taste so good.
Those qualities are not unique to Jesus. They can be ours as well. It’s one way God shares God’s life with us. We both eat that bread of life and we become it.
We partake of the bread of someone else’s life and our life is nourished, our life is sustained, our life is strengthened. Again, who would that person be for you? What’s her or his name? What did he or she do or say that fed your life?  
And the question today is this.
When have you been bread in someone else’s life?  When have you fed and nourished them? When have you sustained them? When have you strengthened them? 
I ask you to reflect on that. When were you the bread of life to another? You may not be able to recall. But, maybe your actions, your love, your understanding, your forgiveness went to another, without you even knowing.
In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus say, “I am the bread of life,” and we assume he is the only slice in the loaf.
But what if that is not what he is saying? What if he is not claiming to be the exclusive loaf of bread in this world? What if he is teaching us what the bread of life looks like so we can find it in this world, so we can become that bread, so we can be that bread for another?
Have you ever seen a starter batch of sourdough? It holds the potential to become bread, to feed and nourish. What if Jesus is the starter batch in us?
What if rather than making an exclusive claim about himself Jesus is giving us the recipe to become as he is,
To become the bread of life for others?
Maybe that’s just how God works in the world. Something in us gets leavened, rises, and becomes bread. 
After all – we are told to follow Jesus aren’t we?
Could you believe that about yourself? Are you capable of being bread for someone? Do you have the skills, the perfect ways, the perfect life of which they can emulate?
I know I do not and I know Jesus’ disciples did not either. They were all flawed people, just like us, yet Jesus taught them to follow him, and he has taught us the same.
Can someone be the bread of life to you? I mean, they have no spiritual training, no degree in psychology, no perfect life. How could they be the bread of life for me?
Part of the problem that the religious leaders and authorities have in today’s gospel. They begin complaining because Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  
The issue is not that they don’t believe that God provides or that God feeds. The issue is that they know Jesus, his mother and his father. They know where he is from. He is the kid from Nazareth; he could not be bread from heaven.
The challenge for people like those in today’s Gospel reading and us today is that, we know just enough that we  cannot know anything more or consider that there could be more to know.
They made Nazareth and heaven mutually exclusive. He could not be from heaven because he is from Nazareth.   
 We know Jesus is from heaven. We have a different problem.
People like us are so sure of Jesus’ heavenly origin that he could not possibly come from the towns we live in.
Maybe it is not one or the other, but it is both. Maybe Nazareth and heaven are not mutually exclusive. What if both are necessary ingredients in the bread of life? What if it takes both to be and become the bread of life?
That maybe the direction and focus of Jesus these last few Sundays. We have been in the sixth chapter of John for the last three weeks. It’s been three weeks of feeding, three weeks of bread, and we’ve got two more to go. Something is going on here.   
Jesus begins it with the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish. But maybe that’s only to get our attention and to tell us that it is really not about the bread or fish. It is about a way of living; it is about a way of relating.
 Remember last week? He said you have got to know the difference between food that perishes and food that endures for eternal life, between bread that is perishable and bread that is imperishable.
And then he takes off on this bread of life stuff: the bread that lasts, the bread that endures, the bread that never runs out, the bread that never gets stale or moldy. 
When you get right down to it, there are really only two kinds of bread; the bread of life that feeds, nourishes and sustains, and all the other bread that leaves us hungry and malnourished. 
What kind of bread are you eating today? Does it fill, nourish, and sustain you? Or does it leave you hungry and malnourished?
The bread we choose to eat says something about our appetite and what we hunger for, what is important.
What is your hunger? What is your appetite? Do you need a change in diet, to choose a different bread? 
Let us not forget the old saying, “we are what we eat.” If we want life then we need to be eating the bread of life. If we want to bring life to another then we need to be, in part the bread of life. 
As Fr. Harvey said last week – Come to Jesus, who is the Bread of Life, also Our Holy Eucharist as a crucial piece of the bread of life.
Open your minds to the possibility that each of us are a slice to another and another is a slice to us.
Remember, it takes more than one slice of bread to make a sandwich.
Open your minds and your heart to include the different types of bread available to make your Christian journey complete.
AMEN