Living Bread
Dear Friends,
This week marks the fifth Sunday we will hear from Jesus’ “Bread of Life” discourse in the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John. As you can imagine, all this talk about bread has not only made me crave my favorite kind (I’ve made more trips to Sub Rosa Bakery this month than I have all year), but it also has had me thinking about the role that bread has played in the lives of humans for thousands of years.
In Jesus’ day, bread alone provided from 50 to 70 percent of an ordinary person’s daily calories and was the staple food at every meal. It was such a vital part of life that the word could be used interchangeably for food in general. When Jesus told us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” he did not mean, ask God for a small roll with butter, just another of life’s optional extras. He meant, go to God for all you need. He meant, God is the primary sustenance, the center of every meal.
In this week’s reading from John, Jesus now says to his followers that he himself is living bread come down from heaven. He himself is the central sustenance we seek. In a culture like his, tuned in to the utter necessity of bread, totally dependent on its life-giving benefits, his words invite a radical rethinking of what matters most.
To be sure, bread doesn’t have the same centrality in our American diet than it did in Jesus’ day, but I don’t think the metaphor is completely lost on us. Especially now as we navigate the uncertainties and disappointments of a pandemic that has caused us to hunger for sustenance of every kind, what would it mean to have living bread, not physical bread alone but a bread of the spirit that lets us really thrive?
I imagine that the answer to this question is as unique and varied as the answer to any question that involves personal experience. Which means that the only way to find out is to taste and see, and try for ourselves what will and will not satisfy. For some, it will be found in friendships, family, conversation and laughter; for others, in solitude, quiet, and prayer. For some it may involve creating something beautiful or useful; or for others, it will involve reading or watching or hearing something beautiful or useful created by someone else. For some, this requires planning and preparation, and yet for others it needs to be more spontaneous. Regardless of how or when or where, I believe that searching for sustenance – whether physical, emotional or spiritual - is our central work if we are to live fully and give fully to others.
Jesus knew this. Yet he also knew how apt we are to look in all the wrong places, how apt we are not to see the true sustenance right in front of us, as common as bread. Can we trust that a bountiful table is already set offering the essentials of nutrition, warmth, affection and protection? Can we open our eyes and hearts to the abundance that is already in our midst?
The life and more than life we seek is here, with us, waiting to be taken, blessed, broken open, and shared.
In Christ,
Amelie+
