How we get through

 

John 6: 24-35
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
August 4, 2024

Photo of a slanted tree with two large limbs, one of which appears to be held up by a sculpture that looks like a hand.

How is your spirit? That’s a question David and I ask each other. Instead of the usual “How are you?” which can be easily dismissed or difficult to answer, depending on the day and circumstances. When our kids were in grade school, I’d ask them how their day was, and if they just said “Good”, I’d ask them what was it that made it good. How’s your spirit today? I invite you to write down your answer in your bulletin near the scripture or on a piece of paper or on your phone or make a mental note.



Here’s another way of asking the question. What sustains you? The word sustenance has the same root as the word sustain—that which is essential to uphold and nourish life. Not only does it refer to food but also means of living, income, and wealth. It can also refer to support or aid. What supports you? What aids you in your daily living? Write down a word or two.



We begin to see how much we rely on the world around us to sustain, to support, to aid us in our day-to-day lives, our interdependence. If we need it, a wheelchair or a mobility aid can sustain us. A 12-step group. A ride-share or delivery service. Medical care, therapy, prescriptions, and the health insurance to pay for these absolutely sustain us. An safe and affordable place to live can be sustenance. Air conditioning and plenty of hydration on a hot day. Access to fresh food and the ability and time to rest.



If these things are essential to uphold and nourish life, if these things are necessary to sustain us, it really begs the question of why must we work in order to eat, be sustained? How can we withhold any of these things from anyone?



Previously it was thought that basic needs like food, housing, and safety had to be satisfied before an individual could focus on psychological needs such as belonging, self-esteem, and relationships or self-fulfillment needs such as realizing one’s potential and creativity. In 1943 American psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote a paper on “The Theory of Motivation” and proposed his infamous “hierarchy of needs”. Newer revisions of this theory now suggest that these stages of needs continuously overlap one another, because what sustains us and motivates us can change and grow.



The crowd that is following Jesus from place to place have been sustained and motivated by his ability to feed them. Not only is this a food insecure crowd, but they are also looking for outcomes that are predictable, that they can be certain of. “When did you come here?” “What must we do?” “What sign are you going to give us?” “Give us this bread always.” Meanwhile, Jesus is endeavoring to teach them the mystery of faith that sustains as much as he is filling their stomachs. Certainty, mystery, and faith are not opposites but needs that continuously overlap one another, because what sustains us and motivates us changes and grows and transforms us.



Jesus says, “I am the bread of life”, and it’s not clear if he’s referring to himself as “this is my body broken for you”. More likely it’s because it’s a basic food common to everyone, and Jesus relies on God much the same way as this crowd relies on bread. Jesus says “I am the bread of life” as a mystery. The pitfall of this is that we human beings often use mystery as a way of manipulating those who need certainty and isolating skeptics who are fed by a healthy serving of doubt.



One of the most basic creeds is also a mystery: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, spoken as part of the Communion liturgy. I don’t know how this is supposed to happen, but I do know that time and again God has reached into my life of dead ends and raised me up. When have you known what is good, holy, and true to have reached into your life and raised you up? Write that down too. If you don’t know if God has reached into life and raised you up, think of the people who have loved you no matter what, who have loved you into who you are. Write down a name or three. Maybe one of them is in this room, the Zoom room, the room where you are worshiping.



And when we doubt if it’ll happen again, God raising us, sustaining us, we are invited to this Table again and again, just as we are. What does Communion mean to you? Whatever it is, write it down. Even if it’s a question mark, write it down.



Look at what you wrote down, how your spirit is doing, what sustains you, supports you, how God has raised you up, who has loved you into being, what Communion means to you, even a question mark. Are there any dots to be connected there? Perhaps what brings you to this Table today.



I once read “Life is the Mass and you are the Eucharist”. It seems to me that whenever Jesus says, “I am”, he is also saying “you are”, because he also said, “Follow me”. How we live our lives and how we live our lives together is our worship and we are sustained and even transformed by a mystery of love, loss, and resurrection, and we wonder how we got here.



My friends, beloveds, look around you, listen, understand who you are. We are the Body of Christ, we are living bread for each other and for those who need to be raised up. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com (adapted)


Go forth in awe of our bodies’ connection
with the bodies of plants, animals, and minerals,
with all that sustains us and gives us life.
We are in communion with the world!
So let us live in reverence—
feeding each other and freeing each other.
Go with the God of Ordinary Abundance.