John 6:24-35
One of our first big purchases as a young family was a dining room table. The table took months to be fabricated and delivered, during which time we had a big empty space in our home. During this time, I walked by that big empty space and I remember thinking, “When this table arrives, our home will finally be complete.” When it did arrive, the table was what I had hoped it would be (and it still is), but you can imagine that my anticipated sense of “completion” didn’t last very long. The new table filled the physical space, but it also led us to repaint the kitchen, which led us to purchase new wall art, and then we moved into a different apartment, and the process started all over in a new location with different spaces.
Like our dining room table, most of our desires orient us towards temporary fulfillment: the new job or title, the new car or home, the new romance or relationship. These things are genuinely enjoyable, which is what makes them so attractive. Like the dining room table, they often fill a physical space in our life. After we consume them, however, these objects lose their sustenance, and we are off to look for our next meal. The space doesn’t disappear, it relocates and generates a different desire.
This dynamic is what Jesus is observing when he warns us: “Do not work for the food that perishes.” Each of us hungers for a sense of completion, purpose, and value in our lives. It is tempting to feed our spiritual hunger with temporary fixes that distract us from it rather than fulfill it. C.S. Lewis, in his book The Weight of Glory, captures this tendency when he observes, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.”[1] Now, drink, sex, and ambition may not be what we pursue directly, but almost any reflection reveals that most of our desires are directed towards both the superficial and the temporary.
Jesus tells us to work for “food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give us.” This is the “infinite joy” to which C.S. Lewis is referring, and it presumes to have the power to fulfill our spiritual hunger. If we feel the pang of that hunger, if we find ourselves starving for completion, purpose and value, then – more than two thousand years after Jesus spoke these words – he is still speaking to us.
Just like the crowd surrounding Jesus, we want infinite joy and eternal life, but we don’t seem to know how to get it. To quote the famous Johnny Lee country track,we often “look for love in all the wrong places.”[2] Jesus is trying to help us reorient our desires to meet our deepest needs, but his response is confusing without context. He tells us, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” To understand Jesus’s response, it helps to place it within the broader context of John’s gospel.
If you were with us last week, you might remember that we referenced the seven signs of John’s gospel, and we considered how easy it is to get stuck on a sign rather than move to where the sign is directing us. Today, I want to consider briefly the context of Jesus’s “I AM” statements. In the same way that there are seven signs in John’s gospel, there are also seven “I AM” statements. The phrase “I AM” connects all the way back to Exodus 3:14 when God introduces himself to Moses as “I am who I am.” Throughout the Old Testament, the phrase “I am” was used both to name God and to respond to God’s call. God calls to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel and Isaiah, and every one of them responds by saying, “Here I am,” which is a response that affirms God’s presence.
Provided that context, by using these “I AM” statements, Jesus is layering the meaning-making symbols of Judaism and the name of God onto his own life, as if they are pieces of a puzzle coming together. Jesus’s statement that, “I am the bread of life,” makes clear is not the bread of the sign, but Jesus himself, who will nourish our spiritual hunger and satisfy the deep longings of our souls.
This sounds like good news, but if we are speaking in metaphysical terms, Jesus’s promises and “I AM” statements can be frustratingly abstract. Like the crowd, we might find ourselves saying, “Sir, give us this bread always.” We want it, so just give it to us. Perhaps we can see that new dining room tables won’t fulfill our lives, but what is the alternative? Show us!
Jesus is showing us, but the kingdom of God that he reveals invades our reality through our peripheral vision. We can’t seem to find him if we try to hold on to him or control him. Jesus is not an object to be possessed or consumed. He is showing us the Way of being that fulfills our deepest desires. The more we come to know the story and life of Jesus, the easier it becomes to see his presence all around us.
Let me share with you three glimpses of how Jesus is work right here in this little church:
Someone in our chapel today broke his jaw in three places roughly 50 years ago when he was a college freshman. Sitting in the hospital room with is teeth wired shut and drinking through a straw, he was lonely and in pain. In walked another student to check on him in the hospital. These two students didn’t know each other that well. The visitor was a senior and he was busy, but that made the visit more meaningful. If it had been family, the visit might have felt like an obligation. 50 years later, those two students are friends.
A couple married in this chapel 45 years ago today were hoping to be present to reaffirm their vows on their anniversary, but one spouse’s cancer requires regular medical attention, and the journey was too much for them this weekend. Over 45 years, through arguments and sickness, for better and for worse, they have been present to one another.
Today, in this chapel, a baby named William Avery is present. He has done nothing to deserve God’s love. He is an infant. He is too young to understand our words or what is about to happen to him. Most of us in this chapel don’t know William Avery, but we are going to profess God’s love for him because this is how Jesus works. He loves us even though we don’t deserve it. He loves us for nothing we have done or will ever do. He loves us because that is who he is. That is what we are going to profess today as we baptize William Avery, that he too can feast on the bread of life.
How do we know that we are loved? We look at Jesus. How do we see Jesus? Look around, and we might see the pattern and shape of his love all over the world. As these glimpses suggest, the relationships that matter the most – the things that don’t leave us wanting more – are those things that look a lot like Jesus and his life.
Maybe we feel empty in some part of our life. Or, maybe like a child who’s had too many sweets, we ache from being full on the wrong things. Jesus’ promise to us today is that he will provide us with food that will satisfy our deepest desires. Sometimes, he will walk with us until our desires shift away from superficial things (like dining room tables, or as C.S. Lewis observes: drink, sex, and ambition). Sometimes, he will re-orient us to become more aware of how God’s shape is emerging around us, allowing us to slip the pattern of our lives into His, like a child coming home.
At the end of William Avery’s life, he will have no recollection of what we have done for him here – what we have proclaimed on his behalf – but that doesn’t matter because baptism is not about him. Baptism is about God, and God’s love for every one of us. To be loved – no matter what – even when we crucify the very man who is loving us – that is the kind of love that can satisfy our deepest desire. That is the kind of love that transforms the world.
Amen.
[1] C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperOne, 2001).
[2] Lee, Johnny. “Looking for Love.” Track 1 on Lookin' for Love. Elektra Records, 1980.
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