BREAD

November 22, 1987, 11:00 a.m. Worship Service

John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
John 6:24-35

“Thou dost cause the grass to grow for the cattle,... and wine to pladden
the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's
heart." —Psalm 104:14,15 (RSV)

Baking bread, for those of us who don't have to do it for survival,
can actually be fun, relaxing, therapeutic even. Gne time a young friend
of mine telephoned me on December 24, in the late morning. I could not
have been busier. “Mr. Buchanan," she said,. "please come right away.
We're baking bread and we all agree you should come and help a while." I
went... just for a few minutes, I told myself. I entered a kitchen that
had been transformed from its prosaic and orderly daily processes into a : OS
wonderfully joyful and chaotic place. There were people there, busy, . cy S
laughing. There were pots and pans and containers of ingredients and flour 8
all over everything. And there was that odor; that odor which can stop me
in my tracks; that odor which, even when I catch a whiff driving on a
_ freeway, will command my attention and set me to looking for its origin,
It is one of God's gifts - that odor of baking bread. S$o I rolled up my
sleeves and put on an apron and she showed me how to knead and fold until --
my forearms ached; and I experienced how good that feels - how physical the
whole process is and how all my senses were engaged. Did you ever notice
how many artists paint bread? Did you ever notice how beautiful it is?
Well, my young friend was twisting this dough I kneaded into some wonderful
shape... I stayed too long, of course, and ate too much; but she was
right, I really needed to be there. It taught me a good lesson, that
although Gertrude Stein's, "A rose is a rose is a rose" may pretty well
encompass the reality of a rose, a loaf of bread often is much more than
bread. All of that has helped me understand what: Jesus was getting at
when he said, "I am the bread of life." And it prompts me to advise you
that the next time someone invites you to help bake bread, drop whatever
you are doing and go.

Peopie in antiquity knew that bread is often more than bread. One
of my interests is the religion of the Celtic people before Christianity
came to Scotland in the Sixth Century. What happened when the two met. was
frequently a synthesis: remanents of the older, mystical religion can be
seen within Christian customs. Christmas trees, wreaths and mistletoe are
products of that confluence.

In a book of ancient Celtic prayers, the author tells about the
“Consecration of the Seed" - a ritual with its origins in pre-Christian
culture and still carefully practiced among the people of the Hebrides, a
chain of islands - off the coast of Scotland. In the unforgiving climate
of the islands a farmer needs all the help he can get. Planting is done
with great care. “Three days. before being sown, the seed is carefully
sprinkled - (in a kind of baptism) with clean cold water, in the name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The person sprinkling walks “sunwise"
around the seed - in a salemn and picturesque ritual. An ancient prayer is
invoked ~

"EF will go out to sow the seed,

In the name of Him who gave it growth:
I will place my front in the wind,

And throw .a-gracious handful on high...

Every seed that lay in sleep

Since the coming of cold without mercy

Every seed will take root in the earth

As the King of the elements descends

The braiard will come forth with the dew,

It will inhale life from the soft wind."
[Celtic Invocations,
‘Alexander Carmichael, P. 60]

The inhabitants of those islands, -long before Christianity, - and long
after, knew that bread - the product of that critical. planting -— was. the
one thing standing between hope and despair, laughter and tears, literally
life and death. You and I have. to work hard intellectually to- understand
that.. But for most of the people in. human history..and for vast numbers of
people alive today, bread is. more than bread.:: Bread is life. And ..among
those in history. who knew that in all its urgency and poignancy, were the
members of that small band of peopie huddled on the coast of Massachusetts
during the winter of 1620, whose lease on life was,: quite simply,. one
growing season.

Sometimes bread is more than bread. One time Jesus took bread and
broke it and said, "Take, eat, this is.my body broken for you — do this in
remembrance of me." During the London blitz, Many. children were removed
to the countryside. It became quickly apparent that family separation was
more painful and harmful than the terror of nightly bombing. So children
were encouraged to bring reminders of their families with them. One child
slept every night with a piece of bread from her family's dinner table
clutched in her hand. Bread, for her, was a sacrament, a reminder - of a
relationship and a blessed promise of joyful reunion, peace and_love.'
{see Lawton Posey, The Ministry, 3/80, p. 31, Bread & Wine]

Sometimes bread symbolizes whatever it is we need to be alive, to be
human. The traditional Hebrew prayer - "Blessed art thou, 0 Lord, our God,
King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth". is much more
ancient even than the Celtic invocation. And one day, Jesus - who
certainly knew that prayer and prayed it every day, said something the
world-has never been able to stop pondering -

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“I am the bread of life: the man or woman’ who comes to me will never
hunger.' ; :

He had fed a large crowd of people with a few loaves of bread and a
few fish. The next day that same crowd was back. "God gave our ancestors
manna in the wilderness every day," they said. Translate that: "How about
some. more of that free bread, Jesus?" He responded, "the bread of God is
that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said,
"Lord, give us this bread always." And he answered, "I am the bread: of
life."

Now that. does not mean ‘that.Jesus didn't care about-the bread that is
bread. After all, he provided a substantial meal~the day before. © Besides,
I believe only someone who loves bread — who knows its look and aroma and
feel and taste —- could use it as a metaphor for something else. My guess:
is that the one who called himself the bread of life, knew and loved. the
bread which fills the air with its bouquet and the very sight of which is a
reminder of: the needs of the flesh which, on measure, are among the
Creator's better ideas.

The one who used bread to symbolize our salvation knew it first; I
believe, as an expression of nature's goodness and benevolence. He knew
the ancient prayer and he also knew Psalm 104 in which God is praised for
“wine to gladden the heart, oil to make the face shine and bread to
strengthen the heart.”

I've read and heard that Psalm all my life without noticing that

- bread strengthens the heart; not the back or shoulders or stomach, but the

heart, which in Hebrew terms is where we live, the focus of being,
spiritual and physical.

Bread is a symbol of our wholeness, the unity of our humanity. The
best of our Jewish heritage is a joyous, lusty, sensual affirmation of the
creation. What a profound mistake to forget that. and conclude that our
spirits are good. but our bodies are bad,. that God made a mistake when he:
gave us physical bodies.. The Greeks thought like that and all too
frequently Christians have flirted with Greek philosophy at the expense of
their Jewish foundations.

The creation is God's. .It is God's idea. ‘Human bodies are God's
invention: Helmut Thielicke, one of the great German preachers during the
Second World War, once quipped to his Stuttgart congregation that if they
could take only one item into the air raid shelter and had to choose
between a wool sweater and a volume of poems, they should grab the sweater.
Thielicke also said somewhere that even Beethoven: sounds lousy on an empty
stomach.

Bread is a scriptural reminder that our world was made by God and
reflects God. In Hans Kung's memorable phrase, the creation is the
“unfolding of God." Bread is a powerful reminder that our humanity and our
needs are part of God's creation, intended, blessed and loved by God: that
food always has sacramental potential; that it is an act of unfaithfulness

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not to enjoy. and rejoice in and.be grateful for that great gift. A
Christian mystic in the Middle Ages, Meister Eckhart, observed that if the

only. prayer you ever utter is “Thank you God for this bread" ~— you have
said. enough,

‘That's what Thanksgiving is for. It is not an exercise in pride -
thanking God for so richly blessing us while neglecting his less fortunate
children in Ethiopia .— but "Thank you God for this bread..." a profound
affirmation of the basic goodness of the creation and God's presence in
creation. I've always loved those Pilgrims whose idea was this holiday.
They were not as solemn and-dour as the Puritans who followed them.
Puritans were suspicious of the flesh. The Pilgrims were very happy this
flesh was still alive. When they had: the chance they ate and drank
heartily and loved and. laughed and sang their. beloved Psalms with "mirth"
which always sounded to me like piety with a twinkle in-:its eye ~ jolly
religion.

Bread is a reminder. that this is-God's world, that God intended our
humanity, and that both our hunger and its satisfaction are part of God's
will and intent. God has created our physical needs and a world capable of
meeting them. Edna St; Vincent. Millay had- that wonderful mystery in mind
when she wrote.. :

-God's World. |

“9 world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
. Thy. winds,.-thy:wide-grey skies!
Thy mists, that. roll.and rise!
Lord. Ido fear
Thou'st made the world too beautiful this year:
My soul is all but out of me."

But. there is a deeper hunger, isn't there?-.There is-a hunger that
lingers and grows even:after. we have eaten-the bread that is only. bread; a
hunger which reflects. something other and deeper than the demands of the
body. Jesus said, "I am:the bread of life." That points to a profound and
compelling human need. It-is our need to know something eternal... It is
our need to be loved and wanted. It is our need to. be needed: “It is our
need to be secure and safe. It is our need to know that our modest little
lives are not biological accidents, but that they are intended, that we
matter, count for something; that when it's all over our being here will
have. added.up ta something. - That's bread of life... That's bread to
strengthen the heart.

Phat hunger shows up all over the place: in the plaintiff

confession of a middle-aged man or woman who says to the counselor - "All I
really want is to be wanted. All I really need is to know that I'm
needed." It shows up in the alcoholic rage of a person who is not: loved by

anyone. It shows up in the paranoia of homeliess people who have-learned to
trust no one and-who know they do not count. It appears in the mindless
violence in gang culture among young people who have learned that life -
their lives — matter to no one and in the. polite violence of a political

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mentality which tells people they really don't matter ~ ‘by reducing ;
programs to help the poor, sick, aged, the young. It shows up personally
when we have accomplished what we set out to accomplish, when in the.midst
of the sweetness of success and victory, you and .I know a hunger that has
not yet been addressed.

Philosopher Ernest Becker wrote "Man transcends death by finding meaning
for his life. It is the burning desire of the creature to count. What
(we) really fear is not extinction, but extinction without significance."

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" and the inference is that there
was a hunger in those people which would not be satisfied by manna from
heaven. There is a hunger in us: which is not. satisfied by food; .-that
there is a security and freedom that goes beyond full barns: and that there
is a thanksgiving which affirms the goodness of the creation and goes
beyond to confront the Creator.

How simple life would be if it were not so. How simple if human need
began and ended with enough bread to eat and a place to sleep. Then it
comes to us that we are human precisely in that hunger which the bread that
is only bread does not satisfy: that it is our hunger, our relentless:
search for meaning that is our.glory. It comes to us that St. Augustine
was gloriously on target in his prayer, "Thou hast made our hearts restless
until they find their rest in thee." The hunger. itself is of God.

Our physical appetite and needs are created:in us by the Creator.
Our hunger for truth, our thirst for beauty, our longing for love and
meaning, for relationships and affirmation are gifts God gives to us.

“Give us. this bread always" the crowd said to Jesus. We ask for’ what
we need ultimately. We ask for bread -— bread that is bread, and bread that
is life. We are hungry, for a sense now and then that we are intended,
that we are loved by God and safe in God. We are hungry for some sense
that we are more than a biological coincidence, that we are accepted and
loved by that which is greater.

We are hungry for bread to strengthen our hearts, which is to say.-
Bread of Life. That's what the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers... When we
have it, we are safe and free and profoundly, deeply joyful. With that,
regardless of our circumstances, in sickness and health, in life and in
death, in prison, hospital bed, living room and board room, on the rocky
shores of the New World, or around a table laden with food next Thursday.
Regardless of circumstance, when we have known in Jesus Christ that we are
intended and loved and safe ultimately, and therefore free — we know what
Thanksgiving is.

Bread - the goodness of the creation and the goodness of the
Creator...

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Artists express it when our words aren't adequate. It is what Paul
Winter's music is about. It is what the music of Thanksgiving calls out of
us... "Now Thank We All Our God..." ‘“We Praise Thee 0-God, Our Redeemer,
Creator..." and the poet.--E: E. Cummings:

“i thank You God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural. which is infinite which is ‘yes."

--"T am the bread of life" he said. "I am God's love. I am-the bread
you need." He was born in Bethlehem - this bread of life. What few know is
that Bethlehem means “"House of Bread.” ae

Come to him and know his: love for you.. Give yourself to ‘him... and
you will never hunger. ©: Amen. ; oat : ;

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