From last Sunday 8-6-06
Wow. Jesus can’t catch a break. For three weeks now we have had Jesus and his disciples slipping away or just being gone from where they were to presumably get some rest and recharge. And each time the crowds track them down and pepper Jesus with requests for healing or knowledge or in the text for today signs….signs that Jesus is really the person that God the father has set his seal upon and that they may see Jesus and what he is going and believe.
Now wait a minute here…were these not the same people that Jesus had just spent all that time teaching? Sheep without a shepherd…and Jesus became a shepherd for them. And were they not the same people that Jesus has fed with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. 5000 people not even counting the women and children!!!How many more signs do these folks need? Now they want bread from heaven like their ansectors? The ancestors who didn’t even know what it was when the dew dried and had to have Moses tell them….They want a sign like that so they can believe…Good grief…and the disciples really weren’t any better….Jesus had done all of these things in their presence as well as walk on water and quieted storms and they still had trouble believing Jesus was anything other than a very good rabbi…They were hungry and searching for something to fill them up…all of them…why else would the crowds continually be following Jesus asking for more and more…a sign so they know for sure even though they have seen so many signs already
And we… you and I… are searching as well…looking for a sign that we too can believe in this Jesus who lived some 2000 years ago….searching for some tanglible thing that will let us believe. Searching for something that will let us know the love of God and will fill us up, that will satisfy our hunger and our thirst. Typically what we find to temporarily satisfy our hunger is not what we need to live….But society is ready to give us what we think we need and keeps feeding it to us so we think we feel full. Take a look around your house when you get home….there are lots of labels and signs that we have been told would make us feel good….the billboards we see driving down the road, the brand names on the TV and radio…As I sat and wrote this sermon, I could see the labels on my cereal boxes, my fun care bear and star wars band aids…the target logo on my allergy medicine box…the Ziploc storage bags…Augburg Fortress bookbags, the dell computer I was typing on, even some the decorations at my house…they are full of labels…Lord of the Rings, Detroit Red Wings, Michigan State University. All of these things that for one reason or another I bought or someone gave to me…all of these things with signs all over them. All of these things to make me happy and to make me fulfilled. And then you can’t get away from it the minute you turn on the TV or radio…the best knives that not only can peel tomatoes, but cut through a block of wood and lead pipe….the ones that will help you make a stir fry faster than ever….the space saver storage bags that will help you store all of your winter sweaters in less than a quarter of their normal space so you have more room for all of you other stuff. The cleaning product that will magically take away all the spots, mold and mildew out of your bathroom instanteously so much so that your bathroom sparkles…and most of the people you see on TV are slender good looking people…they wear a certain kind of clothes and likely can tell you who they are wearing…they by a certain brand of makeup or water or dog food and if we buy the same things we can be just like them…and who wouldn’t want to be….with their perfect hair, and perfect smile and perfect life. They must certainly be happy and fulfilled….right
Right….perfect no problems, a great car and a great family, all the money in the world…fulfilled and happy…wrong….We have certainly been hearing a lot about people who supposedly have it all and should be fulfilled Someone like Mel Gibson comes to mind and he is very much in the news these days, Mel Gibson the actor, producer, director…Mel Gibson., the husband and father, Mel Gibson, the happy Hollywood star and even a religious man…so religious he is daring enough to make a movie like the Passion of the Christ…and then we hear about how he was pulled over by police on Pacific Coast highway going about 80 MPH in his new Lexus with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit….his alleged Anti Semitic comments to officers…His ongoing problems with alcohol…the alcohol he was likely trying to find fulfillment in when it seemed he had everything and more…The alcohol no matter the brand that he was looking for a sign in….and…I am sure I could pick out anyone here and tell a story about how they are not or were not fulfilled at one point in time in their lives…How they, How we were left hungering for something, thirsting for something… something that we couldn’t see and couldn’t name and didn’t know how to find. We look at all things we have, all the amazing marvelous things and we think we are happy…and we are for a time…until that knawing hunger for something more returns…something beyond our comprehension… a sign wanted from God so we can believe.
Jesus in our text for today doesn’t give the crowd another sign, another miracle, another healing, another feeding of 5000 people…No, what he does is give himself. He tells the crowds “I am the bread of life” he tell them that like the manna that rained down from heaven for their ansectors, He IS that manna for them… he is their bread that will keep them from hunger, he is their drink that will keep them from thirsting. He is their sign and he is their very fulfillment. He is the bread that will never perish and he is their eternal life. And the crowds have to do is believe and come to him. Come to Jesus with their hunger and their questions and their pain. Come to Jesus for unperishable and ever sustainable food. Come to Jesus for their fulfillment instead of filling it with things that will perish… come to Jesus and know that He is their life. Come to Jesus and know that the sign has been given.
As for you and I, we too already have that sign. Jesus is our bread of life. Jesus is our hope and promise for life eternal and we will never hunger or thirst if we have faith in him. Jesus is our fulfillment…Now because we are human and sinners, it is very hard for us to believe and know in Jesus… a jesus and a god we can’t see touch or smell… so keep looking for signs and fulfillment in other things….Now don’t get me wrong…it’s perfectly fine you have the best stereo system that money can buy or lots of land or lots of stuff…. And its good to get a high school or college diploma. But all of that stuff is perishable. Jesus is not and the sign of him is all around us… in the grass that is getting greener after much needed rain…. In the smell of a new born baby grandchild, in the voice of a friend you haven’t heard from in a while…and in the co worker that just drives you absolutely crazy or the loved one you are watching fade away…Jesus is there right in front of, behind and all around us. Jesus grants us life eternal each and every day and Jesus grants us our sign each and every day. Because Jesus is our sign… In our struggles and pain and our happiness and joy. We have been and will continue to be given the bread of life that fill us up, and it will satisfy our hunger and our thirst. Amen.
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