I would like to begin today by telling you an old Japanese story - a fable actually - about Tasuku - a stonecutter.
Tasuku was a poor man who cut blocks of stone from the foot of a mountain. One day he saw a well-dressed prince parade by. Tasuku envied the prince and wished that he could have that kind of wealth. The Great Spirit heard Tasuku, and he was made a prince.
Tasuku was happy with his silk clothes and his powerful armies until he saw the sun wilt the flowers in his royal garden. He wished for such power as the sun had, and his wish was granted. He became the sun, with power to parch fields and humble people with thirst.
Tasuku was happy to be the sun until a cloud covered him and obscured his powerful heat. With that, he had another wish, and the Spirit complied. Thereafter Tasuku was a cloud with the power to ravage the land with floods and storms.
Tasuku was happy until he saw the mountain remain in spite of his storm. So Tasuku demanded to be the mountain. The Spirit obeyed. Tasuku became the mountain and was more powerful than the prince, the sun, or the cloud. And he was happy until he felt a chisel chipping at his feet. It was a stonecutter working away - cutting blocks to sell to make his daily living.
How many of you know people who seem to be driven - unable to relax - unable to find satisfaction for more than a few moments at a time?
There are people, a majority actually, who are constantly seeking something - they work or they play, they build or they drink, they join clubs and societies or they party, hoping to find in these activities some form of peace, some form of inner quiet, some form of satisfaction. - yet, despite all they do, they continue to hunger and thirst.
What are you looking for???
What will make you happy??
What will set your soul at rest??
Tasuku never found out - even though all his wishes were granted by the Great Spirit. Nor - it seems did the people of Israel after they were led by God out of bondage in Egypt.
They demanded water at Marah, - and what was once bitter was made sweet. They demanded bread and meat in the wilderness of Sin, complaining to Moses and Aaron that God had brought them out of the security of their bondage in Egypt only to kill them with hunger, - and manna was provided - and meat - enough each day for each day
Yet within a few days the people were complaining again to Moses and Aaron, complaining that God was trying to kill them, and their children and their livestock.
What were they looking for? They prayed and God answered them. What would have made them happy? They complained, and God responded. What would have set their souls at rest? Their wishes were granted - yet they still were unsatisfied.
What is it that you desire?
Is it that which will allow you to "let go? That which will allow you to trust? That which help you to face life with all its uncertainties? Or do you seek that which will only lead you to want more? Or to want something different? Do you seek the things of God? Or the things of this world?
When Jesus fed the crowd of 5000 with five loaves and two fish all ate and all were filled - all had as much as they wanted. And they hailed Jesus as the prophet who was to come into the world. And they sought to make him king
- for they realized that he could satisfy their hunger,
- that he could free them from Roman control,
- that he could put their nation on easy street.
Yet Jesus was not flattered by their interest in him when they sought him out after he crossed the sea.
He knew what would last, what has the ability to truly satisfy, and what - by its very nature - is only temporary and passing, quick to wither and fade.
"Very truly, I tell you", said Jesus, "you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life - which the Son of Man will give you."
There is another kind of bread, another kind of food - and to come to realize this is not to despise the things that we already know, the things we need for our daily existence, but it is to discover a balance and a harmony to life. It is to find oneself, to discover the possibility of a lasting peace and an enduring happiness, to uncover the hidden connectedness of life - that connectedness that satisfies the hunger and quenches the thirst.
The well known comedian, Richard Pryor, was critically burned in an "accident" some years back.
When he had recovered sufficiently, he appeared on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". In his conservation with Carson, he said he learned that when you're seriously ill, suddenly money isn't that important anymore. Then he said, "All I could think of was to call on GOD. I didn't call the Bank once!"
Some things are more satisfying than those things which money or success can bring you.
It is often said that health is one such thing. But the discerning realize that even health is a passing thing, that we will all die, and they claim that instead VIRTUE is that which should be sought, that honesty, integrity, compassion, a forgiving spirit, a kind heart are of greater and more lasting value than large houses, new cars, and large bank accounts.
But the bread of heaven that Jesus speaks of in today's gospel is more than honesty and integrity; it is even greater than a compassionate and forgiving heart, it is even better than virtue - and striving to lead a moral and upright life - because these things too may perish, or at the very least be confounded by our innate sinfulness, our innate selfishness.
Virtue is ever mixed with baser instincts, and less noble actions often mingle with our more noble ones - confounding our righteousness, and showing us just how far from perfect we really are.
LISTEN, my brothers and sisters! HEAR the Good News!
When Jesus spoke of the bread of heaven - of the food that endures - of the drink that satisfies, he did not speak of what we should or should not do each and every day. He did not preach about our leading a more noble and more righteous life. He did not recommend particular behaviours and condemn certain others.
No - when Jesus spoke of the bread of heaven he spoke of himself, and of belief in him and of faith in God.
"What must we do", ask the people after Jesus tells them of the food that endures for eternal life, "What must we do to perform the works of God."
* And he replies - "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." *
That is, in some way, too much for the crowd around Jesus to accept, and they ask Jesus to give them another sign so that they may believe him, a sign like that which Moses gave their ancestors in the wilderness, and finally - at the end of it all - when Jesus tells them that the bread that their ancestors ate in the wilderness came not from Moses - but from God, they ask NOT that Jesus might help them believe, but that he might always give them the bread that gives life to the world.
Like so many people today, including all too many people in the churches of the world, they missed the point of what Jesus says. They refuse to do the work that Jesus says that they need to do if they are to eat and be satisfied - if they are to drink and find that their thirst is quenched. They refuse to simply believe in him! They seem unable to simply trust in God.
Instead, like their ancestors, they grumble and complain, and suggest to one another that Jesus is a hoax, a fraud, a person who is either mad or a blasphemer; a person set on leading them astray and causing them to perish.
But my friends - this was and is not the case - Faith in Christ has satisfied many a person. Trust in God has quenched the thirst of many a thirsty soul. Belief in the Lord has filled many a hungry heart.
There is a greater world, a greater reality, than the physical world we live in. And this reality, this world, is within, and all around the physical world, it enters our time and our space, and it endures beyond it.
The sun and the moon and the stars that we see at night, are greater than we, yet even they will perish.
But God, who made them all, will not perish; even as his chosen one, his messenger, his son, did not perish when he died for us on the cross, but rather passed through death into eternal life.
We are connected to this greater world, to this greater reality. We are linked to it, and to the God who made it, because God wants it to be so for us.
The power, and the beauty, and the peace, and the joy, of God's realm is accessible to us when we believe in Him and the One whom he has sent; when we trust in Him and the One who calls us to eat and drink of the bread and the wine he provides.
Say now in your heart "Yes Lord - Yes - I know that there is more - and I thank you for offering it to me. I thank you for offering it freely, without regard to my virtue or reference to my sins. I thank you for showing me where my home is, where my hope is, where my future is.
Say YES each day to God, YES each day to the one who said:
"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
And then SHARE the Good News with others, the news that in the midst of the hunger and thirst of our world there is a drink that satisfies and a bread that endures; that God rains it down upon his people like dew upon the morning grass.
Each morning, my friends, that food it is made new. Each day, as it is gathered, it gives life to those for whom it is meant, those who embrace its sender and believe in his goodness.,
Blessed be God - day by day. Amen
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