Ephesians 6:10-20; Psalm 84; John 6:56-69

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath into us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen

Today's gospel reading concludes our series of readings from the sixth chapter of the gospel according to John.

It marks a turning point in the response of the people to Jesus, it marks the point where most of the people who come out to see Him turn away from him, the point where even most of those who have followed him from the beginning, those who had considered themselves his disciples, abandon him.

Up to this point Jesus has been a popular man. He has been the hero of Galilee - the star from Bethlehem, the miracle worker who saved a wedding by turning water into wine, the healer who gave health the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, the wise man who is able to see into a woman's heart and bring her new hope, the man so close to God that he is able to feed over 5000 men, women and children with only five loaves of bread and two fish.

But now - now after telling the people that all he has done is but a sign from God that they should believe in him - after telling them that the bread and fish that he gave them to eat only will only satisfy them for a day, but that his flesh and blood will satisfy them forever, that he is the bread of heaven God has prepared for them, they leave him.

And as they go from him , as they abandon the one who gave them bread to eat, the one who healed their sick and showed them the power of God - they say to one another and to themselves: "This teaching is too difficult - who can accept it?

Indeed it is a difficult teaching to accept, this teaching that Jesus is the bread of heaven and that through him comes eternal life for all who believe in him, all who follow him.

But is this the reason that crowds left him? Is this the reason that most of his disciples departed from his side?

Or is as Jesus said, in verse 26, after they had all followed him across the lake to Capernaum?

"Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."

Not too long ago I asked the question - what do you seek? Today I ask the question - what are you prepared to pay for it?

God is extraordinarily gracious and kind. He created us in his own image and bestowed this world upon us to care for and to cherish to enjoy. God has bestowed upon us as well a perfect freedom to do as we will - to love as we want to love, to live as we want to live, without interference - without restriction.

How God works is absolutely marvellous.

God makes his sun rise on both evil and the good, God sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous, God cares for all that has made and gives everyone every chance that they need to get things right.

And in return?

In return all God hopes is that we in fact do come to love Him with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our minds - and to love our brothers and our sisters as we love ourselves.

God loves us - God is committed to us - and in that commitment, in that love, God doesn't give up on us, not even when we give up on him, not even when we go our own way.

God has never abandoned his world or his people.

- not even during the time of Noah when the whole world was corrupt;
- nor even later when his chosen ones strayed from the path of truth and justice and righteousness, and oppressed their own people and worshipped other gods.

God has always made it possible for us to approach him - to be with him - to enjoy Him. Indeed God gives - freely - liberally - and without asking much at all of us; only that we accept his gifts and try to follow in the path that he will show us the way he has revealed to us in the law and the prophets and in his chosen one - the one we worship today - and that we be committed in that - that we not be double minded - that we not be the hypocrites that the world accuses so many of us of being.

It is not much to ask is it? Especially it is not much to ask, is it, when you consider what the stakes are? When you consider what it is that God freely offers us? And what it is that the other side, the dark side, offers us - when you consider the question of Peter in today's gospel reading, "to whom else can we go?".

I think we understand that there is earthly food - which never completely satisfies and that their is heavenly food that endures forever.

And I think we want this heavenly food...but, sadly, all too often our want lacks something, all too often it lacks passion, and conviction, and will power.

The reason for this - on the one hand, is that we are all too often not hungry enough, we haven't been really tested and tried and discovered that there is no answer within us or within our human wisdom and our human institutions; and on the other hand - all too often it turns out that all we really want is a free lunch - a material lunch - bread and wine for today - good times without cost -and yes- if we can get it for the asking - we'll take that thing called eternal life as well.

And this is a problem - a problem for those in the world - for those who think in worldly terms, and for many who are "believers" - the kind of believers who believe with their minds, but not with their hearts - those kind of people for whom faith is "three impossible things before breakfast" instead of a life of trust - a life lived in relationship with a real and personal God.

Too often we find people who have the words of faith well planted in the brains - but no conviction, no passion, no commitment in their hearts.

They have the outward form of faith, but none of the substance - none of the power.

An unknown author wrote these words:

You call me Master and obey me not.
You call me Light and see me not.
You call me the Way and walk not.
You call me Life and desire me not.
You call me Wise and follow me not.
You call me Fair and love me not.
You call me Rich and ask me not.
You call me Gracious and trust me not.
You call me Noble and serve me not.
You call me Mighty and honour me not.
You call me Just and fear me not.
If I condemn you, Blame Me Not.

Christ had an All or Nothing Message - a message about receiving life - or not receiving life through him. A message about commitment - the kind of commitment that does not compromise, but holds true for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health...

Some might say at this point - this is not fair; this is not good news. But think on it for a minute.

There are absolutes in life - electrons have either a positive spin or a negative spin, circuits are either open or closed, there is either light or no light, statements are either true or false.

As Jesus says in another context in the gospel of Mark - those who are not for me - are against me.

We are not called to be a people who follow Jesus only when it is suits their taste, their understanding, or their desires. We are called to be with the Lord and to serve him - and to be blessed by him - in good times and hard times - in the times that are easy - and the times when it is not easy. There is no respect ever shown in the scriptures for people who - when things are not going in a way that suits them pack their marbles and go home - as did those in today's gospel reading..

Let me tell you a story:

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 the sport of canoe racing was added to the list of international competitions.

The favourite team in the four-man canoe race was the United States team. One member of that team was a young man by the name of Bill Havens.

As the time for the Olympics neared, it became clear that Bill's wife would give birth to her first child about the time that Bill would be competing in the Paris Games.

In 1924 there were no jet airliners from Paris to the United States, only slow-moving ocean-going ships. And so Bill found himself in a dilemma. Should he go to Paris and risk not being at his wife's side when their first child was born? Or should he withdraw from the team and remain behind.

Bill's wife insisted that he go to Paris. After all, he had been working towards this for all those years. It was the culmination of a life-long dream.

Clearly the decision was not easy for Bill to make.

Finally, after much soul searching, Bill decided to withdraw from the competition and remain behind with his wife so that he could be with her when their first child arrived. Bill considered being at her side a higher priority than going to Paris to fulfil a life-long dream.

To make a long story short, the United States four-man canoe team won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. And Bill's wife was late in giving birth to her first child. She was so late that Bill could have competed in the event and returned home in time to be with her when she gave birth.

People said, "What a shame." But Bill said he had no regrets. After all, his commitment to his wife was more important then, and it still was now.

The story of Bill Havens is a story of how one man paid a high price to fulfil a commitment to someone he loved.

In a sense it is a story that illustrates the kind of commitment that God in Christ has to us - and it is certainly a story that illustrates how we should be committed to him in return.

In the sixth chapter of the gospel of John we see people who leave Jesus because they wanted free food - a free lunch - and not some vague sounding spiritual food that would do nothing for their hungry guts.

Others leave Jesus - because they can not believe that God would send spiritual food through a person as plain as Jesus - through someone they knew and had grown up with.

To them - the spiritual could not be contained in the profane - in the common - in the familiar - but must always be accompanied by smoke and fire and lightening and thunder and other grand displays.

Still others left Jesus because they understood exactly what he was saying and they did not want God to get that close to them. They wanted to run their own lives - rather than let God live and work through them. Like so many today - they did not want to give control of their lives over to God because they think that God, for some reason, might ask them to do something they don't want to do....

Have you left Christ?
Are you present only in body to him - but not in Spirit?
Are you committed to him - our do other concerns take up most of your time and energy?

Does your TV schedule preclude time for prayer? Does your love of football take priority over taking some time for listening to God's word. Does your ambition prevent you from taking time to care for the family that God has given you to love? Do your prejudices and your judgements about others get in the way of your doing God's will? That is - until you want something from Him? Until you are in a danger of your own making and hope to be rescued? Until you hope to get some favour or other and figure you better butter Him up first? Does your spending on your lotteries and your luxuries prevent you from returning to God the full tithe? The first fruits he asks from all his people that it might be put to use in his service?

Jesus asks us for a commitment; He asks us to be faithful to Him as he is faithful to us - in the good times of our lives - as well as in the bad.

In his asking, Jesus does not compromise. He does not water down his message so that it will be easier for us. He does not go chasing after the people who walk away from Him as did the crowd at Capernaum. He does not change the truth so that His disciples will not leave him.

No - what Jesus does is proclaim what he came to proclaim, He comes to offer to us, as God has always offered us - a choice, the choice to live with him - in his care and under his love, or to live without him and without the peace, the joy, and the strength that a relationship with him offers.

There is a sequel to the story of Bill Havens.

The child eventually born to Bill and his wife was a boy, whom they named Frank. Twenty-eight years later, in 1952, Bill received a cablegram from Frank. It was sent from Helsinki, Finland, where the 1952 Olympics were being held. The cablegram read, and I quote it exactly:

"Dad, I won. I'm bringing home the gold medal you lost while waiting for me to be born."

Frank Havens had just won the gold medal for the United States in the canoe-racing event, a medal his father had dreamed of winning but never did.

There is a sequel to our acts of commitment as well, our commitments to one another, and our commitment to God.

When we stand firm, when we refuse to compromise, when we sacrifice for the sake of the promises we have made, for the sake of those to whom we have pledged our love, for the sake of our relationship to God, we reap the abundant harvest of righteousness - we reap a harvest of joy and peace that endures forever.

Those who confess that Jesus is the Holy One of God, those who realize, as Peter realized, that there is no one else to whom we can go, and who listen to the words of eternal life that Jesus speaks and walk in his way, will see his glory.

They will witness Christ returning in the way he went - on the clouds - and in triumph, and they will rejoice!

Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

Isaiah 56:1-8; Matthew 15:21-28

Let us Pray: Breathe on us, O God, that we may be filled with your Spirit - and led by your living word - Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless the word of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in his name. Amen.

Every now and then, rather than doing a what I call an ordinary sermon where I take the Bible passages for the day and attempt with God's help to find in them the Word that we need to hear, I instead take the Bible passage, generally a story, or a parable, and retell it as a story.

In doing so I ask myself - and hope that you will ask yourselves what was the event like? What were the people in it thinking about? What happened and why did it happen that way? How is God found in the story?

Stories help us to use our imagination, they help us to hear what God is saying to us, and when we listen and wonder as did our ancestors by their fires and in their temples and synagogues, the Holy Spirit helps us to hear what it is God is saying.

Today - I offer to you such a story, and, prayerfully, you will hear in it the word of God for you this day.

It is the story which I call Crumbs From the Table. Relax and listen.


She didn't belong there. I knew it and the rest of us knew it.

We were just sitting down to dinner when she barged in.

The dogs woke up immediately and from their place under the table they began to bark.

One of the children started to cry as the woman frantically looked around the room.

I was startled and I stood up immediately. I could feel myself beginning to get angry as I look at this dishevelled and dirty woman.

John and James, who had been sitting near the door had leapt up at the same time I had - and they were already reaching out to stop from the woman from coming closer to the table when she spotted the master.

"Lord, Son of David" - she cried out as they moved in front of her, "Have mercy on me! My daughter is sick. She is suffering terribly from demon possession..."

The master must of heard her over the noise of the two dogs and the child, but he never said a word.

He didn't even look up from his plate.

By this time not only John and James, but I and three others had surrounded the woman and we began to hustle her out the door. She was interrupting not only our meal, but the time that Jesus had specially set aside for teaching us about the Kingdom he was going to establish. We had no intention of letting her get in the way of that.

The woman struggled a bit, but she didn't have a chance. Hauling fishing nets gives a person a lot of strength, and she was outnumbered. We got her outside even more quickly than a bouncer gets a drunk out of a tavern.

But let me tell you, once outside, she caused just as much trouble as a drunk does.

She was loud and insistent. She tried to get by us and to get back inside. She kept on saying to us that she had to see the miracle worker, that her daughter was in a terrible shape, that she needed help.

She must of clutched at and grabbed each and every one of us as she pleaded.

I tell you, she was a real pain. I just wanted to get back inside for dinner.

James tried to reason with her.

"Look", he said, "You have no right to be here. You've got no right to bother the teacher. You are a foreigner, you don't believe in anything we believe in, your people are gentiles, they are heathens, and your behaviour shows that you are too. There is no way the master is going to help you, so please go away."

"I've got to see him", she said, "I know he can help me. He has done so much for others."

"That may be", James said, "but he's not going to do anything for you. You are not only a woman, you are a Canaanite, 7ou don't go to the synagogue, you don't obey the law of Moses, you are unclean, you eat forbidden food. To make matters worse... you have absolutely no respect. Jesus is trying to eat. He is a guest in another man's home, and this is supposed to be a special time for us all, and you just barge in and start demanding help! Listen! Please! Go away! You are not going to get help here."

You know what she did?

That wretched woman just shook her head and said: "I know he will help me, he's got to help me!"

John butted in, "Look", he said, "Go away. We've told you that you are not welcome here. We've told you that Jesus isn't going to have anything to do with your type. So why don't you just get lost."

I tell you she was a crazy woman. She didn't know her place, that's for sure. The more we said to her, the louder and more persistent she was. She cried, she begged, she screamed. There was no reasoning with her.

After a few minutes of this I got the idea of asking Jesus to tell her to go away. I figured that if he said something to her she'd get the picture and stop her infernal racket.

I mentioned the idea to a couple of the others and they agreed that it was the only thing to do if we were going to have any peace.

As soon as I opened the door to go in the dogs began barking again. Someone hissed at them to be quiet as I went over to Jesus. He was sitting with the child who had cried earlier and eating and talking with our host.

Our host looked a little embarrassed. He was trying to pretend that nothing was going on - but the woman was standing just outside the open door where my two mates were waiting for the word and the noise level was none too low.

"Excuse me", I said to the Master, "could you please tell that woman to go away. She is really pestering us with all her crying and carrying on."

Jesus look at his host, then at me, and said - "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

I tell you, Jesus was really frustrating at times. He never seemed to give a straight answer to a simple question. But even so, this time he was backing us up.

It was like he had heard everything we had said to the woman, so I turned to tell the wretched woman that the master had told her to go away.

Just as I was turning around, she squeezed by the guys at the door and ran over to right beside the master, and fell on down on her knees at his feet.

"Lord, help me", she said.

I didn't do a thing.
I was tired.
I figured after what he had said Jesus would handle it just fine.
And he did.

Jesus looked at her at his feet.

She bowed her head and looked down.

Then he looked around the room for a moment.

The child beside him was busy eating a piece of bread as if nothing untoward had happened. The dogs were nuzzling around under the table. Our host was staring at him, no doubt wondering what Jesus was going to do to get rid of this problem. John and James and the others were all inside by this point. They were still standing, waiting to see if they were going to be needed again.

It became very quiet in the room as the master looked around, the only sounds were those of the flies and of the child eating.

Then Jesus looked down at the woman and said to her

"It is not right to take the children's bread and to toss it to their dogs"

A couple of the disciples smiled.
I must confess that I grinned too.
It was such a well turned phrase.
The kind that only Jesus seemed to be able to come up with.
It made the point well.
As far as I was concerned, it certainly disposed of her and all of her kind.

I caught James looking at me and began to nod my head at him. As I did so the woman looked up at Jesus and stared him in the eyes.

"Yes Lord", she said to him in this incredibly calm and clear voice, and I swear to you she had this little smile on her face,

"Yes Lord", she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."

I was stunned. The woman really was too much. Lippy, rude, obnoxious, unclean, disrespectful, I could go on!

Anyway - do you know what Jesus did?

He smiled at her, as if it was all some great contest of wits and he said to her

"Woman, you have great faith, For your reply, your request is granted. Go home, you daughter is healed."

I just could not understand it.
I mean why in the world did Jesus do that?
She did not belong there.
She was not one of us. She was nothing but a Canaanite
Jesus knew it, I knew it, and the rest of us knew it.
I just don't understand Jesus sometimes.
I just don't understand....

May God's name be praised day by day! Amen!

I Kings 19:1-8; Psalm 34; John 6:41-51

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen The Story of Elijah is an interesting one - he was one of the first of the great prophets, a prophet to the nation of the Northern Israel - to the people who would later become known as the 10 lost tribes. Like us, Elijah is on a journey - a journey of the Spirit - a journey that has led him to a confrontation with the priests of Baal - the god of Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab - on that journey Elijah has earned the hatred of Jezebel - which, given her "charming personality" was a very easy thing to earn - and she wishes him dead - and so he flees from the city of Jezreel to Beersheba - and then - he goes out into the wilderness about a day's walk, and came to a solitary broom tree in the midst of this wilderness, and sits under - and asks God that he might die. There are times, are there not, when people we know and love despair to the point of wanting to die. Perhaps there have been times when we ourselves have thought death a sweet alternative - an alternative - as it was to Elijah - to being a solitary voice - an alternative to the stress of being under attack from those who were once our neighbours - an alternative to the loneliness and fear of being the odd person out, the person who has done what was right only to find that all who have stood with him or her have vanished away - and every hand seems set against you - an alternative to feeling that perhaps - just perhaps - you are no better - and perhaps even worse than those who have gone before you - no better even than those who are against us. Our journey through life takes us through some very dangerous country, our pilgrimage can leads us into some very desolate wilderness.. And so Elijah prays that he might die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." And then he lies down under the broom tree and falls asleep, a sleep that I know that each one of you here today understands - the sleep of exhaustion - the sleep of stress so high and the energy to go on fighting so low that it sweeps over you - and normally is too soon gone - the new day comes too quickly. And in the night - something happens. Some answer to his prayer. An angel comes and touches him - wakens him - and tells him to "get up and eat". And there is food - a Cake of Bread upon a hot stone - and drink - a jar of water set near to hand. And he eats and he lies down again, till again - some time later - the angel returns and touches him once more, and says: "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you." And he rises, and he eats and he drinks - and then, the scriptures say, he went forty days and forty nights to Horeb - the mountain of God - the place we call Mount Sinai - and there he comes to cave and spends the night there. Other interesting things happen to Elijah while he is at the Mountain of God. At the end of this journey through the wilderness he is granted a vision of God - and given a message of hope for his own life and for the nation - and he is given a disciple - one who will keep him company and help him on his journey - and at last take his place as prophet over Israel when he grows old - the young man Elisha. But, with me, think of the words of the angel to Elijah, the words "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you." To survive on our journey, to have the strength to go through the barren places of life, those places where we are alone - because of divorce, or illness, or death - we need to eat to drink the food and the drink that God has prepared for us: the food that he grants each one of us in the sacred stories of this holy book and in the newer tales told by people of faith who enter our lives from time to time. We need to cry out to God when we are in need, when we are in despair, and then heed the tap that comes upon our shoulder in the middle of the night - the voice that whispers in our inward most ear - and tells us to believe, to trust, to rise up and take the bread and the water that will be there for us and to eat and drink - and to eat and drink again - and go forth to complete our journey. Are you running on empty? Do you sometimes feel that you do not have the strength to travel onward for another day? let alone another 40 days or 40 years? Perhaps it is time to eat. The food is all round us - especially in this place - and in the people who sit beside you - people who have faith - people who know the story and who know where God is to be found. God is here - God's angels hover round us. God is here - in the truth that we proclaim - in the bread that has been passed around this sanctuary - in the light that enters through the windows - in the water that flows in the rivers and seas outside these doors - in the ordinary things - the daily miracles that so many take for granted - the rising and setting of the sun, and the moon and the stars, and the ever changing mountains and the rhythm of the seasons - in the breath that comes in and out of our lungs each minute - in the crying of a baby and the laughter of a child and the care of a lover. God is here in the Christ, the son of Joseph - whose parents indeed we do know; in Jesus, the carpenter with whom we are well familiar - God is in the one who says: "I am the bread of life" and again "I am the living bread that came down from heaven - whoever eats of this bread will live forever." God is in the one who said to his disciples and to us: "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Solid food is available my friends, food that will sustain us on our spiritual journey. It is a great tragedy not to take it up and eat it - a tragedy that can so easily be avoided if one but takes the time to look around, and to think about what will truly satisfy. Jean Pierre Caussade writes in the book "Abandonment to Divine Providence" "God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment." He goes on - "The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God.... we find all that is necessary in the present moment." Again: "We are bored with the small happenings around us, yet it is these trivialities - as we consider them - which would do marvels for us if only we did not despise them." Bread - ordinary bread - bread simply for the eating. Rich and filling - something we know well - something that endures when other more exotic foods are not available, or proves - as so much of the food that we eat in this society does - to lead to death instead of life. Ordinary stuff. Stuff we know. Stuff that is so familiar to us that many of us fail to understand it - and either try to make it out to be more than it is - or despise it for being less than they think it ought to be, for being ordinary - familiar - common: rather than magical, powerful, immaculate, glorious, and wondrous beyond even the ability of Cecil B DeMille to portray in a movie. But the ordinary is powerful, it is magical - it is immaculate and glorious and wondrous, for those who have the eyes to see - those who seek God - and are willing to get up and eat and drink what he has provided. God has provided us with food for our journey - take and eat that you may be strong in him and so reach the place he is calling you to. Let us Pray a prayer by Janet Cawley: God of the way, you are the road we travel, and the sign we follow; you are bread for the journey, and the wine of arrival. Guide us as we follow in your way, holding on to each other, reaching out to your beloved world. And when we stray, seek us out and find us, set our feet on the path again, and lead us safely home. In the name of Jesus, our Companion we pray. Amen. Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 78:1-16; John 6:24-35

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen 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 the desert, 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 any more. Then he said, "All I could think of was to call on GOD. I didn't call the Bank of America 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 this 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 sin. 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