June 2, 2024
John 6:35, 41-51
Introduction
When my son was about three or four, he came into the kitchen one evening and said he was hungry. I told him I was working on dinner, and it would be a little bit longer. “But I’m really hungry,” he said, which is when he opened a cupboard door, pointed, and said, “Just open a box!” This particular cupboard had in it boxes of cereal and instant oatmeal, along with boxes of macaroni and cheese. Apparently young A.J. had learned that satiating one’s hunger could be tended to by simply “opening a box.”
Don’t you wish it was that easy? Don’t you just sometimes want to open a box and have all your needs, or the needs of those who depend on you, quickly and easily taken care of by just opening a box? I do. I’ve had those “just open a box” moments countless times in my life, and I suspect you have too.
For A.J. just opening a box was simply about dinner. But there’s way more going on in that statement—in that way of thinking—than just opening a box. “Just open a box” is a fast-food way of living. It’s processed, mechanical, and superficial. It’s a pit stop, and the faster the better because we’ve got places to be, and we are already late.
But there is still even way more going on in this “just open a box” conundrum, because it’s a spiritual condition—a spiritual malnutrition condition. When we “just open a box”, we can eat but there’s little to no nourishment, nothing to adequately sustain or help us grow. We binge on junk food and get filled up, but our body is bloated, sluggish, and tired. And before we know it, we’re hungry again.
But this isn’t just about the foods we eat. We are always consuming—news, social media, text messages, work conversations, advertisements—you’re even consuming right now. But how much of it is “just open a box” consumption that has little to know nourishment? We live malnourished lives—nutritionally, but also in many of the ways we consume. And because we do, we are hungry and empty. Which means often our lives are driven by hunger and emptiness. And often it doesn’t matter what fills us because we don’t like being hungry or empty, so we’ll satiate and fill ourselves with anything—even though most of what we consume leaves us hungrier and emptier.
Move 1
Driven by hunger and emptiness—that is the kind of crowd gathered in today’s Gospel, and they want Jesus to “just open a box.” They ate their fill of the loaves and fishes and now they’re back wanting to be filled up again. They ate their fill, but they weren’t nourished because they missed the real nourishment that was offered—which is what Jesus addressed earlier in verse 27 saying, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.”
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Have you ever experienced a time when you ate your fill, and then some, but though you were filled up, you still weren’t satisfied? You were full but not fulfilled.
Have you ever experienced a time when you ate, then got up and walked away from the table thinking to yourself, “I’m full… but it wasn’t that good. Why did I even eat all that!?” Or maybe you’ve had an experience when you ate, but got up from the table thinking, “How am I still hungry?” Has this happened to you? When has it happened to you?
I had a dear friend in seminary, and there was not a buffet in Lexington, Kentucky we didn’t know about. In fact, this friend was banned from ever returning to one of those buffets! They were quick, easy, and proportionally cheap. But always after leaving—even though we were filled up, we felt terrible. But this same kind of drive to find a quick and easy and cheap way of filling up doesn’t just happen in our physical lives. It happens in our relationships; our work and day-to-day life; and our spiritual lives.
I imagine we could all think of “just open a box” times in our lives—times when we were driven by hunger and emptiness to take the first quick, easy, and cheap way of filling up because the feeling of hunger and emptiness—be it physically or emotionally or spiritually or mentally or in our relationships or in how we think others perceive us—is a hard way to live. And we’ll do whatever we can to dispel that hunger and emptiness, and “just opening a box” works. But it always leaves something in us, and our relationships, starving and malnourished, and we feel terrible.
Our hunger and emptiness are real. Jesus knows this. He also knows our hunger and emptiness are about more than filling the emptiness, which is why he said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” Our bodies, our hearts, our minds, our perceptions, our relationships—all of them need to be fed and nourished. And so does our soul. Hunger and emptiness, in whatever form it takes and in whatever ways we feel it, is always a spiritual issue and there is never a better way to respond to that kind of hunger and emptiness than with the bread of life.
Move 2
What is the hunger that eats and gnaws at you? What is the emptiness that aches in you? What parts of your life are malnourished or undernourished? What are your relationships starving for? How are you feeding those deep hungers, those empty aches? By just opening a box? Or are you feeding them with the bread of life?
We need to confront ourselves with these questions, and then answer them honestly, because those two options describe two incredibly distinct ways of being and living. And every day we have to make a choice— we can either “just open a box” or we can eat the bread of life. But the choice we make is not just for us. Our choice also impacts those who are in our lives. Because surely, we are not only to eat the bread of life, right? Do you think maybe we are also to share the bread of life… with others?
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” but is he saying this to only a select few? Is Jesus the only one who can offer this bread? We know to properly and effectively satiate our hunger and fill our emptiness; we have to eat the bread of life. And we know when we don’t—we can feel that we haven’t. We know too others are driven by hunger and emptiness, trying to manage it, but they don’t know about the bread of life.
So we have to ask ourselves… Who’s going to tell them? Who is going to share the bread of life with them?
Move 3
Now, to be clear, when I speak about the bread of life, I am talking about more than communion— and I believe Jesus is too. I don’t want to take anything away from communion—communion is bread of life. But communion is just one slice in a larger loaf. Just look at some of the other ways Jesus fed and nourished the lives of people:
He was present. He listened. He loved. He welcomed and connected with people. He told stories about life and helped people find meaning. He offered mercy and forgiveness. He was compassionate. He touched the hurting and broken places in people’s lives. He shared a vision for a new life and a different way of being in the world. He reminded people not to be afraid, to not let their hearts be troubled. He gave a hope, and peace the world cannot give. He reminded us we are one bread, one body, and our neighbor’s life matters just as much as our own. He was and is a good Word we long and need to hear.
And as poet David Whyte writes in his book “Loaves and Fishes, House of Belonging”, “People are hungry and one good word is bread for a thousand.”
Is that the bread you are eating? When driven by hunger and emptiness, are you seeking out the bread of life… or do you just “open a box?”
It’s a question we need to ask ourselves and honestly answer because we can’t get the bread of life by just opening a box. We must seek it out. We must want it so much we won’t even try to satiate the hunger or fill the emptiness with anything else.
Conclusion
So what are you really hungry for today? What emptiness in you do you need filled? What hunger do you see in the world around you? What emptiness do you know others are trying to fill—but trying to fill it in ways that will never last? What will you do for yourself… for those you love when you are driven by your hunger and emptiness? Will you just open a box? Or will you seek out the bread of life? What will you do for others who are driven by their hunger and emptiness? Just open a box? Or will you offer to share the bread of life?
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Spiritual malnutrition is running rampant in our culture today. And everyone is trying to sell the world a box that can just be easily opened and will miraculously satiate our hunger and fill our emptiness. But we know the truth, don’t we? We know hunger, emptiness, spiritual malnutrition can only truly be cured by the bread of life.
So why would we consume anything other than the bread of life to satiate and fill us? Why would we let others consume anything other than the bread of life to satiate and fill them?
We are all consumers. What’s the old saying… You are what you eat. But let’s modify it a bit… You are what you consume. Now let’s ask, when driven by your hunger and emptiness, what will it be…what will we chose to consume? Amen.
Pastoral Prayer: June 2, 2024
Our gracious God, we bow in gratitude to express our praise as those who are full of your grace. You have planted us in a beautiful part of the world and as we begin these warm and bright days of summer, we thank you for the beauty of our rivers and lakes surrounded by magnificent trees that reach for the sky.
We thank you for the hills and valleys and for winding country roads which bring us to behold beauty we often forget exist.
We thank you for those serendipitous moments when wildlife and nature become alive and vibrant and exciting right before our eyes.
We thank you for the sounds of the woods, the beautiful songs of the birds, and their splendid beauty with which you have painted them different and with striking colors.
We thank you for the serenity of sunset skies ablaze with pinks, oranges, and purples and for those unique moments of solitude when gazing upon them, and we feel the peace and harmony of your creation.
And so, in these summer months, renew us for the faith journey you have set us on throughout your beautiful creation—a journey that is obtuse, and even harried at times, but when done in response to your call is nonetheless faithful.
Instruct us for the ministries in our time; send us forth with authority as you sent your Disciples.
Guide us to be open to the cultures in which we live, and to hear and understand their needs, hopes, and ways.
Teach us how to trust you on the journey of life and faithfulness and to know that we can always trust your ways.
So may you bless us all throughout this season O God, imploring us to always be those who trust and follow in you, while always embracing the beauty and splendor in each new day.
Please listen now, we ask, to the prayers we need to share from our hearts to yours, in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”