Moldly Bread!
August 8, 2021
John 6:35, 41-51
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Today, bread seems to take much longer to go moldy, than it did when I was a kid. Is that true? Or, is it my imagination? After my Mom went grocery shopping, she would stick the loaf of Wonder Bread in a drawer in our kitchen. It served as the bread box. Within a few days, if not eaten, the slices would develop a few spots on them. Well, Mom would scrape or cut off the mold, toast the bread, or make French toast out of it. She didn’t like to waste anything!
Somehow I got the impression that the mold on the bread was penicillin and therefore healthy to eat. But, is this true? You may wonder whether the small, fuzzy spots of mold are safe to eat. Can they simply be scraped off? Is the rest of the loaf is safe to eat if it doesn’t have visible mold? Apparently the answer to these questions is, NO! The small, fuzzy spots of mold you see on the bread are actually colonies of spores. They travel through the package and grow roots that spread throughout the entire loaf of bread. There may be some penicillin, but there other kinds of molds that are harmful.
It reminds me of the manna that God gave the Israelites, as they traveled through the wilderness. They are told to collect only enough for one day. They begin to complain to Moses about the manna that the Lord has provided. As the LORD hears their complaints, his anger is kindled. And the text says, “Then the fire of the LORD burned against them, and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.” With that, the frightened people cry out to Moses. Moses prays to the Lord and the fire abates. But the rabble among them have a strong craving. They whine, “If only we have meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Oi vey! And of course, as you know, if they gathered too much manna it turned moldy and wormy the next day. Manna sustained life in the wilderness for only a short time.
Well our lessons today seem to allude to moldy and freshly-baked bread. Take our lesson from 1 Kings. Elijah has 400 prophets of Baal killed. King Ahab reports this to Jezebel. She is furious, for they were her prophets. Jezebel immediately sends a messenger to Elijah with her threat: “The gods are going to get you for this and I’ll get even with you! By this time tomorrow you’ll be as dead as any one of those prophets.” Elijah is terrified and flees to Beer-sheba in Judah. He sits down under a broom tree and is so depressed that he asks the Lord to take away his life. Now that is some moldy thinking! We see that mold spores have taken root in Elijah’s thinking! Then he lays down and goes to sleep.
God sends an angel who says, “Elijah! Get up and eat.” There at his head God has provided a freshly-baked cake of bread and a jar of water. He eats and then he lays down. It happens again! The angel tells him to get up, eat and drink because he needs strength for the journey he’s about to take. The Lord has work for him to do. He eats the freshly-baked bread, the Lord restores his thinking, and gives him strength to do His will.
We live in difficult times. They can be depressing. We need the freshly-baked bread of Jesus’ love to help us through these days. We turn on the news and wonder if it is news or commentary. Do we believe the CDC? Or, don’t we? Do we mask or unmask? What’s up with all the COVID variants? Are we safe or not? We think we’re through the pandemic and now we hear the numbers of infected peoples are rising among the unvaccinated. Who is spreading moldy spores amongst the truth? And, who is giving us the freshly-baked bread of truth? It is all very confusing.
We hear the testimonies of four policemen. They tell of their harrowing experiences at the capital on January 6th. And then we see the social media responses to their testimonies— some supportive, but others disrespectful, profane and blatantly nasty. I have to say, I wonder what is going on in our country. Why can’t we agree to disagree and still respect and love one another?
St. Paul has a lot to say about these kinds of things, as he admonishes the Ephesians. He says, “Put away all falsehood. Speak the truth to your neighbors. We all belong to one another.” He reminds them that they are members of one another connected to each other in love in Christ’s body. When they lie to others, they end up lying to themselves.
He goes on to say, “be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. Watch the way you talk and let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps. May your words be like freshly-baked bread—a gift to others! Remember, God’s Holy Spirit is moving and breathing in you. Don’t take such a gift for granted.”
It goes for us too. We are to make a clean break from all cutting, backbiting, and profane talk. We are to be gentle and sensitive with one another. Forgive as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgives us. The scriptures show us what God does through Jesus. Like children who learn proper behavior from their parents, we are to pay attention to how Jesus treats others. Notice that mostly what Jesus does is to love others and he loves us. So, learn a life of love. Christ’s love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love us in order to get something from us, but rather he gave everything of himself to us. Even to the extent of dying an excruciating death on a cross. Love as Jesus loves. Rather than stinky, moldy thinking, harmful deeds, and foul rhetoric, fill your minds with the living, bread of Christ that produces constructive, loving thought and productive lives.
We are at a turning point in the life of our congregation. You will be informed about the transition process after the service. This time is difficult for all of us. Some of us are still grieving the loss of our senior pastor. Discernment is important, so I implore you to let the love of God permeate your hearts. Pray for God to lead and guide us through this process with patience, kindness, and love.
Jesus tells us, I am the bread of life in our gospel lesson. It is Jesus life, death, and resurrection that gives us hope in times of stress and distress. It is Jesus that gives us new ways of thinking and opens our minds to new possibilities. Remember who you are and to whom you belong. Jesus will not let us down. He says to us, Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. … I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”
Mom may have occasionally fed us Wonder Bread with some mold spores. The Israelites may have eaten manna in the wilderness that spoiled the next day. But Jesus won’t let mold spores take root in us. For all who eat of the freshly-baked bread that Jesus has to offer in his body; will find hope for the future. Jesus will sustain us, his beloved children, now and for eternity.”
In Jesus name,
Amen.