When people first become interested in religion - or rather when they first take a serious listen to the call of God - many people recommend that they read the gospel of John.  This has always surprised me, because unlike the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the gospel of John doesn't tell stories of Jesus and relate his parables and let you gently get the full picture. The gospel of John imbeds theology into its very text - theology that can be difficult to understand even if you know a lot about theology and even more so if you know only a little.

            This morning's gospel text from John is no exception.  In fact, it has been called a ‘mini’ gospel s it tells us what the good news is and where to get it!  It’s Jesus!

Jesus is the answer to that hunger God puts in each of us, the longing for something that will satisfy the heart and the soul.  To really understand why the Jews are so upset with Jesus and his claims, to really begin to understand what his claims are, we need to understand how important Hebrew history and the concept of bread coming down from Heaven is to them.

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            For the Jews, their defining moment in history - their defining moment as a people - was the time of the exodus from Egypt, the time when they were freed from slavery and led so visibly by the hand of God.  Yet, in spite of all God’s signs and wonders, this time was not a time most of us would want to look back on with any sense of pride.

            When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, God led them in mercy and truth-but they didn't want to believe it.  They were always worrying about their day-to-day existence and their day-to-day needs.  They kept complaining and longing to return to lives of slavery.  Instead of living in faith with a loving God, they wanted to return to the burdensome certainty of lives of slavery.  Instead of resting in faith and receiving the gifts of God, they preferred to be receiving the food of Egypt.  Instead of being filled with the presence of God they focused on filling their stomachs with bread.

            In spite of all their failures as a people, they remembered with pride the gift that came from God they called 'manna' that was the sign for them that God supplied their needs.

            God gave the people manna - bread from heaven – at a time in the wilderness when they might have starved without it.  He gave them the free gift of bread from heaven every day - and every day each had as much as they needed - but they still died in the wilderness. 

When Jesus says this to the listeners, they remember not just the blessing of manna, but the curse of their unbelief.  The Hebrew people did not need to wander 40 years in the desert.  That wandering was their punishment.

In the Old Testament book of Numbers we read that early into their journey Moses sent 12 spies into the land that God had promised to them to see what was there.  Ten of the spies came back to report that the land was full of fearsome people whom the Israelites could not conquer – but two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, told them of a land flowing with milk and honey and reminded the people of God’s promise that the land would be theirs.  Caleb and Joshua urged them to follow God into the land that had been promised to them.

The people listened to the ten rather than to the two.  Instead of going boldly into the new land the Lord had prepared for them (Numbers 14), they want to stone Moses and Aaron and return to Egypt.  The glory of God appears in the tabernacle and the Lord declares that the people will be killed and Moses will be the father of greater people.  Moses begs the Lord to show mercy and rather than kill the entire nation in the wilderness, the entire generation of those who refused to believe God are condemned to wander in the desert for forty years until all who had failed to believe were dead - and only Joshua and Caleb, the faithful Jewish spies who believed the promises of God, survived to enter the Promised Land.

            The Jews learned the hard way that receiving manna as the free gift from God did not free them from the obligation to trust in the words of God and to act in faith on God's promises. 

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            When God gave the gift of manna in the wilderness, the people ate, but they still disbelieved.  When God gave the gift of freedom to the people, they still preferred slavery in Egypt.  When God gave the gift of the Holy Presence, they still preferred not to look into the face of God, but only into the face of the Lord's servant.  In their disbelief and in their pride and in their self-centeredness, they still received the bread of God, but they still died in the wilderness. 

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            When the time had fully come, the Lord sent bread from heaven again to a people greatly in need of food and freedom.  This time, the bread that came from heaven was not a sign of God's faithfulness, but the actual God of faith in the second person of the Trinity - Jesus Christ - and this brings us to the scripture portion we have before us this morning. 

            At the beginning of chapter 6 – the chapter from which we read this morning’s scripture portion, we read the story of the feeding of the 5,000.  Since them we have read about how the people wanted to take him by force and make him king so they could always get free meals and that they followed him around always expecting more – willing to believe him and follow him for a bit of bread and fish, but unwilling to believe that Jesus was who he said he was.  They were willing to live as beggars and eat for a day, but unwilling to live as children of God and eat of the flesh of God for eternity.

            Jesus came offering life with God and all the people wanted was a full stomach.

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Thankfully, God remains more living and merciful than we can ever imagine.  Just as manna came as a gift of grace to an ancient people who complained and doubted, so Jesus Christ still comes as a gift of grace to us who still complain and only pretend not to doubt.

            But there is a difference.  The Hebrews ate manna in the wilderness and yet they died because of their unbelief.  We who are called by faith to be children of God partake of an everlasting manna and live only because of our belief.

Just as manna came as a gift in such fullness that everyone had as much as they needed, so Jesus still comes to a hungry world and offers us all that we need in this life.  Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves to be spiritually anorexic – ‘we starve ourselves of spiritual nourishment and don't realize we are starving to death.  Like an anorexic...we must learn again how to be hungry! Jesus is trying to teach us how to be hungry for spiritual nourishment.’[1].

Today we still receive the manna from heaven when we partake of communion together.  We partake of eternal manna, bread from heaven that fills our hungry souls and focuses our attention on the Holy One who loves us above all and who draws us into the Holy presence.

            But there is still the possibility that we too shall eat of the heavenly food and die.  We may, like the early Hebrews, accept God's grace and eat of God’s bread, but never place our trust, our faith, in the One who gives grace.

            How we come to be partakers of God’s grace is a mystery known only to God.  Verse 44 of this morning’s scripture says: No one can come to me unless drawn by the father who sent me (John 6:44, NRSV).  Just as the Hebrews were called to God even in their unbelief, so we are called to God before we even understand all that God is or all that God has for us. 

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But just as the Hebrews had to accept God’s gifts and live as people of faith, so do we.  God calls us not just to live on handouts, not to focus our attention on our own needs and our own cares, but to focus on the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world around us.

In my reading this week, I came across a story about Mother Theresa written by Father Gerry Pierse.  He writes:

‘Mother Teresa of Calcutta tells of how she came across a Hindu family in India that had not eaten for days. She took them a small amount of rice. She was very surprised at what happened when she did so. Very quickly the mother of the family had divided the rice into two halves. Then she took half of it to the family next door, which happened to be a Moslem family. Mother Teresa asked, "How could you have any left over? There are many of you." The woman simply replied. But they have not eaten for days either!  That, says Mother, takes greatness. Her greatness consisted in her ability to transcend her own need, a greatness that is often found in the most extraordinary places.’[2]

Many of us spend all our time in God’s presence focusing on our own needs and wants when we could be – we should be - sharing that presence with others and focusing on building our relationship with God.  We live in spiritual poverty when we could be living with the rich fullness of God.  Some of us may even come to church every week, not to sit in the presence of God and enjoy the fullness of God’s plans for us, but to merely placate our conscience, fill our stomachs with treats and accept mere crumbs from the table of grace.

But it doesn’t need to be this way.  Joshua and Caleb alone, of all those who wandered in the wilderness and ate the manna of God, entered the Promised Land – and they entered because they believed God.

We too can enter the Promised Land of God by faith, and by receiving the Heavenly Manna, the bread that came down from heaven, the living bread that is Jesus Christ.

This morning, as we celebrate communion, let us renew our commitment to the living God.  Let us reaffirm our faith in Jesus Christ, and let us eat the Holy Manna from God – in fullness, in truth and in faith.

Amen.