A Word From Pastor Mike - Bread That Lasts

I am way, way behind on passing on sermons from my husband. Here is one from awhile back...






John 6:27 "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you."

John 6:35 "I am the bread of life...Whoever comes to me shall not hunger."

Bread is a staple of life for most of the world. Here are some "fun facts" about bread:

• Bread is probably the one food that is eaten by every race, culture and religion.
• It takes 9 seconds for a combine to harvest enough wheat to make 70 loaves of bread.
• Each American consumes 53 pounds of bread per year.
• 1 bushel of wheat will produce 73 one pound loaves of bread.
• In 1997 Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 36.5 billion loaves of bread, enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves of bread.
• Farmers receive approximately 5 cents for each loaf of bread.
• In 1995 a team of bakers from Wheat Montana Farms Bakery set a Guinness World Record.  They harvested and milled wheat from the field then mixed, scaled, shaped and baked a loaf of bread in 8 minutes 13 seconds.
• Breaking bread is a universal sign of peace and fellowship.

In the next few weeks our gospel readings from John 6 will focus on "Jesus the Bread of Life".  Here are some "fun facts" about bread in the Bible.

• We don't know if Adam and Cain made bread but they were tillers in the ground. God told Adam, "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread."
• One of the first mentions of bread in the Bible is in Genesis 14. Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram after a victory over several kings.
• At the Oaks of Mamre Abraham received three visitors. He bowed before them and asked if he could bring them a morsel of bread.
• In Genesis 25 Jacob stole Esau's birthright with stew and bread.
• In Exodus the Jewish people were to bake unleavened bread for they were to leave Egypt in a hurry. They didn't have time for bread to rise.

In the Gospels, bread plays an important role in the life and ministry of Jesus.

The first temptation Jesus faces from Satan in the wilderness is to turn stones into bread. Man does not live by bread alone.

• The Lord's Prayer - Give us this day our daily bread.
• Feeding of the 5,000 involves bread.
• Disciples are sent out without bread on a mission.
• Disciples forget bread for one of their boat journeys.
• Jesus reminds Pharisees that David took the Bread of the Presence when hungry, teaching them that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus went to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and said, "This is my body..."

In the time of Jesus, bread was a fixture in the Jewish diet. If you had flour, you baked bread. Jewish women baked bread every morning and bread was consumed throughout the day. In the morning, bread baking started again.

In the Gospel Jesus took a common element from Jewish life, made a pronouncement, an authoritative statement, "I am the bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never hunger." At that point a discussion about physical and spiritual bread began.

What we see in John's gospel is that people are often too literal. They don't understand what Jesus is trying to teach them. Their main concern was their next meal.

Here is a brief synopsis of what Jesus was saying to them: 

• God has sent me to nourish your spiritual hunger.
• If you believe in me, in my teaching, in my death and resurrection for you, you will never be spiritually hungry again.
• This bread, my life that I give to you, will lead you to eternal life.

Unfortunately, the crowd wouldn't understand this. Some would grumble, some would question. Some of his followers would leave. The teachings of Jesus were too hard. He said things like, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." Jesus wonders if the 12 disciples will leave, too. Peter responds with the great confession, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" and "We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God."

We humans are interesting. We can be asked, "What is most important to you?" and then "How involved are you in what's most important to you?" How do you actually spend your time?

If an average American lives to 78.6 years, we will find that we spend: 25 years sleeping, 10.3 years working, 9.1 years watching TV-2 years are just commercials, 3.66 years eating, consuming 35 tons of food, 4.3 years driving, 3 months waiting in traffic.

An average person will walk 110,000 miles, 4 times around the world. Some will spend 1 year of their lives deciding what to wear and 8 years shopping, 1 1/2 years doing their hair.

On the other hand, when asked what is most important people will respond with:

1. God
2. Love
3. Family
4. Music
5. Health
6. Friends
7. Food and Drink
8. Happiness
9. Knowledge
10. Parents

But if God is most important, why does the average Christian spend only 15-30 minutes a week in prayer? 57% of Christians read the Bible 4 times a year or less while only 26% read it 4 times a week. Only 20-30% of Americans attend worship weekly. That is not a very good track record for us.

The truth is, we humans are mostly busy living our lives. The thing we do the most in life is sleep, but nobody except insomniacs puts that as the most important thing in life.

Invite God into your busy life. See the things you do, like working and cooking and cleaning, as spiritual things you do and not just tasks to be completed.

I don't think it does a whole lot of good to feel guilty about not praying, worshiping or Bible reading enough. Just start again, be positive and ask for God's help.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

God sent Jesus to nourish our spiritual hunger, our spiritual lives.

If you believe in me, in my teaching, in my death and resurrection for you, you will never be spiritually hungry again.

This bread, my life that I give to you, will lead you to eternal life.

God is calling us. God is drawing us to the Bread that lasts.

A Word From Pastor Mike: "For You - Forever"

I asked my pastor husband, Mike, if I could occasionally share one of his sermons on my blog.  I brought it up enough times, he finally supplied me with some of his notes.  The following is from his sermon notes from two weeks ago.  It will be helpful to know that it is based on John 6:51-58 so I will insert that passage.  Oh, and I probably should warn you that he slips his quirky sense of humor into his sermons...

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John 6:51-58 (NRSV)

John 6:51-58

⁵¹I 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.” ⁵²The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; ⁵⁵for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

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Now, from Mike's notes...

For You - Forever

This past week we were in Minnesota.  We toured the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis.  It was the former home of Gold Medal Flour.  Across the Mississippi River you could see the Pillsbury Flour Factory.

(note from Sue:  Remember, I forewarned you about Mike's sense of humor! The underlines words indicate parts he delivered with a bit of a distinct emphasis.)

While I was there I came across this obituary:  Veteran Pillsbury Spokesman, Pop-N-Fresh, died yesterday of a yeast infection.  Dozens of celebrities turned out for the funeral.  Among those seen were Aunt Jemima, the California Raisins, Hungry Jack, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Skippy Peanut Butter.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy.  She said her friend "never realized how much he was kneaded."  (another note from Sue:  It's ok to groan.  I did.)  The church was piled high with flours (not a typo) from many friends.

Pop-N-Fresh rose quickly in show business but in his later life he had many turnovers.  He was not a very smart cookie as he wasted much of his dough on half-baked schemes.  Unfortunately many of his so called friends buttered him up for these failures.

Even though Pop-N-Fresh was a crusty old man, he was a roll model for millions.  Fresh is survived by his wife and two children  plus they have a bun in the oven.  The service was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

(pause to regroup before the serious stuff)

Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven."  In this reading Jesus seems to be all over the place.  Is he...

a) talking about communion?  "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life...abide in me and I in them" sure sounds like communion.

b) talking about the incarnation - God taking on flesh?  "I am the living bread that came down from heaven" sure sounds like that's true also.

c)  talking about his death for us?  "The bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh."  That sure sounds like the cross to me.

This is the great thing about the Bible.  You can go into it as simply or as deeply as you want.  There is bread.  There is food for everyone.

What I was fascinated about in the text were the promises of eternal life.  

     (a) "Whoever eats this bread will live forever."  

     (b) "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the
            last day."                  

     (c) "Whoever eats me will live because of me."
     (d) "The one who eats this bread will live forever."

These are promises for you about forever, about eternal life.  But what is eternal life?  When does it begin?  What does it look like?

Eternal Life

Sometimes it is helpful to describe something by saying what it is not...

A former professor of mine, Jim Nestingen, was in the newly formed country in South Sudan.  He told a story of what eternal life is not and what it is.  He told of a 10 year old girl.  Her older brother sold her to an older man who had lost his wife.  The brother needed money so he could be married.  Without getting too descriptive, we can safely say that this was not eternal life for a 10 year old girl.  As soon as she was old enough, she started having children.  Then, the old man died.  This meant that she would go up for sale as part of his estate.  She was bought by a church!  They redeemed her!  They set her free!  Eternal life started for her and she is now the pastor of the very congregation that set her free.  Jim Nestingen said there was so much joy on her lips that you couldn't help but get caught up in the dance of it!

It's interesting that in our gospel text today Jesus announces that he is the living bread come down from heaven and that whoever eats of this bread will live.  The response...grumbling.  How can this man do this?  Sometimes we make the Christian Faith too complicated or we get distracted.  Jesus puts it this way, the one who believes has eternal life.  What must we do to be saved?  Believe in the one who the Father sent.

This last week I got to listen to African Lutherans tell their story.  I got to see a Sudanese man be commissioned to go back to his country, where there is barely a government, few hospitals, school or churches and yet the church grows - and I wondered why.

And I think the reason is they have completely sold themselves out to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of God.

They aren't really concerned about the American dream, getting their kids to soccer games, or water skiing competitions.  Maybe extreme poverty keeps people dependent on God and thankful, even glad, for the few things they do have.

The good news is that God isn't really concerned about boundaries.  It isn't a Christian competition between continents - God loves sinners wherever they may be.

The Father sent the Son to be the Living Bread for all people - the one who feeds on this living bread has eternal life.  We feed on Jesus in daily prayer, weekly worship and reading the Bible daily.

When you come to communion you hear the words, "Body of Christ given for you" and "Blood of Christ shed for you."  It is a promise - for you - it's the living Christ within you.  It is eternal life for you.  Begin selling yourself out completely to God and enter the joy of eternal life.