MANNA ON THEIR MINDS
Exodus 16:2-4; 9-15; John 6:24-35

“I am the bread of life.”

Humanity hungers for many things—food, shelter and clothing, of course. Yet, we have other hungers as well; we have emotional, intellectual, cultural, visceral needs all blistering for a salve.

Money will not soothe the burn. In an economy as wounded as ours is, something richer is needed. We have been taught where sustenance is to be found, yet it is often the last pantry we search for that seemingly elusive spiritual satisfaction.

There is a spiritual famine in our land, even right in our own community. People today are starving for God. How is it that they have not recognized the Bread of Life moving among them? Why is it so many remain as wilderness people—wandering and wondering—with only the next crop of manna on their minds?

People walk up and down the sidewalks on either side of our sanctuary every Sunday (I can see them when the windows are open in the summer.) Even though I am speaking with you, my mind wanders out there. I shoot off a little prayer for them—and even the dogs they might be walking with—praying that some day they may walk in here rather than right past here. I want them to have what we have. I hunger for them to feast with us upon the Bread of Life.

Jesus said to the crowds, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

That’s how it is with miracles, you know. We often miss them in their ordinariness.

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a sermon titled, “Bread of Angels” on these two passages from Exodus and John. She, too, cautions folks about missing the point of manna and miracles. Listen to her words:

If your manna has to drop straight out of heaven looking like a perfect loaf of butter-crust bread, then chances are you are going to go hungry a lot.

When you do not get the miracle you are praying for, you are going to think that God is ignoring you or punishing you or—worse yet—that God is not there. You are going to start comparing yourself to other people and wondering why they seem to have more to eat than you do, and you may start complaining to heaven about that.

Meanwhile, you are going to miss a lot of other things God is doing for you because they are too ordinary…If on the other hand you are willing to look at everything that comes to you as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life…Nothing will be too ordinary or too transitory to remind you of God.

Take something as ordinary and transitory as a yard sale. FPFC has the yard sale of yard sales.
Yesterday, all over the Ouellette’s lawn you could see customers on their cell phones. “You should get down here!” They were saying. “It’s unbelievable!”

While I was there for several hours on Friday and Saturday, what I witnessed among people in our church was nothing short of miraculous.

Perhaps it seemed like we were raising money to benefit our ministries here at the church, but I also know that we were releasing miracles to benefit anyone who crossed our path. What I saw was people doing the work of God by believing in the one whom God sent.

I saw such faith as I witnessed the camaraderie of your working side by side, emptying the barn stocking the tables, laying out the furniture. We were red-faced and back bent; we were sweating yet smiling; we were determined and delighted and depleted. We are exhausted yet we are replete. How good this feels!

I could feel how much you love each other, and it doesn’t get much better than that for any pastor who leads a congregation.

I witnessed as you worked at the grill, under the canopies—sorting, folding, lugging, selling, assisting customers with their purchases—making their eyes light up with the price of a bargain, and sharing invitations to join with us at church.

You could ask any of the workers yesterday to testify to the encounters they shared with people and you would understand that miracles happen, even at yard sales.

You see, the Good News today is that God is always sending us something to eat.

Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives—some bread, some love, some breath, some wine—all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. (BBT, p 11.)

On the surface it appeared as if we were “doing it for the church” or “to meet our budget.”

Yet, very truly I tell you, we were able to work so very diligently and devotionally for God because we are growing in our belief in the one whom God sent: Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life—and we want to work for this Bread always.

Because of our hunger for the Lord, it matters a little less what the difficult economy is doing. It matters more that people are being fed by the one who supports, sustains and satisfies spiritual life.

The world hungers for this food—always. Serve the people the same bread we taste today: the Bread of Life, sent by the one who created it all. Amen.

Taylor, Barbara Brown. Bread of Angels, p 10.

FIRST PARISH FEDERATED CHURCH OF S BERWICK, ME
August 2, 2009
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor