So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
John 6:24-35
Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 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.
My sermon from the 11th Sunday after Pentecost (August 4, 2024) on John 6:24-35.
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Every vacation I go on comes with its own challenges, stresses, and headaches. There’s the large packing list I’ll diligently put together only to forget something important like shirts or socks. There’s the fun that comes trying to find parking at the airport and figuring out how to feed three kids who don’t all like the same things. Vacations are full of new experiences that bring great fun, joy, and a little stress. And the one thing that is practically guaranteed to happen every time I travel is that I won’t have any idea how to turn the hotel’s shower on. Bathtubs have been around for thousands of years and the first patent for a mechanical shower was issued in the mid 1700s. Indoor plumbing is a gift that has changed the world but there doesn’t seem to be any standard when it comes to which knob, button, or doohickey will send the water from the tub’s faucet into the shower. Often it’s a handle that needs to be turned in a specific way, a little button hidden in some secret compartment that needs to be pushed or, like it was in Colorado this week, a round circular knob on the underside of the faucet that needed to be turned and pulled out. Vacations are amazing yet can also be stressful even when things are going according to plan. But we, as a people, have decided to increase that stress by encouraging a bit of misunderstanding whenever we’re trying to get clean. Misunderstanding shows up on any journey that we take. And as we saw in today’s reading from the gospel according to John, misunderstanding is also what happens whenever we journey with our God.
So like I said last week, we’ll spend the rest of August hanging out in John’s version of the only miracle that appears in all four of the gospels. One of the many differences between John’s version and all the others is how much talking Jesus does. One of the hallmarks of the gospel according to John is how miracles, teachings, or sermons are often followed by a long back-and-forth between Jesus and whoever is around him. And that’s because, for John, these miracles – which is a word he never uses to describe what Jesus did – are never an end in themselves. Jesus’ work is a sign of what happens when God’s kingdom comes near. When God shows up, people are healed, fed, cherished, and drawn into life-giving relationships transforming them into something more. The miracle wasn’t how Jesus turned a boy’s lunch into a feast for 5,000 that only satisfied this current moment. The true miracle was the building of a connection showing how we always have a seat at Jesus’ table. This is why, I think, John’s Jesus did more than empower the disciples to feed those around him. Instead, Jesus took the time to feed everyone himself. He didn’t treat the people in the crowd as merely a showcase for what amazing things he could do. He treated people as people, inviting them to learn and grow while being sustained by the One who took the time to look them in the eye and know their entire story. After the crowd was fed, they didn’t necessarily understand what Jesus was up to but they sensed something was different. They recognized how Jesus was building a future for, and with, each of them. The crowd responded by wanting to crown Jesus as a king – revealing their misunderstanding of who Jesus chose to be. He wasn’t interested in wielding power over them; he wanted to connect with them so they could discover how abundance, rather than scarcity, was the life God wanted for us all. The crowd didn’t get it but Jesus didn’t let their lack of understanding diminish the love he had for them. And so, later on, when the crowd tracked him down after he went somewhere new, Jesus kept talking because not understanding what God is up to is one of the most human, and faithful things, we get to work through.
The crowd, like when we are standing before a shower that won’t turn on no matter how many calls to the front desk we make, wasn’t sure what Jesus was up to. But when he moved, they followed and had the courage to ask “how long” when they reached him. That might not have been the question we would ask if we ran into Jesus on the street but it does model, for us, how following Jesus doesn’t mean we can’t question Jesus when we’re with him. Now I’ll admit it seems a little odd to give you permission to question God since other stories and verses in our Bible are often interpreted to imply we shouldn’t. But I’ve often found that faith – which, in ancient Greek is the same word for trust – is shaped through the questions we share. Our relationships with each other and with our God are crafted and formed through a trust that doesn’t push aside our wonder. Rather, Jesus always keeps talking because God is big enough to hold whatever question we have. Jesus doesn’t build our faith and our trust merely through amazing feats of power. Instead, Jesus gives us his constant presence even when misunderstanding is all we have. Jesus didn’t give up on the crowd even though they didn’t fully get what God was up to. And in the relationship God already made with you in your baptism, God has already promised to never give up on you too. Jesus stuck around because sticking around is what God is all about. And we are invited to bring to God our questions, our worries, and even our doubts. We are allowed to be completely ourselves since whatever is stirring within our heart doesn’t mean we are far from our God. I know we sometimes assume that misunderstanding is why our sorrow, grief, and hurt linger more than we expect. But life is sometimes very full – and it isn’t understanding that will make our emotions melt away. Misunderstanding is, instead, simply what happens since we’re human – and pretending to know what we don’t know is often the easiest way to harm ourselves and others. The way through our misunderstanding isn’t to ignore our questions but to embrace them; to ask “when,” “what,” “why,” and even “how come.” And when we ask them, we’re invited to not only bring them to God through our worship and our prayers but also to one another. When we invest our time and energy in exploring our misunderstandings, long held thoughts that made us who we are are then transformed into something holy and true. And when these same questions are ones that cannot be answered, it’s perfectly okay to sit with them – surrounded by a community of faith, and a God, who will never let us go. Asking these kinds of questions might make us feel pretty awkward or leave us feeling vulnerable when those around us ask things we don’t have an answer to. But if Jesus was willing to engage with the questions and misunderstanding the crowd near the Sea of Galilee shared with him nearly 2000 years ago, he’s more than willing to sit with all our questions and misunderstanding too. When we find ourselves confused, unsure, with way too many “whys” and “how comes” and “wonderings” about what might be – we are then invited to cling to the answer we’ll hear Jesus keep giving: you are, even now, with your God and Jesus will feed, protect, and carry you through.
Amen.