READ SCRIPTURE (John 6:24-35)
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were beside the sea, 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 the Son-of-Man that God, the Father, has sealed." Then they said to Jesus, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one whom God 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."
REFLECT ON THE READING
These texts invite us to Christian maturity by mercifully correcting our complaining, our blaming others, and our listening to conspiracy theories. "What is it?" — mah-na? in Hebrew — the Israelites said of the desert bread on the ground. "How can there be food here?" It was bread from God, bread in a place where there could not be bread since there were no grain-fields and no bakeries in the wilderness. In the story, God gave unexpected life to the people who had been liberated. God still gives life where we thought life could not be. The cross of Christ is for us, against all expectation, the source of life. Jesus Christ crucified and risen is the life-giving Bread, and that bread of life is available to us all in the holy scriptures and in the holy supper in the church. God the Father sets the table; Christ is the food; the Holy Spirit is the server. Made one in that Spirit, we are gifted by Christ with skills to serve others with the bread of God, with life where people thought there could be none.
PRAY
O God, eternal goodness, immeasurable love, you place your gifts before us; we eat and are satisfied. Fill us and this world in all its need with the life that comes only from you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
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