Sermon by Thedore A Gill on the Bread of Life

Monday 3 August – Morning prayer: Exodus 16:11-18, John 6:28-35
These are the notes that Theodore Gill based his sermon on - I hope to offer a podcast soon to give you the full experience!

“I am the bread of life.”

I need hardly tell a congregation including so many people from Stuttgart that the LWF will hold its worldwide assembly next year in that city. The theme of the assembly will be “Our Daily Bread”.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We know that the Lord is gracious and merciful. And so we trust God to answer that petition and to supply “our daily bread”.

Jesus says, “I am the bread of life”, and in the 6th chapter of John he draws a parallel between the grace he offers us and the gift of manna in the time of exodus, the bread from heaven given daily to a hard-pressed people. This manna was not to be hoarded but gathered fresh each day, with a double portion served up on the eve of Sabbath. The bread from heaven, the bread of life, is daily bread, spread before us for the taking.

* * *

D.T. Niles, who preached the opening sermons of both the First and Fourth WCC Assemblies, at Amsterdam in 1948 and at Uppsala twenty years later, famously remarked that Christian mission is like “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”. We know where to find bread because Jesus tells us, “I am the bread of life.”

In another sermon related by Matthew and closely related to the prayer for daily bread, Jesus also said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Or, in Luke’s simpler report, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they shall be satisfied.”

D.T. Niles suggested that, even as we are satisfied, we must continue to seek fresh bread each day. And we have an obligation to tell others where to obtain it. Providing bread to the hungry remains an essential concern and calling for the people of God. We seek unity and community in Christ the Bread of Life, providing the church a strong base for the work of mission, diakonia and the sharing of necessities like fresh bread, clean water, basic shelter, ministries of social justice and healthcare.

In teaching us to pray, our Lord does not suggest that each of us pray for “my daily bread” – “Give ME this day MY daily bread” – No. We pray for our daily bread, a gift to share with others, just as we address the whole prayer to Our Father.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to recognize our neighbour’s hunger as well as our own. It is essential for us to keep in mind that a loaf of bread has no purpose in itself. Bread is meant to be shared – blessed, broken and given to the imperfect and undeserving – so that we, the imperfect and undeserving, may be transformed. Bread is to be offered in Jesus’ name to neighbours and even to enemies, for it is intended for all the world.

This is the good news: God reaches out to us daily, and calls us to reach out to others in the spirit of Jesus Christ, the bread of life, our daily bread for whom the world hungers.
Amen.