Thanksgiving Day | 27.11.2025 | John 6:25-35 | Luther H. Thoresen |

²⁵ When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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.” ²⁸ Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” ²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” ³⁰ 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? ³¹ Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” ³² 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. ³³ For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴ They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” ³⁵ 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.

(Scripture quotations from: New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.)

Note: The initial paragraphs in italics of this sermon might be used as the basis for a Children’s message. The preacher could substitute anecdotes from their youth that would be similar to the current author’s; or share what is below in the third person. If not used that way, one might adapt it as the beginning of the “usual” sermon or insert part of it later in the sermon…or elsewhere in the service.

(The preacher could bake fresh bread formed into medium sized buns – from scratch, using frozen bread dough, or another way – OR purchase some from a bakery or grocery story. Secure enough so that all children will receive a bun. For sanitation reasons, it is probably best to have them in small plastic bags. If you know that a child needs something gluten free, a substitute could be secured.)

Good morning/evening. [The preacher takes a long deep breath and smiles.] Does anyone like the smell of freshly baked bread? I do. When I smell freshly baked bread I often remember the home I grew up in. Why? My mother often baked bread, buns for sandwiches and cinnamon rolls. Anybody hungry yet? One other thing about my childhood home. When we were snowed in and had no school, Mom would usually have us in the kitchen part of that day helping to bake cookies and breads. It was her way of keeping little hands busy. There were six of us kids, so there were pre-school and elementary kids in the house for about 15 years. We didn’t get in trouble much when we were helping in the kitchen, plus we had the satisfaction that we had helped make this bread or these cookies. In this way Mom fed the family, kept little fingers busy and deepened her relationship with us. Thanks, Mom.

So, we might say that bread and baking, food and fellowship, life and love, aroma and pleasure often go together. In the Gospel reading Jesus talked about some of those things. We’ll think more about these things in the regular part of the sermon. By the way, I have a fresh baked bun for each of you when you go back to your seats in a few moments, OK? But for now, would you pray with me? God, thank you for the smell of freshly baked bread and for the taste of bread and cinnamon rolls. Thank you for opportunities for parents to work together with children in the kitchen. Thank you for many gifts of life and love and food today. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus so that we might be drawn into his life, fellowship and love through his life, death and resurrection. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

^“For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (v 33)

With bread in hand, we often experience both food and fellowship, life and love. We often taste with your tongue and talk with our tongue at a table among family and friends. The aroma of bread often invites us to breathe in deeply and savor the fragrance. It is almost as if the breath and aroma are in and of themselves deeply satisfying. At once there is both satisfaction and a deeper hunger connected to the aroma. Interesting indeed.

Let’s put our text into the flow of this chapter in John’s Gospel. We begin with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 people someplace near the Sea of Galilee. That story ends with Jesus going up the mountain to get away from the crowds that want to make him king…after he sends the disciples across the lake or sea. In the night Jesus comes walking on the water to terrified disciples saying something like, “I am. Do not be afraid.” That episode concludes with Jesus getting into the boat just as they arrive on the shore.

Then, our text begins with the crowds looking for Jesus and being bewildered when they find him some other place along the sea. You heard his response to their search for him that included, “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.” (v 27a,b) I wonder sometimes. With this quote it seems to have a double meaning, as if Jesus is talking about food and not food at the same time, as if the “food that perishes” is not just the food on the table.

You know that food left in the fridge for a few weeks too long is no longer edible but “a science experiment” as my wife and I call it. But we also know that other things won’t last…whether bank savings and investments, or houses and cabins, or boats and snowmobiles, or gold and silver, or whatever. Still, we often seem to work for them. We may call it greed – gathering more and more and more of whatever. Carl Jung was a well-known psychologist and author in the middle of the last century. He once wrote, “The greed and the speed of western civilization is like a virus that will destroy the whole world.”¹ Ouch. Greed can’t be satisfied…and neither can the thirst for speed it seems. In a podcast² I heard, someone said something like this: “What we need is a three mile per hour God.” To that I would add, “What we need is a God of bread who fills us, when more and more of anything else never will.” Our need for the God of bread and the three mile per hour God is met in Jesus, ^“For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (v 33) This is life that is truly life. This is life with greed and speed satisfied in a totally unexpected way and from an unexpected source.

Back to breathing and eating. We breathe all day long but seldom think about breathing. We often eat mindlessly. Still, our non-conscious breath and mindless eating keeps us alive! Aren’t you glad? Yet, a deep breath seems soooo satisfying; a slowly savored meal seems soooo satisfying.

We heard Jesus say, ^“For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” This bread comes not because we worked for it, but because we need it and God gives it. This bread comes not because we deserve it, but because “God so loved the world” that he gave and gives “his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16) The bread is free as Jesus adds at the end of our text, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

The bread of God comes down from heaven and we come to Jesus, the bread of life. God sends the Son and thereby we have the opportunity to believe, to trust and never be thirsty.

Today’s text says that “the bread of God…comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The same bread, Jesus himself, comes to us freely in Word and Sacrament, in the fellowship of God’s people and in the life of others…especially the poor and downtrodden. Yes, the bread of God comes to you as you hear the scriptures proclaimed in public worship and as you hear them in personal devotion. The bread of God comes to you in the water and word of Holy Baptism and as we return to the grace of baptism in Confession and forgiveness. The bread of God comes to you in, with and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion to give you his body and life blood. The bread of God comes to you in the mutual conversation and consolation among God’s people. The bread of God comes to you in the people you serve, especially those who cannot repay the gift. Jesus, the bread of God came and now comes to us, and we come to him to receive the bread that touches us deeply – the life of Jesus.

We receive the bread of God and we give it away. Was I grateful for the bread my mother baked? Yes. Am I grateful for the lessons I learned in the kitchen at her hands? Absolutely. There is a common table grace among many families. I learned it at the table by the kitchen in my parents’ home, maybe you know it:

Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest,
and let these gifts to us be blessed.

A few years ago, I began to hear another set of words added to the ones I had known since childhood. These are the new words:

³ Blessed be God, who is our bread;
may all the world be clothed and fed.

Receiving, we give. Fed, we feed. The bread we receive strengthens us to live and give all kinds of bread to others! At any Thanksgiving gathering this week, I invite you to breathe in deeply the aroma of the breads and other foods. Let the aroma and deep breath touch you. Let the day’s food and conversation nurture you. Along with gratitude for the food at the table and the fellowship at the table, along with gratitude for the blessings of family and country, we may offer thanks “the bread of God…which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Amen

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

©Pr. Luther H. Thoresen, ELCA, STS, retired; thoresenluther54@gmail.com; Grundy Center, IA, USA

Footnotes

¹ I don’t know the original source of the quote from Carl Jung, but I heard in the “Ezekiel” episode of the podcast, “Everything Belongs” from the Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM. It may not be a direct quote, but a summary of some other statements by Jung.

² The “Ezekiel” episode of the podcast, “Everything Belongs” from the Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM.

³ The first two lines are a traditional table grace among Lutherans in North America. I do not know the origin of the second part, but it has been used on some refrigerator magnets promoted by the World Hunger office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.