The 12^th Sunday after Pentecost B (Lectionary 19B) | August 12, 2024 | John 6:35-51 | Luther H. Thoresen |

John 6:35-51 (Text English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles)

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹ And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

⁴¹ So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me – ⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Note: The initial paragraphs in italics of this sermon might be used as the basis for a Children’s message. 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 later in the service.

Birthday parties. What do you like about birthday parties? (accept answers) What are some things that happen at birthday parties? (accept answers) Did you know that sometimes people plan surprise birthday parties? Thirty years ago, my wife planned a 40^th birthday party for me… as a surprise. It was a lot of fun. Have you been to a surprise birthday party? Many years ago (about 1985) I planned a surprise birthday party for the senior pastor of the congregation I was serving as assistant pastor at the time. It was fun to plan, and the party was fun, too.

Sometimes we are surprised at other things. I think that the people who heard Jesus speaking in today’s Gospel reading were surprised when he said, “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Do you think people were surprised when Jesus was raised from the dead? Would you pray with me?

Gracious God, thank you for birthday parties. Thank you for sending your Son to give his life so that we might live now and always. Help us to trust this Jesus and share his life and love with others… maybe in surprising ways. Amen

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

Jesus said, “⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (and a little later Jesus said) ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”

We have at least five senses – the senses of sight with our eyes, of hearing with our ears, of touch with our skin, of smell with our noses, and of taste with our tongue. Some people would argue that we have even more senses than those five… but that’s a conversation for another day. Anyway, let’s begin by thinking some about our three of our senses as I say this, “Our sense of smell is non-directional.” What do I mean? We can get at that by contrasting our sense of smell with our senses of sight and of hearing.

Sight first. When someone turns on a light, we often turn toward it. Right away the direction from which the light comes is known. In addition, we usually can estimate rather accurately the distance to the source of that light… half a block, a mile or whatever.

Now, about hearing. We may hear a door slam, or a loud car in the neighborhood. Our sense of hearing is not as accurate, but we may know the general direction from which the sound came, and may have some sense of the distance; but neither is as accurate as with our sense of sight.

And our sense of smell? You may smell the aroma of someone grilling, or smell the aroma of bread baking, perhaps in a bakery. But, can we tell what direction either aroma is coming from? Nope. Neither can we guess any particular distance to the source of the aroma. We only know that grilling aroma or the aroma of baking bread is present.

Sometimes we say, “Follow your nose.” But can we… really? I don’t think so. What we do is to walk or drive and look as we do. We get closer or further by trial and error. We need to use our nose with our eyes and ears to find the location of the grill or bakery. But, if we were blindfolded and had plugs in our ears it would take a l-o-n-g time to find the source of the aroma! So, do you understand what I mean when I say that our sense of smell is “non-directional”? We will come back to this later.

Sometimes it is helpful in the gospel readings to focus on the dialog or argument between Jesus and others. But for today, we will focus only on some of Jesus’ words within the dialog in today’s reading. We begin with this: Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (v.44a)

Elsewhere in John’s gospel, in chapter 12, Jesus says, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (v. 32) What is it for Jesus to “draw” someone? Perhaps it is like a tugboat that draws a barge. Perhaps it is like a tractor that draws a chisel plough through field. Perhaps it is like a tractor that draws a load of grain to the elevator. The tugboat or the tractor has the power to draw or pull along something. That is how the same word is used in John 21. Jesus appeared to some disciples along the shore of the Sea of Galilee a while after the resurrection. After a night without catching fish, you might recall that Jesus suggested that they cast their net on the other side of the boat… and then, “So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.” The word for “haul it in” is the same word used in chapter 12 when Jesus said that he “will draw all people to myself.” And again, later in chapter 21, “The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.” Here the word for “dragging the net” is the same as when Jesus said that he “will draw all people to myself”

With that background, I remind you that today’s Gospel reading begins when Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (v 35) With this we can say that to come to Jesus and to believe in Jesus seem synonymous… these are about the same. Now we hear Jesus say, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (v 44) This is to say that it is the power of God that brings us to Jesus.

The power of God may draw us… powerfully like a tractor. But maybe it is more like this… Some of you may remember some years ago there were black and white cartoons on TV or in the theater. Yes, I date myself with this reference. But, some younger people may have seen cartoons like that on cable or on streaming platforms. Anyway, one of those cartoons had Popeye and Olive Oyl as characters, as well as Brutus and Wimpy.

Wimpy always seemed to be eating a hamburger sandwich. He would often say something like, “I will gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Also, often Wimpy would be walking on a sidewalk, or sitting in a house with the window open. We would see something like a small cloud that was intended to be a something like a trail of aroma that floated out of the kitchen at a café or drive in. Wimpy would catch the scent and literally “follow his nose” to a freshly cooked hamburger… almost floating off the ground on his way. We could say that Wimpy had been drawn to the burger by the aroma.

Maybe this is a good picture for us today. It seems that there is something about Jesus as bread that has an “aroma” that connects deeply within us. We might say that the “aroma” of Jesus as the bread of life connects to our hunger for God. God uses this “aroma” to draw us to himself. Just as the aroma of a burger does not feed Wimpy but instead draws him, so also the aroma of Living Bread does not feed us… yet it draws us to the real thing.

As Living Bread, Jesus makes two wonderful promises; two living promises in today’s reading. One is this, “And I will raise him up on the last day.” (v 44b) Then, the second is this, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.“ (v 47)

In the First Reading we heard of Elijah… tired and down. He was awakened by an angel and told to “Arise and eat.” (1 Kings 19:5c) Then, after a second invitation to do the same, “And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.”

Similarly, today with the Gospel reading we are invited to come to Jesus. In coming to Jesus, the Bread of Life; in receiving Jesus as Living Bread; in believing/trusting the promise of the Bread of Heaven we may be strengthened for our journey through life. As Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.“ (v 47) Has! That is, eternal life is a resource, a strength for the journey now! Also, in coming to Jesus, we may receive strength for our journey into the next life as he says, “And I will raise him up on the last day.” (v 44b)

These promises are rooted in what Jesus meant as he said, “…the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (v 51c) Later, on the cross, Jesus gave his flesh for the life of the world. In believing, in coming to Jesus we are united to Jesus’ death and resurrection. In this, you and I share Jesus’ life for the world. Both promises for today are from Jesus, the Living Bread – eternal life now and raised up on the last day. Strengthened by both promises of the Living Bread we may live eternally now… and this living becomes life for the world.

What might that look like for our living to become life for the world? Maybe like this. About 7 or 8 years ago something happened one Christmas day. I had almost nothing to do with it, other than “show up” after our Christmas Day service. One of our members knew that many people participated in family gatherings for the holiday… but a few would be alone for the holiday. So, why not host a free meal for anyone who might be alone that day… or at least feeling lonely? He was going to be part of a family gathering the previous day, but not Christmas Day. He secured some funding through a financial group, purchased food, decorated, and gathered a few volunteers to assist him on Christmas Day. I will say that some other members had their doubts about the project, but that didn’t deter him. The meal was not a “fund raiser” and it did not matter to him if 2 or 102 showed up. The tables were set for about 40. The aroma wafting into the sanctuary during worship was heavenly… ham, green beans, cheesy potatoes, and more. Half an hour after worship, about 25 shared a meal, conversation, laughter, and connections for the day. About half of the people had no direct connection to our congregation, some had no connection to any congregation. By starting 30 minutes after worship, some could stay until the meal, others would arrive only for the meal… as he thought it best. It was delightful. It was a gift to the community, empowered by the Bread of Life among us. The aroma of a meal, the fragrance of life-giving communal conversation, the scent of life eternal… these were all present. Members and guests “got a whiff” of the Living Bread from Heaven.

As a quick postscript, I note that the original organizer moved to another community a few years later… but to my knowledge the Christmas Day meal continues. Other members caught on and share Living Bread in this way.

The aroma of the Bread of Life is a tool God uses to draw you and me daily to Jesus. In Jesus, God says, “I am life in you. I am bread in you.” When you come to Jesus, the Living Bread, Jesus promises you eternal life now (“…whoever believes has eternal life.”); and Jesus promises you, “I will raise you up on the last day.” These promises are bread for the journey. These promises are strength for your journey through this life and into the next. Along the way, God might also use you to let others “get a whiff” of Living Bread. The bread that Jesus gives for the life of the world is his flesh. (cf. v 51)

With Jesus’ words in John 6, and a story of a Christmas meal mixing in our imaginations, what if? What if people of this congregation began to throw parties for people who had not participated much in church life… maybe not at all? What if, in homes and cafés and maybe at a church building, people of this congregation began to host surprise birthday parties for unexpected people, or anniversary parties or Thanksgiving Day meals, or Christmas Day meals, or New Year’s Day meals and more? This would be a celebration of your eternal life now and maybe an aroma of the Living Bread from Heaven… for others.

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