“How Hungry Are You?”
John 6:24-35
Rev. Sandy Johnson
August 2, 2015
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I started watching a new show this year, I’m kind of embarrassed to tell you. The first time I saw it I thought, this is insane, then I became more and more intrigued as the drama played out and now I’m a fan. The show is “Naked and Afraid.” Do any of you watch it? The premise of the show is that a man and a woman are dropped into the wilderness, somewhere in Africa, South America, Asia or the United States, with only one survival item each and are challenged to survive for 21 days. Oh, and they are naked!
They must find water, create fire and sustain themselves off of the land, without the help of anything, but their survival skills and the tools they brought along. Some bring a fire starter, some a machete, one man brought duct tape, and some bring a pot to boil water. What amazes me the most, watching this show, is the length these survivalists will go to make it 21 days. They’re forced to eat whatever they can catch or scavenge. I’ve seen them eat bugs, worms, rats, fish, crab, larva and snakes.
No one is fully satisfied during their challenge and in fact everyone who finishes the challenge, do so with considerable weight loss; 15 – 30 pounds is not uncommon. The level of hunger they experience is something probably none of us have ever experienced and never will. In fact, often when I’m watching the show I’m munching on ice cream or popcorn, almost in defiance of the drama being played out in my living room.
This show has caused me to ponder the idea of being hungry. These survivalists intentionally put themselves into a situation where they are nearly starving, the hunger overwhelming to the point of pain. We’ve got things good, right? We don’t have to fight for our next meal and our stomachs are nearly full, all the time. When was the last time you really felt hunger? I want to suggest that it is vital for us to tap into our own spiritual hunger so that we can answer the question, “How hungry are you?”
It’s only by recognizing our own spiritual hunger that we will be able to satisfy our great hunger for peace, for love, for grace, all through God’s son, Jesus Christ. The lesson this week gives us the clues we need to develop a healthy spiritual appetite and where to go to satisfy that hunger.
This week’s scripture is actually a continuation of our story from last week. After Jesus fed 5000, he went across the Sea of Galilee, on foot, and scared the dickens out of his disciples. The crowd that had gathered, realized the following morning, that although only one boat went across the lake without Jesus, he was nowhere to be found. They got into their boats and crossed the lake, going in search of Jesus in Capernaum. When they found Jesus they confronted him, asking how he had gotten across the lake. They had witnessed a miracle on the hillside, but it was beyond them how he might have appeared across the lake without taking a boat.
The crowd was looking for their next meal. Jesus had fed them once, and they were hoping he would do so again. Jesus cautions them not to look for “food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.[1]” Then he tells them who it is that will provide this enduring meal; he says that the food will be given by “the Son of Man.” “The Son of Man is described as the one on whom “God the Father has set his seal.” “To set one’s seal” on something is to bestow a formal mark of identification…and suggests that God marks the Son of Man as God’s own.[2]” Sort of like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval!
The crowd is still obtuse and asks what work they must do, to be able to perform the works of God. Jesus reply is simple and direct: “You believe in him whom he has sent.” It appears that they are beginning to get it, that Jesus is the Bread of Heaven, that Jesus is their modern day manna and that he will fulfill their hunger, however they require Jesus to prove himself. They put conditions on their belief – they will believe only if Jesus can prove it. Can you even imagine speaking to Jesus like that? If they had any idea who they were really speaking to, I am sure they would have come at him differently.
It’s beyond me how they can make such a demand on Jesus, after witnessing the miracle on the hillside where all were fed. They missed the sign that Jesus had already done and clambered for more. It is ironic that the sign they had asked for was digesting in their bellies. They try to understand the bread that Jesus is talking about, in the only frame of reference they have – the manna their ancestors ate while they were wandering in the desert. This, they knew, was bread provided to them by God.
Jesus then links the manna story of Exodus 16, with the feeding miracle by instructing the crowd that “the donor of the bread is God, not Moses; the gift of bread occurs in the present, not the past; the bread of which Jesus speaks is the “true bread from heaven”; and Jesus tells the crowd that they, not their ancestors, are the recipients of God’s gift, the true bread from heaven.
Jesus answers the crowd’s demand for a sign by showing them that they have already received one. The contrasting gifts, the exodus gift of manna and the present gift of the “true bread from heaven,”…demonstrate that “the law indeed was given through Moses; and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.[3]” Again the crowd misses the point and they ask Jesus to give them the bread. Jesus replies, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.[4]” So brothers and sisters, I ask again, “How hungry are you?”
Are you hungering for Christ and for the peace that he offers through this bread of heaven? Or is your soul starving due to lack of nourishment? Are you spiritually anemic? If the only meal you are getting is this morning in worship you are starving yourself spiritually. There is more to maintaining a vital spiritual health than one hour on Sunday morning. We must feast on the bread of heaven and that takes more time than an hour a week. I think sometimes we think we are filling our spiritual tank, when in fact we are only kidding ourselves. In reality our spiritual tank is frighteningly low. Sometimes we feel full because we have stuffed ourselves with useless activities and empty promises.
We get side tracked on things that look important when in fact they are keeping us from Jesus, the Bread of Heaven, from that meal with Jesus and of Jesus. I know we all have busy lives, but it comes down to priorities. Is your spiritual health a priority for you? “How hungry are you?”
Are you willing to put your spiritual heath ahead of other endeavors so that you can be used to God’s greatest glory? Are you willing to receive the bread of heaven? To receive Jesus Christ is a decision we make every day. We decide each and every day how we will chose to live, how we will maintain our relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ.
So, how do we maintain a healthy spiritual life? How do we fill our spiritual tanks so that we are never hungry again? We do this through our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is up to us to do what we can to maintain our relationship with God. The gift of God’s grace is truly a gift, we can’t earn it but to experience the richest relationship with Christ takes time, it takes discipline on our part to do those things that form us spiritually.
For any of you who live as a diabetic, you know that regular small meals are the best – fasting or gorging is unhealthy and can cause spikes and dips in blood sugar. Going on a spiritual retreat once a year and gorging yourself on spiritual food and then doing nothing until the next retreat the following year is unhealthy. In the same way ignoring your spiritual hunger is starving your soul of what you need daily to sustain a healthy spiritual life.
It is vital for good spiritual health that we follow a healthy spiritual diet. What does that look like? It’s quite simple really. I like to think of it like a spiritual pie. Begin with the crust, the foundation for our pie – our weekly worship. Coming together to worship with one another is the core of our time together. It gives us food for thought, time for prayer and study, and connects us with other believers who are also seeking God, seeking to be filled up.
I know some people prefer to worship alone or by watching worship on TV and that is better than nothing, but there is nothing that fills us our spiritual tank quicker than corporate worship and enjoying the relationships that we develop with one another. That’s why Wednesday worship is so important – about the time our tanks are waning we can stop in for a fill up at WOW.
The next slice of the spiritual pie is developing relationships with other believers through small groups. Many of you have heard me talk about the small group I am a member of, from my work with the Walk to Emmaus. I began meeting with these women more than ten years ago. We meet weekly for accountability, to ask John Wesley’s favorite question: “How is it with our soul?”
Over the last eleven years we have seen the birth of children and grandchildren, the death of two spouses, the passing of parents and loved ones. We have laughed together, cried together and worshiped God together. My yaya sisters have enriched my life more than I could ever imagine. We are always there for one another, no matter what. Being part of a small group of believers is vital for our spiritual health. Being active with other believers gives us opportunity to demonstrate Gods love for one another. It gives us the blessing of being the hands and feet of Christ.
Prayer makes up the next slice of the spiritual pie. We can’t maintain a healthy spiritual weight without a rich prayer life. Being the very best Christian we can be doesn’t come without work, it doesn’t happen by accident or coincidence. Our relationship with God demands attention, demands that we intentionally spend time in communication with God. For any folks this morning who are married or in a relationship you know that without communication the relationship fails. The silent treatment only goes so far and if you aren’t talking with God and then listening for his response, you are denying yourself the richness that comes with knowing God intimately.
We can’t have a full pie without study. As much as I love sharing my vast knowledge with you each Sunday through the message, it is vital that you study for yourself. Don’t just take my word for things, read, study scripture with friends, push yourselves to learn and then learn some more. The Bible is the first place to begin, scripture is primary in our understanding of our world. Take time to read, ponder, pray and learn the scripture. Whether you listen on the way to work, or sit and read each morning or evening, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that studying the scripture and its meaning, gives us nourishment to sustain us. When we know scripture and can quote it, we are prepared when the challenges of life come at us. We are armed with scripture that can calm and inspire us, that can carry us through the dark passages.
The final piece of our spiritual pie is sharing what we have with others. This may mean sharing our financial resources or sharing our spiritual gifts through service to others. It could be sharing our faith with a new friend and explaining the spiritual pie you feast on and how you have been changed by your relationship with God. I had the privilege of baptizing three sisters this week. After the baptism, one of the girls said that she felt shiny, another said the darkness inside was going away. Eating spiritual pie or the Bread of Heaven changes us. Jesus is the bread of heaven and He is all we need.
How hungry are you? Are you willing to do what it takes to fill yourself up with the bread of heaven? To experience Jesus as you have never experienced before.
Let us pray: Gracious God, giver of heavenly bread, we thank you for sending Jesus to live among us, to be our bread of heaven. We ask that you would increase our spiritual hunger so that we might always feed at your table. Amen.
[1] John 6:27
[2] http://www.ministrymatters.com/library/#/tnib/2bb4bd5912ae0c8fdd941742cbf1bda3/john-61-71-the-bread-of-life.html Accessed August 1, 2015.
[3] http://www.ministrymatters.com/library/#/tnib/2bb4bd5912ae0c8fdd941742cbf1bda3/john-61-71-the-bread-of-life.html Accessed August 1, 2015.
[4] John 6:35
