John 6:22-59

(vv. 41–51) teaches the great Catholic breadth of the Christian faith (like the broad, horizontal, out-reaching beam of the Cross): the wide, earth-embracing truth of God’s love for the whole world (“all will be taught by God,” v. 45; and “the bread that I will give is my flesh—for the Life of the world,” v. 51)

41-51 the breadth of the gospel - how wide to all the world.

(vv. 52–58) teaches the great Orthodox depth and earthiness of the Christian faith (like the long, lower-vertical, deep-into-the-earth beam of the Cross): how Jesus reaches down into our bodies to satisfy us with his nourishing Sacrament (“my flesh is the real food, and my blood is the real drink,” v. 55). -52-58 - the eucharistic sermon

-22-24 -the confused crowds are a good picture of humanity. Confused spiritual humanity.

-Jesus gives 25-40 - Sola Fide, Sola Christ, Sola Grace

-41-51 -For All the World

52-58 - Sacrament

We were created for a relation with God (Gen. 1:26–27); the “image of God” is apparently the deepest stratum in the human person. This “imaged” Other, this “related” Person could be a human being’s single most satisfying relation. Jesus wants all his creatures to have a deep, lasting, and satisfying Life—life with the capital letter. “Work hard for” this “meal,” this food, this relation, this Life, Jesus counsels in his first command in his Bread Sermon. Then Jesus immediately gives this food’s address so that we may know where to go to work to get it: “the food that the Son of Man will give you.”

For Daily Sanctuary Devotionals - Read the passage, then list God is. . .

Humanity/We. . .

Reflection/Application Prayer -

Barthian and Neo-Orthodox protest, namely, the liberal theology and “progressive” Christianity that Richard Niebuhr once famously defined and lamented with this brief sentence: In liberal Christianity “a God without wrath saves men without sin into a future without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” So-called “Emergent” Christianity must beware this neo-liberal bent as well, in my recent experience.

I don’t know of anything that will sustain the pastor over the long haul,” concludes Dr. Bradley, “other than the balance of seriousness and affection, and the gravity of the Gospel cannot be sustained for long without the doctrine of final judgment.… When we no longer believe that people are truly lost without Christ, or that the Gospel is important but not infinite in implication, then we will also lose the ultimate meaning of grace and love.”

(1) “It wasn’t Moses [wrong subject]

(2) who gave [wrong verb tense]

(3) bread out of heaven [wrong direct object]

(4) to you [insufficient indirect object]

Oh no!

(1) It is my Father [correct subject]

(2) who is giving [correct verb tense]

(3) the real Bread out of heaven [correct direct object]

(4) to the whole world” [correct indirect object].”

“Everything you said in your sentence is correct,” Jesus tells them, “except for your sentence’s subject, verb, direct object, and indirect object.”

My Father should be the subject of more of your sentences.”

Do a sermon on 6:22-41

“Amazing, every word of what you just said is wrong.”

-for a year with Jesus - sir give us this bread always.

I like, and so I translate, the two definite articles in Jesus’ sentence: Jesus is not just bread but the Bread; and this Bread has within it not just some life but the Life. Jesus is claiming in his own person to be that for which all human beings most long. But how do we get to him in order to get in us this Life?

Sermon DAILY BREAD.

intro - cut a loaf of bread.

-confused, questioning hungry crowds- physically, but spiritually as well.

-In this crisis - there is physical hunger and thirst - money, safety, security, food shortages - real physical stuff we are worried about and Spiritual - longing for human connection, relationships, hugs,

Jesus gives a speech to a haphazard crowd- imagine he called a press conference today and gave this speech in the middle of this pandemic?

we are going to walk through this speech - and conversation - the crowd asks questions - just like we are asking a lot of questions of the people who get up and talk in this pandemic.

How do we get to the Bread of the Life? Answer: Just come, and then come again, and then come again.… I put “simply” in the earlier translation to underline the simplicity of Jesus’ unadorned promises (without any other preceding or accompanying adjectives or adverbs) to “coming” and “trusting,” which describe our (simple!) part. All the grandeur and greatness belong to the Heaven-Sent, Cosmos-Coming One. He does all the work. Is there any simpler way, then, to describe our responsibility (or really, again, our privilege)? “Just come.” The simplest prayer “comes.”

-Come Lord Jesus come - again and again and again -

A personal time of prayer, a family time of prayer, a small-group meeting in his name “comes.” The simplest personal obedience to the will and Spirit of God, whom we have learned and received from Jesus in various personal and public situations, “comes.” But Jesus here gives us no such particulars, leaving all particulars and the various how’s of our comings to us, and he simply invites us to be his comers, and that’s all. We will find ways to come. And to all such comers he promises no real hunger ever again

41-51

Intro

Welcome to BT

We are continuing a speech that Jesus gives in John 6. In the previous episode I asked us to imagine that we are in the crowd hearing this speech for the first time. Lets keep with that theme - Imagine that you believe Jesus is God (for the sake of the argument) and that this Divine one is giving a speech to an audience of regular people. that includes you - Listen like God is speaking. Wrestle with what is being said as if God is speaking (christians we actually believe that - so we especially should be doing that).

In verse 23 these people are described a bit. They are searching people. We know they are hungry people - Jesus just fed them some bread. They are people searching for phyiscal substance - food, security, stability in a difficult world. They are also human so I imagine they are searching for spiritual food too- relationships, meaning purpose. it isn’t all that hard for us to imagine thier situation.

In this current crisis we are searching for a lot of material stuff - food, security, health, financiaul stability. And we are longing for the spiritual stuff of life - for lack of a better term - human connection, meaning, purpose. He is speaking to people like us - humans living in difficult circumstances in a difficult world. Humans with desires, hopes, searching for safety, meaning, freedom.

So you are in this crowd - listen to what he has to say. I’ll read verses 41-51 and then share a few reflections (and spoiler) - and in this part of the speech there is some grumbling - the Boo birds come out.

real quick he has been saying that he is the bread of life come down from heaven. All who trust him will never go hungry or thirsty. The work God has for humanity - for each and everyone of us is to simply trust him. Believe in him - believe him. And come to him. Come to Jesus and trust him. That simple - verse 41

“Then the Jewish people were grumbling about him because he said, ‘I Am the Bread Who Came Down from Heaven.’ So they were saying, ‘Isn’t this fellow that Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”? Come on!’ Jesus responded and said to them, ‘Stop your grumbling back and forth! No one can ever come to me unless the Father Who Sent Me should first draw that person to me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. These words stand written in the Prophets: “And they will all [pantes] be pupils of God.” Every single individual [pas ho] who has listened to the Father, and has learned one’s lessons there, comes to me. I don’t mean that anyone has ever seen the Father (except, of course, the One who has his very being with God: He has seen the Father). Amen, amen, I want to tell you something very important: The individual who is simply trusting has deep, lasting Life.’ ”

“ ‘I, I AM the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died. Now here is the Bread that is coming down right now from heaven so that anyone [tis] who ever eats of it will never die. I, I AM the Living Bread who came down out of heaven; if anyone [tis] ever eats of this Bread, that person will live forever. Now then, the Bread that I will give is this—my own flesh—yes, for the sake of the life of the whole world [tou kosmou].’ ” - Dale Bruner translation

so jesus has said - I a