Isaiah 55:1-5 Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22 Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:13-21

We have studied these past three weeks the Parables of the Kingdom, devoting our thoughts to the Kingdom of God that is here and now, and the Kingdom that is to come.  There is always a tension for us as God’s children to hold both the human and the divine, the earthly and the spiritual, finding the sacred presence of God within the ordinary of our everyday lives.

In exploring the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, we are drawn deeper into that understanding of the bread of life amidst the age-old tension between the human and the divine.  The people come again and again and again to Jesus, seeking to understand his message.   Jesus’ message is that the bread of God gives eternal life to the world.  Yet, it is clear that Jesus always fed the people and instructs us to do so.

Jesus affirms that we must have physical bread to survive and thrive.   Yet, that is not enough.  Studies, some particularly horrible, from decades past have shown definitively that infants and very young children whose physical needs are provided still do not thrive or even develop normally without relationships with other human beings.  Even as adults, we can have all the physical food we need, but without relationships with others through which we exchange the love of Jesus Christ – the spiritual bread of life – we cannot truly live.  I grieve for our precious elders in this community of faith who are receiving optimum care at home but are withering away as the result of our forced isolation.  Many will never recover.  Thankfully, when their and our earthly life comes to end, and we no longer have need of earthly bread, it is the bread of God that comes down from heaven that gives us life eternal.

God, in his infinite wisdom, created us human with human needs.   God came to earth fully human to sanctify our humanity – to connect for us the fully human with the fully divine.  From the five barley loaves and the two fishes – the travelling food of the poor – Jesus fed the multitude with physical and spiritual food.

Similarly, we bring our meager earthly offerings to share at the Lord’s Table.   Through the work of human hands with God’s help and provision, the bread has been made from wheat of the field and the wine has been made from grapes of the vineyard.   And, by the invocation of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine will become the body and blood of Christ – always, always, that indistinguishable line between the earthly human and the heavenly divine.

As we come to share the Holy Eucharist – we experience that that is fully earthly at the same time as that that it is fully heavenly.  And, as we partake of the body and blood of Christ, together we become united as one with Christ.  Thus, the bread becomes our channel for worship and service to Jesus Christ.  We are fed so that, in turn, we can take the bread of life into the world.

We partake of the eternal bread and open our lives to the revelation of God’s plan for us.  The dividing line between the human and the divine becomes less and less distinguishable as we are drawn closer to God for understanding.  The bread of Christ is not purely a physical bread that ignores our spiritual hunger, and it is not purely a spiritual bread that ignores our human needs.  It is the bread that fills and fulfills.  Jesus says to us, “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”