The Bread of Heaven - November 3, 2013

The Bread of Heaven

Exodus 16:1-5, 13-15, John 6:35-51

Grace Presbyterian Church

November 3, 2013

Rev. Dr. Richard E. Miller

Where Were You?  Where were you on the evening of July 20, 1969? Now if you weren’t born yet, you don’t have to answer. And I know its hard to believe, but I remember that evening quite clearly. I was driving a bus full of twenty-two rambunctious teenagers from my church in Cincinnati to West Virginia. Why? Because we were on a Mission Trip to the inner city of East Wheeling to conduct a Vacation Bible School at Laughlin Memorial Chapel and do some rehab work on three houses. On our way there, we stopped to get gasoline and noticed a TV turned on in the service station that was showing a once-in-a-lifetime event. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the Apollo 11 space flight and were just a few minutes away from touching the moon’s surface in their landing craft called Eagle. And so all of us piled out of the bus, hurried into the station, and watched Neil Armstrong step onto the surface of the moon. We then heard him say, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Communion on the Moon  As famous as that quote is, another even more meaningful event took place while Apollo 11 was sitting on the lunar surface. And it involved Buzz Aldrin, the other pilot along with Armstrong. Buzz was an elder at the Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas. After the Eagle had landed, Buzz said, “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.

Then, since he knew they were doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow. Before the flight began, he had asked his pastor to help him. And so the pastor consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial of communion wine for Buzz to take with him. So there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, Elder Buzz Aldrin read a verse from the Gospel of John, and took communion.

Here is his own account of what happened: "In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.” [John 15:5]

As I read this account of communion, It was amazing for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements. And of course, it's wonderful to realize that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ who made the Earth and the moon - and who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the "Love that moves the Sun and other stars."

Preparing Hearts for Communion  And now here we are this morning, solidly secured to planet earth, preparing our hearts and minds for the bread and cup of communion. As we do this, I’d like to look more closely at bread. Bread comes in many varieties, such as white, wheat, honey wheat, light wheat, rye, raisin, pumpkin, zucchini, and pumpernickel. We refer to those who bring home a pay check as being a breadwinner. We speak of the midwest as being the breadbasket of America. Bread is a synonym for money. We talk about needing to know which side our bread is buttered on. We speak of casting our bread upon the waters. If we look at the Bible, we find many uses for bread.

Manna Our Exodus scripture reading tells of that time in history when the Israelites had escaped from being slaves to Pharaoh. They had fled Egypt and now found themselves in the wilderness without anything to eat. They complained bitterly to Moses saying it would have been better to remain slaves where they had food to eat rather than die out in the wilderness. God gave the Israelites food to eat. Each evening quail flew into their camp which they could eat. The next morning, a fine flaky substance covered the ground. The people wondered what it was and Moses said, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:15) And later we read: “The house of Israel called it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”  [Exodus 16:31] The Israelites could collect manna for only one day at a time. If they kept any for the next day, the manna would spoil overnight and become inedible. The exception to this was Thursday when they could gather two days supply of manna to last through the Sabbath.

Daily Bread Many years later, when settled in the Promised Land, the Israelites would grow wheat or barley from which to make their bread. The grain would be ground into flour with a hand mill and fresh bread would be baked every day. The oven they used often consisted of earthen jars which were heated very hot. Then the bread dough would be placed on the sides of the jars to bake. The result was a very thin bread. So when they prayed, “Give us this day our daily bread,” they really meant “daily.” Of course today, bread lasts for days on the counter and can be kept longer in our freezers.

This eventually evolved into what the Israelites called “The Bread of the Presence.”  This consisted of twelve loaves of bread that rested upon a special table in the temple twenty-four hours a day. The loaves were lined up in two rows of six and stood for the twelve tribes of Israel. More importantly, the loaves represented the presence of God in the Temple and hence in their individual lives. Overall, it served as an offering of thanksgiving to God. Thus, for them bread pointed to God’s power and strength which sustained them as his chosen people.

Breaking Bread Together  Another way in which bread was important to the Israelites was as an outward sign of covenants between people. When two people broke bread together, they established a sacred obligation to be faithful in their friendship. [Psalm 41:9]

This idea logically carried over to the Jewish meal.  At every meal, the head of the family, normally the father, would take a large piece of bread and pray, “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who bringest forth bread from the earth.”  He would then break the bread, eat a piece, and pass the rest for other family members to eat. Then they would enjoy their meal.

Living Bread  Since Jesus and his disciples were Jews, they followed the same practice of breaking and distributing bread before a meal. However, Jesus enlarged upon the traditional meaning when he said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” [John 6:51]

The Last Supper   Finally, during the Last Supper, Jesus startled his disciples by saying, “This is the last time I will be eating with you.” He then picked up the bread, just as he had done hundreds of times before, and said, “This is my body which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.” [1 Corinthians 11:24] By saying these things, Jesus was telling his disciples that whenever they gathered together and broke bread in his name, he would be there in the midst of them.

Bread of the Presence of Christ As we break bread together this morning, we are assured of Christ’s presence with us. Instead of twelve loaves, we have one loaf. We become aware of his presence when we open our hearts and listen for his guidance and direction.

Remember that Paul wrote, “The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the same loaf.” [1 Corinthians 10:17]  This means we do not come to the table as observers, but as participants.  As our host, Christ has invited us to break bread with him and one another. Each of us is a part of the one loaf...the community of faith...the Body of Christ.  This means that no matter how we might differ in background, ages, or personalities, we share a common spiritual bond.  As we break the bread, we will be affirming the special bond of love we enjoy in Christ, and be witnessing to the presence of our Lord among us. Remember, when Christ ascended into heaven, he no longer was physically present to the world. We are now Christ’s visible body here on earth. People see and meet Jesus through us. As such we are the aroma of the living bread of Christ to the world. [2 Corinthians 5:20]

As we partake of the living bread which came down from heaven, remember that the Lord’s Supper isn’t where sinners find Christ, but where sinners celebrate being found by him. Amen.

Exodus 16:1-5 NRSV

The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.’

 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
John 6:25-35 NRSV

The background of this morning’s scripture is this. Jesus had finished feeding the 5,000 with bread and fish. He then left the crowd and joined his disciples on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The people whom he had fed searched for him and eventually found him. Our scripture tells us what happened next.

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