THRIVING ON BREAD AND WATER
a sermon based on Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 & John 6:24-35
by Rev. Rick Thompson

Alex had finally gone over the edge. After years of petty theft and misdemeanor offenses, he had been convicted of armed robbery and landed in prison with a 50-year sentence. And, when he arrived in medium security, something he said or did—he wasn’t even sure what it was—had caused prison officials to put him in solitary confinement. Under no circumstances was he allowed out of his isolated cell—not to use the phone, not to exercise, not to use a rest room, and not to eat.

Instead, his meals were brought to him and served by cautious guards through a trap door in his cell. Not that he really cared: he was bored, depressed, ready to check out of life.

And who in their right mind would want to eat the food they brought him: stale, sometimes moldy, bread, and lukewarm, mineral-tasting water.

What a terrible diet—bread and water. Who would want to try to survive on a diet of bread and water?

How awful! How disgusting and demeaning!

That was exactly the reaction of the ancient Israelites, too. In today’s first reading, we meet them in the wilderness. They’ve left Egypt, and they’re headed toward the Canaan, bursting with hope of going home to the land God had promised their ancestors. God had brought them they, and they were—at first—delighted to be anywhere but in Egypt! They sang and danced and praised God for giving them their freedom.

But along with the freedom came scarcity. It was barren in that wilderness. There was no wildlife, no large body of water, no edible plant life. The people became hungry and thirsty; the manna they were receiving got old in a hurry, and the occasional water from a rock was far from sufficient.

Manna, and a little bit of water. Bread, and water: that was the diet of the Israelites in the wilderness. It began to feel like they were in prison!

Yuck!

The Israelites were so disappointed and discouraged by the conditions and the diet that they complained against God and complained against Moses: “We can’t eat any more of this; can’t we go back to Egypt? At least we got decent food there! We’d give up anything—even our so-called freedom—for another good meal! We hate what we’re eating here; why did God set us free—just to kill us off in the desert rather than in Egypt?” And on, and on, and on their complaining went. They had had it with bread and water! They wanted more: more food, more water, more variety in their diet.

They sound like modern Americans, don’t they. Like those ancient Israelites, we want more. We want more variety, more choices. So we can now order our fish in the restaurant deep-fried, broiled, baked, grilled, or blackened, and with or without batter. We want more space: the typical new home in the 1940’s was 1,200 square feet, with no garage; now it is double that size, with a three-car garage. We want more entertainment, more leisure, more and bigger toys and vehicles, more “stuff”. We want more!

We want more and more of what’s just not good for us. We want rich, fat-laden foods: I am one of 30% or more of American adults who is overweight. More and more children are joining the ranks of the overweight, as they live on junk food in front of the TV, computer, or home video games. We want to fill up our bodies, our stomachs, our houses, our lives with “stuff”—as if that would satisfy us.

Have you ever had this experience? I have. I’m hungry. I’m craving something—pastry, or chocolate, or ice cream. I get my hands on the item I desire, gobble it down—and I’m not satisfied. It doesn’t leave me content. Instead, it leaves me thinking that I had eaten the wrong thing, and so I try the next item on the list. I want more!

You see, our real hunger is not for that which fills our stomachs and clutters up our lives.

Our real hunger is for food which satisfies the spirit.

That’s the teaching of the 6th chapter of John. This chapter begins with the story of Jesus feeding a large crowd of people with five loaves of barley bread and two fish. The crowd is dazzled! They’re so impressed that they want to make Jesus their King! They want him handy so he can feed them anytime, anywhere, as much as they want. But Jesus eludes them, refusing to be known simply as the one who gives them all they want and satisfies their bellies.

And later, when they encounter each other again, Jesus spells it out: “Yes, I can offer you bread,” he says. “It is my Father in heaven who gives true bread, which will never leave you hungry. In fact, I am that bread: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Jesus came to earth from God to satisfy our deep spiritual hunger and thirst. Jesus came so that, when we eat and drink in faith what he offers, we will have to look no further for satisfaction.

You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? You’ve known that restlessness of spirit, haven’t you? You’ve felt out of place, dissatisfied, lonely, empty. You’ve had the experience of trying to find peace and wholeness, and coming up empty time and time again.

That’s why Jesus invites us to trust in him. That’s why Jesus proclaims himself to be the bread of life and living water. Jesus can fulfill that restless yearning for the bread that satisfies, that almost-unquenchable thirst for a long, cold, refreshing drink of water.

Yes, we want bread. It fills us like nothing else can. It’s no accident that bread and grains are at the top of the food pyramid; they provide great nourishment and refreshment for our bodies.

There’s nothing quite like bread!

Some years ago, in a previous congregation I was serving, the youth group served a Sunday meal at the local homeless shelter. It was a delicious and substantial meal: meat, potatoes, vegetable, beverage, dessert. Scrumptious! But in the midst of the feast, one of the guests approached one of our young volunteers with a question, “Where are the rolls? Aren’t there any rolls? We need bread!” You see, bread sustains us in a way that nothing else can. Bread can be packed away and taken along to provide nourishment later. That homeless person knew what we all know: we need bread!

And, we need water.

In 1997, I was one of the adult leaders accompanying our church youth group to a national youth gathering. In New Orleans. In late July. Believe it or not, it was hot, and it was humid! I swear the heat and humidity both exceeded 100! And we had to walk over a mile in each direction to get to the mass events in the Superdome.

Nothing would have tasted as good in that heat and humidity as a fresh, cold drink of water! Time after time, our group members went to the tap in our hotel rooms, turned on the cold water, held a glass under it expectantly, and took a big gulp—of warm water! It did not satisfy, did not quench our thirst. And, on top of that, the ice machine on our floor was out of order. We had to go to another floor, raid their ice machine, put some cubes in our water bottles, then fill it with warm tap water in order to receive a satisfying drink. There were even times when water was so appealing that we did something unheard of at the time—we paid a dollar or more for cold water in a plastic bottle!

We were thirsty!

Jesus knows that our hunger and thirst is not just a bodily desire. It is a deep need of the human spirit! That’s why he offers himself to us as the bread of life, and living water!

When we trust in Jesus Christ, we can survive, even THRIVE on bread and water!

That’s the message of the story: we are invited to trust in the God who took on human flesh and came to earth, who healed, who suffered, who died, who rose again. We need to trust in Jesus if we desire lasting fulfillment and satisfaction in our lives! We need to simplify our spiritual diet, not make it more complicated! We need to stick to a diet of bread and water!

Because Jesus—bread of life, living water—is enough! Jesus is enough to refresh our weary spirits, enough to renew our fleeting strength. Jesus is enough to forgive our sins, to draw us close to God, to feed and water us with God’s incredible promises, to provide us life that begins now and lasts for an eternity.

Jesus is enough!

When we trust in Jesus, we don’t simply survive.

When we trust in Jesus, we have everything we need: Faith, and hope, and peace, and joy, and food and drink enough to share with anyone who needs it.

When we eat the bread of life, when we drink the living water Jesus offers, we don’t just survive.

When we trust in Jesus Christ, we THRIVE on the most remarkable diet of all—a diet of bread and water!