Thanksgiving EveA sermon based on John 6:25-35
In the name of Jesus; amen.
My husband and I became friends while we were both at seminary after he invited me to come to his room to join him and several other students who had gathered there for a beer. He and his roommates had a suite on the first floor and that year it became the hang out for many of us.
As people started to go back to their own rooms and their apartments that night one of his roommates invited me to come back down to their room later on, “We watch M*A*S*H at midnight” he told me. “Come down and watch it with us if you’re awake.”
Sensing that these were great guys and that I needed friends I stayed up until midnight and went down to watch M*A*S*H with them and the rest is history.
Now the Hallmark Channel runs M*A*S*H reruns every night at the time when I am cooking dinner and so I watch it about every night while I am cooking dinner. About a week ago one of my favorite episodes was on and featured one of my favorite characters, Charles Emerson Winchester III.
For those of you unfamiliar with M*A*S*H it chronicles the stories of a Korean War M*A*S*H unit. It was supposed to be a comedy, but the reality was it took a serious look at war. In this one particular episode (entitled: "The Life You Save") Charles and another doctor, B.J. Hunnicut bring a soldier back from the dead while hiding under a jeep during a sniper attack. In the process Charles becomes obsessed with the idea of death and wants to know what happens after someone dies.
He questions the soldier whose life he saved, but the soldier can’t remember anything. Frustrated and desperate to know what happens when a person dies he takes a jeep and drives to an aid station on the front where the fighting is heavy and offers the medics there his help with another soldier who is mortally wounded.
Holding his hand while he dies, Charles begs the soldier to tell him what he is experiencing. “What do you see? What do you feel? Please, I must know.”
And the solider answers with a single word, “Bread” then dies.
Jesus has just fed the 5,000 using only enough food to feed a small family and has retreated to the other side of the sea. Many of those fed go looking for him and find him the next day and ask for more. They had experienced a miracle, what the gospel writer John calls signs in his gospel. They were hungry again and Jesus knows that this is why they have sought him out.
They wanted food; Jesus wanted to give them bread.
“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… I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
At this time of year many of us become uniquely aware of hunger. Despite the fact that tomorrow is about giving thanks our day will revolve around a meal. Our congregations have been collecting food for those in need so that they can have a meal. At Salem we receive phone calls on a regular basis asking for help to buy food. People need to eat real bread or they die.
Had Jesus not just fed 5,000 people with real food his words in this gospel reading for tonight would be empty words. Jesus didn’t just fulfill spiritual needs he fulfilled real physical needs as well. He fed the people because they were hungry and without food they would not be able to listen to his proclamation that he was the true bread that does not perish.
Jesus as the bread of life provides for our souls, but he also drives us to meeting the real physical needs of others. Those who believe in him eat and drink their fill and are sent out to be bread for others… real physical bread.
We are bread just as we are the body of Christ; called to offer ourselves to others in thanksgiving for what God, through Christ has done for us.
There is another television show I like to watch. It’s called Inside the Actor’s Studio with James Lipton. Lipton interviews famous actors in front of a studio audience comprised of regular people and students from the drama department of Pace University.
His portion of the show ends with him asking a series of questions that range from what is your favorite curse word to what profession other than your own would you like to try. The very last question he asks before turning the interview over to the students is “If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?”
Would that God’s word be for all of us, “Bread.”
And may our answer ever and always be, Thanks be to God! Amen.
My husband and I became friends while we were both at seminary after he invited me to come to his room to join him and several other students who had gathered there for a beer. He and his roommates had a suite on the first floor and that year it became the hang out for many of us.
As people started to go back to their own rooms and their apartments that night one of his roommates invited me to come back down to their room later on, “We watch M*A*S*H at midnight” he told me. “Come down and watch it with us if you’re awake.”
Sensing that these were great guys and that I needed friends I stayed up until midnight and went down to watch M*A*S*H with them and the rest is history.
Now the Hallmark Channel runs M*A*S*H reruns every night at the time when I am cooking dinner and so I watch it about every night while I am cooking dinner. About a week ago one of my favorite episodes was on and featured one of my favorite characters, Charles Emerson Winchester III.
For those of you unfamiliar with M*A*S*H it chronicles the stories of a Korean War M*A*S*H unit. It was supposed to be a comedy, but the reality was it took a serious look at war. In this one particular episode (entitled: "The Life You Save") Charles and another doctor, B.J. Hunnicut bring a soldier back from the dead while hiding under a jeep during a sniper attack. In the process Charles becomes obsessed with the idea of death and wants to know what happens after someone dies.
He questions the soldier whose life he saved, but the soldier can’t remember anything. Frustrated and desperate to know what happens when a person dies he takes a jeep and drives to an aid station on the front where the fighting is heavy and offers the medics there his help with another soldier who is mortally wounded.
Holding his hand while he dies, Charles begs the soldier to tell him what he is experiencing. “What do you see? What do you feel? Please, I must know.”
And the solider answers with a single word, “Bread” then dies.
Jesus has just fed the 5,000 using only enough food to feed a small family and has retreated to the other side of the sea. Many of those fed go looking for him and find him the next day and ask for more. They had experienced a miracle, what the gospel writer John calls signs in his gospel. They were hungry again and Jesus knows that this is why they have sought him out.
They wanted food; Jesus wanted to give them bread.
“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… I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
At this time of year many of us become uniquely aware of hunger. Despite the fact that tomorrow is about giving thanks our day will revolve around a meal. Our congregations have been collecting food for those in need so that they can have a meal. At Salem we receive phone calls on a regular basis asking for help to buy food. People need to eat real bread or they die.
Had Jesus not just fed 5,000 people with real food his words in this gospel reading for tonight would be empty words. Jesus didn’t just fulfill spiritual needs he fulfilled real physical needs as well. He fed the people because they were hungry and without food they would not be able to listen to his proclamation that he was the true bread that does not perish.
Jesus as the bread of life provides for our souls, but he also drives us to meeting the real physical needs of others. Those who believe in him eat and drink their fill and are sent out to be bread for others… real physical bread.
We are bread just as we are the body of Christ; called to offer ourselves to others in thanksgiving for what God, through Christ has done for us.
There is another television show I like to watch. It’s called Inside the Actor’s Studio with James Lipton. Lipton interviews famous actors in front of a studio audience comprised of regular people and students from the drama department of Pace University.
His portion of the show ends with him asking a series of questions that range from what is your favorite curse word to what profession other than your own would you like to try. The very last question he asks before turning the interview over to the students is “If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?”
Would that God’s word be for all of us, “Bread.”
And may our answer ever and always be, Thanks be to God! Amen.
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