Bread of Life - Part 3

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

August 18, 2024

John 6:51-69

 “Bread of Life – Part 3”

Our 3-part series on Jesus the Bread of Life from John 6 comes to a close today. Having fed the 5000 people with five loaves and two fish (John 6:1-15), Jesus has been busy teaching the people how he himself is the living bread which has come down from heaven to give life to the world. He gets pretty explicit about what this means in what we hear today: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:53-56). That, of course, points us to the Lord’s Supper, where under forms of bread and wine, we do indeed eat and drink Jesus’ very Body and Blood. In response to Jesus’ teaching, people start to fall away. “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). It’s all too much for them. It wasn’t just the crowd who started to drift away. We’re told that “many of [Jesus’] disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66). That must have been a very disheartening thing for Jesus,  watching all of these people pull back. It’s the closing verses of today’s Gospel lesson that I want to lift up – this interaction between Jesus and the inner circle of the Twelve. “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:67-69). Peter’s words become the basis for today’s message. May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

In our liturgy each Sunday, we sing these words that Peter spoke. As we welcome Jesus the Bread of Life among us in the Gospel lesson, we sing together: “Alleluia, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Alleluia.” In singing this, we are acknowledging that at the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world, there is no one other than Jesus to whom we can go. Jesus not only has the words of eternal life, Jesus himself is eternal life. He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6). But if that is true, where is everyone? Why isn’t the Lord’s house filled to overflowing with people who are looking for what Jesus alone can give? Where are our sons and daughters, our family members, our fellow church members, our friends and neighbors, who are absent; who are missing in action? Sometimes that absence is sporadic, but more often than not, it’s chronic. And that should concern us all. The words from today’s Gospel lesson are still true for us today: “Many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66). We hurt for loved ones, friends, and neighbors who have turned back, who no longer walk with Jesus – at least not that we can see. But we also pray for them, and for ourselves as well. We pray that the Lord would stir up his Spirit and turn their hearts to him who is the Bread of Life. We pray that the Lord would help us recognize openings and opportunities that He provides to be a witness, to speak a word, to plant a seed so that faith may be rekindled. Above all, we do not lose hope and we do not give up. Nothing is too hard for the Lord (Jeremiah 32:17). With the Lord all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37). As we pray in hope, as we wait and watch with patience, as we continue to love as we ourselves have been loved, we say with Peter: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Today’s Old Testament lesson (Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18) contains Joshua’s stirring words to the people of Israel at the end of his life. Having brought God’s people into the Promised Land, many years later he called upon the people to reaffirm their covenant with God and “choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). Soon after, Joshua died at the ripe old age of 110 (Joshua 24:29). If you notice, there’s a whole bunch of verses that are not included here in Joshua 24 for today’s Old Testament lesson. Why the omission? What’s up with that? Those missing verses tell the story of how God chose Israel to be his special, set-apart people. Joshua reminded the people about all that God had done for them. Joshua told the people their faith story; the story of their salvation in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who delivered his people from slavery in Egypt and brought them through forty years in the wilderness into the Promised Land. Joshua tells the story. And that’s our calling today as well: to tell the story; not our own story, but the story of God’s amazing love at work in us and through us. Together with fellow believers throughout the ages, we affirm what God’s people said in reply to Joshua about choosing whom they will serve: “Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God” (Joshua 24:18b)

Our own congregation’s story began in this very month nearly seventy years ago. On August 29, 1955, eight families petitioned the Mission Board of the Southeastern District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) to establish a church in this area. Having received approval to do so, one year later in August 1956, this present site was purchased. The first worship service was held earlier that year on January 15, 1956 at nearby Franconia Elementary School, and St. John’s was officially chartered as a congregation later that same year on October 13, 1956. Already in those early days, even without their own dedicated facility, the people of Christ at St. John’s were telling the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Groundbreaking for our first unit – our present Fellowship Hall – took place on November 2, 1958, the cornerstone laid at the base of the tri-cross tower on May 10, 1959, and the dedication of that first unit occurred on June 14, 1959. What I find so intriguing is that from those early days, as found in a brochure from the late 1950s, there were already plans for a 3-unit church plant – our present church facility that includes the Fellowship Hall, the Sanctuary, and the Education Center. From the beginning, that was the plan. Building on that plan, less than ten years later, the congregation dedicated a new Sanctuary – where we are today – on January 8, 1967. Following that original three-unit plan, the Education Center, which houses our Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) on the lower level and classrooms on the upper level, was dedicated on June 5, 1988. Christ’s people continue to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Of course, telling the story isn’t limited to the rooms of our church building. Telling the story of Jesus and his love happens in living rooms and hospital rooms, dorm rooms and classrooms; in all kinds of rooms as we tell others about Jesus the Bread of Life, who shed his blood and gave his life on the cross for our salvation. Telling the story of Jesus and his love happens wherever Jesus’ people are, inside and outside the congregation, because everything in here is for everyone out there. We continue to tell the story to everyone, in here and out there.

Arabella Katherine Hankey (1834-1911) is a name we’re probably not familiar with. She was the daughter of a wealthy English banker and lived more than a century ago in the Victorian era. She became associated with the Clapham sect of William Wilberforce, a group of prominent evangelical Anglicans from the Clapham area. This group helped to establish the British and Foreign Bible Society, promoted the abolition of slavery, and was involved in improving the lives of England’s working classes. Hankey taught Bible classes for shop girls in London, visited the sick in local hospitals, and used the proceeds of her writings to support various mission causes (Kate Hankey | Hymnary.org). Among her many writings is a poem, entitled “The Old, Old Story,” which is the basis of that beloved hymn we’re about to sing, “I Love to Tell the Story.” And that’s exactly what we do: tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Amen.