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August 5, 2018

I’ve spoken before of my great love for the Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit from McDonalds.  I also have a curious passion for the Filet-O-Fish as well – I thinks it’s the cheese and hot tartar sauce that makes it so delectable.  Anywho, both of those are good examples of things we may truly want in our lives, but that in the end are simply not very good for us, no matter how satisfying they may be in the short term.

          Our Scripture this weekend points us to a people who were truly hungry for God – the Israelites in the Old Testament – the people listening to Jesus in the New.  And to both of those groups, God provided food – manna in the Old Testament, and Jesus himself in the New.

          Far too often I think when you and I hunger for something real – when our metaphorical stomach growls because something is lacking in our lives – when we feel broken or lonely or lost or sad, when we are sick or helpless or scared, or when in our quiet desperation we just hope for someone out there to love us, to listen to us, to make us feel alive – in those moments of life’s hungers, I think it is easy for us to settle. 

We can settle for the easy relationship, even though we know it isn’t right; we can settle for the easy comfort, even though we know it’s a dead end; we can even try to settle for a drive through experience of God – seeking not the real Jesus who calls us to surrender and conform our life to Him, but rather an easy McJesus experience. 

          Jesus tells us, ‘I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never hunger.’  Jesus, the Bread of Life, comes to us here at this altar everyday.  But do we really come to Him? I ask because that requires something from us. 

          It requires a radical reorientation of our lives – to no longer allow ourselves to be satisfied with the drive-thru experience of God.  It requires that we set aside the old way, and that we put on a new self – a new way of living in righteousness, in holiness, in truth. That is anything but a quick and easy encounter with God. 

          When we come to this altar to encounter the living God, Jesus the Bread of Life – food for our journey, especially when we waiver from our commitment to the Cross – we come to Him in our brokenness, we come in our imperfection, with our doubts our hurtedness, with our worries and fears – and we encounter Jesus, who gives us true life – not cheap and easy life, but true and everlasting life.     

          We have to let Him do that.  We have to set aside our way of life to be created anew in His image – to let Him satisfy us, and to no longer be content with our sinful and futile attempts to satisfy ourselves.  Jesus alone can satisfy the longings of our hearts, our every hunger.  So let us give Him the space in our lives to do that.  And let us approach Him at this Altar in all humility, so that He can fill up all that is lacking in our lives.  God help us all. +    

 

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