Manna

“He was gobbling mincemeat, meatbone, bread, cheese, and pork pie, all at once: staring distrustfully while he did so at the mist all round us ….” In the opening sequence of Dickens’s Great Expectations, Pip has brought food to the escaped convict whom he had met by the churchyard. The famished convict wolfed down Pip’s food so quickly that he scarcely knew what he was eating, only stopping to take a hurried swig of the brandy Pip had brought. Have you ever known such hunger? Have you ever been so famished, have you ever gone without food so long that you could eat everything in sight? We see such hunger frequently in nineteenth century novels, especially those of Dickens. Today, many of those who go to the Outreach Center, come to the Lutheran Social Services food giveaway, or join us at Loaves and Fishes know real hunger. And in some parts of the world, hunger is still a daily fact of life. Most of us have never experienced that kind of hunger. We may diet, we miss a meal, we may even fast intentionally, but we can be pretty sure the next meal is out there when we’re ready for it. How about spiritual hunger? Have you ever felt spiritually hungry? Have you ever felt such a deep yearning for God’s presence that you’re ready to try anything? Have you seen that yearning in anyone else? Some may disagree with me, but I think that spiritual hunger, a desire for closeness with God, runs deep within our culture, among those who are separated from family, among those who face crises in their lives, even among those who have been abused by the church, and perhaps especially among those who claim to be “spiritual but not religious.”

So, here’s the good news right up front: God is ready to meet all our hungers, both physical and spiritual! The message that God pays attention to our needs and feeds us generously couldn’t be clearer in the Scripture lessons you’ve just been fed with. Far from the cooking pots of Egypt, the Israelites were hungry and restless. Although God had already demonstrated God’s care for them by providing abundant water in the Sinai desert, the people complained again to Moses. “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites,” God responded, raining down quail in the evening and causing manna to form in the morning. Were the quail and the manna natural phenomena, as some have suggested? So what? The message is still clear: God provides. God meets our needs. And what should be our response? Accept God’s gifts gratefully. If the Exodus lesson doesn’t convince you the psalm reiterates the message: “So they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.”

Fast forward to the Gospel of John. The scene picks up where last week’s action left off. Remember that the central question in John is always, “Who is Jesus?” The answer is always the same, the Word made flesh, but the gospel writer uses many different images, including images from Scripture, to help the hearers of the gospel grasp the reality of Jesus’ identity. “I am like manna,” Jesus proclaims. “Just as God fed the Israelites spiritual food in the wilderness, so the Father has sent me. I can give you physical food – I just did – but that’s not who I am. I’m not a political messiah, and I’m not someone whose purpose is to fill your stomachs. The primary reason I am here is to give you spiritual food, to satisfy your spiritual hunger, just as God gave the Israelites manna, and I gave you bread. Now I give you spiritual bread, which you need even more than physical bread.”

And here’s the real miracle: we continue to receive that spiritual bread. We too receive the manna that God provided the Israelites and that Jesus provided to the crowd. As individuals, we receive that manna Sunday by Sunday, every time we come to the holy table and receive Jesus’ Body and Blood. And what a miraculous gift this is! For Christ’s Body and Blood become part of our bodies uniting us more closely with Jesus and continuing the process of transformation into his likeness. As Martin Luther reminded us, “When we eat Christ’s flesh physically and spiritually the food is so powerful that it transforms us into itself.” “When we eat him,” spiritual writer Lisa Dahill explains, “his body transforms us, via this process of divine metabolism, into his own life in, with, and under ours. Deep in the flesh, we taste and receive and experience the indwelling divine life of Jesus Christ himself….”1 As a parish too we receive God’s manna: as we come together and share the many gifts that God has given each of us. Just as God continues to care for us and feed us spiritually, God continues to endow us with gift upon gift. Perhaps, as we share our Common Ministry exercise, we will be able to see more clearly all the manna that God has lavished upon us as a parish!

Are there strings attached to all these gifts from God? You bet there are! At the very least, God expected the Israelites to understand the source of the quail and the manna: “You shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” Later on, as the Israelites circled the Sinai desert and received the law, God stated God’s expectations clearly: they were to keep God’s covenant with them by following God’s law. In John’s gospel, Jesus’ gift of himself is not limited to the Jews. Indeed, Jesus reminds his hearers, “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” But, whoever receives the bread from heaven still has a charge: to “work” for the food that endures for eternal life” and, more important, to “believe in him whom [God] has sent.”

If we are truly Jesus’ disciples, then the same obligations fall on us: to know that God is the source of all our gifts, physical and spiritual, personal and corporate, and to continue to deepen our relationship with Jesus and our reliance on him in all aspects of our lives. But there is more. In allowing ourselves to be baptized, we have become part of the Body of Christ, the continuing presence of Christ on earth. If we have read Scripture carefully, then we know that, as Christ’s Body, we also must share God’s gifts with others. The manna that God has given us, the skills and competencies we own, the resources that we possess, even the spiritual gifts that we can point to, have all been given to us for a purpose. Our spiritual needs are met, we are given gifts, the writer of the letter to the Ephesians reminds us, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God….”

What does this mean in real life? To begin with, using God’s gifts for the sake of others means helping to meet people’s physical hunger. You’ve already heard about the need of the Outreach Center for non-perishable food, and I hope you have contributed and will contribute to meeting that need. You know about Loaves and Fishes: we always need volunteers and contributions to that meal. But I think we can go a step further. Right now, one person from this parish has largely taken responsibility for running Loaves and Fishes. I’d like to see it be a team effort on the part of this parish, one in which many of us together offer our hospitality. And what about meeting the need for sustainable food sources in another part of the world? Could we have a mission team to mobilize our gifts and plan for all these efforts?

What’s more important, Jesus charged us with helping to meet the spiritual hunger of the world around us. I believe this means intentionally committing ourselves to helping St. Peter’s become a more vital, more active parish. One important way of addressing spiritual hunger is supporting adult formation, i.e., continuing to grow in our own understanding of the faith. Another way is having vital, attractive worship. Another way is to pray for two additional families to join us this year. And yet another way is to take seriously our responsibility for the growing children that God has already given us.

How to begin doing all this? I’d like to suggest some other teams that can help revitalize St. Peter’s. We can build on our Common Ministry effort, which will continue this year. I’d like to see us add two more people to the Common Ministry team. In addition, I also suggest that we create teams committed to working on youth ministry, worship, and financial solvency. With a team for mission, that’s four teams in all. Among other things, this coming week during my retreat I will be praying about who among you might be able and willing to serve on such teams. And I also ask your prayers this week, that God will enlighten all of us as to how we might better share the richness of God’s gifts with others.

God hears our complaints and our cries for food. If we let him, Jesus continues to be manna for us, continues to make God’s love manifest to us. As his Body, can we follow in his footsteps and nourish the world around us? Please join me in this prayer, and please continue to pray it all this week, “O God, eternal goodness, immeasurable love, you place your gifts before us; we eat and are satisfied. Fill us and this world in all its need with the life that comes only from you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.”2

1. Lisa E. Dahill, Truly Present (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2005), 86.
2. Sundays and Seasons (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 2011), 245.