Man, I thought I lived in a fishbowl…but I have the epitome of privacy compared to poor Jesus. This morning the folks he had just fed (in the feeding of the 5,000 from last week)—have gotten hungry again. So…. They start looking for Jesus. Realizing he’s gone, they climb into boats and cross the lake to find him. Now this isn’t some small pond, this is a Lake roughly the size of Chautauqua lake….yet they climb into row boats and cross the lake in search of that miracle food purveyor: Jesus of Nazareth.
People do amazing things when hungry.
Although Jesus isn’t surprised that they’ve come… he is a tad annoyed at their shortsightedness—happy to have their stomachs filled but completely oblivious to the real reason for His presence in their lives….just like we’re often oblivious to the real reason for Jesus’ presence in our lives. You see, Jesus didn’t come to fill our stomachs, Jesus came to fill our souls. But, and Jesus knew this, it’s really difficult to pay attention to one’s soul if one’s stomach is growling. So, he filled their stomachs hoping—maybe even assuming---that once their stomachs were full, they’d realize just how empty their souls remained. But to do that, to realize how empty we may feel, is not so simple. There’s no definitive signal---like a growling stomach---to tell us we’re spiritually empty, that we need some spiritual nourishment. It takes awhile to figure it out.
And, apparently, it takes awhile to explain it as well.
In John’s gospel, Jesus spends four Sundays trying to get his followers, those then and us now, to distinguish between physical and spiritual hunger. It’s annoying as we hear, again, again, again and AGAIN that the manna from Exodus and the multiplication of loaves and fishes in the gospels is nothing…NOTHING compared to The Bread of Life...the bread that is Jesus.
And while in theory we may join with the folks from the gospel and say, “yes Jesus give us this spiritual bread forever,” it’s a lot more involved than just saying yes. We can’t just say it. We have to live it. We have to believe it. We have to accept it. We have to receive it.
You see, since time began we have been separated from God. And, as I say all the time, God has been, since time began, trying to bridge that gap, trying to reach us, trying to touch us.
And religion, according to philosopher Louis Dupre is how we reach out toward God. It’s how we try to bridge the gap from our end of this divide.
Remember Michelangelo’s depiction of Creation on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? In it is the iconic image of Adam-- stretched out on the ground, dazed and confused, one arm, one hand, reaching out toward an old and slightly wild looking God, who’s also stretching out an arm, a hand, with one finger almost touching Adam’s. In between is a teeny space separating God from humanity. Separating us from God.
Dupre says that our entire life is lived in that tiny space between God’s finger and Adam’s hand. Trying to bridge that gap.
The problem is, we don’t know how. We try to be good and faithful Christians, but it doesn’t always work. It doesn’t work because we forget to do what Jesus told us to do---- believe and to trust in him.
It doesn’t work because instead of letting go and trusting God, we hold on and try to do it on our own: “Just show us how to do it and we’ll do it ourselves, God. We really don’t need this Jesus fellow…just give us the magic formula and we’ll take care of things.” That never works. It doesn’t work because it isn’t about us, it isn’t about our filled bellies, it isn’t about what we can do. It’s about what God does. And what God has done is given us Jesus.
Jesus says, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of God will GIVE you” And the people respond, “OK, so how do we learn to get this food ourselves?”
Jesus tries again. “This is the work OF GOD. (God’s work; not our work): That you believe in the one God sent. It’s a gift. God does the doing, the sending. We do the receiving. The accepting.
You see, Jesus is the one who fills up that tiny space between God’s finger and Adam’s hand. Jesus bridges that gap, so tiny in the painting, so vast in our lives. What we need to do is climb up on that bridge, walk across it and touch the outstretched hand of God.
It really is that simple: just walk.
Our own Kathy Boone has given me permission to share a dream she had last year. Nervous about walking across a very rickety bridge while vacationing in Central America, Kathy went to bed the night before this trek across the long and not very sturdy looking bridge, fairly certain she wouldn’t take the walk--that she would stay safely on this side of the divide. But then she had a dream. A dream in which she was standing in a long line of people, all of whom were waiting to cross that bridge. The line was stalled, no one was moving at all and it looked like nobody was going to cross the bridge that day when suddenly, a woman using a walker, a woman bearing a distinct resemblance to our own Marie Hubbard, raised her head and said, simply and firmly: Just walk. When Kathy awoke she realized, “Marie is telling me: go for it. Stop worrying and just do it. JUST WALK.”
That’s really it. The wisdom from one of our own beloved elders, the wisdom of God’s own Son, our Savior: Just walk. When hungry: spiritually, emotionally and thoroughly hungry we are to put one foot in front of the other, and walk across the bridge of faith, the bridge that is Jesus, crossing over into the outstretched arms of our God. +
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