For What Do We Hunger?

First Congregational Church in Auburn UCC, August 11, 2024

John 6:35  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

For what do we hunger?  It’s not really about food, you know, though I’m sure each of us has something foody for which we yearn… something we love to eat, that perhaps is only available fresh at one time of the year, like asparagus…. or something we love but aren’t supposed to eat… or something that when we smell it or taste it reminds us of home… my grandmother’s home often smelled of apples and wood smoke, for instance.  

But this hunger of which Jesus speaks is a hunger for love, a hunger for perfection, a hunger for acceptance; that hunger is a lot harder to satisfy for most of us.

You might remember that sense that everything had to be perfect if you think back to when you were a child and maybe got a new coloring book and a box of brand new crayons…. and how important it seemed then that all the crayons be perfect, not used, not broken, but brand new and perfect.

And you might remember how easily those crayons broke, how hard it was to keep them looking good.  

Well, maybe you lived in a home with a big box of well-loved crayons, and it was more important to find a blue one than it be untouched by any other hands…. maybe it was something else that just had to be right.  And maybe that has happened to you more recently than your sixth birthday…

Maybe your first family Thanksgiving dinner dessert was a flop.  The big presentation at work – well, none of the a/v equipment worked properly.  There’s a big old dent in the side of a brand new car?  Your sixth grader got a C in English?  

And it’s not just about those kinds of failures… because it’s not all that hard to come up with a list of more serious things to worry about, things which raise our fears these days,  and it becomes harder to resist that feeling that we are all on the losing side of things, that something’s out of whack.

In the midst of all this, comes Jesus, saying to us, “Do not be afraid.”  And somewhere in our minds comes that voice responding back, “are you kidding?”  

In the midst of trial and trouble, we struggle to see or feel the truth of Jesus’ words.  It’s easy for him to say that we’ll never hunger or thirst if we follow him, but right now, we’re hungry and thirsty and lonely and tired.  And what does it all mean?

That’s when it’s helpful to add in the words found in the letter to the Hebrews:  “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are engaged in the work of building something which doesn’t yet exist.  Our task is the transformation of dreams into reality.  It’s not just the work of our lifetimes, but the work of centuries; we are but one part of that work.

Sometimes, it feels like we’re making no progress.  Sometimes, it feels like we’re going backwards.  But there are signs out there, signs for us to show that we’re really one step ahead, even when we’re in the midst of chaos.  

Here’s a story about how small steps, small changes, made a big difference:  it’s a story from out of the dog show world that I heard years ago.  

Down in South Carolina, they were having a canine obedience trial.  This is a kind of doggy competition where the dogs are asked to complete particular tasks to demonstrate just how well trained they are.  Dogs, accompanied by their human handlers, sit, stay, jump over obstacles and retrieve items on command, and they are evaluated on how well they sit, how promptly they come, how completely they stay and so on. In some kinds of obedience, the dog and handler walk a course, doing a task at each of maybe ten stations.  It’s a lot of fun, but very hard for dog and human.

So in this particular contest (or trial), one of the women noticed an elderly woman who was showing her dog for the umpteenth time…. Our friend, Bev,  reports that every year, this woman comes to their show and competes.  She’s not very good, and the dog’s not learned a whole lot over the years – they’ve never even progressed out of the introductory level, but everyone has noticed how much fun they have together.

This year it was a little different.  This year, the woman and her dog actually qualified (finished with a high enough score that they could move ahead). And, when she finished the exercise, everyone broke out in loud applause!  The exhibitor still wasn’t very good, and the dog still hadn’t learned much, but they’d done their best and they were honored for it.

And there’s more – The next day, this same woman was going to compete again.  It turns out she’s deaf, and in the noise of the fairgrounds, her hearing aids are no help at all, but she absolutely has to hear the directions from the judge to know which part of the course to work next.  She was set for failure and the judge knew it.  

So the judge went to the people running the competition and challenged them to find a hearing-ear person – someone who could walk along with the exhibitor through the exercises and do nothing more than repeat the judge’s instructions so she could hear.  Wonder of wonders, they found someone, and went ahead with the competition – and the exhibitor finished well, and to great cheers.  And then it was announced that not only had she managed to complete the course, but she’d earned fourth place.  The cheers brought the place down.

Sometimes our great gains are in solving society’s problems – in creating a safe space for GLBT teens to gather, or helping the homeless find homes, or providing a free meal to the community on a regular basis.  Sometimes, it’s helping a fellow competitor through the competition.  Sometimes, it’s as simple as offering a ride to the doctor or sharing coffee at Dunkins.

David Lose, senior pastor of Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, writes:  

. . . .one of the primary calls of the church today is to become a place where people are so rooted in the promise of God’s good pleasure, reminded of their identity as God’s beloved children, and affirmed in their inherent self-worth and dignity, that they can, indeed, see all those around them as similarly beloved and deserving of self-worth, dignity, and God’s good pleasure. 

The question for a Christian, you see, isn’t finally about some form of self-actualization but rather discovering that as we give ourselves away in relationship and service we find a deeper sense of self than we’d imagined possible. We are born for community and find a sense of self and meaning and purpose as we trust God’s promises and give ourselves away in love.

We are not perfect, but we are loved.  

Our lives are not perfect, but they are important.  

Things may fall apart, but God will always be with us.  

Failure is not an end, but more like an opportunity to try another path.

Because we know that we are God’s beloved children, because we know that love cannot be lost, we are freed to be people of love to those who are feared and hated in our world.  And that sense of belonging, of having worthwhile work, of knowing that we are loved, that is the food that sustains, that is the bread that always satisfies, that is the drink that quenches our thirst.

We’re not here just to make money, or to have the best vacation – or even the most elaborate Halloween display on the block – we are here, we are at our best, when we are working together, we are freed to build community, to help others to be their best selves.

And because we know that God loves us even when we fail, we’re able to get up, to be restored, to work together again, to continue on the path that the apostles started so long ago.  

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

Amen.

© 2024, Virginia H. Child