26
Nov
Thanksgiving Message
Thanksgiving Message
(Meito Christ International Church provides a
Thanksgiving worship service and potluck for the
English speaking community in Nagoya. Although
the church calendar would have us at Christ the King
Sunday, MCIC celebrated Thanksgiving.)
(John 6: 25-35)At my first church where I was pastor, a regular member came to me after a worship service one Sunday saying, “I did not get it this Sunday like I got it last Sunday. You missed me.”Admittedly, my young pastoral naivety got the best of me. Although I knew better, deep down in my heart, I had thought my preaching and leadership was supposed to do it every time for everybody, that I was supposed to somehow hit holy homeruns every time I preached. “What do you want?” screamed in my mind and heart for her.Her question and my initial feelings were an important learning event. I realized that I was putting too much pressure on myself to try and hit a homerun every Sunday. But that member’s statement also helped me realize something far more important about faith.“What do we want? And more importantly, what do we need?”
St. Augustine, an early Church father, said that “our souls are restless until they find their rest in God.” What a powerful observation. Today’s gospel from John reminds me that the crowds then are not much different than people now — all wanting more — still thirsty, still hungry. We are a hungry and thirsty people. We hunger to be seen, to be known, to matter, to have meaning and purpose. We are thirsty for recognition and affirmation that we are here. We are thirsty for 15 minutes of fame.
John’s Gospel tells us that they came looking for Jesus … again. Why did they come … again? Earlier in the chapter, Jesus fed 5,000 with 12 baskets of leftovers from a meager five barley loaves and two fish. Now, they are back. Because they sat down to eat what Jesus offered, they were filled with more than enough. Now the people are back, for Jesus reads their motives in verse 26, …”‘I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.’” They wanted full stomachs instead of fulfilled lives, even the miracle was secondary to being full. They wanted Thanksgiving every week. Don’t we all!
That crowd that came looking for Jesus again, missed out that Jesus provides in times of hunger and thirst, not what he provides but that he provides. They ate of the miracle, the food, but missed the message. They had the Thanksgiving banquet but missed the point.
And so it is with some of us. We allow the past and the cravings of today to make us forget that God provides what is sufficient through Jesus when we are in need.
In John, how did Jesus respond to all those expectations for another miracle of fullness? In vss. 30-31 we hear the question, “So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
In other words, the question is one we may ask at times. I got it last Sunday, but I missed it this Sunday. How did Jesus respond? “…‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” (vs.35)
Soon we will sit down at a potluck table laden with all sorts of delicious food items. We give thanks for all of it. But we’re not going to be eating turkey every day for the rest of our lives.
Everyday is not and will not be a banquet. Certainly we are thankful for all of these things because that is what that Thanksgiving holiday is about, to be thankful.
But we’re thankful most of all that we have “daily bread and living water,” both in a real sense, and in a spiritual sense. We are blessed in so many ways — necessary ways — but the one constant we can count on is Jesus, our daily bread.
Yes, we want, we may crave, more! We may want a Thanksgiving banquet with 12 bushels of leftovers each day. We may want other miracles and signs to fill us to bursting. Yet just like the manna, the bread from heaven, those miracles are not what lasts. In fact manna from heaven itself did not last. The reason it did not last had two purposes, one was teach people not to hoard, and a far more important lesson, we trust and have faith in God daily. Therefore, the manna could not be saved to be eaten later, but had to be eaten the very day it was given. Jesus is the bread of life, for each day. “I am the bread of life” like manna provides all that is necessary for each day. As the Bread of Life and the Living Water, Jesus offers spiritual satisfaction. Compare this to an account from Greek mythology.
King Tantalus is a figure who was punished in the underworld by being chained in a lake. The water level would rise to his chin, but when he lowered his head to slake his thirst, the water immediately receded out of reach. Over his head were branches laden with choice fruit, but they immediately withdrew whenever he reached upward to satisfy his hunger. A symbol of utter frustration, his name is immortalized in the English word “tantalize.”
God through Jesus Christ does not tantalize but satisfies with daily bread that is necessary for life. That is all we need, nothing more, nothing less. Amen.
