John 6:35, 41-51
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.
41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Grey’s Anatomy is a medical drama that centers on the personal and professional lives of five surgical interns and their supervisors. In one of the episodes, one of the interns, George reluctantly goes with his brothers and his father on their annual Thanksgiving hunting trip. George’s brother tease that they aren’t leaving until George kills his first turkey. George kills his first turkey and his brothers are so excited that they accidentally shoot their dad in his rear end. George and his brothers rush their dad to the hospital to get the bullet out. However when they arrive at the hospital George is really frustrated because his family doesn’t seem to treat him fairly. George’s family won’t listen to George and won’t trust the information that his is giving them. Instead, they want to hear about how their dad is doing by the other “real” doctors. They know George, they grew up with him, they played with him as a child, they know the mistakes he made, and all of the memories they have of their brother serve as a barrier for them to see their family member as the doctor that he is with the same education and experience of the other doctors around him.
We enter this week’s Gospel text, where last Sunday left off. Jesus fed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish with 12 baskets of leftovers even after everyone had their fill. After Jesus fed them, the people wanted to make Jesus their king. Knowing this, Jesus wanted to get away so he and the disciples got into boats and went to Capernaum. And the crowd followed them. Jesus challenged them to stop working for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.
The crowd that has followed Jesus viewed him as a teacher. They witnessed his miracles and know him as one of their own. They know his family, they’ve watched him play, learn his trade, grow up, and leave home. They know him like they know the other kids from their old neighborhood. And because they know him, because he appears to be just like them, because he seems common he can’t be special and he most certainly cannot be the one God sent to save them or the world. How can Jesus say “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”.
The crowd is put off, offended, and angered by the claim that Jesus, a common ordinary human being, just like them is the answer to their deepest longings and greatest needs. God’s are made for greatness, they are supposed to reside up in the clouds. Who has ever heard of a God having anything to do with the everyday, the ordinary, and the mundane? For the crowd, Jesus’ words seem to make fun of their understanding of God’s majesty, and mock their deep need for a God who transcends the life that seems to be causing them so much difficulty.
The crowd is all too familiar with their own brokenness and failures. They are aware of their doubts and fears. They know all too well the ways they have broken promises and pettiness. They know about shame, disappointment, and regret. How can someone who is just like them save them? How can someone who is just like them be saved? And if Jesus is common and ordinary like them, how can he save them or be saved? And if they are common and ordinary, are they really worth saving?
And yet, this is our faith. We believe that God does come to ordinary, common, mundane, and broken people. We believe that God uses the ordinary, common, and mundane elements to offer grace, mercy, and love. We believe that God uses ordinary, common, mundane, and broken people to do extraordinary things in the world. The water we use for baptism isn’t special water, it comes from the tap, just like the water we use to brush our teeth or wash our hands. The bread and wine are simple, common, ordinary, and mundane. None of these elements are special, but God still uses them.
This is the promise that is given to us in Jesus’ words today and every time we baptize, remember our baptism, or gather around the Lord’s table. God becomes incarnate, God takes on flesh, God becomes just like us, so that the world might be saved. We are given that promise that God seeks out the ordinary to do the extraordinary. In the words of David Lose: “where we expect God to come in might, God comes in weakness; where we look for God to come in power, God comes in vulnerability; and when we seek God in justice and righteousness – which is, after all, what we all expect form a God – we find God (or rather are found by God!) in forgiveness and mercy”. And in the same promise, just as God uses ordinary bread, wine, and water to bring us grace, mercy, and love God uses ordinary, broken, common, and mundane people to accomplish God’s will and to work in God’s world.
The crowd that followed Jesus couldn’t imagine that the ordinary, common, and mundane child they knew could grow into the man that would save them and the world. And it is sometimes difficult to imagine that God could use our ordinary, common, mundane, and broken lives to point to God’s grace, mercy, and love in the world. And God uses ordinary water, bread, and wine so that we can literally hear, see, taste, touch, and feel God’s promise of forgiveness, acceptance, grace, love, and mercy to give us courage and hope to live in a world that so desperately needs it.
As we gather and are sent out today, may we remember that we are the ordinary people that God comes to; we are the ordinary people that God’s sees as worth saving; and we are the ordinary that God claims to make an extraordinary difference in the world. May we have the hope to see God in the ordinary, the courage to imagine the extraordinary, and the boldness to proclaim the way God comes in the ordinary to do the extraordinary.
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