Scripture: John 6:35-40 Series: 2022
Fourth in a ‘Survival’ series, this sermon on John 6:35-40 uses the pastor’s Appalachian Trail experience of hunger and caloric density to explore how survival reshapes desire. He argues that physical hunger is a metaphor for spiritual desire that can never be permanently satisfied in this world, warning against bad spiritual food and against turning the body into an idol. Christ as the bread of life is the only food that satisfies, giving purpose and meaning to family, body, job, and hobbies rather than competing with them, and is found in communion, worship, prayer, service, and scripture.
Illustrations: appalachian-trail-caloric-density, mother-food-drops, medieval-gluttony-insatiable-desire, turkey-induced-nap, wild-foraging-bad-food-dangers, jesus-unhandsome-appearance
July 10
Food
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I told you that you have seen me and still don’t believe. Everyone whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and I won’t send away anyone who comes to me. I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the one who sent me, that I won’t lose anything he has given me, but I will raise it up at the last day. This is my Father’s will: that all who see the Son and believe in him will have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:35-40
I was never a big athlete growing up. I was never the best at any athletic thing. I was mostly like a solid average. I would never be the first one picked, nor the last one, but often just right in the middle.
When I went hiking on the Appalachian trail, I was not in great shape coming out of college. I did not expect to get into great shape. That was not my original goal. I thought that it would take me at least six months to do the 2000 miles. When I started in July, 18 years ago, I did not go very fast or very far any day. I was going seven miles, 12 miles, 10 miles a day. It was taking me all day and it was hard. I hurt. I didn’t eat very much. I just didn’t know that I should eat more. My pack was too heavy. Over time, though, I lightened my load. I sent back the unnecessary items like a guitar. I sent most of my books back, but I got stronger, I walked further in a day than I ever could have imagined. It got to the point where I was walking between 20 and 30 miles a day with a pack that had a base weight of about 12 pounds. It was about 20 pounds with food and water. Because I was walking so much, I needed to eat a lot more food than I ever had eaten before in my life. The food drops my mother amazingly sent me were fantastic. She was great to do those. But I still just needed more. Growing up, my family tried to practice healthy nutrition and a balanced diet. Our dinner plate was always colorful, with lots of vegetables. I didn’t eat a ton of sugar or sweets or sodas growing up. I didn’t crave them. That was not super desirable for me. But when I went hiking, I began to have a different relationship to food. I was burning about between 4,000 and 6,000 calories a day. And it was almost physically cumbersome to eat that much food. I would never eat enough food to have a balanced, but so, and I couldn’t carry that much. I adapted to look for caloric density. It’s usually not something that you’re looking for. What I mean be caloric density is that I would look for foods that had the most calories to ounce of weight possible. How can I eat the fattiest, sugariest foods imaginable? Because I was carrying the food, I didn’t have as much food as possible, which meant that I would overeat every time I got into a town. I was looking for calories and protein. And I got to the point where even while I was still in New England, I would go into a town and find a pizza place. There was almost always an Italian pizza place in rural Massachusetts that had a Bulgarian family running it. And I would order an 18 inch cheese pizza with a 44 ounce cup of soda, usually a grape or orange soda (I don’t like the flavor, but it’s, it’s more calorically dense than Coke). And then a pint of peanut butter Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Peanut butter ice cream has more calories than any other flavor of ice cream. That would be a meal that I would eat in one sitting. And I would be content and move to the next thing in the day. I had a different relationship to food when I was hiking. If I were in a survival situation, I would, as well, have a completely different relationship to food.
Friends, we are continuing our series on Survival. We are looking at how to survive in the wild as well as in the brokenness of this world; how our souls can survive and thrive. I started with the first week, Don’t panic. If you’re panicking, you can’t do anything else. So that’s why it’s important to start with don’t panic. The next step we did was on shelter and looking for shelter. Last week, I spoke of water and the need for water. Water as the Spring which God offers us through the grace of Jesus Christ. That we have a spring of Spiritual water offered within us that does not run dry, but we still have to go back to it. We can run through life dry if we do not go to the source of God’s grace and God’s love.
Today, we’re talking about food. There is a survivalist adage that says that you can live about three weeks without food. That is not a hard scientific fact. I don’t think you should test it. There are people that fast longer than three weeks. There are people who would probably die of starvation before three weeks. It depends on what you’re doing. If I were hiking 25 miles a day and hadn’t eaten for three weeks, I would not survive. But food need not be the number one priority you have. When you’re trying to survive in the wild. It is a priority. You will need to eat. Next week, we’re going to talk about getting rescued and what we can do to help that. But that happens after you are able to sustain your life, which takes food. Our lives cannot be sustained without food, but what kind of food are we looking for? In John 6, Jesus offers this wonderful teaching to his disciples to say, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
That thirst connects again to the spring of the Spirit that Jesus offers to you. The spring that does not run dry. We have to keep going back to it, but it is there and offered to us. The hunger and the food that Jesus is talking about is what we absolutely desire. Hunger is connected to desire in every language I’ve ever encountered. Hunger is a metaphor of desire. What do you long for? Hunger for? Yearn for? These are all connected. In the medieval world, the sin of gluttony was described as an impossible to satisfy desire. It’s a desire for food or whatever object that can never be enough. There’s never enough. And yet the reality with food is that if you eat one meal, you will be hungry again. It doesn’t matter if you are burning 6,000 calories or 600 calories a day, you will be hungry again. In this world and in this life, you cannot finally defeat hunger. There are good foods for you, and there are not as good foods. There are bad foods. There are foods that may delight you mouth, but destroy your body. There’s a lot of focus in this world about good foods and bad foods.
“oh, I shouldn’t eat that. I should eat that.” I think a lot of it is pretty intuitive that even children understand: vegetables are better for you than candy, water is better than soda. They may not taste the same for you, but they are. It’s better for your body. I think it is important to have a balanced and healthy idea of what you eat. It is also important to have a healthy relationship with your body, you remember that you were created by God. Your body is lovely and beautiful and your body matters. Your body is a temple, as the scriptures say, and what you put into your body matters. It’s not the most important thing in the world, but it matters. It should be taken with thought and care. However, there are ways that the body can be turned into an idol, and this happens a lot. We have to be on guard of turning our bodies into idols, to worship and care for our bodies into a different God. Jesus Christ was not of a handsome appearance. No one was drawn to him because of his appearance. Jesus probably couldn’t do a lot of squats or bench press a ton. His power was not in those things, but in the Lord, God almighty. Our power is not in ourself or our body but in the Lord, God Almighty When we come back to food, what I want us to think about is not just the physical foods that I mentioned, the foods that we hunger for after church, the lunch that you’re longing for right now, but the spiritual foods. Spiritual foods that are good for you and spiritual foods that can rot your soul. Spiritual foods that can bring you life and Spiritual foods that can tear you down. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” He’s offering us a way to satisfy our spiritual hunger that cannot be found elsewhere. If we do not see it in Jesus, though, we are going to look for it elsewhere. We are going to try to satisfy ourselves and our souls elsewhere. We’re going to be looking elsewhere. We’re going to be looking for something that gives us purpose in this world; that gives us meaning in this world where we will be looking for anything that gives us meaning in this world, it may be physical fitness. It may be politics. It may be a sports team. It may be our children or our neighbors, but ultimately these will not satisfy and we will be hungry again. We will not survive if we do not seek and find the bread of life. When I was hiking, I could eat anything I wanted and there weren’t any consequences. It was a short time thing. And I was exercising like crazy. There are some consequences to our diets that are pretty obvious. A big turkey dinner doesn’t leave you wide awake, right? They’re always consequences to our spiritual food, to what we feed our soul with, to how we spend our time with. But those consequences aren’t as obvious as a Turkey induced nap.
If your in a survival situation, bad food can knock you out faster than bad water. If you don’t know the kind of berry that you find, you shouldn’t eat it. If you don’t know the kind of mushroom, that goes doubly sure you shouldn’t eat it. If you are able to hunt and trap a mammal, you need to check its belly to make sure it is not sick and to field dress it as soon as possible. Fish are a safer bet, but you can still get sick from it. Yet when you are starving, you may not think about those consequences. Each of us, in our own way, we train ourselves to look away from those consequences. But our God is a God of truth. My brothers and sisters, there’s grace. This day, Christ has offered you the bread of life. That doesn’t mean everything else in your life is useless, but in fact, even more so, the bread of life gives purpose and meaning to the rest of the things in your life. We should see the bread of life at communion but also wherever Christ is present, where two or three are gathered. The bread of life is found in worship, in prayer, in service, and in scripture itself. Jesus is here in the Bible. The food that satisfies. Seek this food here.
It gives purpose and meaning to your family, to your body, to your job, to your hobbies. All of those are made full in Christ. They’re not lessened. Christ is not competing for your time, like a hobby. Christ is the Lord of all creation, who is redeeming your time. As he’s redeeming your life. You are loved and you are forgiven already. What it takes to receive this love is to step forward into Christ’s new life. You don’t have to do the things you used to do. You don’t have to have the habits you used to do. You don’t have to live like you used to live. You are free, you’re free and you will not only survive, but you will thrive on the bread of life.
Let us pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for your food that takes away our hunger. We admit, O Lord, that we are restless unless we rest in you. Help us to find your rest this day. Help us to share your rest with those around us who are restless or wandering, who are lost and seeking, but do not even know it. Help us to be witnesses to your grace and your peace and your truth. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.