This Sunday’s gospel reading is John 6:24-35, I am the Bread of Life.
Some of you may write poetry, or may have tried a few verses when younger and full of dreams. Some might, as they say, have a novel in them, not yet written but a personal story which is ready to come out if you ever got round to it. Some may draw or paint, or entertain people by your cartoon-like sketches. Some may write clear and lucid reports about an aspect of your work, a project, a case, an incident.
Some may write about our history; the house in which I live has been the home of at least two historians known for their books and articles. Some may create beautiful clothes for the family, some have a hobby like woodwork or jewellery which others appreciate or use. Everyone is creative in some way.
Friends, for the past few weeks, I have been writing an index! You know what I mean, that bit at the end of a book which lists where you can find each topic, like in my case choir, recruiting members for, pages 7, 58, 234 or pews, when to remove 79-80. (I made that last one up. Don’t worry! There will be a seat for you when you come back to church when the all-clear comes.)
Writing the index is one of the most tedious, yawn-inducing task you can think of. Plodding through the manuscript and wrenching out a word here and there and dumping it in the end pages. But – what do you know! – it is rather important, because it points to the real information, what the reader is looking for, may want very much to know.
In today’s gospel, people are haranguing Jesus. What sign can you give us so that we will know what is true and important, who to trust, a beacon by which we can live our lives, a support which carries us through? Jesus tells them, it was in eating the bread on the mountain side that pointed you to the truth, and that truth is that I am the bread, bread that comes from God, and is not just to break, pass round, and chew, but that fills your heart and your soul.
Like an index, like the signs for which the crowd clamoured, we today as Christian people, point beyond ourselves to Christ. In our lives and actions, in our love, in our protests and prayers for those unjustly treated or lost, we are an index, pointers, to a belief, a promise, a person, who offers answers, knowledge, and peace, who can satisfy the hunger of the millions who seek security in body and in mind, whether afar of or met each day.
A prayer
Lord, giver of lasting life,
satisfy our hunger through Christ, the Bread of life,
and quench our thirst with your gift of belief,
that we may no longer work for food that perishes,
but believe in the One whom you have sent.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
from The Icel Collects