Sermon – 08-11-24 – Proper 14 – Cycle B
Scripture: 1 Kings 19:4-8; Ephesians 4:25- 5:2; John 6:35, 41-51
Sermon – “Bread and Love”

The ten commandments are popping up again. They appear in Exodus, in Deuteronomy, and here they are again. They probably appear in disguise at other places in the scripture. Here in Ephesians, we hear again about not stealing, no evil talk, no malice. But what Paul does in this writing to the people in Ephesus, is to encourage us to do the opposite. Instead of gossiping, we shall “build up” others with our language and our actions. If we do become angry, we shall not let the anger continue when we lay our heads on our pillows. We shall resolve the issue with whomever.

Mother and Father Sheep live in a house, similarly to The Three Little Pigs. Mother Sheep said to Father Sheep, why did you butt our little lamb with your horns? Or was it an accident? Father Sheep says, “No it was not an accident. Little Lamb wanted to sneak out the door. That could be dangerous or he could get lost. Should I just let him run away?” Mrs. Sheep says, “Oh my, I just think your horns are too sharp for Litlle Lamb.” “What else should I do?” asks Father Sheep. “Well,” says Mother Sheep, “maybe you could put some kind of board across the bottom on the outside of the door high enough so Little Lamb could not jump over it.” What a nuisance?” says Father Sheep. “How am I going to find time to find a board and make it the right size? A little nudge shouldn’t really hurt Little Lamb, should it: Do you think I have nothing else to do?” “M.m.m.m” says Mother Sheep, “I seem to have hit a sore spot. I suppose I should apologize for upsetting you. But seeing Little Lamb being butted is my sore spot. What will we do?”

“Nothing for now,” says Father Sheep. “Let’s just be angry for a little bit while we each think about this.” “Meanwhile, you can keep Little Lamb from sneaking out the door!” So they don’t speak to each other for a few hours. Father Sheep goes out the door to do some yard work. Mother Sheep positions herself in a chair in front of the door and lifts Little Lamb into her lap. She sings a song about Jesus to Little Lamb until he falls asleep. Then Mother Sheep falls asleep. Finally, Father Sheep wants to come into the house because he is finished with his work and is quite tired. You got it! He can’t get in because Mother Sheep has her chair in front of the door. At first, Father Sheep is very annoyed on the way to becoming angrier. But he stops and thinks, “This is really silly!” Before he bangs on the door, he starts to laugh. “Oh God,” he says. “Being angry is not good. I feel terrible.”

“And now I cannot even get in the house. But it feels much better laughing about this situation than if I were still angry.” “Thank you, God,” he says “for changing my anger to amusement.” I will knock gently and see if that does the trick.” Mother Sheep does stir when she hears the gentle knock. But she thinks, “Who could that be? It can’t be Father Sheep because he is angry. He would be banging”. Mother Sheep gets up, gently lifting Little Lamb so as not to wake him. Too bad, Little Lamb wakes. The chair gets moved. The door gets opened. Out runs Little Lamb. Father Sheep’s arms go out just in time to catch the Little Lamb in his arms. “What are we going to do with you, Little Lamb?” Father Sheep says. “Baa, baa,” sighs Little Lamb as if to say, “I don’t know.” Mother wraps her arms around Father and Little Lamb. “This is going to be quite a game for a year or so. We will have to think of something that can’t be called abuse that will keep you safe,” she says aloud. Now love is restored in this household!

Love restored! How good that sounds! What about the bread in the title of this sermon? “Bread and Love.” We say, “Jesus Loves Me” and Jesus is Love.” Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life.”
Jesus also says many other “I am’s.” But today it is “I am the Bread of Life.” This is how he tries to explain it. From John 6:35, we hear “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Should we tell our neighbors and relatives that Helping Harvest and Conrad Weiser Food Pantry are not the answer to their hunger? That does not sound very loving on our part, does it? Shall we tell our friend across town that they do not need to be concerned about the condition of their well water or even town water. They just need to knock on Jesus’ door and ask for his water.

Here’s the thing: We are the hands and feet of Jesus. We are supposed to be concerned and active about our neighbors’ health and well-being. We are supposed to be capable of loving in all ways. Well that is an expectation which most of us will fail! Jesus has the Bread and the Water that help us to be loving! It is a spiritual thing. This bread and water can change our attitude, can change our hearts. This heavenly bread and water can help us to see possibilities for all the people in our neighborhood and the world so that we are willing to share our resources, which include time and effort, even though we work or worked hard for the money and free time that we have or will have. Maybe we don’t want this change in our lives. Maybe we don’t want our lives upset. Jesus insists we need this Bread that he offers. He has a convincing argument. To be continued next week. Amen