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| Summary: The story of the loaves and the fish goes beyond the power Jesus demonstrated to the compassion he taught. It holds both a lesson and hope as we struggle with the fallout of a recession. |
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| Summary: Since we often don’t think about God as the Creator who provides us with food and other needs, we fail to trust in God for our lives. The feeding of the multitude is a dramatic sign of the Creator’s presence and power. Jesus does in an attention-getting way what the Creator is doing all the time to supply us with food. And the thanks he offers shows us the proper attitude we should have in response to God’s work. |
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| Summary: In John 6, Jesus offers a portrait of abundance. As the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his flock, Jesus offers a bountiful feast for all. By doing so, he demonstrates that he is the true bread of life who graciously gives us genuine abundance. |
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| Summary: The feeding of the 5,000 is a miraculous story of people getting fed. But why does Jesus ensure that the fragments are saved? Perhaps this is a message not just about miraculous feeding, but also about abundance and hope. |
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| Summary: Jesus miraculously feeds a crowd of over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes. He resists the crowd’s subsequent desire to anoint him as their king. This miracle points to the deeper reality that Jesus wants to offer true life to those who trust in him. |
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| Summary: Living a life of faith, we are challenged to use our resources faithfully to meet life’s challenges -- even if the challenges are huge and the resources small. |
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| Summary: Our tradition refers to Jesus as “king” ad infinitum, and that is fine and good and certainly not ad nauseam — but this passage offers us some surprising insights about the kind of king he might be. What kind of king is he — and what kind of subjects are we to be? |
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| Summary: In the Gospel of John, miracles are signs that point to Jesus. Jesus realized the people who came to hear him needed to have their basic hunger for food satisfied before they could realize their eternal hunger for the Bread of Life. And we too need to see to it that the basic and crucial needs for water, food, shelter and security for the suffering are fulfilled, so they can appreciate and claim the significance of the signs of Jesus that invite all to recognize our eternal needs. The signs invite us, once nourished, to walk further toward the Bread of Life and eternal security.
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| Summary: Living a life of faith, we are challenged to use our resources faithfully to meet life’s challenges -- even if the challenges are huge and the resources small. |
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| Summary: As in other places in scripture, John draws a connection between food and faith. Jesus came as the bread of life, who feeds our spiritual hunger. One way to respond is to heal our relationship to physical food. |
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| Summary: In this text, which contains the first “I am” speech of Jesus in the gospel of John, Jesus offers not merely physical sustenance but ongoing spiritual nourishment for those who receive the gifts he offers and believe that he is indeed the one sent by God for the redemption of the world. |
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| Summary: Christianity sells, as bookstore merchandise and gospel music sales show. It’s also possible to embrace faith in ways that treat it as a beneficial commodity. Christianity sells, of that there is no doubt. The question is whether we are buying it simply to adorn our living or whether we are buying it as a gift for others. |
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| Summary: This passage seems to contradict much of what Jesus says or implies in other places. He seems to deny or contradict outright what the activists among us want to emphasize: He says here that simply to believe is sufficient. What about the “sheep” in Matthew 25, who put meeting real human needs ahead of mere belief and in so doing gain entrance to the kingdom, while the “goats” are sent away empty? What about the blessings upon the poor and the warnings of severe judgment for the rich and well fed that we get from Jesus in other gospels? This passage provides some necessary perspective. |
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| Summary: “Manna” means “What is it?” The people in John 6, referring to the miraculous loaves and fishes, ask Jesus, “Where is it?” They had originally come to hear Jesus speak, but forgot his words after being distracted by the food. Are we so distracted by ritual and symbols that we forget the reality of Jesus and his Word that lie behind them? |
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| Summary: While the Bible says nothing about the keto diet, it does speak a great deal about food. Jesus is the bread of life, and he encourages his followers to fill empty stomachs and souls.
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| Summary: The bread of the sacrament is for you — because you are worth it. You are worth it because the host at this banquet says you are. He has died for all our sins — and he has invited us, personally, to partake of this bread that endures. |
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| Summary: True, Christian Thanksgiving is not just a calendar affair we observe annually. It is an attitude of gratitude the holy spirit of God works in our hearts through the blessing of Jesus Christ. Our real blessings are not measured in 'Bread,' but in him who is the Bread of Life. Jesus said, "He who eats of this bread shall never hunger..." |
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| Summary: Jesus was rejected by some and misunderstood by many. He lived among us to bring salvation to a world that desperately needed it. He was no ordinary man, but he was just what the world needed and continues to need. |
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| Summary: In a world that focuses on how we feed our bodies, Jesus invites us to nourish our spirits. We are invited to receive the bread of life. |
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| Summary: The Bible doesn’t “say” anything — not until the words in question are interpreted. When such interpretive work is ignored, the words in the Bible can be misused in destructive ways. As a case in point, the passage we read today from the Gospel of John needs to be handled with special care to prevent it from being used — as it sometimes has been in Christian history — as a warrant, or excuse, for anti-Judaism, the theological bigotry found at the root of antisemitism, which is an ethnic and racial bigotry. John’s primary message is “Trust Jesus to show us the way to have a life-giving relationship with God.”
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| Summary: When we’ve got a puzzle to solve, there comes a wonderful moment when suddenly we get it! In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses plain language to speak about who he is and what we are to become. Not everybody gets it. At first. But there is something wonderful waiting for us if we take the time for our spiritual eyes to focus on the one who declared, “I am the bread of life.” |
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| Summary: On All Souls Day, we remember the great communion of saints that includes all souls, in heaven and earth. The Living Bread of Life came not to do his own will but the will of the Heavenly Father, and that will is that none one of us should be lost. It is also the Father’s will that we share in this obedience. |
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| Summary: Jesus used an ordinary staple of life, bread, to illustrate the eternally satisfying nature of a dynamic relationship with him. God wants a relationship with us based on who He is, not necessarily on what he can do for us. We consume food to sustain our bodies, but only Jesus can satisfy the soul. |
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| Summary: Much of what Jesus said in his ministry provoked more murmuring than acceptance. This was true when he proclaimed that he is the bread that has come down from heaven. We are left with the choice to join those who murmur in the face of this truth or to accept his invitation to feed on his Word and sacrament. |
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| Summary: Jesus’ description of himself as “the living bread that came down from heaven” is a potent symbol of the new life and salvation he brings. |
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| Summary: When Jesus referred to Holy Communion as eating his body and drinking his blood, he did not consult a pollster, conduct a focus group or ask for suggestions. He told the rock bottom truth that we share the literal Bread of Life. Period.
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| Summary: We often use the word “body” in relation to other persons in ways that reflect a connection or lack of connection to them — a nobody, an anybody or a somebody. If we are truly seeking the body of Christ, however, we are likely to find it whenever, in amazement and welcome, we say to someone, “You are something else!” |
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| Summary: In a world where life and property can be lost in an instant, Jesus says, “Whoever eats of this bread will live forever ....” “Forever bread” is Good News indeed. |
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| Summary: When Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Bread of Life, his words were not received well by all who heard them. Had we been there with those people who had just witnessed the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, would we have been impressed with what Jesus said? This question is not nearly as important as how we hear his words today. In what way is Jesus the Bread of our life now? |
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| Summary: History has a way of distorting the meaning of some very important truths. Even the truth about of the Body of Christ can become buried beneath seemingly unconnected events. How does a believer in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, sort through the distortions of history to discover the nourishment Jesus promised to provide? Our minds and hearts are fed so much that does not nourish that we can lose sight of the food that matters. Even little children know that this is not just any bread. This is Bread given that we might remember the message that we are born to be at one with each other and the God who created us. |
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| Summary: There is something of Jesus himself present in Communion. |
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| Summary: These words are not the ravings of a lunatic. This ritual is not an empty holdover from a superstitious past. These words call us, truly, to communion. |
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| Summary: Jesus offers the bread of life to meet our greatest need, but we are too often focused on lesser things — physical blessings versus deeper, spiritual ones. |
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| Summary: Try as we will, we cannot outsmart death. Only by eating spiritual bread do we have eternal life. We have to eat to live. |
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| Summary: These difficult passages show us where faith in Jesus Christ begins. Faith is ultimately beyond our understanding. It comes to us from a place we don’t know. It begins at a place that is beyond our comprehension, beckoning to us from outside ourselves. This sense of mystery is, above all, what we need to bring to the Eucharist. |
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| Summary: Jesus tells us he is the bread of life that came down from heaven, a sign of God’s presence with us. This bread and sign are to be shared with everyone. |
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| Summary: Disturbing or confusing as they might be, the spoken words of Christ create the life of eternity within those who can truly hear them.
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| Summary: By his very nature, Jesus is a question that demands an answer. |
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| Summary: Some followers of Jesus began walking away from him in response to something he said that they found difficult and confusing. But Peter said he and others of the Twelve would stay because they knew Jesus is the Holy One of God. Followers of Jesus today are challenged to follow Peter’s example and commit themselves fully to Christ. |
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| Summary: The words of Jesus may shock us on occasion, but when some disciples turned away from Jesus because his words were too difficult, Simon Peter declared that no other has the words of life, or is the Messiah, the Holy One of God. He was right. |
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| Summary: Jesus offers us an address for God, a flesh-and-blood location. He is where God and people come together in communion, in the community of faith and in the words of the Bible. |
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| Summary: Powerful communication comes from allowing the Spirit to speak through us, sharing a message of service, sacrifice and eternal life. |
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| Summary: When Peter asks, “Lord, to whom can we go?” he is articulating a bedrock affirmation of the Christian life: that we are radically dependent on Jesus. It is only when we truly accept the fact of our utter dependence on him that we are freed to do real evangelism. |
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| Summary: If our Christian faith were put to a showdown, would we stay with it? What have we found in Jesus Christ that we couldn’t find anywhere else? |
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