bread

 

Gospel reading set for Holy Communion today: Luke 11.5-13

One time, Jesus told a parable (a story, to get under our skin) about the gift of God’s Holy Spirit to our own life-breath, which is small and must be exhaled—let go—time after time.

The story begins with a confession: a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.

This is the fundamental starting point, in this story about ‘bread,’ by which, here at least, Jesus is referring to spiritual sustenance. For we can make physical bread—so many varieties!—to meet physical hunger; but we cannot make spiritual bread. All we can do is receive such bread from God, and share it.

This is why Jesus goes on to say we must ask and seek and knock on God’s door—and the grammar he uses is that we must keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking—not because God must be persuaded that we deserve bread (yet again! How many times must I bail out this sponge on my resources!?) but because we cannot make this bread for ourselves, and because it does not keep (the manna God provided in the wilderness for the people Moses brought out from under slavery in Egypt turned maggoty if they tried to keep it overnight) and because we need to learn to trust that God will provide this bread—give us this day our daily bread—every day of our lives.

For as long as God gives us breath, so God will also give us the bread of the Holy Spirit.

Still breathing? Still fed.

What is this spiritual bread?

It is a spiced fruit-loaf: love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness (generosity) and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, when we need any of those—none of which we can create of ourselves. You cannot add an ounce of love or joy or peace to the world by wishing or trying harder; but you can receive them all, in greater measure than you can possibly imagine. Receive them, and share them; give them away today, and discover they are replenished tomorrow.

Over the past year-and-a-half, we have seen a steady stream of people walk through the doors of our church, because they are spiritually hungry, and hoping to be fed. So hungry, they ache; so hungry, they can’t even articulate their hunger, but they know it in their bones. And the question that interrogates me more than any other is, Do we have anything to set before them?

The answer is no, nothing, unless it is the bread that God alone provides.

If we are good people or good neighbours or good friends, who want to do what we can to help a friend in need, then that is good but no different from most people I know and any other door someone might walk up to. The only distinctive thing we can offer is spiritual bread.

The testimony, ‘I have nothing to offer you, but I know Someone who does!’

The testimony of times when we have been fed with the bread of heaven. Peace in an anxious world. Gentleness is a harsh world. Self-control in a vengeful world.

This is why people walk through the door. Because they are hungry for bread the world cannot give. And, truth be told, neither can I. But I can teach you how to ask, day by day. Give us this day our daily bread.

And if we are to know what kind of bread they need—whether peace, or joy; patience, or goodness—we need to get to know the road they have arrived on, the chance accidents and obstacles that have prevented them from arriving earlier than midnight. We must learn to listen, before we speak, that we might speak choice words. To cleanse and refresh with water, and anoint with healing oil. To set a table, and pull up a chair. And then to fetch bread; and say, now, go and do likewise.

Luke 11.5-13

5 And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;
6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.”
7 And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.”
8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
9 ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?
12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’