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John 6:51-58

Daily Living Bread

August 18, 2024

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Year B

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
I have a question for you -- can you tell me some things that you do EVERY day? [ Wait for answers. If they don’t say things like “brush teeth, eat, drink, sleep” – help them to remember those things ]
Those sure are a lot of things that you do every day!
I'm curious about one of the things you mentioned. You mentioned eating, why do we eat every day? (because we get hungry if we don’t eat)
What would happen if we didn’t eat for a one or more days? Would we die? [Wait for answers]
You’re right – we wouldn’t die, but it would make us uncomfortable, we’d feel weaker, and it’d be hard to pay attention to other things.
Let me be clear that I’m not suggesting that you not eat for many days.

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

I wanted us to think about things we do every day, and what happens if we don’t do those things every day, because I think that idea of doing something every day and how it helps us is an important part of today's scripture story.
In today’s scripture story, we heard Jesus tell the people that he is the living bread.
He then told the people to "Bite me."
Ok, that's not QUITE what Jesus said. What he actually said was closer to, "You should really eat this living bread -- which is ME!"
The people were, not surprisingly, a little confused.
They asked each other, "Did Jesus just say he was bread? That’s kinda weird. Wouldn't it hurt him if we bit him?"
The people were right, of course. It would indeed have hurt Jesus if they had bitten him.
But Jesus wasn't actually telling the people to chew on him like bread.
Instead, he was telling the people that the things he taught them about God were just as important as the bread they ate everyday.
In fact, Jesus was saying the things he taught were so important that they should be done every day.

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

The main things Jesus taught his disciples to do every day were to pray, worship God, and talk about the Bible stories together.
Jesus taught his disciples to do these things because that's how they would better know and understand God.
In today's story, then, Jesus is reminding everyone that these things he was teaching them were so important that they needed to be done every day, just like we eat, drink, and sleep every day.
Just like our bodies grow strong and healthy when we do those things every day, so too does our relationship with God grow strong and healthy when we daily pray, give thanks to God, and read/talk about the faith stories.
And, the stronger our relationship with God is, the better able we are to receive and then share God's gifts of love, healing, and forgiveness with others -- just like Jesus did.
That's the good news for today. Let's pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus...

...who teaches us...

...how to daily receive your gifts…

…so that we can then enjoy them…

…and share them with others.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted July 27, 2018

Updated on July 20, 2024

Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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Related Bread message(s): John 6:24-35, John 6:35, 41-51, and John 6:56-69