First Baptist Church on Littleton Common    

Panera

Exodus 16:2-4, 0-15

John 6:24-35

One of my favorite “fast” food places to eat lunch is Panera Bread.   While the service is fast, the atmosphere and extra amenities, such as free Wi-Fi, invite you to linger longer and enjoy the main attraction which is the fresh and healthy food.  The menu offers a variety of healthy choices such as a low fat vegetable garden soup made with carrots, onion, potato, corn, spinach, red pepper, zucchini and tomato simmered with pasta, navy beans and lima beans in a flavorful vegetarian broth.   They also serve a Strawberry Poppy seed salad made with Romaine lettuce, fresh strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, Mandarin oranges, pecans & fat-free reduced sugar poppy seed dressing.  Both the hot soups and fresh salads can be enjoyed with a choice of sides, such as an apple, potato chips or a chunk of one of their freshly baked breads.  In Panera - it is all about the breads.  They sell delicious breads such as their Sourdough bread bowl with no fat, oil, sugar or cholesterol and artisan breads like their Hearty Honey Wheat loaf, sweetened with honey and molasses.   There is something comforting and satisfying about eating fresh bread, which is considered a staple and essential part of a traditional diet and found in almost every culture of the world. [1]

Last week USA Today did a story in their business section on the success of Panera Breads, who despite the downturn in the economy and the recession is still thriving and growing.  People still want to go out and will head for comfort food, which includes the comfort of baked bread.   According to CEO Ron Shaich, Panera which means “time of bread, ” serves 6 million people a day, will open 80 more stores in 2009, is still giving bonuses and is hiring thousands of people.   Shaich wants Panera to be a place that diners can reliably find nutritious, healthy food including fresh quality bread and be a place where people can gather, linger and relax. [2]

Panera…..a time of bread.  

Jesus said “I am the bread of life.  The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.” 

A time of bread…Jesus is the bread of life.  A staple for daily living and essential for eternal life.   Jesus also says “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, they will live forever.”   A time for Jesus.  

It has been all about the bread.

The reading from the Hebrew Scriptures speaks to us about the wilderness wandering of the Israelites after they escaped from Egypt.   They were traveling unknown parts, going in an unknown direction, were hungry, scared and fearful.  They grumbled a lot and God provides for them their daily bread.  Manna from heaven and just enough for each day. 

In the New Testament lesson, the story that precedes today’s lesson from John, we find the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, a story found in all four Gospels.  Great crowds of people had followed Jesus around the countryside looking for healing and listening to him teach.  As the hours passed and the day wore on, Jesus knew there was not enough food to feed the crowd, and it was he who realized they would need their daily bread.  The disciples found the small boy with five barley loaves and two small fish, and after giving thanks, they fed more than 5000 people and still had twelve baskets of bread left over.  Again, it was Jesus who instructed them to gather the leftovers so that nothing would be wasted.

The next day Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.  The people want to understand what happened with the barley bread the day before, as well as wanting more of the actual bread. They had begun to think along the lines of God sending down the manna from heaven when their forbearers wandered in the wilderness.  They wondered - could this be similar to the time of Moses when manna came down from heaven every day to feed the people? Might we be so fortunate – because they were looking for that type of daily bread?  But Jesus responds; “I am the bread of life.  The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Jesus is not speaking about their daily physical needs, but eternity and later says that it is “God who gives the true bread from heaven.   For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Jesus said “I am the bread of life.”  It was and is a time of bread.  Jesus is the staple and essential ingredient in our life. 

In some places in early Middle Eastern culture, bread was not something extra at a meal.  Bread was not a “side” choice, along with an apple or potato chips.  Bread was “the heart of every meal.”   A piece of flat bread was used just as we use utensils, to get the other items of food into the body for nourishment.   One needed the bread to get to everything else that was being served. [3]

We need Jesus in our daily life, just as we do our daily bread. 

How does Jesus then inform every part of our daily life because Jesus should not be a side choice.  

He promises to be with us in all of our days and all of our nights and those promises are trustworthy and true.   We need Jesus in our life, in our relationships, in how we treat and talk with one another. We need Jesus in our work and in our play. We need Jesus within the concerns that tug on our heart, and we need him in the joys, celebrations and laughter of our lives.    Do we remember to bring him along and to give him thanks?  How and when do we do that? 

Give us this day our daily bread. 

Today we come to table of the Lord.  It is a place where each one of us can approach God through Jesus Christ and spend our own moments of meditation, prayer and communion with him.  It is a time of grace, healing and hope.  

Jesus said “I am the bread of life.  The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

It is a time of bread.  The table is set and there is a place set just for you.

Amen

Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard