The women in my family
bake things. They do many other things too, but they bake things. They bake
many things. Recipes for cookies and pies and pound cakes are treasured and
they are handed on as reservedly and reverently as bishops lay on hands. Actually,
my grandmother protected the recipes a little more. I have been ordained twice
and I never got the pound cake recipe!
Whenever I was getting
ready to go back to school after a break, my grandmother would always make sure
that I had plenty of food in the car for the ten hour drive to Philadelphia.
There were homemade biscuits and sausage, wrapped in aluminum foil, in packs of
two, so that I could easily eat them along the way. There were packs of
crackers, water, and soda. There was a pound cake and sometimes two, baked in
the shape of a loaf so it was easy for me to pack and easy to carry. It was a
ten hour trip; I had enough food for ten days. My grandmother made sure that I
had an abundance of food for the trip back. There was plenty of food for the
journey.
It was different for
Elijah, he was on the run from the queen and king who wanted to have him killed.
Nobody packed a snack for Elijah. After a day on the journey he was tired, his
was disheartened, he was hopeless and he was ready to give up. And he laid down
and fell asleep beneath the shade of a tree. It was an angel that woke him up,
with a hearth cake and a jug of water. The angel told him to eat, and Elijah
ate, and then he went back to sleep. The angel woke him again and said, “Get up
and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.” Elijah needed food for the
journey and Lord provided through the voice of an angel.
Jesus promised food for
the journey. The five thousand who were fed on the mountain side when the
little boy shared his lunch with Jesus were given food for the journey. They
had followed Jesus to that hillside and he fed them so that they could make the
journey home. It was food for a day and the twelve wicker baskets were probably
enough for the next day. It was abundant and sufficient; it was food for the
journey. But now Jesus promised something more. On the side of the mountain,
Jesus gave them food for the journey to Cana and Nazareth and Capernaum and
Jerusalem. But now Jesus promises food for the journey to the house of his
Father. I am the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from
heaven and whoever eats this bread will live forever. He promised to those who
had eaten with him on the side of the mountain that he would give them more
than simply the daily bread, but the bread of eternal life. Jesus promised them
food for the journey to heaven.
And he promises it to
you and to me.
Most of us remember
with great joy and power the day of our first Communion. There might have been
a white dress or a white suit. Maybe some family members made a journey to
celebrate this part of your journey. You had prepared. You had learned your
prayers. You had made the journey to meet Jesus in the bread of life. Like the
disciples on the road to Emmaus, you were meeting Jesus in the breaking of the
bread. As Jesus once did for his disciples on the side of the mountain and in
the upper room, Jesus was breaking the bread for you.
And now months and
years and decades have passed, and maybe the journey has been long, but Jesus
still comes to feed you and me. As once we prepared to receive the Bread of
Life, so now every time we receive the Bread of Life, we are being prepared to
be received by the Lord Jesus on the day that the Father calls us unto himself.
Jesus is our food for
the journey and he will lead us to that kingdom where he lives and reigns with
the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
