Introduction
Our culture celebrates food in many ways, but some go short. The way we do food says something about who we are. Who is Jesus, the ‘living bread’? And when we eat the ‘bread of life’, what does that mean for us?
Context
Food is a big theme in all forms of media:
- A new season of The Great British Bake Off began this week on Wednesday 5 August, continuing the phenomenon that baking has become on our screens and in our culture.
- On Tuesday morning, 4 August, at 9.30 am, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a conversation between Adrian Chiles and Kerstin Rogers who set up the supper club/underground restaurant movement. She talked about the addiction to feeding people.
- Not forgetting the classic BBC Radio 4 Food Programme.
- Newspapers offer recipe features and restaurant reviews.
- Various people have made reputations blogging on food, for example Jack Monroe, who writes about food for people on budgets.
Contrast this celebration of food with real need in some communities. The BBC this week reported on holiday hunger experienced by children who get free school meals in term time, but whose families find it difficult to feed them in school holidays. The video clip shows an initiative at St Chad’s Community Project in my parish, that is providing activities and meals for children two days a week during the school holidays.
Around 10 weeks ago, the story of Mary’s Meals was published as The Shed That Fed a Million Children by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow. The charity feeds school children in 12 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
It was also announced this week that the government is seeking a way to withdraw benefits from failed asylum seekers. At present, if there are children in the family, support continues. In other words, the government is proposing to withdraw the means to survive. The aim is to discourage people from seeking asylum in the UK, but the effect is to deny bread to the poorest and most marginal people. It is about withdrawing even the most basic hospitality. Who are we as a nation when we do this?
Reflection
Food is never just about food: it is an offering of love and hospitality, a connection with your roots, a symbol of aspiration – there are many layers of meaning. Meals are a place where stories are told. Food helps to define who we are.
And the bread of heaven that Jesus offers also has layers of meaning. It brings to mind all those stories about food in the Old Testament in which food plays such an important part – for example, the collection of manna in the wilderness, and today’s Old Testament story of Elijah’s miraculous meals. The living bread is something that Jesus offers to us and it is also about who he is, the means of nurture and the source of life.
The people of Israel already recognised layers of meaning in relation to the manna their ancestors ate in the wilderness. It was a symbol to them of the Torah and also of Wisdom; manna was spiritual food, food for the soul and not just food for the body. John shows the Jewish leaders failing to understand that Jesus was saying something about more than just physical bread, and their lack of recognition is particularly surprising. And when Jesus points out that the ancestors ate the manna and they eventually died, he was commenting on the limitations of the Torah. No wonder the religious leaders didn’t want to understand Jesus!
The religious leaders question who Jesus is. ‘Who does he think he is?’ they are saying. That calls to mind the television show Who do you think you are? in which celebrities explore their family histories to learn more about themselves. It is a question about identity. Jesus, the living bread, supersedes the Torah, the manna in the wilderness. Jesus will give himself up for the life of the world. This is who Jesus is.
Our identity is also tied up in the living bread – when we eat the bread of life, what does that say about who we are and what we are called to do? Surely, that we are called to be like Jesus, and to feed others, both physically and spiritually.
Prayer
A reflection to use with a small group (read this slowly):
I am the bread of life.
Come to me.
Come to me because you are hungry, because you cannot buy food, because the cupboard is bare.
Come to me because you have plenty, with food to share.
Come to me because the people you used to eat with aren’t there any more.
Come to me with all those you care about.
Come to me because somewhere, deep down in your soul, you are empty.
Come to me because you rejoice in life and all that it brings.
Come to me because I invite you, I always invite you.
Come to me because I love you. You.
I am the bread of life.
Come to me.
Questions
- What was the best meal you ever enjoyed, and why was it so special?
- Imagine your ultimate meal. What does it say about you?
- In your local area, where do people go hungry?
Action
Find out if there are any holiday hunger projects in your local area. This may require research – try looking at the websites of local children’s charities, or The Church Urban Fund’s Together Network. Find out what support they might need.
Get your book club group to read The Shed That Fed a Million Children* and discuss it together.
* Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, The Shed That Fed a Million Children: The Extraordinary Story of Mary's Meals (2015), William Collins, ISBN 978-0007578320
Young People
Plan a meal together. How would you organise it? Would people bring different dishes, or will you cook it together? It could be as simple as bread and cheese or as elaborate as you like. How will you make the setting special? Will it just be for yourselves, or will you invite guests? How will you make everyone welcome?
After the meal, think about the best bits and what made them good. What were the things that didn’t go so well, and why?
Or bake bread together. There are lots of recipes, including this 'easy bake' one and this one for Irish soda bread.
Meg Gilley is an Anglican parish priest in Gateshead. She tweets at MegGilley1 and blogs sporadically at ramblingrectorbensham.wordpress.com
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