Sermon for August 13, 2006        John 6:51-58

As you may know, I’ve lost a weight. Actually, since I just came back from visiting family in my home state of New Jersey, we ate out often. Being so near to Philadelphia and the seashore, there were the cheese steaks, seafood restaurants, and the Philadelphia pretzels. I tried not to eat too much, but how could I resist? I put on a pound or two. Now that I’m home, I’ll have to get back on my diet again.

Overeating is a big problem in our culture, and many books and articles have been written. There are books telling about the do's and don'ts of eating bran, red meat and white meat, cellulose, caffeine, cholesterol, garlic, even grapefruit. Andy Rooney, the comic commentator wrote an article that said about the book publishing business, "the two biggest sellers are cookbooks and diet books. To eat or not to eat, that is the question! The cookbook tells you how to prepare food to eat, and the diet book tells you how not to eat it."

Each has it’s own methodology. Until recently the South Beach diet and the Atkins diet were very popular. Food companies rushed to package low carbohydrate or low fat food. There’s even low carbohydrate beer. When they first hit the supermarket shelves, those item were selling very briskly, but now I hear ut now I hear those diets are losing in popularity. The supermarkets are overstocked with low carbohydrate and low fat foods.

Another problem is that the experts don’t always agree. For many years, we read that salt and eggs were something we should avoid. Now I read that recent studies say that for those without high blood pressure, salt is fine. And if we don’t have a problem with high cholesterol, a few eggs are good for us. That's good for me because I like salt on my eggs.

Diets come and go. Do you remember the grapefruit diet popular in the 1970's? How about the water diet, and the rice diet? With the rice diet, you had to eat six cups of rice a day. With the water diet, you had to drink two glasses of water before every meal.

There are drugs we can buy that promise to take off excess weight. Most of them don’t work; others did work but they were so dangerous people who took them died. Recently, some have taken illegal steroids to look and feel healthy.

For me, the Weight Watcher program works best. But it takes time. You have to hold yourself accountable for everything you eat. The first three weeks are hardest because it takes about that long to get in the habit. And I have to go to the weight watcher meetings for my weekly encouragement. It’s something like church for overweight people. When you fall off the wagon and overeat like I did no my vacation, they encourage you to forgive yourself and get back on the diet. In church, we call that repentance. That’s hard! But it’s the only way to get it done!

I think there is something peculiar about our culture and it’s problem with obesity. When our eating habits fall prey to the roller coaster ride of fad diets and drugs, it tells me we want an the easy, quick fix to satisfy our desires. The use of risky or illegal drugs tells me we more concerned with how we look than our true health.

A few years ago, the actor and satiric comedian Billy Crystal said, "Remember, its always better to look good than to feel good." I think there is more satiric truth to those words than we care to admit. True health and well being has been sacrificed for looking good. Of course this applies to more than diet. Our national drug problem, for instance, is evidence that this desire for a quick fix to make us feel better is getting worse.

I once counseled a former drug dealer named John who never really had a drug addiction. He was only addicted to the thrill of cooking or making the drug, and selling it. I suppose you could say he just did it for the thrill of not getting caught and making lots of money. After he did his prison time, it was hard for him to get a job and get on with his life. But he came to the meetings weekly, and hung in there with our prayers and support. He started going to his church again.

I gave John an old computer, and he became an expert at the internet, but he tried to make money by whatever means he could find. He said, "It’s not wrong if its illegal." I told him, you have a point if your goal is to make money and stay out of jail. But there’s more to your life than that. You have many talents, a great family, a wive, a young son and daughter who love you. That’s where you find your life and the riches that God has given you."

Over time, he developed faith in himself, and believed in God who gave him all the blessings of life. It took time, and it was hard, but he did it. He began with faith in himself. He began to believe that God made him for a purpose, and that purpose was for the good of his children and family. He got a job, and continued to work on those computers.

It took time, and John was always short on patience. He got support from his family and from members of his congregation. He had a few lapses, but over time he beat his addiction to quick fix solutions. It was a daily struggle that took the support and prayer that only God could give him.

The support we have for each other comes from God through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Eat this bread, and you will never be hungry. He wasn’t talking about dieting or even family living. He was talking about the source of all that is worth living and dying for. He was talking about the grace and love that he brought to the world.

In this instance, Jesus was arguing with people who did not believe in him. They could not believe that he was God’s son coming to the world to give us eternal life. They said we know his family, how could he be God’s Son. Jesus told them the problem was, they didn’t believe in him. Those who don’t believe he is God’s Son will never believe that God would chose to send him to the world. They could not place their trust or faith in a man like them. The truth is, Jesus was a man like them, but God in the flesh of a man.

This meant that God had come down into a moral body. Jesus ate food, breathed air, drank water and was like us in every way. Yet he did not covet the obsessions of men or women. He didn’t give in to or give others a quick fix solution to life’s problems. What he offered was eternal life in a kingdom not of this world.

But old habits die hard. Those who did believe in him turned him over to the Romans as an enemy of the state, and they crucified him on the cross. But God did not hold this against them. Instead, he raised Jesus from the dad so that all could see he was God’s Son, and that he showed us the way to live by God grace and love. By believe in him, we will have peace, love, joy, and most importantly forbearance.

You don’t hear that word much, forbearance. It’s like patience, but it just doesn’t sit back and wait passively. Forbearance includes tolerance and hope in the future. Fore- bearance looks forward, not backward. It gives strength to faith by believing in the grace and love of God that Jesus embodied. Forbearance does not accept what is wrong today or yesterday, but trusts that God will make all things right. It does not overlook our sin, but accepts the sinner.

Jesus exemplified perfect faith with the forbearance that grew out of his trust and belief in his Father, God. Now Jesus was human like us in every way. He lived and breathed and walked among us. He had his family, and ate the food, and experienced all the pressures and pleasures of life all humans do. He knew the joy of visiting with his mother brothers and sisters. He knew the joy of good friends with his disciples. He also had the pressure of knowing that his enemies were going to execute him! But he did not give into any quick easy answer solution. He remained loyal and loving to his mother, family and friends even when he was hanging on the cross. When on of them betrayed him, he didn’t ask God for revenge. He didn’t ask God to wipe out his enemies. Rather, he loved them even while he hated what they were trying to do to him. His life embodies God never failing love.

God loves all of us the same way he loves Jesus. What God wants for us is to have the life , and that what God wants for us if the same thing God did for Jesus. He wants to have eternal life with Jesus now and forever. Jesus gave us the bread of life which is his body.

The bread of life is not the like the food we eat. It will not make us fat. It will satisfy the hunger not for food, but for hunger for justice and peace. It is a life that is willing to love even our enemies. Now for all those who rely upon him, we can look forward in the hope of his resurrection to come. Let us eat this bread of life, and so that we will live in the promise of eternal life now and forever. Amen.