I grew up on Wonder Bread . .
. it was what I thought bread was supposed to be. Wonder
Bread was originally produced by the Taggart Baking Company of
Indianapolis. It made its debut on May
21st, 1921, after having run advertisements for a while that only
stated that a “wonder” was coming on that day.
From that day on, Wonder Bread
grew in popularity before becoming a national brand in 1925. It was the perfect advertising campaign in
that it caught the attention of the people and drew them in to purchase the
product.
As I stated, I grew up on Wonder
Bread . . .
Wonder Bread fascinated me as
a child . . . fascinated me because it was more than mere food, it was a toy
too! As you remember, Wonder Bread had that spongy, soft,
malleable quality to it. It always kept
its shape. You could place a watermelon
on top of a loaf of Wonder Bread and
it would spring right back to its original shape. You could rip a piece of the bread off, shape
it into a square, roll it into balls . . . you could dunk it in milk and it
would never get soaked. You could leave
it in the bread box for months on end, and it would still retain its shape and
freshness. It always made you sit there
and wonder, “Is this stuff really bread?”
It was not until my young adult years that I was exposed to other
breads. It happened when I got married .
. . the wife would tell me that Wonder
Bread was not good for me. That
there was a reason for its wonderful resilience . . . chemicals, lots of
chemicals. Real bread, she told me,
didn’t do that stuff . . . real bread got stale . . . real bread couldn’t be
made into shapes . . . real bread did last longer than Methuselah. And, besides, it had all of those chemicals
that were not good for the human body.
Eventually, Wonder Bread
disappeared from our pantry . . . and, from my life.
Wonder Bread was a sort of
“modern day miracle”. This morning, the
topic of bread . . . a sort of “wonder bread” . . . is again the topic. If you read this passage from the start of
chapter six, you would have seen that Jesus was pretty busy doing some amazing
things. Chapter six begins with him
feeding the five thousand . . . feeds them with five loaves of bread and two
fish . . . and, then has twelve baskets of leftovers once everyone is fed. Then later that night, he takes a stroll on
the lake . . . literally! As the
disciples are heading over to the other side of the lake, Jesus comes walking
across the water to join them. Two
pretty big miracles set the stage for our reading this morning.
The reading begins the next morning with a question and answer period
with the disciples. They are curious
about Jesus. In particular, they are
curious about how he is marked by God to be the “One”. They want to know if he is the “One” they
have been waiting for according to the scriptures; and, if he is . . . what are
they supposed to do. And, Jesus answers
them by talking about bread.
In the story of the great exodus from Egypt and captivity, the sign from
God was manna . . . bread from heaven.
Remembering the feeding of the five thousand, was that the bread that
they were looking for from God as a sign?
The point of any miracle is not the actual miracle . . . not what
happens, but to whom does the miracle point to.
All miracles point to something beyond themselves . . . typically to
God. Miracles reveal the spiritual . . .
miracles reveal God. And, that is what
Jesus tells them.
Jesus tells them that he is the “bread of life”. This is not a physical bread that is to
sustain them, but a spiritual bread . . . it is a “wonder bread”. The bread that Jesus offers them never spoils
. . . it always retains it shape and always bounces back . . . it never changes
. . . it is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It is bread that will always fill the
soul. It is the means of connecting with
God. Jesus declares to them: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and
he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus is the original Wonder Bread.
Bread is a central symbol of our faith as followers of Jesus . . . a
central symbol of our faith as members of the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ). It sits upon the table in the
center of the sanctuary’s altar . . . a place where we gather together to
remember . . . to remember the meaning of the bread as the means of
relationship with God that comes through Jesus and his example. Not only does it make us remember, it makes
us think . . . we think about what that bread means to us as individuals, as a
congregation, as the body of Christ in the world . . . we think about its power
to provide us respite in a busy and frustrating world in which we live . . .
how it strengthens us . . . sustains us.
It truly makes us “wonder”.
That is the power of the bread . . . the miracle of the bread . . . it
takes us beyond that which we experience and thrusts us into a different realm
. . . the realm of life. A life that can
never be taken away from us if we embrace it and strive to live within it. When you consider all of this, it is no
wonder that this is truly Wonder Bread
that sustains.
We need this Wonder Bread. That is why each and every Sunday morning the
invitation is offered to all who are gathered here to come to the table and
receive the bread and cup. That is why
each and every Sunday we celebrate this act of remembrance . . . this act of
renewal and commitment . . . this act of life.
Jesus truly is the “bread of life”.
Our world’s Wonder Bread may
have faded long ago, but the real Wonder
Bread still lives. It is here at the
table we stand in awe . . . and, we wonder.
Amen.
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