The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
1 Kings 19:4-8
Saint John 6:35, 41-51
Saint John 6:35, 41-51
It is the invention that all other inventions are judged by.
The story of this great innovation began in 1912 in Davenport, Iowa with a man named Otto Frederick Rohwedder. At first, as with most new ideas, his was greeted with skepticism. Fellow members of the industry scoffed and said if their product was subjected to his invention it wouldn’t last as long. Also when passed through his new machine it tended to fall apart all over the floor. Salespeople also had a hard time placing it in the bag without the pieces exploding out of their hands like a mishandled deck of cards.
Rohwedder resorted to the use of hatpin to keep the product together. They too fell out resulting in a mess.
Both problems were solved when Rohwedder added a feature that immediately wrapped the product in wax paper as it emerged from his machine. Still his colleagues remained dubious.
Sixteen years later, in “1928, Rohwedder traveled to Chillicothe, Missouri, where Frank Bench took a chance on this idea.
The very first loaf of pre-sliced bread went on store shelves July 7, 1928, as ‘Sliced Kleen Made Bread.’ It was an instant success. Bench's sales quickly skyrocketed.
“In 1930, Wonder Bread began to commercially produce pre-sliced loaves of bread, popularizing sliced bread and making it a household staple.”1
Along with this invention the cliche’ “That’s the greatest thing since sliced bread” was born to laud any new idea.
Bread is one of life’s essentials. Inmates were reduced to bread and water. A plate of pasta would not be the same without simple bread soaked in fine olive oil. Peanut Butter and Jelly would just be a messy combo without bread to hold it together. Bread is important to almost every culture at every time though history. And it was specially important in Biblical times.
The story of this great innovation began in 1912 in Davenport, Iowa with a man named Otto Frederick Rohwedder. At first, as with most new ideas, his was greeted with skepticism. Fellow members of the industry scoffed and said if their product was subjected to his invention it wouldn’t last as long. Also when passed through his new machine it tended to fall apart all over the floor. Salespeople also had a hard time placing it in the bag without the pieces exploding out of their hands like a mishandled deck of cards.
Rohwedder resorted to the use of hatpin to keep the product together. They too fell out resulting in a mess.
Both problems were solved when Rohwedder added a feature that immediately wrapped the product in wax paper as it emerged from his machine. Still his colleagues remained dubious.
Sixteen years later, in “1928, Rohwedder traveled to Chillicothe, Missouri, where Frank Bench took a chance on this idea.
The very first loaf of pre-sliced bread went on store shelves July 7, 1928, as ‘Sliced Kleen Made Bread.’ It was an instant success. Bench's sales quickly skyrocketed.
“In 1930, Wonder Bread began to commercially produce pre-sliced loaves of bread, popularizing sliced bread and making it a household staple.”1
Along with this invention the cliche’ “That’s the greatest thing since sliced bread” was born to laud any new idea.
Bread is one of life’s essentials. Inmates were reduced to bread and water. A plate of pasta would not be the same without simple bread soaked in fine olive oil. Peanut Butter and Jelly would just be a messy combo without bread to hold it together. Bread is important to almost every culture at every time though history. And it was specially important in Biblical times.
If you have been in church the last few Sundays you know that. It’s all we seem to be talking about.
Two weeks ago we heard the old familiar story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with a few fish and
Two weeks ago we heard the old familiar story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with a few fish and
a couple of pieces of bread. Last week we heard Jesus expound on this gift by comparing it to the manna in the wilderness. This week he tells us that he is “the bread of life.” I have a feeling this may be why your very fine pastor took this Sunday off - he may have run out of things to say about bread.
The importance of bread can even be seen in today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures where we come upon a solitary figure sitting under a tree.
It is Elijah. He is alone. He is depressed. His depression is so great that were we around him we would have been calling 9-1-1.
What had just happened was his legendary showdown at Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. You remember the story.
Elijah and the prophets face off to prove whose god is the real god. The altars are loaded up with sacrifices and we wait for fire from heaven. The prophets of Baal have little to show for all their efforts, not even a spark. Elijah taunts them and then says the word and the LORD sends a firestorm. The people respond by proclaiming devotion to the God of Israel.
Having her prophets humiliated does not please the queen, Jezebel, who puts a contract out on Elijah’s life.
After this exercise in speed bible story telling we find the prophet complaining to God. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
That is the key to Elijah’s depression. He thought that he would be able to do what none of his ancestors were able to do. He thought that with his spectacular fireworks display everybody would turn to the LORD from the lowest peasant to the Queen in her court. But they don’t.
The importance of bread can even be seen in today’s reading from the Hebrew Scriptures where we come upon a solitary figure sitting under a tree.
It is Elijah. He is alone. He is depressed. His depression is so great that were we around him we would have been calling 9-1-1.
What had just happened was his legendary showdown at Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. You remember the story.
Elijah and the prophets face off to prove whose god is the real god. The altars are loaded up with sacrifices and we wait for fire from heaven. The prophets of Baal have little to show for all their efforts, not even a spark. Elijah taunts them and then says the word and the LORD sends a firestorm. The people respond by proclaiming devotion to the God of Israel.
Having her prophets humiliated does not please the queen, Jezebel, who puts a contract out on Elijah’s life.
After this exercise in speed bible story telling we find the prophet complaining to God. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”
That is the key to Elijah’s depression. He thought that he would be able to do what none of his ancestors were able to do. He thought that with his spectacular fireworks display everybody would turn to the LORD from the lowest peasant to the Queen in her court. But they don’t.
And thinking that he could save the world and failing, Elijah becomes depressed.
That may a take away for us.
No one deed, no matter how spectacular, will turn everything around.
That may a take away for us.
No one deed, no matter how spectacular, will turn everything around.
No human can solve all our problems and when they think they can they often get in trouble.
The landscape is littered with the depressed souls of those who began to believe that they were larger than life characters who could do things that others could not.
I’m thinking of a Cardinal Archbishop and a church leader who may have changed the concept of outreach to the unchurched forever but who have to be sitting under their own broom trees now because they got caught up in their own power.
Politicians who promised to “drain the swamp” being discovered to be swamp creatures themselves. Or a city looking for that one majestic solution to the carnage of gun violence and failing to see that it is going to take a myriad of good people, with good ideas, to turn things around.
If we go on thinking that we are the only one who can make every thing right we will be miserable. If we tell ourselves there is nothing we can do we will become even more miserable.
What Elijah forgot was that he wasn’t responsible for all the powerful deeds he was doing in his life - God was. What Elijah forgot was that he wasn’t responsible for everything, God was.
And so God brings the prophet who only days before was enjoying his greatest success to a place where he has to rely on what he really needs - a radical dependence on God. And relying on what God gave him he was able to go on his way.
Jesus’ listeners had a hard time with that dependence too.
First, they were unable to get over their history forgetting an important part. They say to Jesus: “Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
They forgot something. Moses didn’t give them the bread, God did. Moses just passed it out.
Second, they were unable to get over Jesus’ history. “‘What?’ they exclaimed. ‘Why, he is merely Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.’”
They failed to see that what was at work in Jesus was no less than the power of God.
Saint John’s gospel is the last written and so it is less narrative and more John working out the theology of the church. In this case what believe about Jesus, the bread of life, we receive at the Eucharist.
The landscape is littered with the depressed souls of those who began to believe that they were larger than life characters who could do things that others could not.
I’m thinking of a Cardinal Archbishop and a church leader who may have changed the concept of outreach to the unchurched forever but who have to be sitting under their own broom trees now because they got caught up in their own power.
Politicians who promised to “drain the swamp” being discovered to be swamp creatures themselves. Or a city looking for that one majestic solution to the carnage of gun violence and failing to see that it is going to take a myriad of good people, with good ideas, to turn things around.
If we go on thinking that we are the only one who can make every thing right we will be miserable. If we tell ourselves there is nothing we can do we will become even more miserable.
What Elijah forgot was that he wasn’t responsible for all the powerful deeds he was doing in his life - God was. What Elijah forgot was that he wasn’t responsible for everything, God was.
And so God brings the prophet who only days before was enjoying his greatest success to a place where he has to rely on what he really needs - a radical dependence on God. And relying on what God gave him he was able to go on his way.
Jesus’ listeners had a hard time with that dependence too.
First, they were unable to get over their history forgetting an important part. They say to Jesus: “Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
They forgot something. Moses didn’t give them the bread, God did. Moses just passed it out.
Second, they were unable to get over Jesus’ history. “‘What?’ they exclaimed. ‘Why, he is merely Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.’”
They failed to see that what was at work in Jesus was no less than the power of God.
Saint John’s gospel is the last written and so it is less narrative and more John working out the theology of the church. In this case what believe about Jesus, the bread of life, we receive at the Eucharist.
What we believe when we come to the table is we receive bread that gives us life, bread that gives us strength for our journeys.
Bread which gives us strength to be a disciple of the living God which means turning the other cheek, walking out of step with the aims of the world, rejecting power and the idolatries of racism, nationalism, materialism and sexism for a real faith that is dependent on God and needs to be strengthened and sustained by God’s power.
The prophets of old couldn’t do it all on their own and neither can we. We need Jesus who is here for us.
All we need to do is reach out our hands and receive him and then rise to do his work, as best we can, wherever we are in the world.
The weekly reminder that we need Jesus may be the best thing that ever happens to us.
Yes, even better than sliced bread.
Bread which gives us strength to be a disciple of the living God which means turning the other cheek, walking out of step with the aims of the world, rejecting power and the idolatries of racism, nationalism, materialism and sexism for a real faith that is dependent on God and needs to be strengthened and sustained by God’s power.
The prophets of old couldn’t do it all on their own and neither can we. We need Jesus who is here for us.
All we need to do is reach out our hands and receive him and then rise to do his work, as best we can, wherever we are in the world.
The weekly reminder that we need Jesus may be the best thing that ever happens to us.
Yes, even better than sliced bread.
_____________
1. Jennifer Rosenberg, "Do You Know Why Sliced Bread Is Such and Important Invention," ThoughtCo, , accessed August 10, 2018, https://www.thoughtco.com/sliced-bread-invented-1779266.
2. 2 Kings 19:4b. (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]
3. St. John 6:31. (MSG) [MSG=The Message]
4. Saint John 6:42. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible]
Sermon preached at Saint Timothy Lutheran Church
Skokie, Illinois
August 5, 2015
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