I come to you this morning admitting my own bias. I am biased for the prayer book. It was in its words of scripture and of prayer, that I heard God call me out of unbelief. Now, not too many years later, I stand in front of you today, a changed man.

  From the beginning of the church, one proof of Christianity has been the transformation of its converts. The prayer book has led many sinners through this transformation over hundreds of years.    

  One way it has done so is by establishing a way of Biblical reading and prayer, where the larger message of the gospels is made clear to us, so that they can guide us through our hardest times.

  Today’s readings are a perfect example. Morning Prayer and Holy Communion readings are selected to go together. When we read or hear them in this way, the work of God across time can be known and understood more visibly.

Take for example our Gospel reading. The famous and miraculous story of the feed of the 5,000. It does not stand alone. For it is not, and never was, just one story. Instead, it is a part of the grand Biblical story that God has written our lives into.

In Morning Prayer our first lesson was of the Exodus story, where God first miraculously feeds the Israelites in the desert. He does so by raining bread from heaven, in little white flakes that the people could collect each day. Teaching them as they wandered through what seemed like a hopeless situation, to trust in God for all their needs. For if they followed his commandments to collect their daily bread, then God would provide for them in a place where no living thing seemed to be.

We remember this miracle when we read that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who rose from the dead, and who the scriptures tell us made all things, takes five loaves of bread and two fishes and from them makes enough food to feed 5,000 people. Who did not only provide enough for these people (who sought after Him because of His miracles) but provided so much that afterwards 12 baskets of fragments could be collected.

  To see such a thing… but our second lesson from Morning Prayer tell us what happened next.

This was not enough, still they sought after Jesus.

“Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

  Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.” (John 6:26-27)

But they, like us, ask:

“What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” (John 6:28)

  Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:29)

Yet, like us too, especially in times of bewilderment, they seek more from God than He has already given. Never reflecting, is it not enough?

  Is not our life enough? The food we’ve eaten? The warmth and shelter we’ve found? The friendships and family we’ve been blessed by? Husbands and wives, sons and daughters, have they not been enough? Hasn’t any moment of happiness or joy or peace of love been more than we are owed?

  For as we are reminded in the Jubilate Deo in Morning Prayer (which is Psalm 100):

“Be ye sure that the LORD he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; * we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; * be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.

For the LORD is gracious, his mercy is everlasting; * and his truth endureth from generation to generation.” (BCP pp. 15)

Yet the people, not satisfied with what they’d been shown and given, asked of Jesus a sign, like that of the manna, the bread from heaven that their forefathers were given in desert.

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.”

Take heart, for they reply as we all should:

          “Lord, evermore give us this bread.” (John 6:34)

Here, Jesus, like in our Epistle today, reminds the people that what they see is not all there is. For God made all things visible and invisible. Our bellies hunger for food, but from earthly food we will always hunger for more, in time. But it is the spiritual food for which we truly hunger.

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

For what we see is not all there is. When we eat of the Lord’s bread, we are not only eating of the early bread, but of the heavenly. For Christ, who rose from the dead said, “I am the bread of life”. (ibid)

  Just as the Father sent heavenly bread to the children of Israel in the dessert, so He sent Jesus down to earth for us. As He himself says:

“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

  For in that day, we shall never hunger and never thirst. For the “bread of life” is given for our salvation. Let us always believe it and eat it faithfully.