Today, bread gets a bad rap. It wasn’t always this way.
For centuries and centuries and centuries – bread sustained humanity.
If you want to blame something…blame the carbohydrates’ it is all their fault.
Bread has too many carbs for our sedentary lifestyles today. But that too, was not always the case.
We walked more and had more physical assertion, we were physically active, once, … there was a day and a time when we did not drive to the corner store. We walked. Or, if you were a kid, you might have run all the way…
“High levels of carbohydrate” are often associated with highly processed foods or refined foods made from plants, including sweets, cookies and candy, table sugar, honey, soft drinks, breads and crackers, jams and fruit products, pastas and breakfast cereals.
Lower amounts of carbohydrate are usually associated with unrefined foods, including beans, tubers, rice, and unrefined fruit.
There actually was a time when more than 50% of our daily calories came from bread alone.
Bread at one time was a staple. It was that important. Bread was a necessity.
People did not “pass” on breads…until recent times.
Bread nourished earthly life…it was that important…it was important enough for Jesus to teach his disciples to pray: “Give us this day, our daily bread.” People longed for bread. They loved their bread. The world embraced bread.
First there were carbs now there is gluten. It is always something. The bad rap is getting worse.
The Bible itself is packed full with bread stories and is often times – a metaphor for healing, recovery and for God’s presence.
Bread is also relational food. We break bread together. We share our daily bread.
Picture a warm loaf – right out of the oven, steaming hot with a lump of fresh butter on a chunk of it. Now picture it is winter time and the smell and the warmth of that bread and the oven, permeates the entire house. Butter dripping down your chin…and running down your finger-tips.
Even prisoners were often given bread and water…because it was believed to be that life-sustaining.
Or picture the excitement of a child, dressed to the 9’s, extended hands, the center of attention, receiving bread for the first time…a little bit of heaven on earth – in this foretaste of things to come. A step closer to being “big”…and more adult-like…
It’s interesting what we have done with this bread. The man-made rules that we have created for “others…” The hoops that we make “others” jump through…
In most cases we are not the baker, nor are we the distributor. We did not cause the grain to grow and to flourish. We did not send the rain or the sun.
Instead – we are just all hungry pilgrims with outstretched hands – awaiting a little morsel that might be cast in our direction.
So how is it – that some of us decide or designate – or make rules about who gets some and who doesn’t?
When did this become our table? Did we buy it or purchase it? Does it have our name written on it? Do we still have the bill of sale?
I have always seen this as being “fuel for the journey.” Fuel for the pilgrimage…
If the bread we share is the Bread of Heaven, the Bread of Life, the bread which came down from heaven for the life of the world – then, how dare we decide where it goes…or to whom it is given ?
Something tells me we are thinking too highly of ourselves.
And what of those churches who would deny certain people, or actually turn them away at the altar?
Jesus knew that bread was the definitive staple of all meals…obviously living in a pre-carbohydrate – pre – gluten free era.
Bread is still broken around the world…there is not a day that it is not offered and available…
What I want you to think about today, is that this is the bread of life…broken and given…shared…
And all you have to do – is to place your hands out…to be open and accepting… and the proper response is always the same…Amen.
It is your fuel…for wherever your journey takes you