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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wonder Bread Al Fresco - Jesus Feeds 5,000
 Exodus 16:1-5, 11-18; John 6:1-21
Back in the day, Buffalo Bob Smith would interrupt the comic mayhem of Howdy Doody and his pals to face the television camera, and hold up a loaf of bread decorated with red, blue, and yellow balloons. Then he'd say, "Kids, don't forget to have your parents buy a loaf of Wonder Bread at the supermarket. It helps build strong bodies eight ways!" Yes, eight different vitamins and minerals were added to the basic recipe, all for our health and well-being. (By the time I was in high school, four more miracle ingredients had been included to make it twelve ways!)
All these years later, that memory rose up from my unconscious to put a funny little spin on this week's Gospel story.
Jesus and his disciples face a dilemma at the end of a busy messianic day. He's been teaching, preaching, and healing scads of people. Now everyone is kind of tired, and more than a little hungry as well. Jesus asks his men where some bread can be found for the crowds. Humph. It would take a half year's worth of work to raise enough money to buy that much bread.
But Peter points out a young boy whose lunch box contains five loaves of bread and two fish. And that's more than enough for Jesus.
He has everyone sit down on the grassy fields, for an impromptu picnic. Then he takes the bread in hand, says a prayer over it, and proceeds to break it up for distribution. And break it up, and break it up, then break it up some more -- like a magician doing some deceptively simple sleight of hand, until about 5,000 hungry souls are finally fed.
Then, after all of that, here's the kicker: The disciples finished up the party by gathering twelve full baskets of leftovers for doggie bags!
Talk about your Wonder Bread...
Actually, the Bible is filled with stories about bread and wonders, about miracles big and small that have to do with some kind of bread. Manna in the desert every morning for forty years... Matzohs in Egypt when there was no time to wait for yeast to rise... Jesus' last meal with his disciples during Passover week... Paul's poetic formula for the Holy Communion ceremony...
This is not your everyday plain, white, squishy Wonder Bread. The Bible's version is solid, substantial, soul-nourishing stuff.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:27 PM
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