Bread Again

During Year B in the lectionary cycle, we have five weeks of bread - five weeks of the Jesus talking about himself as the bread of life and the bread of heaven. Preachers sometimes take this opportunity to preach some of the other readings. Five weeks of bread seems like a long time.

I am fortunate to serve in a parish with enough clergy available to preach that we can cycle through this series of readings without anyone needing to double up. My turn will come next week when we reach the last of these six weeks. I'll have had the pleasure of hearing what my colleagues have to say on the subject before taking it up myself.  And so I have no complaints, although I appreciate that, especially in a one-preacher parish, staying this long on basically the same spot can be a challenge.

What I've been thinking, though, is this: why not consider bread for six weeks?  Why not consider how we are fed, physically and spiritually and the challenges we face when considering how to feed others, both physically and spiritually? "By his hand we all are fed," goes the children's grace before meals, and yet people are still hungry, both physically and spiritually. Why not wonder why that is, and what we ought to do in response?