The Fragrance of New Bread

My last Blog was about the Gospel story of Jesus accepting a small boy's lunch. Jesus blessed the lunch, broke it, and then shared it among a crowd of hungry people. The Gospel reading for this week and next week will continue to unpack the richness and meaning that lie behind that story.

As I read this Sunday's reading from John 6:24-51, I was reminded of a local baker's shop near where we live. They are especially busy on a Sunday morning, and when I have passed the bakery there is usually a line of eager shoppers all waiting their turn to share the source of that mouth-watering fragrance that surrounds the shop.

A similar source that can also fill one's home with a mouth-watering fragrance is a bread maker. Those who own one will be familiar with the smell of newly cooked fresh bread that fills the house and stirs your appetite especially when you arrive home hungry!

The human response to such wonderful food-fragrances can also affect the way be behave towards other people. Perhaps it was with this in mind that the University of Southern Brittany in France decided to study the effect food fragrances have on human behaviour¹. The experimental group included eight students (4 men and 4 women). They were divided into two groups. One group stood outside a bakery and the other group stood outside a clothing boutique. When they saw someone approaching, they were to start rummaging in their shopping bag, and in the process to deliberately drop an item onto the footpath. A second student noted the response made by the approaching pedestrian.

The results of this simple experiment revealed more than three quarters of the pedestrians were willing to stop and help the volunteers standing outside the bakery to retrieve the dropped item. However, only half the pedestrians bothered to stop to retrieve the fallen item for the students who were outside the clothes shop.

The study concluded that certain fragrances, such as the smell of freshly baked bread, can trigger a positive mood response and so the person will feel more willing to help someone else.

The reason for referring to this study is because in this weeks Gospel reading Jesus uses the image of bread as metaphor to describe the life and service he has to offer anyone who is willing to stop and become involved in who he is and in what he has to offer:

“I am the bread of life (Jesus said). Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”(John 6:35)

Jesus was not first person to use such a metaphor. Because it also occurs in the early Hebrew story about Elijah who is given the food to sustain him on his journey to meet with God (1 Kings 17:7-16). It is a story that also contains several layers of meaning, because it doesn't just refer to Elijah being physically hungry. Elijah had come to a turning point in his life. He was living in a time when it seemed that those faithful to God had slipped away and he thought he was the only one left. In those dark moments, God did not rebuke Elijah for his doubts, instead God met his needs and provided for him. The story reaches a climax when Elijah enters a cave and experiences a powerful encounter with God. Yet God didn't reveal himself in a life-shattering way, rather it was in the “sound of sheer silence” – and that experience was enough to remind Elijah that even in his moments of doubt and despair, God was still with him, and with this knowledge he was able to continue his life's mission to become one of the greatest prophets and miracle workers in the Hebrew scriptures.

As I pondered over these stories, the questions they raised for me included: 'What is it that we really want in our lives – deep down inside us? What do we hunger for? What would bring new life and hope and energy into our lives, or into our relationships, or revitalize our religious faith?

The Gospel reading for this week tells us that Jesus is the bread of life. That Jesus was been sent by God to become our spiritual food, to breath new life, new hope and renewed energy into our faith, so that we might have the courage and strength to support and sustain us on our life's journey. Jesus invites us to receive this renewed hope and vision that he offers to us, especially when we feel worn and weary. And he offers us more – he promises to walk beside us, and to fill our life with new meaning and purpose as he guides us into, and through, all that the future may hold in-store for us.

The German Theologian and one-time professor of Theology at Hamberg University, Helmut Thielicke, wrote a book titled 'How to Believe Again'. His writing has become a source of support for many people, especially in helping them to realise the questions they ask are often neither new or unique. And that our human capacity to think and reason, while it may point us towards truth, simply cannot carry us through all the commitments and relationships we may be forced to face in life.

He goes on to remind us that the one story in the Gospels where Jesus marvels at a person's 'great faith' wasn't to anyone who had a deep religious faith, rather it was to a person their Jewish culture treated as an outsider: a Canaanite woman who came pleading for her daughter's healing (Matthew 15: 21-28).

This story also contains many layers that includes the reference to bread. During their conversation the woman challenges Jesus as to who is entitled to eat bread. As their discussion ends, Jesus commends her for her 'Great Faith' because she was willing to cross the cultural, social and religious barriers that society and religion had imposed upon her. She was also willing to think outside the cultural square that would normally control her life. In doing so Jesus both heals her daughter and commends her as a woman of great faith because she had she discover something St Augustine said many years later:“we would not be able to seek God if God had not already found us”.

The same is potentially true for us as well – for God is never distant from us, and our life story, because God is already within us “nearer than our hands or feet” – especially when and if we do not know it.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

1https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-smell-of-fresh-baked_n_2058480