"Holy Manna"

John 6:51-58

A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

September 3, 2006

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

That hymn we just sang is one of my favorites. Since it’s in the Sacred Harp hymnal, I get to sing it a lot. The tune is simply known as Holy Manna and is a rousing affirmation of what we are trying to do when we are together.

Holy Manna is the stuff of revelation.

Holy Manna is the grace we notice when the world throws a wrench at everything we know and hold dear.

Holy Manna is the life-force, the sustenance for the journey ahead.

Holy Manna is all around us if we just pay attention.

Even when we are in the wilderness of our discontent, even when we are perplexed by wars and rumors of wars, even when we are faced with unemployment, even when we are mired with depression or some other debilitating condition, the good news is that Holy Manna is around, if we just look closely enough.

Okay so what’s Manna, anyway? You will remember that when the Hebrew people fled from slavery in Egypt that they fled into the desert. They had some food with them, we would suppose, but not 40 years worth. The people started longing for the fleshpots of Egypt. They grumbled to Moses and Aaron and Miriam: "Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that you had to bring out here to die?" God provided for them a bread-like substance called manna. It was there like dew upon the ground every morning and had to be used quickly before it went sour. The people were skeptical at first. The word Manna actually means, "what is this stuff?" But they ate it and were sustained for their journey.

Whenever people have forgotten God’s power or presence, they were reminded of the manna in the wilderness.

I used to go backpacking with our church youth group. When I was about 13, I went on my first backpacking trip. There were six youth and one adult leader. We went to West Virginia and hiked up to Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia, all 4200 feet of it. It doesn’t sound like so much right now, but back then, we were doing something out of our comfort zone. We even got a bit crabby. No please from the leader for us to enjoy the views and stay in the moment could cheer us up. That was until we came to a clearing and found the manna. This was in the form of tiny wild blueberries. We feasted on this little gift from God. We got enough energy from the manna to make it to the top of the mountain. We were sure to take our share on the way back down so we could have blueberry oatmeal, blueberry pancakes and even blueberry no-bake cheesecake. Yum.

A few years later we got a bit more adventurous. When I was 17 we went to Utah and hiked from the source of the Virgin River through a canyon known as "The Narrows", a chasm where the shallow river cut a 500’ deep canyon. Our plan was to spend two and a half days hiking the 27 miles into the beautiful canyon and end up at Zion National Park. We began our trip and followed the trails. The problem was the trails were animal trails. You know as well as I do that animal trails often peter out. When they did, we would find ourselves bushwhacking through oak shrubs as we looked for the next trail that we prayed would last a bit longer. After the first day, we only had traveled about three miles. We started conserving food, realizing that we would be out a bit longer than we had planned. Luckily, a couple of fisher-folk took pity on us and gave us a few trout that first night, which we happily cooked up, in pancake batter. On the fourth day, we finally arrived in the narrows, slowed by hunger and making grumpy allegations of blame for the delay. We stowed our boots in our backpacks and put on sneakers so we could wade back ad forth across the Virgin River. Our dinner that night was a couple of squirts of jelly from a Gerry tube. On the afternoon of the fifth day, we saw people for the first time. Our pace tripled. We knew we were close to the end. We surrounded them, told them of our plight and asked them how much farther we had until we reached civilization. They gave the sixteen of us the rest of their bag of Oreo cookies. It was like manna from heaven. We each had a crumb or two and it was the best food we had ever tasted. We were hungry, but we were not starving, not really. But in our own dramatic eyes, we had gone through the worst of times and had been surprised by grace in that bag of Oreo cookies.

We need manna to get us through the really rough times. Think of the manna that gets your through your desert experiences. The manna for me in the wilderness ends up being music, or good friends, or good food. It can even be a revelation from a book that helps me see the world in a new way.

In today’s scripture, the writer of John has Jesus reinterpret the Exodus story by personalizing it—saying that Jesus is the Holy Manna, the bread of life. Much of our communion hymns and liturgies reflect this image. But if we think good religion is only about taking communion, then we have lost its central core. We cannot stop with the eating and drinking of the communion elements. While this might well be a helpful starting point, it cannot be the be-all and end-all. It can be seen as a cop-out for the real work of the community of faith.

It’s not about the meal. It’s about the journey. The point is not whether or not we take communion. The point is that we are to be the people of God doing good work.

We are to be the Holy Manna. We are to be the ones offering hope to the world. We are to be the ones offering alternatives to the war-making, easy-answered syrupy spirituality that makes none of us healthier. We are to be the Holy Manna.

How can we be so audacious to be Holy Manna? Each of us is a child of God. Each of us is a reflection of God. Therefore, each of our lives are holy.

You don’t feel all that holy, you may say? I can understand that. There are plenty of days I feel less than holy. My family can attest to the times when I am certainly less than godly. But the reality is that we are all children of God and whether we like it or not each one of our lives are holy.

So we have the Holy part down.

What about the Manna part?

Well, the Manna is the part where we bring hope to people.

It’s the part where we show people how to live.

It’s where we befriend the friendless.

It’s where we speak the truth in love.

It’s when we hold each other close.

It’s when we help resettle a family.

It’s when we receive from that family some hope and some deeper sense of faith.

It’s when we utilize our worldly goods in such a way that we can help people have a place to live, a school to attend, a place to call holy.

The challenge is for us to find ways that we can be manna for a world and people in need. If we can find ways to do that, we will be doing holy work.

Holy Manna these days represents true community. It represents the hope of the world. It is found in the person of Jesus but not only that. It is also found in those of us who choose to follow that Jesus and find new life and purpose and hope and sustenance for the journey ahead.

I think of the people who have flooded to New Orleans to offer some support and help even a year after the hurricane. They are an example of Holy Manna.

I think of the people who take to the streets to protest warfare. They are holy manna.

I think of the plethora of volunteers that we have at UBC who help out with Loaves and Fishes, serving meals to the hungry of Minneapolis; the people who deliver food in the meals on wheels program; the good people of UBC who have helped Tin Aye and her family and the Du family resettle here in the Twin Cities. You are examples of Holy Manna.

I think of those of us who demonstrate and advocate for rights for all people. You are examples of Holy Manna.

Sisters and brothers, this world doesn’t need so much people declaring that they are Christians as much as we need people who are willing to be holy manna.

We need people who will show God’s love to a world in need.

We need people who will be beacons of light in a world where light is a rare commodity.

We need people who will offer friendship in the face of loneliness.

We need people who will offer grace to a people in deep need.

We need some Holy Manna.

This past weekend, I gathered with eight other people to help one of our members move into a new apartment. She was so thankful for all of the help. It was like each person was a portion of the Holy Manna.

One of our other members moved a week or so ago, but the move was scheduled when her mother was in the hospital in another state. So her friends took care of the move so she could be with her mother. They were certainly Holy Manna for her and her mother.

When we have that Holy Manna all around us, then we are on the way to being much more healthy, hopeful and even holy.

So recognize your holiness. Recognize that we have the opportunity to spread that holiness like manna in the wilderness. Being Holy Manna will not only please God, it will shock people and it will bring rays of hope to a world and a people in need.

I can think of nothing more Christian than that.