Detroit and the Bread of Life

Sunday August 2, 2015

Texts: (NRSV & MSG)
Hebrew -- Ex 16:2-4, 9-15; and Ps 78: 23-29
Christian – Jn 6: 24-35; and Eph 4: 1-16

This is the 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Ordinary Time for the church year means that it is not extraordinary.  Extraordinary time would be around the major Holy Days: Christmas, Easter, Lent, and Pentecost.  This Ordinary Time takes up the largest part of the church year.  Summer is always in Ordinary time, and in this part of summer there are five Sunday gospel readings in a row from the Gospel of John.  John’s gospel is well known for its emphasis on Divine Indwelling as seen in the often-quoted image of vine & branches -- I am the vine, you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit….  (Jn 15:5).  All five Sunday readings are from chapter 6:1-71, which is often called the Bread of Life Chapter.  This Sunday is the second of the five Sundays and picks up from last Sunday’s reading on Feeding of the Five Thousand.  It focuses on the Dialogue (Discussion) between Jesus and the Crowd about the Feeding.  In the next three Sundays, Jesus will expand on this discussion in several Discourses on the Bread of Life.  Biblical Discourses differ from dialogues.  In discourses Jesus speaks and the crowd listens while in dialogue there is a back and forth conversation.

The central question in the Jesus and the Crowds dialogue (Jn 6:24-35) is Why is it important that Jesus gives and the crowd receives the Bread of Life?

1. The scene opens with some of the five thousand who’ve been fed catching up with Jesus the next day on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
2. The crowd asks Jesus how he got there.
3. Jesus ignores the question and states that the crowd is looking for him to receive more free food.  Jesus says further that you, the crowd, missed “God in my action”; it’s that which will nourish you more than the food I gave you. 
4. The crowd asks “What do we need to do?”
5. Jesus responds that you need to stay with me for the real bread and to “get in on more of God’s work.”
6. The Crowd is confused about Jesus’ ideas about spiritual bread, what Jesus calls the real bread.  The crowd brings Moses and manna into the conversation.  In today’s Exodus reading we hear that He (Moses) gave them bread from heaven to eat.
7. The crowd asks Jesus to show us what he (Jesus) can do.
8. Jesus responds to the crowd that you are missing the point if you are looking to me to do signs for you.  The Bread of Heaven is to help you to do the signs.  The work of giving life to the world is your work, and God is willing to give you what you need to do that work.  Jesus was pointing the way and was encouraging them to move in that direction.
9. Jesus continues with the remarkable statement: I am the Bread of Life.  The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever.
10. The crowd jumps on this: Master, give us this bread, now and forever.

However, the initial enthusiasm for many in the crowd had waned significantly by the end of Chapter 6 after Jesus had expanded about this Bread of Life in two discourses.  Many if not most of the crowd had decided that This is a tough teaching, too tough to swallow.   Many disciples left Jesus at this time.  The controversy about Jesus increased, with many thinking that he was crazy and others that he was too subversive for their liking. 

So, Eighth Day Faith Community members come from the part of the crowd that stayed with Jesus.  I like what Peter said to Jesus at this point: To whom would go?”  You have the words of real life….  (Jn 6:67).    Many of us at might say the same about the Eighth Day Faith Community--Where would we go if not Eighth Day?  It seems to me that we have a good portion of the Bread of Life right here at Eighth Day.  We remind ourselves each Sunday about the Bread of Life in the Eucharist celebration in our worship.  Many things seem really real here.  We strive to be present to God and the world in a real way.  On good days, we are know what it means to To Be Mature as Ephesians says in today’s Epistle -- You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together both outwardly and inwardly.  (Eph 4: 4).  The three worlds of call, inward, & outward journey capture Eighth Day’s and other Church of the Saviour communities’ special brand of the real Bread of Heaven.   It is our essence and it is how we experience God and the world.  Our disciplines encourage us, as Ephesians says, to all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Jesus (Eph 4:13).

Since my return from my trip to Detroit, I have been wrestling with my understanding of our spiritual essence of call, inward journey, & outward journey in relationship what I saw there.  Marcia and I were on a delegation to Detroit with the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).  We wanted to learn from the grassroots social movements of Detroit what is happening there.  CPT is an organization formed from the historic peace churches such as Mennonites, Quakers, etc.  in the 1980s to work with various social movements to undo oppressions and to do strategic peacemaking.  CPT routinely sends delegations to Columbia, Iraq, Israel/Palestine and the US Borderlands.  This delegation was the first one to Detroit.

Our Detroit view was limited because it was a view from the bottom up.  This was probably Jesus’ view of his world so maybe that view is enough to get started.  The short version of what we found there is as follows, and if you are interested in a longer version, stay after the service.  Before arriving in Detroit, we did not know many details about the situation in Detroit except that it appeared to be a Third World City in First World Country.  We also know that the United Nations had visited Detroit last year before and criticized the city for its aggressive cut-off of water to people’s houses.   

We found in Detroit that people in both faith-based and secular groups were vibrant, alive, and creative in their search for ways to survive personally and collectively while creating a new city.  Many felt that they were facing a “slow moving human created Hurricane Katrina” that was threatening their city.  They see themselves as the first big American city being affected by globalization.  The short story of this is as follows:

1. Jobs, populations, and tax base have declined with the globalization of the automobile industry since as early as the 1950s.
2. The Great Recession of 2008 had decreased the net assets of citizens of Detroit by 50%.  That recession had much to do with housing, and Detroit had a very high home ownership who had mortgaged their homes to survive financially.  Eighty percent of the city’s population is people of color. 
3. About two years ago, an Emergency Manager was imposed on the city by State of Michigan with broad powers despite the successful passing of a successful state referendum opposing the Emergency Manager.
4. The Emergency Manager refused to collect public and private debt owed the city and has declared a city bankruptcy over the objections of the many citizens of Detroit.
5. The Emergency Manager is proceeding to privatize public entities such as the water system, public buildings, and schools.
6. The Emergency Manager has imposed a city renewal plan without citizen review that promotes business interests and starts the systematic withdraw of public and social services from certain parts of the city. 
7. Two  examples of this on the ground in Detroit are as follows: A major developer of the downtown area has its own private police force and the public police forces have low wages (<$15/hr??) and benefits (none?).  Private water rates have increased sharply and homeowner behind by two months in water bills can have their water cut off and their children removed to foster care.

This is a very different story from Jesus’ feeding the crowd of five thousand with bread.  Jesus’ Feeding of the Five Thousand was free and people were hopeful for more of the same.   The people of Detroit are losing their food, livelihood, and homes and are not hopeful.  A Jesus-like dialogue of the Bread of Life seems useful at this time and place.  Some of the relevant questions to focus may be:

• How accurate and real are these findings?
• What would Jesus say about the Detroit situation?    
• What do we need to say and to do about Detroit, if anything?   

The Detroiters that we visited with, talked to, and worked with are growing food in vacant land both individually and collectively.  Many have organized co-ops.  Several churches are bringing water to some of the people who have had their water cut off.  Many organizations are connecting with each other to resist efforts of the withdrawal of public services such as fire, police, schools, and social services.  Others are resisting “re-colonizing” (their words) the downtown by corporations that are moving poor out and professional people into the city with monetary housing subsidies.  When we asked what gives them hope, the Detroiter said “you can only change a place that you love and we are here to stay.”  Their upbeat energy is rooted in their love for their City. 

It seems to me that if Jesus might, in this modern day dialogue about Detroit, give many Detroiters a good-effort pass.  Jesus might even join their social celebrations such as church picnics and hip-hop dinner parties.  However for the rest of us he may be more confrontational.  Jesus might push us beyond “eating our fill” to know and act more fully on what is going on.  When the Israelites first saw manna they called it man-hu which means What is it?  However, that level of ignorance would be more difficult for us to claim given what is happening in the world similar to Detroit.  For me, I am aware of and alarmed by the increasing concentration of wealth and power in this country and the world.  In my visits to Haiti, Columbia, and Israel/Palestine, I have seen the efforts to control government spending and monopolize natural resources.  I also know both natural and man-made catastrophes such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have been used to subvert the democratic process and the common good.  I also know that people with less voice and fewer resources are often easy targets for greedy people.  Detroit is made up of 80% people of color.  It sits on the Great Lakes which has 20% of the world’s fresh water reserves and is the portal for 50% of US/Canada trade.  I also know that climate change with an increasing world population will increase the pressure for the world’s resources sooner rather than later. 

Part of me would just like to just do what the Detroiters ask me to do which is to write some letters and talk to a few people back home.  They did not ask for money but probably could use some so I could also do that.  However, we here at Eighth Day also have those pesky essences of Call, Inward Journey, and Outward Journey in how we experience God and the world.  And the Detroiters did ask me to be an ally.  They did mention that I might want to meet this slow-moving hurricane at my front grate rather than at my front door.  And then there is Martin Niemoller’s statement about the big evil of the Jewish Holocaust.[1]  That statement may also be appropriate for some of the big evils present in our globalized world – And then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

So I wonder how important for us in general and for me in particular to seriously consider the Detroit situation.  Is the Bread of Life question relevant here?   -- Why is it important that Jesus gives and the crowd receives the Bread of Life?  We are mature Christians who are beyond calling manna “What is it.”  We are mature Christians who experience God and the World by using Call, Inward Journey, and Outward Journey to negotiate the costs and difficult terrain of discipleship.  Nevertheless at this moment, this Detroit dialogue might be too big and too much to get our arms around in a creative Outward Journey.  However, I/we can at least take this Bread from Life dialogue as part of our Inward Journey in an authentic and conversational way to see what percolates up.  Maybe right now, the right thing to do is simply pray deeply: 

God, what needs to be my prayer for the people of Detroit at this time? and
God, is there anything getting in my way of my joining with the people of Detroit more fully?   
What do I need to relinquish?