I think I memorized “I am the bread of life” at Sunday School. I was very young. I did not bother my head with things like food, or theology. Food appeared from the kitchen. I guess I understand that meat came from animals because pigeon was on the menu when the birds became slow — My dad raced pigeons — but I certainly did not worry about where my next meal was coming from. I knew Dad worked and Mum cooked.
Innocent days. Before I knew about missions, had been exposed to the Chinese church, and met Pentecostals.
And before the study of the gospels and the confessions became unfashionable. We were still examined on the catechism when I was a kid.
But Jesus is clear. He is not here to produce manna. We have to work for our living. And our material possessions do not save.
27Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” 32Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”
Now, the work we have to do is one of obedience. The issue we face is what does this mean? Well, the issue of intention and action has been explored by previous theologians. God does not change.
But the act we have to do in obedience is believe. Now, that sounds too simple. But it is live changing. For if we believe, we find that we are told to act as he acted. This involves what the catholics call solidarity — being united with all, including the poor, the people at the margins, and caring for them and subsidiarity — taking local responsibility for local issues. Not caring for global issues while ignoring the hurting and oppressed you can free and help.
Now, the Catholics have done us all a favour with their analysis here. It was driven by the needs of last century, but there is truth within it and this can be used by anyone.
(The truth is not owned. Like beauty, it is free, or will make itself free. It is not copyright — because it can be reframed, in other words, and thus spread).
Now, the first part is why each local community of churches should work for their city and town, should pray for their leaders, and should provide basic needs, In short, we should provide rice, even though we know rice does not cause salvation. As the Apostle said — do not give spiritual blessings if your neighbour is hungry.
The second part is why we should be suspicious of large projects. The more remote the decision makers are from the people, the greater the chance that the project will do harm. Consider state (national) social welfare — there is no accountability: the dole is seen as a right, and the destruction within the family is great because the man is not working and has no role. He cannot provide as well as the state — and his wife has to live with him, while she can pretend the state is not controlling her. (Which, if you are a beneficiary, it is. There will be drivers and social engineering within the benefits. Nature of the political process). Consider health systems — when they are relatively small — up to a million or two people per insurance system — they are flexible and work. Above that, they become too rigid. This is why both the left and right have had to continually tweak the NHS in England — much more than the NZ system or Scotland has had too — as England is just too big and there is no gain of efficiency of scale above a certain number.
Finally, we have to also note that the poor and oppressed will always be with us. This world is fallen. Very bad things happen. If we say that we will have a war against poverty, we will lose. If we keep our goals local and simple, we can achieve them. We cannot have all our societal effort going into caring or supervising the one in ten to one in twenty adults who are disabled, feckless or fools. We have to have around half our adults producing goods — food or things we can sell for food — or else we will not ba able to eat.
And we need to remember that our possessions and the power we have are not a means to our salvation, but tools to help others. Prosperity does not save, and neither does the food bank.
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