Methodist Bishop

Exodus 16.2-4, 9-15 John 6.24-35 How quickly people’s memories fade. Or else sometimes they find that their memories are strangely selective. Perhaps they look back at the past with rose tinted spectacles. Every summer in their childhood the sun shone, they could play out with their friends for as long as they liked, and times were hard but everyone was contented with their lot. Or perhaps they look back and remember only the bad things, having ringworm, wearing clothes that were always either a size too large or a size too small, or never being allowed to have red sandals like all the other girls. How else are we to explain the strange recollections of the people of Israel in the wilderness when they complained to Moses: ‘In Egypt we sat by the fleshpots and had plenty of bread’? they complained. These are the very same people who, in Egypt, had actually been oppressed with forced labour by brutal taskmasters who made life bitter for them with their harsh demands and treated them li...

John 6.28-35 I first made bread with my grandmother. It was one of my favourite activities. I was fascinated by the process of making the bread, the texture of the dough, the way it rises. I loved its smell and - of course - I loved the taste. For the first time I found that simple food could be really good to eat, something that wasn’t just a chore. Before, when I ate bread, it was something I was obliged to do. ‘You’ve got to eat two slices of bread and then you can have some cake.’ But my grandmother’s bread was something I actually enjoyed eating for its own sake. ‘Give us this bread,’ said the people to Jesus, And don’t ever stop.’ There’s nothing quite like homemade bread. It has a taste that is incomparable to sliced bread, or even to bread from a baker’s shop. Bread is something we need to stop us feeling hungry and fill us up. But the best bread can also be deeply satisfying, not just a filler but a pleasure in its own right.It’s a taste of heaven, but even homemade bread i...