One of the things about being a diabetic is that I have become very aware of the need for food. Of course everyone knows that they need to eat, but when my blood sugar starts to get low or I need reviving a bit with a drink, I begin to sense the tell tale signs. I get irritable and my patience becomes very short - just ask my family! Trying questions or any thing that needs to be worked at becomes a nuisance until I have got myself back in balance.

I am not alone in this. There is some research that has shown that children’s concentration is improved if they have access to drinking water. Dehydration stops the brain working properly. Because of this many schools have installed water fountains so that the children can get a drink and so pay attention to what is going on in the lesson. Bad behaviour is not always a sign of naughtiness. It can be a sign of a physical need shouting for attention. The early 20th century psychologist Abraham Maslow expressed this with his theory of a hierarchy of needs and it is only when the basic subsistence levels are attended to that we find we can start asking bigger questions about the meaning of life.

Both of our readings this morning touch on this. For the Israelite people in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15), they grumble for lack of food and find they are given a strange substance called Manna in the morning and quails in the evening. The word ‘Manna’ actually means ‘what is this’ and so we have the possibility of playing around with the different ways that can be said. ‘What is this’ can be a question of delight in the strange provision or it can be said with the nose screwed up in disgust and contempt for something that is not what we had come to expect on our table!

Likewise Moses’ reply can be said with awe and wonder that this is what the Lord has provided from his bounty. Praise be the name of the Lord! Alternatively it can be said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. ‘Stop whinging. This is what there is. And don’t screw your nose up like that. It is what God has given you, so be thankful!’ Blood sugar levels are not the only thing that tries my patience sometimes!

I remember being struck by a colleague who reassured me (I think!) before I had to preach at an occasion when there were a lot of people present who I thought were going to be expecting something whizzy and of a high quality. The nerves were showing! She said that spiritually she tended to ‘dine out’ quite a bit, as she put it. She had a diocesan based job and so tended to visit lots of churches and had come to value what was put before her wherever she went. Far from becoming hyper-critical, she had developed a wonderful sense of gratitude for whatever spiritual food was served up to her. It was a lesson in gratitude and delighting in God’s bountiful goodness; in valuing the hospitality and fayre that was being shared. In a few gentle and perceptive words, the focus was shifted from the nerves of an anxious preacher to God whose bounty was the larder from which the feeding was to be taken. There is a wisdom and spirituality there which we can apply to many situations.

In the reading from John’s Gospel (6:24-35), we have Jesus dealing with a crowd of people who have been fed by him and want more. This passage follows on from John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 and so there is more than the hint of a desire for a free meal in this. John has Jesus trying to take their desire for more on further to the next stage. They have been fed physically and now he wants them to ask deeper questions than what’s on the menu for today’s lunch. In both readings we are able to get a bit further up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs than hungry stomachs or low blood sugar levels. And this is what Jesus is demanding that the people do.

In both readings there seems to be some resistance to moving beyond the first level of hunger. We would probably find the crowd that hunted out Jesus seriously annoying. He’s just fed them with the contents of a child’s lunchbox and they have the cheek to ask for a further sign! What more do they want? They seem to have serious short-term memory problems! Perhaps they have become fixed on this first level and are trying to avoid the bigger questions. Jesus is having none of it and won’t let them off that easily.

Where do we get stuck and avoid moving beyond full stomachs to questions that will celebrate God’s greater bounty? If we allow ourselves to be pushed deeper we will find ourselves standing before God, not angrily wielding a big stick ready to catch us out, but with the love that lies behind the provision. Grateful hearts are ones touched by love. Grumpy hearts are ones that haven’t moved on to the next stages and are just fixed on the menu and whether we think that is good enough for us!

No wonder Jesus often takes as his examples those who didn’t have much to show but whose hearts are well and truly tuned in. When adults are feeling so important he picks on a child as an example to emulate. When he goes to a posh dinner he allows a disreputable gatecrasher to show her love and show up the respectable host for his shallow honouring. So much attention can be paid to the trimmings and outward show that we let the heart of a celebration slip through our fingers or forget to include it on our ‘to do’ list in the first place.

Jesus always takes us to the heart of God’s love. If we have physical needs he shows his concern with feeding and healing, and by implication expects us to do the same, but he never leaves it at this first level. There is always a deeper aspect which he opens to us. This deeper level is an invitation to be touched by the love that makes the feeding, the first level, possible in the first place. In so doing he draws us into a glimpse of heaven in our midst.

© Ian Black 2003

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