In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     Jesus said, "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life." Now, far be it from me to suggest that Jesus is odd-but one might think that these words of Jesus ARE odd. Odd, in the sense of strange, radical, not reflective of real life, in the real world, for real people. Because most of us, today, are all about working for the food that perishes! We might hesitate to admit that, to ourselves, or others-but our actions tell the tale. The food that endures for eternal life is fine-but what is our greatest concern, what takes most of our time, and energy, what we worry most about in life, is the food that perishes. In that regard, we are not unlike the whole congregation of the Israelites in our first lesson, delivered from slavery in Egypt, being led by God's anointed one, Moses through the Red Sea, on their way to the Promised Land-a land of milk and honey, a land of never-ending hope and promise-a land that they are fighting for today-yet for all the spiritual blessings the Lord was showering upon them as they left Egypt and headed for the Promised Land-all they could think about was the food that perishes. The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread-instead, you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill us with hunger!"

     Does that not sound like so many folks today? Maybe it's us-at times! People who are so caught up in worldly things, so distracted by our own immediate needs, that we don't stop to look around us, to look at our lives in perspective, and see how God is leading us, and yes, how God is feeding us with the bread of life that endures for eternal life. And we think we have lots of reasons for being distracted and worried about having the food that perishes. What, are we not supposed to care about having a shelter over our heads, and food on the table, and clothes on our backs, and the backs of our children? Are we not to care that we can pay our bills, and meet our commitments, and put something aside for the future? Well, caring for these things is fine and good-except that we aren't just concerned for these things-we're obsessed with them! So much so that they take all our time and consume all our resources. Most of our lives are occupied in working-toiling-focusing on the food that perishes: a job that provides advancement; steadily increasing income; a stock investments that rise; retirement accounts that are sufficient. And along with that, most today are concerned with having a comfortable, attractive home; a snazzy car; the latest fashions-and not just for us-if we have kids, we want these things for our children, too. Not just clothing and shelter-but the right house, in the right neighborhood, and the right clothes. We try to convince ourselves that we're not obsessed with the proverbial "food that perishes"-but the question to ask ourselves is, "what are my greatest worries?"; "what takes most of my time and energy?"; "what am I pursuing in life?" The answers might surprise us. Because don't most of us worry about home and job and financial security? Isn't that what most of us are pursuing in life? And our work schedules reflect that. Many of us spend most of our time at work, or thinking about work, or fretting about what will happen next at work. We put most of our time and energy, into work and work related pursuits-and when we are sapped from such pursuits, we either crash, exhausted, or we escape, to finish filling our lives with what we think will refresh us and renew us, before we have to get back to work. And as we said, it's not that work is "bad"-it's not that home and security and planning for retirement are "bad"-it's that these are not to be our primary goal in life. That's the trap we fall into-that's the mistake we make-we become convinced that life is about-work and the accumulation of wealth and the value of our possessions. And I know that to many of you, this sounds like just so much church talk aimed at making people feel guilty. I know that some folks stop coming to church because when they come to church, they hear a message they think is directed at making them feel guilty for working hard and trying to plan for the future. This, of course, is one of the uses of the Law-the preaching of the Law is, at times, a hammer, that God uses to break our pride and our priorities in life, to show us the folly of our ways. And yes, at times the Law causes us to feel guilty, as we are led to look at our lives realistically, and see that our lives are not what God might intend for them to be.

     But listen to this, at the same time, the same message can also be heard as Gospel! We find it hard to understand that the same passage of Scripture can be both Law and Gospel, but it's true! Because the words of Jesus, that we are not to labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, isn't just aimed at creating a feeling of guilt, but perhaps primarily, it is aimed at creating a sense of freedom! What Jesus is telling us today, is not aimed first, at increasing our burdens and together with our stress and exhaustion from work and responsibility, adding now, an overwhelming sense of guilt.what Jesus is offering to us, is freedom from the stress and worry-freedom from the heavy burden we carry from hauling around this humongous sack of responsibility, called life. It serves no good purpose, for our Lord to increase our burdens-it helps us not at all for Jesus to stack on our backs, guilt, upon stress upon exhaustion. Rather, Jesus offers freedom from these burdens-real freedom, that comes from letting God be God, from accepting the fact that we are not God and Lord over our lives. Jesus offers the freedom that comes from trusting that truly, it will all work out in accordance with God's plan-and work out better, when we're not trying to control, control, control every little aspect of our lives and our future. Jesus died to give us the hope and promise of eternal life, but also the hope and promise of abundant life, here, now. Abundant life which has nothing to do with winning the lottery, having an abundance of income, having a posh, comfortable existence. But life that is abundant, because it is life centered, life oriented, not on the food which perishes, but on the food that endures for eternal life. Life centered on, oriented toward, the Bread of Life, that is the presence of Jesus in our lives. Because just as Jesus died on the cross, to make atonement, to pay the price for our sin and guilt, so also was Jesus raised to new life, to be the Living Lord of our lives. Jesus was raised to live, to be present with us and for us, in every breath and step of life. Jesus was raised to be our constant companion and guide, our friend and confidant, our strength and our assurance-that in spite of it all, no matter what happens in life, we could be assured by Christ's presence, that God is in control, that we can yield to God and God's control over our lives, that we may experience, real life, and true life and abundant life!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.