​14th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 16)                                                 LSB #’s 589, 577, 862
Text – Mark 7:13
 
Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.  And many such things you do.
 
VOIDING THE WORD OF GOD
 
 
Rules are made to be broken.  It’s well-known saying.    It drives some people crazy, & other people love it.   What’s ironic, if you think about it, is that ‘rules are made to be broken’ is actually just another rule.   Some people have more rules than others, but in reality, all sinful human beings live by some kind of rules. 
Each of us appreciates the value of our own rules & how we use them.   If other people agree with my rules, I’m fine with that, but I’m not interested in your rules unless they agree with mine.  In the end, the rules created by our sinful human nature are always about excluding those people who are unwilling or incapable of keeping them. 
For example, I do not appreciate it when people eat in my car.  The rule is meant to exclude those who end up making a mess.   In itself that desire to keep my car clean is neither good nor bad.  My sinful nature will always use it wrongly.   My saintly nature will use it in a God-pleasing way.  The question is, “Which nature is taking charge?” 
Do I use my rules only to satisfy myself?  Or, do I use my rules to bring glory to God?  Are my rules & regulations more important than relationships?  If your rule is something like, “No shooting guns in the house,” someone could really get hurt if it’s violated.  If your rule is, “No eating in the car,” the worst-case scenario is that someone will need to clean up the mess. 
In the Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus confronts a problem with the religious rulers of His day.  They treat their own rules as far more important than their relationships.  The shepherds were supposed to care for the sheep, not devour them.   Jesus was healing the sheep.  The small communities of Galilee were seeing the great kingdom work of God.  Whether a village or a town or the countryside, people were bringing their sick out into the marketplaces & Jesus was bringing God’s Kingdom into their lives.  People were seeing God’s gracious rule coming to Galilee in a very powerful way as Jesus brought healing & hope to His people. 
Instead of seeing the great kingdom work of God, the religious leaders were seeing something different.  Rather than look at Jesus & the people who are being healed, they looked at the disciples.  They saw these followers eat without washing their hands according to tradition.  In their eyes, that small infraction of tradition overshadowed the whole point of God’s kingdom. 
To help you grasp the magnitude of it, here’s a broad overview.  God creates the entire universe & everything in it in magnificent perfection.  Adam & Eve fall into sin & corrupt it all with evil.  The Holy Trinity sends Jesus to begin the new creation of the entire universe & of all who would believe it.  Meanwhile, the religious leaders are worried about washing hands. 
They ask Jesus to explain His disciples’ actions.  Jesus, however, does something else.  Instead of explaining the actions of His disciples, He explains the actions of the religious leaders.  He uses Scripture to awaken them to this fact – they loved their human traditions more than, not just God’s people, but more than God Himself.   In fact, they were voiding the Word of God. 
Their rules & regulations had become so important that they were blinded to the merciful work God was doing among His people.  Jesus further explains the actions of the religious leaders by reaching back into Israel’s history.  He quotes from the prophet Isaiah:
“…This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  (Mark 7:6-7 ESV)  Whether you’re in the 8th century BC, the 1st century AD, or the 21st century, the problem is perennial.  Whenever God’s people gather, they are in danger of putting their human traditions above people & thus above their Creator & Savior.  God does something different.  The Great I Am puts sinful human beings first.  He comes to cleanse not the hands   but the heart.   This leads to Jesus dying so that sinners could live again – without clinging to traditions for their standing before God.  
When Jesus was crucified, the religious leaders had Pilate remove His body before evening.  Why?   Because they wanted to keep the Sabbath.  (John 19:31)  In crucifying Jesus, they lost their God, & the people they were supposed to lead, but they kept their tradition!  Failure to love God’s will was concealed behind the pious appearance of outward conduct. 
Jesus, however, did not stay dead.  He rose & ascended into Heaven.  Now, He rules over all things.  He has borne the consequences for any uncleanness & suffered the punishment for any & every sin.   In Him, you are forgiven.  There is nothing now that can separate you from God’s love.   We are His, with or without our traditions. 
God’s Word teaches that if we love God, we will love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  It’s not a rule to obey just for the sake of obeying rules.  It’s a description of what happens once the Holy Spirit creates faith in your heart. 
To love human traditions more than our neighbor requires suffocating & killing the faith that the Holy Spirit created.  To love human traditions more than our neighbor is to void the very Word of God.  It’s to render that Word ineffective & useless.  It’s the very nature of unbelief.  It is hypocrisy to attempt outward obedience while the heart does not cling to God in faith. 
As we gather in worship today, we do so in the midst of traditions.  Whether our worship is historic   or contemporary, there are traditions that guide our interaction with one another & with God.  Because this is so, it is good for us to hear the lesson from Mark where Jesus calls us to experience the mercy & the love of our Creator & Savior.  
The heavenly Father’s grace is present for you, with or without traditions, because Christ
is present for you, with or without traditions.  The presence of traditions is not the problem.  Trouble arises in how we experience those traditions,   & in how we practice them.   Which is more important, rules or relationships?   Every one of us has broken every one of God’s rules.  That’s why Jesus came to die & rise from the dead, to restore our relationship with Him. 
1 John 3 informs us: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; & so we are.”  (3:1a ESV)   That is the new relationship our Lord has earned for us.  That is the relationship that gains us entrance into heaven.  Human traditions can be a useful teaching tool, but holding too tightly to them also carries a human cost. 
To God, a heart without traditions is better than traditions without heart.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had plenty of tradition but no heart.  In following Jesus, God’s people form patterns of life which honor Him & His work in the world.  Those patterns are not wrong.  Often, they are helpful & give shape to our lives.  
But there is something more important to God than these patterns, & that   is His people.  God would rather have people without the patterns of religion than the patterns of religion without people.  To God, a heart without traditions is better than traditions without a heart.  Traditions with no heart for God actually void the Word of God. 
Repentance is God’s gift to us to turn us back to Him that we might receive again a heart that loves Him & therefore loves our neighbor as ourself.  Our sins are forgiven.  Though our sins are as scarlet, our Lord declares us to be holy in His sight.   It’s that news which gives us comfort & courage, not how well we keep our traditions.  Amen. 
 
 
Almighty God, Your Word is cast like seed into the ground; now let the dew of heaven descend & righteous fruits abound.  Amen.  LSB 577:1. 

​13th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 15)                                                 LSB #’s 904, 850, 688
Text – Proverbs 9:6
 
Leave your simple ways & live; & walk in the way of insight. 
 
WALKING IN THE WAY OF INSIGHT
 
 
Computer viruses, worms & malware  are part of your lives,  whether you ever touch a computer or not.  For one, you’re hearing about them in the sermon.   It makes a fair introduction for today’s theme; “Walking in the Way of Insight.”   What seems like a harmless piece of mail that your computer received, can render useless   all the information within. 
Because of the insidious nature of viruses,  computer operators  need to be cautious.  There are people out there actively trying to tamper with or destroy your files.   If you aren’t careful  you can end up  very sorry.     But that’s no different  than our lives as Christians.  There are forces in this world  trying to tamper with or destroy  your soul. 
If we aren’t careful,  spiritually speaking,  we can also end up very sorry,  & in that case it will be for eternity.   The antagonist in our lives is similar to a computer virus.   Satan’s temptations  are subtle & attractive,  yet very damaging.  He’s invisible,   powerful,  & his sole purpose   is to damage or destroy any personal relationship with the true God.  
Computer hackers create viruses for the fun & the intrigue of it.   Satan sneaks into our lives for the lust of it.  There’s no fun or intrigue involved.  He longs to devour each & everyone of you  for eternity.   He desires to absorb you into his very essence.  Lucifer wants you for his slave  & he will enjoy  every moment  of watching your life go to hell.   
The devil takes pleasure  in misery & bitterness.   He enjoys the hatred & the anger boiling up within.   He revels in our feelings of uselessness & inferiority;   yet   he comes into our lives as a friend.    He comes as someone bringing hope  & tantalizing possibility.   On the Internet, in social media,  on the TV news, & from lips of human beings, messages come from Wisdom,  & messages come from Folly.  It helps if a person can distinguish between the two, then make an accurate decision as to which one to follow.   The wrong choice can have a disastrous impact,  not only on your smart phone or computer,  but on your soul.  A few verses after the OT reading, the book of Proverbs portrays Folly as someone calling out loudly:
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!  …Stolen water is sweet, & bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”  (9:16-17 ESV)   But the simple one does not know  that the guests of Folly  are in the depths of hell.   Proverbs calls to us: “Leave your simple ways...”  (9:6 ESV) 
Our Creator calls us to resist the devil & flee from him  because on our own  we cannot succeed in fighting him.  Only with Christ, & through what He did in our place,  can we resist the devil & defeat him.  Jesus calls us to put on the full armor of God, so that we can be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 
God’s Spirit longs to help us screen those messages from Wisdom & Folly.  Only with the help of our Creator can we choose Wisdom & reject Folly.    The Lord created & sustains the church on earth for those very reasons, for the purpose of teaching us, strengthening us & guiding us.  It’s through the church that Jesus has promised  to work. 
Adult Bible class, Sunday School & the confirmation program are  meant to educate you & help you choose life  rather than death.   God’s call to wisdom is the call  between life & death.  The wise person avoids destruction,  in this life & the next,  by making good choices in the light of devotion & commitment  to God  alone. 
People who try to make a go of it apart from the church  are the simple & the foolish ones who succumb to the siren call of Folly.  Satan is the master of disguising death  in order to make it appealing.  When drifting away from God, eventually a person’s sinful nature reasserts control  & chooses to die.    “Leave your simple ways, & live.  Walk in the way of insight.”  (Proverbs 9:6 ESV)   Those are God’s Word to us.  He gives them as a gift to those whom He loves,  not as a restriction on our right to choose.   The book of Proverbs was written with specific readers in mind,  namely, the children of God “those who are in the world,  but not  of  the world.” 
Walking in the way of insight  is equated with wisdom,  & Biblical wisdom points away from itself  to the only true God.   Public education has instilled a concept of wisdom that is unrelated to the Maker of heaven & earth.  It’s been forced to define wisdom  in secular terms. 
As a result,  in worldly ways of thinking,  to be wise  means to have professional knowledge,  a high degree of education  or financial success.    Biblical wisdom, however, is based upon one simple, overarching concept: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning  of wisdom.”  (Proverbs 9:10 ESV)    You cannot walk in the way of insight  if you do not fear the Lord. 
Now,  that fear  is not the same as terror.  Slave like fear is afraid that God will come, but child like fear  is afraid that He will leave.   A child like fear of the Lord refers to joyous,  loving,  willing reverence of the Lord that grows out of the news of salvation.  It is a fruit  of faith in what Christ did in your place,  & it’s worked by the Holy Spirit  without our help. 
A child-like fear of the Lord is a spontaneous attitude of a heart that has experienced the full & complete forgiveness of every sin,  fault  & weakness.   It’s found only in those who are converted, the regenerated children of God who obey His words in faith & love.  That fear  is the beginning of wisdom,  & knowledge of the Holy One  is insight.  (Proverbs 9:10 ESV) 
Likewise, the book of Job tells us, “Behold, the fear of the Lord,  that is wisdom;  & to turn away from evil  is understanding.”  (Job 28:28 ESV)   Wisdom in the Biblical sense is an openness to God’s Law & instruction, a willingness to be mortal,  & to allow God  to be wise.  It’s the willingness not to ask, “Why?” but to trust God  & follow the path in which He leads. 
The way of the Lord  is the righteous & blessed path.  The person walking in the way
of insight makes all the important choices of life  in light  of what Holy Scripture teaches.  That makes for choices that are far more integrated with God’s will  than we could ever make on our own.  St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  (5:17 ESV)   
Jesus summarized it clearly: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your strength & with all your mind, & your neighbor as yourself.”  (Luke 10:27 ESV)   That  is God’s will.  It is easily understood.    Living up to it – that’s another matter.   None of us can,  because our sinful nature rejects God’s will  at every turn. 
Our sinful nature rebels against obedience to the Word of God.  It does not want Jesus to be Lord.   As a result,  walking in the way of insight has to involve more than God’s instruction.  Understanding the will of the Lord includes more than knowledge  of what is right  & what is wrong.   The will of the Lord includes  the death of His Son to pay for our rebellion. 
The horrific price that Jesus paid on the cross erases the entire debt of everything that anyone  has ever done wrong.   God’s will  is that you would understand & respond  in joy.  No one can stop sinning, because sin is what sinners do,  & all of us are sinners.   Yet, “…though [our] sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...”  (Isaiah 1:18 ESV) 
God knows that we’ll continue to sin, & because of Jesus Christ, He promises that, in His sight,  He will make us clean again.   He’ll cast away our sins,  & God’s true children appreciate that release from the burden of guilt.  That appreciation is the response of faith,  & it does not stop there.  Now the battle is joined  between our sinful  & our saintly natures.  The war is on!  
Are you walking in the way of insight,  or the way of folly?    Will you live,  or will you die?   Once you’ve been made a child of God, you still have a choice in the matter.  You have the ability to walk away from God & to ignore Him.   Satan  & his angels are waiting for you   with open arms.  Christ has given you knowledge of your salvation.  Do you apply that knowledge to the choices you make?   Or,  do you still live in a slave like fear of a God  who will someday return?    If you are, look at the cross.  Look at the cross & see there the price  that your heavenly Father was willing to pay.  That price reconciled you   to Himself. 
A God that does not spare His own Son  will never reject you.  You don’t have to look out for number one, because someone much more powerful & all knowing is watching out for you.  Jesus stated that He is the Way, the Truth & the Life.  Therefore, walking in the way of insight  is nothing more complicated than walking  in Christ. 
Living your life in Christ,  trusting in Him,  following Him,   will allow your heavenly Father to protect you from any spiritual viruses  & from any harm to your soul.   He wants the opportunity to bless you,  but He will not cram it down your throat.  
Jesus promises, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”  (John 6:51ab ESV)   That eternal life began for you already at your baptism  & it continues even now,  this very day.  Amen. 
 
 
Lo, the hosts of evil round us  scorn the Christ,  assail His ways!   From the fears that long have bound us  free our hearts to faith & praise.  Grant us wisdom,  grant us courage  for the living of these days,  for the living of these days.      Cure Your children’s warring madness;   bend our pride to Your control;  shame our wanton, selfish gladness,  rich in things & poor in soul.  Grant us wisdom, grant us courage  lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal,  lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal.  Amen.  LSB 850:2-3. 

12th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 14)                          LSB #’s 424, 918, 642 (tune TLH 316)
Text – John 6:35
 
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, & whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE
 
 
After spending months continuously at sea, submarine sailors can tell the difference when you get back to walking on land.  There is a noticeably more solid feeling to it that is still difficult to put into words.  And submarines are a lot more stable than surface ships  that are frequently rocking from side to side,  or to & fro. 
Many people prefer to have the solid feel of land beneath their feet, which is why earthquakes strike terror into the hearts of people affected by them.  Earthquakes, in a terrifying way, remind us that all of our world is broken.  Though we may not see it, massive rock formations move over time, & in so doing, they encounter resistance.  
If those formations become locked, stress will build & build until it finally ruptures along a fault line.  Powerful forces we cannot easily see will fundamentally reshape the surface landscape from miles below ground.  And those fault lines are invisible to the human eye. 
What is true physically, is also true spiritually.  Our faith exists in a fractured & broken world with fault lines running everywhere.  Unseen forces suddenly erupt & drastically alter our lives.  The doctor orders a biopsy.   Differences in faith separate a mother from her daughter.  Your dad’s forgetting the day of the week, turns into him not knowing your name.  
As that “land beneath our feet” becomes less stable, we become disoriented.  We lose our bearings.  Things we long thought were stable & settled, can suddenly turn into one unending question after another.    How do we take the car keys from our parents?  What should we do to protect dad from all the scams that target older people?  Can I keep working while going through cancer treatment?  Who will watch over & care for the children?  Who will get the bills paid, & where will that money come from?   In our particular context, who will be chairman of the congregation?  Who will head up the teams that count the offerings?     Finally,   where is God hiding while all these fault lines are causing families & congregations to quake? 
In last week’s sermon, God was raining bread from heaven.  Today, we heard the Bread of Life teaching from Jesus.  The dialogue falls right along a fault line in His ministry.  Fractures in the spiritual landscape are growing & beginning to erupt. 
As chapter 6 opens, Jesus sees large crowds following Him.  Faced with their physical hunger, He miraculously feeds them.  After the miracle, they are full of zeal, but tremors reveal that the fault lines are beginning to slip.  They want to take Jesus by force & make Him a king, but it’s an earthly king they desire, to provide physical food & healing. 
By the end of chapter 6, the landscape is erupting.  Jesus sees large crowds of people leaving.  Faced with the disappointment & abandonment, He turns to His disciples.  Even there Jesus sees that one of them will eventually betray Him.  (6:70-71) 
In the span of one chapter, we move from thousands following Jesus   to thousands turning away; from a celebration of life in the wilderness (6:6), to a foreshadowing of His death in Jerusalem.  (6:70-71)    Between these major shifts in the landscape, Jesus proclaims He is the Bread of Life.  In that, we can hear the tensions that are tearing His ministry apart.  
It is along the fault lines, along those areas of resistance, where God breaks forth to transform our world.  The fault lines are God’s work in our lives – God’s rule over our lives, & God’s closeness to our lives.  Today, we consider Jesus as The Bread of Life. 
Whether you’ve thought of it or not, one of the blessings of Christianity is we do not have a “watchmaker” God.  Yahweh did not simply wind up the universe & walk away.   No!    God is intimately involved in the experiences & suffering of His creation.   He walked in the Garden with Adam & Eve & not a bird falls to the ground, but He is aware of it.  (Matthew 10:29)   God is at work orchestrating counter moves to our fault lines, our mistakes, failures & sins.   What is frustrating to our pride is that God’s work is often not what we expect it to be. 
Consider the Gospel reading.  Jesus has just fed 5000 men with five loaves of bread & two fish.  You’d think things would be great, but no.   Not every miracle leads to a happy ending.  God’s miracles run along the fault lines of life.  Those lines appear because our wants & desires commonly move against what God knows is best & chooses to do. 
Like two giant moving tectonic plates, the pressure builds until something ruptures.  What do the people want in John 6?  They want to make Jesus a king, but Jesus tells them, “You are seeking me... because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  (6:26)    God has given them bread & they want more.  They want a God who caters to all their wants & desires. 
The fault line is the tension between what we want God to do in our lives   & what God chooses to do.   Humanity has always been prone to this fault line & our culture teaches us to think of ourselves as consumers.  We expect others to fill our needs.  We cultivate this attitude in stores & restaurants, our government & schools, sometimes even in our churches. 
When we hear that Jesus does miracles, we begin to wonder what He can do for us.  Areas of our life need improving, like relationships, health, & finances.  We ask God for help, & if He does not help in the way we desire, we wonder whether we can have our needs met by someone else.  Maybe we’ll find success in education or sports or business. 
Responding to the fault lines, Jesus teaches the people, “I am the Bread of Life.”  (6:35)   Notice how Jesus turns their attention away from what He gives to who He is.   Jesus gives them bread, but He is also giving them Himself.   He is the true Bread – the Bread of Life.   Our relationship with Jesus is more important than sports or food or careers.  Regardless of the stuff we have, or do not have, when we have Jesus, we have everything we need.   He’s fully aware that He will not always meet our needs in the way we desire.  That does not mean He is no longer with us.  It just means His plans are different than ours.  He sees us with eternity in view.  
Today is only part of a much longer journey.   Jesus invites you & me to stop looking at what He gives & to live by looking to Him instead.   In Jesus’ ministry, many people walked away from Him.  The pattern has not changed since Adam & Eve fell into sin.   But those who turn back & follow Jesus see Him go to the cross, offering His life for their sin.  
The Bread of Life was broken.   Then the earth quaked & Jesus rose from the dead, revealing His rule over all things – even over death.   The Bread of Life was broken for all, but His payment benefits only those who trust Jesus & the good news that He freely offers.  Life in paradise is waiting if you simply receive the gift. 
While God will not always give you exactly what you want, He will give you what you need: His presence.  Jesus is with you in all things, so like the apostle Paul, you can say, “…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”  (Philippians 4:11)    Regardless of what you want God to do, He chooses to do what is best for you. 
Once the Lord takes your soul to heaven, your sinful nature will be gone & all the fault lines between you & God will be eliminated.  There will be no more earthquakes in your relationships or in your health.  For eternity you will exist on solid ground, resting in the perfect love of the heavenly Father.  Amen. 
 
Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.   I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand.   Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.     When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; death of death & hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.   Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to Thee; I will ever give to Thee.  Amen.  LSB 918:1, 3. 

​11th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 13)                                                 LSB #’s 904, 918, 648
Text – Exodus 16:4
 
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, & the people shall go out & gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.” 
 
RAINING BREAD
 
 
Where I grew up, if it was raining really hard, people would say, “It’s raining cats & dogs.”   According to the internet, no one knows where the saying came from or how cats & dogs are relevant to large amounts of rain.   In the OT lesson this morning, God tells His people that He is about to create a downpour of bread from heaven. 
“…in the morning dew lay around the camp.   And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.   When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’”  (Exodus 16:13-15a ESV)    Like the saying – raining cats & dogs, God’s people could not explain what the flake-like stuff was. 
I’m sure that many of you have experienced the kind of downpour that makes driving the freeway uncomfortable.   That’s understandable.   Torrential rains obviously can put your life in danger.   The dangers of bread raining from heaven – those are not so obvious.   Yet, for the Israelites who were rescued from slavery in Egypt, the peril was just as real. 
In the sermon text, God illumines the danger, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you,   & the people shall go out & gather a day’s portion every day,   that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”  (Exodus 16:4 ESV)    God doesn’t simply dump His blessings upon us & turn away.   He observes you & me to see what we do with them. 
Close to 40 years later, you can imagine that sinful human beings might be getting tired of eating quail & manna every day.   As God commands them to detour around the land of Edom, “…the people became impatient on the way.  And the people spoke against God & against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  For there is no food & no water, & we loathe this worthless food.’”  (Numbers 21:4b-5 ESV)   Hearing that last sentence, did you pick up on how irrational they’ve become?   They complain there is no food or water, but then say they loathe this worthless food. 
“Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, & the people shall go out & gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them…”  God’s people marched through the wilderness, eating quail & manna every single day for almost 40 years.  Should we be surprised that they failed the test?  
The dangers of bread raining down from heaven became very obvious.   Although it was still God’s blessing, the people were sick of it.    Sadly, you & I are no different.   Which blessings from the heavenly Father have we grown weary of?   Have you ever given thought to a question like that?   Have you realized that some of God’s blessings do get old after a while? 
Being aware of our feelings is a beginning step to dealing with them in a productive & healthy manner.  The Israelites complained against God & Moses even though the food was given to them freely.  How else were they going to get food for millions of people in the middle of the desert wilderness?   They weren’t thinking rationally, but then, sin never does. 
You & I do not think rationally either when it comes to our complaining.  God’s grace is literally raining from heaven, upon each of us, every single day of our lives.   How often do our words make it sound like we realize & appreciate that?    For example, when you see a rainbow, do you thank God for His covenant?    Does seeing a rainbow even bring God to mind? 
In the book of Exodus; God was raining bread from heaven to bless & to provide for His people, yet, He was also doing so in order to test them.  Today, Yahweh still rains blessings upon us to provide for our needs, & to test you & me.   In the OT lesson, God acknowledges the Israelites’ need for assurance that food will be provided for them.  He did this in spite of their complaining.   There literally was no way for them to feed themselves.    However, God also desired to shape them into a different kind of people, a different kind of community.   As the Lord tested them, that too was a blessing meant to change their hearts. 
Our lives are not simply a day-to-day struggle of existence.  In the big picture, they are a journey to heaven guided & sustained by Jesus, no matter how short or long-term are the struggles we face.  Ultimately, none of us is able to feed ourselves in this wilderness corrupted by sin.   Without a savior, death is always the eternal outcome. 
In the face of such a bleak & desperate outlook, the world can only produce things like the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics.  The world can only mock the things of Christianity because the only original thing that sin can produce is death.   All that sin is able to do is destroy what God brought into existence, & even that only because God allows it. 
He allows that, because the Father in heaven loves you enough that He will not force you to love Him in return.  He allowed Jesus to be mocked as He hung on the cross while paying for all the death & destruction that sinners bring into Yahweh’s creation.   The very Bread of Life was sacrificed in the hope that some would trust in that sacrifice & be saved. 
It was a huge gamble for the sake of sinful creatures like you & me.   As with the Israelites, none of us deserve to be saved.   Still, the Creator, through the death of His Son, has redeemed every single human being that is alive today.   Now, He’s waiting to see if we believe & trust in that blessing.  He rains forgiveness upon us in the hope that we’ll believe. 
When we pray, “…give us this day our daily bread,” Luther explained the meaning of it with these words, “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people,  but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this & to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”  And that is the test.  If saving faith lives within us we do receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.  Is that something we do perfectly?  Never.  Not even Christians are capable of perfection in this life.  However, if we are never thankful, that is not a good sign.  In the end, whenever we struggle with doubt, saving faith always turns to Jesus. 
In the Gospel lesson, people questioned Jesus, “‘what must we do, to be doing the works of God?’   Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’”  (John 6:28-29 ESV) 
So they said to Him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see & believe you?  What work do you perform?  Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  (John 6:30-31 ESV)
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven & gives life to the world.”  (John 6:32-33 ESV) 
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, & whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”  (John 6:34-35 ESV)   Jesus is telling us that in the beginning of our faith journey & many times along the way, God will redeem us from our unbelief.”  
The Holy Spirit is constantly calling us, gathering us & enlightening us through the good news of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  God’s Word illustrates that with something we all understand well – food & our need for it.  God does not bless us just for its own sake.  He blesses that we might grow closer to Jesus & thus to eternal life. 
Because we’re sinful, He can’t simply give us everything we want.  He must also test us, because it is mostly in our need that we recognize Jesus as Savior.  God’s testing of us is part of the process of killing our sinful nature.  As Luther wrote about that, we must daily drown the old Adam through contrition & repentance.  Then, the new Adam, or the saintly nature, may arise anew each day, by the work of the Holy Spirit. 
The next time things are going so well, blessings seem to raining from heaven, & it seems to good to be true, remember that even in the good blessings that God gives, He is also helping us to see that He is always faithful & it will be a blessing to us if we hear His words & obey them.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.   I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand.   Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.     When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; death of death & hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.   Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to Thee; I will ever give to Thee.  Amen.  LSB 918:1, 3.