I Am the Bread of Life.

The next few pages contain meditations shorter in nature based on the, "I Am" saying found in the gospel of St John. These sayings seem so very different from any other of the well-known sayings of Jesus. They are very gnostic in nature and hardly seem like the words of Jesus who was a preaching, teaching Jew.

That said, John found that in some way they conveyed the message that he wanted about the life of Jesus. Jesus may well have spoken very similar words to the ones we are going to be looking at. he would have been familiar with the importance of bread and he would have seen shepherds regularly. Other various aspects, vines and such would indeed be familiar to him.

So rather than get involved in the debate about the theology of these sayings I would like us simply to consider them as they are and to contemplate what they say to us in this age about Jesus.

When I became involved in the life of the Church for the very first time, it was to be part of a group of people engaged in writing modern hymns and music. The group was known as Group 96 from Psalm 96, "I will sing a new song to the Lord."

This was a turning point in my life, and one of the very earliest hymns I ever wrote was based around the I Am sayings.

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I Am the Bread of Life

Jesus said I am the bread of life, he that comes to me shall never hunger. He that believes in me shall never thirst. If any man eats of this bread. he shall live forever, he that comes to me I will never turn away.

John 6: 36-37

I would like you to make a list of the five most important things in your life, at this present moment in time. ( If you include your family that will count as one item.)

Hold these five things in your mind. Here are the five most important things for you at this very present moment of time.

Having decided that these are important to you, consider them for a moment one at a time.....  Now taking time, do not act impulsively discard the one you consider the easier to let go of. 

You now hold in your mind the four most important things you hold dear............

Consider them again and lay aside another. You now have the three dearest things you possess.......

Each section of this meditation gets more difficult as you have probably already realised. From three we must now once again set aside another one of the remaining three. 

You are now holding in your mind the two most precious things that you have in life. Of course, I am now going to ask you to choose between those two, setting aside one of the remaining two, leaving you with the one thing you hold most important.

BEHOLD YOUR GOD...........

Taking time to consider what it is that you have held onto as the most precious, the most important. Considering this and giving earnest and serious thought the question that we can ask now is this, is your life in balance?

All of the chosen items have played their part, family, friends your home all of those things are of course very important in all of our lives. But like most things we find important they are transient and impermanent. Some of them may never have to be discarded but they may be taken from you by the very nature of their being.

What it is that stands as the most important thing in your life can be the very thing that enables you to cope with later loss or sadness at parting. What we hold most precious should be the strength, the rock on which we build a life able to cope with the hard times and occasions of all of our lives. 

Nobody ever finds this meditation simple to do. In fact, at times some have argued that the most important thing has got to be the Love of family and friends. Even love holds within it some impermanence. Nothing ever lasts forever except that upon which we build our trust and faith. It is this very thing that rather than diminish enhances the value of all the other things which we hold dear to us. 

Tragically this is for some the very thing that is cast aside early on in the course of this meditative exercise.