Manna

“I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
—John 6:41-51

You sank your fingers in the earth
to dredge the furrows of our birth
and planted first a garden there
with seeds you made, all good to bear.

All times and seasons you have set
to plow and plant, to reap and rest.
You turn the earth and send it rain,
and you yourself prepare the grain.

So all we harvest is your gift:
You fill the empty hands we lift;
you fill the earth to stir the seed;
you fill us, too, who see our need.

Not earth's alone, but heaven's bread
you give us, Lord, and we are fed.
As every day we eat and live,
our life is in the bread you give.

You are yourself the bread of life,
and those who eat will never die,
no more as seeds to fall and sleep
but evermore your feast to keep.

Though still we hunger, knowing this
our daily bread a foretaste is.
You grow and bless; we take and eat,
and every bite is manna sweet.

Albert Samuel Anker – Still-Life with Coffee, Bread and Potatoes By Albert Anker – http://www.sightswithin.com/Search/albert%20anker/Page_2/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37060415

Hunger

So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
–John 6:24-35

I believe, but still I hunger;
Lord, I trust you and I thirst
as if all we have are crumbs here
in the desert of our hurt.
There are days that have no comfort,
nights when all is at its worst,
and we long for signs and wonders,
manna scattered on the dirt.

Bread of life, true bread from heaven,
every day I eat my fill
yet I wake each morning empty,
hunger crying for you still.
Let me take the bread you give me,
take the cup where mercy spills;
let it tell me of forgiveness,
that my cries shall yet be stilled.

For the bread is you, O Savior:
We will eat and we will live,
and the wine we are partaking
is your life upon our lips.
Though I rise again unsated,
let me kneel today for this:
heaven's feast of your own making
that some day shall be my bliss.

The Gathering of the Manna by James Tissot – https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/26365-the-gathering-of-the-manna, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8849141

Mansions

In the valley of the shadow
we have learned to make our homes,
building with the wood we have here
on the ashes of what's gone.
We have trembled with its passions;
we have goosestepped to its drums:
How will we inhabit mansions
when the peaceful kingdom comes?

Oh, but you have set a table
where the foe looks on the foe,
where the air still rings with anger
and the ground is filled with bones.
There you take the bread of anguish,
sorrow's wine that overflows,
and you turn it into manna,
and you make this vale your home.

Lord, we know thw day is coming
when the earth and sky will blaze,
when the armies stop their drumming
and our grief at last will fade.
With this manna, sweet as honey,
teach us how to live that day;
breaking bread, we hold your promise:
Death will not steal all away.

Bread with crust crack (half left at the top) By Rainer Zenz – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=597239

When

When my eyes are dim with weeping
and my heart is drowned in tears
for the record I am keeping
of the locust-eaten years,
when I wonder if you're sleeping
while I'm crying out my fears,
let your kindly light coem creeping
and your mercy find me here.

When I can't hear any answers
to the questions that I pray,
when I can't see any pattern
to the chaos of my days,
give me ears to hear the laughter
of your living spring at play;
give me eyes to see the manna
you have scattered in my way.

Though the dreams that I have wanted
may be always out of reach
and the heart I try to soften
may be granite underneath,
though the road that we are walking
leads us straight to Calvary,
let me trust that it runs onward
and that you still walk with me.

Hortus sanitatis, Mainz 1491. Woodcut showing manna By Unknown author – Hortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82935525

O God of Hunger and of Want

O God of hunger and of want,
of every hollow space,
you made us empty in the dawn:
Come, fill us by your grace.

As vessels from the potter's wheel,
so we were made to hold
and shaped, each one, but to be filled,
as you made all the world.

And from your hand we come the same,
all hungry, all athirst
for all the fruits of sun and rain,
of labor and of earth.

Now empty all we stand and wait
for what your goodness gives,
to savor heaven in the taste
of all that lets us live.

O, bless us with our daily bread,
in fasting and in feast:
It's from the table you have set,
choice wine and finest wheat.

And let us pour your bounty out
as you have poured it first.
O, let your rains on all come down
to fill us in our thirst!

The Gathering of the Manna by James Tissot – https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/26365-the-gathering-of-the-manna, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8849141

Bread of Life

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
John 6:41-51

We ate the manna in the desert,
and for a time it gave us life,
but none who ate it lived forever:
The way of all flesh is to die.

The rock who flows with living water
to fill the wastes we wander through,
the bread of life, who sees the Father,
has fallen like the morning dew.

And now he offers: Come, you hungry,
to take the bread I freely give.
Oh, come to me—why spend your money?
Receive my life that you may live.

Now may the Father draw us to him,
who for the life of all the world,
fell down to earth that, rising through him,
the Father's face we may behold.

And may we take the bread of heaven,
not as the manna sent before,
but as the life the Son has given
that we may eat and die no more.

All glory be to God the Father
who teaches us of God the Son,
and God the Spirit, God eternal,
whose life in us shall make us one.

Early third century depiction of eucharistic bread and fish, Catacomb of San Callisto, Rome. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=566678

You Open Up Your Hands

So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”
John 6:24-35

You open up your hands
and pour your blessings down:
The strength to walk these desert lands
lies scattered on the ground.
We gather what you send—
Lord, help us turn from doubt
to trust tomorrow, once again,
your manna will abound.

The vale our road leads through 
is full of fears and harms,
but Father, you are ever true
through all of our alarms.
Not Moses, but from you
the bread of heaven comes;
then by its fullness, draw us to
the welcome in your arms.

And though we may rebel
upon this lifelong road,
still we must all these wonders tell
in every place we go:
how rocks become our wells
and springs burst forth from stones,
and daily bread from heaven fell
to bring us to your throne!

The Gathering of the Manna (color) By James Tissot – Jewish Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8849141

God’s Word Goes Forth

Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11

To the tune KINGSFOLD (“I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”):

God's word goes forth to all the world,
its empty wells to fill,
as rain that falls or hailstones hurled,
on fallow land and tilled.
Its every thunder shall be heard,
each whisper be fulfilled.
Our thirsty ground drinks up the word
God sends to do his will.

Then turn from all our barren ways
to taste and see the Lord,
who rains down on our desert wastes
the manna of his word,
the gentle soaking of his grace,
the world-renewing flood
of love for all within his gaze:
it is so good, so good.

Then fall on us again, oh God;
each morning come anew.
Give us the shelter of your cloud,
refresh us with your dew,
and when we wither in the drought,
your life in us renew.
Come, fill the furrows you have plowed;
come, fill our hearts with you.