A friend of mine runs a company that sells online advertising.

All day long he dreams up campaigns that bring more customers to his clients’ websites. He’s very good at it, and so we often talk about his secrets for success. He says he designs campaigns and pitches that keep one important thing in mind:

He sells people what they want, but gives them what then need.

My friend says that people really aren’t interested in buying what they need. Take weight loss programs. If the :30 second TV spot featured groggy-eyed overweight people struggling to wake up an hour early to get to the gym they probably wouldn’t be very effective. Instead, these ads are filled with trim, energetic, young, specimens of health frolicking through their workouts. That’s because what most customers want is to be trim, energetic, and healthy – but what they need is the discipline to follow a fitness regimen.

In Sunday’s gospel, Jesus faces a crowd that wants something. They have seen Him multiply the loaves and fishes, have followed him across the countryside, and now they want more food and miracles. Jesus sees what they want, and offers them what they need: The Bread of Life that comes down from the Father.

Of course, the crowd has a hard time understanding – and we do too: why can’t Jesus simply give us what we want? We all want to be fed - we want our appetites for shelter, security, love, meaning, healing, and self-fulfilment met. So we strive very hard for these things, yet it often seems like God’s not paying much attention.

It’s as if Jesus is saying that these things may be what we want, but they’re not what we need.

What we need is deeper unity with God.

What we need is to surrender our own control.
What we need is to rely more deeply on the Spirit who assures us that everything is going to be OK.

As another Gospel writer put it - what we need is to seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be taken care of.

So what are some ways we might we go about parsing our wants from our needs? What steps might we take to partake more fully in the Bread of Life? What do we need to let go of, to grab hold of God?

------------------

Reading
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
Goodbye to a River – John Graves
Leaving Church – Barbara Brown Taylor