Home-made Bread

Home-made Bread
Pentecost 10, John 6:24-35
What compares 
to home-made bread
freshly baked?

Someone stirs
and kneads the dough,
springy smooth
as living flesh.

Then we wait
to let it rise
somewhere warm;
punch it down,
shape and glaze.

Patience now –
let it rise
and be baked.
Then the scent
draws us in
as hunger stirs.

Eat it fresh
to feel fulfilled,
not just filled
as from neat
sliced and packed
shop bought loaves,
kept for toast.

Jesus is
the bread of life.
Let that bread
be made afresh
in our souls
and our world.
Stir and work
and it will rise.

Learn to wait
until it’s done,
when the scent
fills the room.
As we eat
and we share,
we arise,
now made one
with living bread.