Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who 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.’ 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 be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’ John 6:27-40
Every culture has a bread that is considered traditional and immediately reminds one of home. For many Indigenous Americans, frybread fills that category. At every pow wow, every gathering in most tribes there will be frybread. We love it and often crave it. Despite the love and its presence everywhere, frybread is really not a traditional bread for any of us. It is the bread we made when the only food our tribes had to eat came from the US government. Commodities were supplied after we were isolated on remote reservations with little capacity to grow our traditional crops and care for livestock. We mostly were given white flour, huge blocks of cheese and cans of lard. So much was taken. But we turned the government surplus into something good and delicious. We knew resilience and we lived it. It is important to know the difference between substitutes and the real thing and do our faithful best in challenging times.
Wondrous Creator, who taught us all to garden
helping us to know which plants would flourish
and which foods would last through cold winters.
Many are dislocated from home and families
others never learned to make bread for all
yet you have promised is bread from heaven always.
Let us wipe our tears and use what we have right now
may our faithfulness feed and strengthen the people
and may we trust you will always supply what we need. Amen.
