Living Bread

Of the several songs on The Word in the Wind, three of them are not sung, but spoken after the manner of a number of Bruce Cockburn's tracks. In this case, the tracks in question are Psalm 1, Living Bread, and Innocents' Day. Here is the text for Living Bread, which may also be found in The Just Quiet Wind. 

1.  Manna bread on the desert floor

Nomadic hungry people grumble for more

But no one sees the giant eagle soar

On the breath of the Living Bread

2.  Living Bread takes a human form.

Those who know him best say, “It’s not the norm”

But they don’t comprehend the Spirit borne

In the meat of the Living Bread 

3.  The Living Bread comes down from heaven

He watches fools snort Pharisaical leaven

Queries “Is there none of you who would even

Care to taste my Living Bread?”

4.  The table is set and the wine is poured

Invitations sent and the open door

But no one wants to be the beggar begging for

Just a crust of the Living Bread ...

New Kensington, PA; August 10, 1997

(Tuning: Standard; capo on 2nd fret)

Now, if one were to use this track in worship, say at communion, one may wish to substitute the word "flesh" for "meat" in v. 2. I am not trying to evoke the image of a sandwich, but to emphasize the sense in which Jesus is speaking of his own flesh and blood (human) nature in John 6. 

This track was written, by the way, when I was serving Central Presbyterian Church, Tarentum, PA, in the Pittsburgh area, where the leading grocery chain is Giant Eagle. Oddly enough, however, I can honestly say I had no thought of this coincidence when I arrived at the phrase "giant eagle" as my chosen metaphor for the God of the Exodus in v. 2. It was months before that oddity even dawned on me. 

Something about the entrance of the strings after the first verse feels very poignant to me, as does the lyric as a whole. While detractors often mock the idea of God being lonely, I cannot help but ask, how could God suffer loneliness when he has been so thoroughly and consistently misunderstood, rejected, spurned, etc.? Isn't God's loneliness precisely what the cry of dereliction from the cross is all about?

UPDATED (January 27, 2013)