Cory Stories

Appetite
by Cory Dague

Has anyone ever been in a bakery? There was this bakery in the big city. A homeless guy went into the bakery and asked the baker for some bread. The baker said, “Sir you are very intelligent. You have come to the right place because not only do we make bread but we make the very best bread. Let me tell you how we make it.” He gets out his cookbook and tells the man, we have flour, we have butter, we have barley, he goes through this array of ingredients and lays out how they make the bread. The baker tells the man, ain’t that great. Aren’t you impressed? The homeless man says, “I just want some bread.” The baker says, “Man you are so smart. You are at the right place, we have the best bread you could ever put in your mouth. And I am just the man to give it to you. Let me show you our ovens. Look, stainless steel. Look how hot they get. They’re all so clean. You’ve got to come down here. Come down here and look at this room.” He opens these double doors and tells the man, this is where I prep all my employees so they can celebrate, so they can become knowledgeable about the bread they are given. And this is my podium where I stand and teach them all. The homeless guy goes and sits down. The baker ask him, “Don’t you want to here a speech?” He said, “No not really, I just want some bread.” The baker said, “Dang. Okay, I have got to show you one more thing. You have come to the right place. Today is the day you get the bread.” He takes him outside and says, “I want you to look at all these streets. They are bakeries on every corner but none of them do it right. We make the best bread. Even thought they use some of the same ingredients they don’t do it like we do. They don’t do it the right way.” The homeless man starts to walk away. The baker says, “Son, where are you going? I thought you wanted some bread?” He said, “I do, but I lost my appetite.” That’s the story of the church. People come to us and all they want is the bread. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Eat me and you will never hunger again.” All they want is the bread. Jesus, the Gospel, is enough. We don’t have to add to and keep trying to make it pretty and make something that it isn’t. All we have to do is give people the Gospel, the truth of Jesus Christ. That’s the bread. Once they eat of that bread they will never hunger again. The church has become such a circus, such a performance that people are pushed away. All they want is the bread. So they lose their appetite. Amen?  Amen