Pentecost 10, Aug. 2, 2015 (full size gallery)
Considering it was August 2, the weather was pleasant with low humidity. Clouds began the day and gradually faded away by service time
We had 38 for service. Everyone seemed excited today – Coffee hour ? Return of Godly Play ? Cooler weather ? Catherine’s return ? All or none of these
We welcomed Thom Guthrie who is the organist at an Episcopal Church in Petersburg. He is taking vacation for the month of August. We also said the birthday prayer for him since his birthday is Aug 13. Howard and Millie were celebrating 22 years of marriage today.
Tragedy struck this week with the death of Dutchy Fannon. She had been sick for some time with alzheimers. The funeral will be at St. Peter’s but the date has not been determined.
We had a red rose on the altar for the birth of the Anderson’s new grandson in Fayetteville. We had been praying for the child during the pregnancy.
Coffee hour was today sponsored by the Longs and Wicks. There were hot dogs, two types of beans, barbecue, coleslaw plus desserts – watermelon, cookies and ice cream outside with Charles doing the honors scooping ice cream.
Catherine was back from 10 days in Hawaii. It was also her 5th anniversary being at St. Peter’s. The trip was used in part of the sermon
This is the second week of the 5 week journey througn John, Chapter 6. This week Jesus as the bread of life. The readings are here, and the bulletin is here
The setting – After the Feeding of the 5,000 last Sunday, Jesus and His disciples cross back to the other side of Galilee. When the crowd sees that Jesus has left, they follow Him again. Jesus takes this moment to teach them a lesson. He accuses the crowd of only following Him for the “free meal.”
Jesus tells them in John 6:27, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” The real import of Jesus’ activity isn’t simply to feed those who are hungry but to reveal something vital about Jesus and, in turn, about God. In this case, Jesus is the One who can satisfy every human need. They were so enthralled with the food, they were missing out on the fact that their Messiah had come.
They want proof. So the Jews ask Jesus for a sign that He was sent from God (as if the miraculous feeding and the walking across the water weren’t enough). They tell Jesus that God gave them manna during the desert wandering. Jesus responds by telling them that they need to ask for the true bread from heaven that gives life. When they ask Jesus for this bread, Jesus startles them by saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
The sermon expounded on the importance of bread for Jesus culture. "Those of you who came to the Feasting with Jesus program we had a few years ago during Lent learned that for the people of Jesus’ time, bread was essential for life. As long as a family had bread, they could survive. Bread was the most important food they had. Meat was only for the most special of occasions. Produce came and went according to the season. But bread—bread, and sometimes only bread, was always on the table—not a luxury, but a necessity for life.
"And so when Jesus says that he is the bread of life, he is saying that he himself is a necessity for life—because it is having Jesus with us and in us that satisfies our every longing in this lifetime, even when we’re physically hungry or thirsty or worried or depressed.
"This bread is necessary for our lives as Christians–to take Jesus into ourselves, so that we become one with him and with one another, not just those of us who are here, but one with people all over the world who are breaking and sharing bread in His name– and one with all of those who have gone before us, those with whom we have shared this bread around this altar in their time on this earth."
"This beautiful work of art, this bread, has to be broken apart, because unless it’s broken, it’s only a loaf of bread that we can’t receive for ourselves or share with one another.">
"This is the bread that helps us to grow into the body of love that is joined and knit together in love, the bread that helps us to grow into and take our places within the very body of God so that we can go out and be bread for those around us.
"And Jesus himself is this plain and simple unadorned bread, the kingdom of heaven here and now, in our hands."
Christian stewardship is founded on the understanding of whom God is and what God does and has done. Our readings this week clarify these points and are formative in our becoming more faithful stewards.
Our reading from Exodus lays out our natural response in times of hunger and a selfish lack of gratitude for what God has done. Here, too, it could be argued that they were trying to find the source of life in something other than a relationship with God. Moses and Aaron link the Israelites’ grumbling (and ours) to ingratitude to God pointing to their relationship with the One who provides for them freely. The portion of Psalm 78 emphasizes that God is the One who fulfills our need and gives us life.
Both options above can lead us into a reflection of what it means for Jesus to be the Bread of Life that has implications on our reading from Ephesians. Jesus speaks directly to the "conspicuous consumption" of the people that just want to fill their bellies without regard from whom the bread is provided. So Jesus tells the crowds plainly that it is in relationship with him that they will find life – our true need. And it is in relationship with Jesus that we find the fullest perspective on life and relationships with all who are created in God’s image. Taking in Jesus, the Bread of Life, gives true life to us; and we, in turn, are compelled to give life to the world as we share Jesus’ love with all people.
In our reading from Ephesians this week, Paul tells us much of what taking the Bread of Life into our lives looks like to us and the outside world. Not only is this manifested in Christ-like characteristics of humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, love, unity and peace, but it is also realized through recognition of the gifts of others and empowering them to live fully into those gifts for the good of the world (and them). After all, we are what we eat.
Jesus challenges us to get our lives into perspective by taking him into our lives. And it is there that we find true life and life that gives life to others through our transformed perspective of what it means to live in relationship to and with God and with others through Christ. We can’t fill our hearts by filling our bellies, and only God can fill our hearts and give us life.
Please, pass the Bread,…of Life