Sunday Worship
Welcome to our Worship on the ninth Sunday after Trinity Sunday. Our Parish Eucharist is at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and today we're really pleased to have Revd David Halford to lead our worship. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn today is "Bread of Heaven, on Thee we Feed"
Today's Gospel
John 6: V 24 – 35 “Jesus the bread of life”
The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the five thousand saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 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.”
Reflection
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John Chapter 6; v. 35
Peter was helping Imogen to hang some curtains. “Can you pass me another ring?” she asked, whilst listening to the radio. He did so, but instead of a metal curtain ring he passed her a golden engagement ring. She did not initially realise what had happened. “Thanks,” she said absentmindedly taking the ring and trying to thread it through the loop in the top of the curtain. When it would not go in, she looked down and suddenly understood the significance of the ring in her hand. In the next moment she was laughing and hugging her new fiancé.
“Phew!” said Peter,” I honestly thought for a moment you were going to turn me down!
This is close to what Jesus is describing at the beginning of today’s Gospel reading. An engagement ring is so much more precious than a curtain ring! – not just in terms of material value – the metal it is made from or the jewels it contains – but because of the love it represents. It is as though someone were to use a love letter to light a fire. Jesus challenges people to understand the significance of what He is really offering - so much more than food and drink for today. What He offers in fact is everything that is needed to provide and sustain eternal life.
John’s Gospel was written to introduce readers to Jesus, and to invite them to make a response of faith. This passage captures the very heart of the Gospel; Jesus offers everything necessary for both earthly and eternal (heavenly) life.
Jesus has been pursued by those who received in the miraculous feeding of the crowd on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. When they find Him, he challenges them to think less of their stomachs than their souls; to focus less on the sign; more on the significance. The people want to know how they can do what God wants (the WORK of God, in order to receive what Jesus tells them that God wants to give them (“eternal life”).
Jesus says clearly, as so often in John’s Gospel, that it is all about how we respond to Him. In essence He is saying “If you believe in me, which means following me, as a disciple, you will be doing what God wants.” This is a simple, yet hard message to believe, and again (as often happens in this Gospel) the hearers deflect its challenge with a different question; this time about Moses. Jesus explains that the manna was provided by God, not Moses – and so they should be concerned to serve God today, rather than thinking about their ancestors. Accepting this explanation, the people ask Jesus to give them the “true bread”, and Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.”
We – you and I – are challenged to build our whole lives on Jesus – but what does that look like in practice? It can be easy to enjoy our lives as members of the Church for what it gives us today. Yet, Church is more than enjoying the Music; the opportunity to meet friends, the intellectual stimulation of an enjoyable sermon(!), something that breaks up the weekend. It is the gateway to our relationship with Jesus, who feeds and forms us through word and sacrament into his disciples; those who are living out eternal life today. We are like Imogen, missing the significance of the ring which she was passed.
How do we do this? It is often useful to pause, perhaps especially in these summer weeks, to think about how much our life is shaped by our faith in Jesus. We know we will be forgiven when we fall short of the ideal, and helped by the Spirit to conform all that we are and all that we do to the one whom we proclaim as Lord. If we are being truly nourished by the bread of eternal life, we should see evidence of it in what we think, say and do; and that will stay with us beyond this life and on into eternity.
David H.
Our Prayers
