family@michael Service 01/08/21 (9th Sunday after Trinity)
(Revd Jeanette Hamer - Minister) I Am the Bread of Life Based on I Kings 19:4-8 and John 6:35, 41-51 (readings here) May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen What do you eat when you feel exhausted? What about if you have been unwell for a couple of days, what is one of the first things you will eat when you begin to feel better? By now you have probably picked up a theme to this morning’s service. In both of the readings and within the words of the hymns we have mentioned one of the most basic and comforting staples of our life. Any ideas? Bread! Let’s look back at our readings and how bread features in them. Firstly, we heard of Elijah, who was exhausted from his running away from Queen Jezebel...and from God. His story had swung so starkly from the Elijah of earlier chapters in Kings. Gone was the mighty prophet of God, who had courageously confronted King Ahab and the false prophets of Baal. We now see a man who has fled into the Judean wilderness, so much in despair that he pleads with God to let him die. He had been doing the right thing and look where he was now! Where was God? But God had heard, and met his needs; sending an Angel to minister to Elijah, to bring him bread to provide strength for his journey. I can imagine him singing his praises to God, can’t you? Perhaps if it had been written at the time, he would have sung, ‘Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore!’ God had provided Elijah with real bread, real food and also with encouragement. Elijah had the answer to his prayers, he knew he was not alone and God was with him. It must have been a surprise to wake up to an angel bringing him bread and not only once but twice. Thus strengthened, he can then continue on in his journey to Horeb to experience a fresh encounter with the living God and a new sense of purpose. Our lives, as individuals and as churches can swing between these times of extremes of faith and despair, can’t they? We can all bring to mind times when we have cried out, ‘Why God?’ or ‘Where are you God?’ But just like David in Psalm 34, we can go on to experience God as the source of salvation and life. Verse 4 says, ‘I asked the Lord for help, and he saved me from all my fears.’ Or verse 6, ‘I was a nobody, but I prayed and the Lord saved me from all my troubles.’ In our second reading from John Chapter 6, in verse 35 we hear the words from Jesus, ‘I am the bread that gives life! No-one who comes to me will ever be hungry. No-one who has faith in me will ever be thirsty.’ It is not the physical bread that Jesus is offering us here though, is it? Jesus offers us spiritual bread; he offers us food for our souls. By declaring himself to be ‘the bread of life’, Jesus is restating that he is essential for true life, not a luxury or an optional extra. To be ‘fed’ by God necessitates us coming to Jesus and believing on him. He alone mediates the message and presence of God. He is God that came to dwell amongst us. Jesus is the source of ‘eternal’ or ‘everlasting’ life. In John 17 verse 3, we hear that the very essence of eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son (by the Spirit), thereby sharing in their life. ‘Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent.’ This is not something for the future, it is for in our everyday lives now. Do we experience it in our lives? Right now, Jesus can meet our deepest needs, providing us with a quality of life, meaning and contentment that this world cannot give. Such life goes beyond death, for by believing, as we taste of this living bread, we experience the resurrection life. From our reading from John 6 we see that Jesus is pointing forward to his sacrifice upon the cross, proclaiming that he will give his life for the life of the world. ‘But the bread from heaven has come down, so that no-one who eats from it will ever die. I am the bread of heaven! Everyone who eats it will live forever. My flesh is the life-giving bread that I give to the people of this world.’ Jesus is the bread of heaven, so that we may never feel lonely or worried again. We need to seek this bread though, to actively reach out for him and ask him to be with us. As David says in the Psalm, ‘I asked the Lord for help and the Lord saved me….’ Having asked him for help and stepped forward, this needs to make a change in our lives.Have you heard the phrase, ‘You are what you eat’? What we eat affects our bodies. If we only ate chips, or chocolate, it would soon affect our lives! Earlier in the chapter in John that we read; Jesus warns that what we give our souls to eat affects our spiritual lives too. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the good things of life, and in fact this is the point when he feeds the 5000, but faith involves more than receiving, it involves action. The crowds follow him hoping to see miracles and be physically fed but Jesus is calling for them to believe and follow. He asks too for a transformation in us, and the promise of eternity with him. John Piper, a theologian said this, ‘If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestations of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world, your soul is stuffed with small things and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry and to say with some simple fast: ‘This much, O God, I want you.’ When Elijah had cried out for help from God, God had sent an Angel who fed him with the bread and water. And having been fed, what did he do? He continued his journey to Horeb and experienced a fresh encounter with the Living God. As we ask to be fed with Jesus, the living bread, may it lead us on in our spiritual journey, to new heights in our relationship with God, leading us into eternity. A Christian singer called Lou Fellingham has written a song called 'Lean Hard' (Lean on the Everlasting Arms) and some of the lyrics leapt out at me when preparing this talk. He lavishes grace as our burdens grow greater He sends us more strength as our labours increase To added afflictions He offers more mercy To multiplied trials He multiplies peace When we have exhausted our store of endurance When our strength has failed and the day is half done When we've reached the end of our earthly resources Our Father's full giving is only begun Our Father's full giving is only begun So lean hard Lean hard Lean on the everlasting arms So lean hard Lean hard Lean on the everlasting arms His love has no limits, His grace has no measure His power has no boundary that's known unto men For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth and giveth and giveth again He giveth and giveth and giveth again So lean hard Lean hard Lean on the everlasting arms ... You lead me beside still waters Your goodness restores my soul I know that you'll never leave me I know that you won't let go So lean hard Lean hard Lean on the everlasting arms..... O Lord, may we feed on the living bread in our daily lives AMEN |
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