Worship for the week beginning 8th August 2021

Time to Reflect…

You probably have lots of toilet rolls at home?
Who would be worried if there were none on the supermarket shelves?

Did you see Gregg Wallace’s TV series “Inside the factory” showing the lengthy process to produce them? Only a roll of paper, yet (apparently) so important to us! 

How often do we hear a person described as ‘only’ e.g. ‘only a child’ or ‘only a pensioner – only a delivery driver. What do we mean by it? The crowds following Jesus were sure he was ‘only’ the son of Joseph and Mary: they had known him all his life. They expected little, and Jesus’ claims and the things people were saying about him feeding a crowd, healing, – seemed outrageous.

Sometimes, however, people exceed our expectations. Sometimes, something happens that makes us realise our assumptions are wrong. Sometimes we discover just how important an ‘only’ really is. For example, last year when the whole country was shut down: overnight, cleaners and delivery drivers were as important as doctors and nurses. Did you know any of these people personally – or were you one of them? 

Today we will hear some of the things Jesus said to the people and think about how that may challenge their and our assumptions.

“I am the Bread of Life” said Jesus. Who does he think he is, he’s only Joseph and Mary’s eldest Son, he’s only a carpenter!

They claim to know who Jesus is.

The religious leaders grumbled because they could not accept Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God they saw him as only the carpenter from Nazareth, they could not tolerate his message.

Many people reject Jesus Christ because they say they cannot believe he is the Son of God. In reality the demands that Christ makes for their following him and loyalty, are what they cannot accept. So to protect themselves from the message from Jesus they reject the messenger.

The religious leaders frequently asked Jesus to prove to them why he was better than the prophets they already had. Jesus here in John 6 referred to the Manna that Moses had given their ancestors in the desert.

This bread was physical and temporal of this world. The people ate it, and it sustained them for a day.  But they had to get more bread every day, and the bread could not keep them from dying.

Jesus who is much greater then Moses or all the prophets, offers himself as the spiritual bread from heaven that satisfies completely and leads to eternal life.

To eat the living bread means to accept Jesus Christ into our lives and become united with Him.

We are united with Christ in two ways:

• by believing in his death (the sacrifice of his flesh) and resurrection
• by devoting ourselves to living the way Jesus wants us to live, depending on his teaching for guidance and trusting in the Holy Spirit of God to help us.

People eat bread to satisfy physical hunger and to sustain physical life. We can satisfy spiritual hunger and sustain spiritual life only by being in relationship with Jesus Christ. No wonder he called himself the bread of life.

But bread must be eaten to sustain life and Christ must be invited into our daily lives to sustain spiritual life.

Bread of life, complete sustainer, provider of all that we need, we come before you – seeking you, believing and trusting – come into our daily lives, so that we may never hunger and thirst again. 

Amen.