Worship at Home

Break Thou the Bread of Life,
Dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves
Beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page
I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee,
O Living Word.

Thou art the Bread of Life,
O Lord, to me,
Thy holy Word the truth
That saveth me;
Give me to eat and live
With Thee above;
Teach me to love Thy truth,
For Thou art Love.

Oh, send Thy Spirit, Lord,
Now unto me,
That He may touch my eyes,
And make me see;
Show me the truth concealed
Within Thy Word,
And in Thy Book revealed
I see the Lord.

Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord,
To me, to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread
By Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease,
All fetters fall,
And I shall find my peace,
My All in all.

Prayers
Gracious God, we have so much to thank you for, but sometimes we take your blessings for granted. Help us to appreciate what we have from you.

We know that you are able to do more in our lives, than we can dream of; give us a sense of all you want achieve and a glimpse into our part of that vision.

Bible Reading

Time to Reflect…

Johns’ gospel is trying to achieve something quite different to the other gospels; the writer is not only telling the narrative of who Jesus is and what he did, John is also attempting to help us understand the meaning behind Jesus’ words and actions. Part of our struggle in the 21^st century is to understand the meaning of the metaphors that John uses.

Some of what John writes we can understand, because we also have access to the Hebrew Scriptures, in what we now call the Old Testament. The story of manna in the desert, when God provided food for the people. There are many metaphors in the psalms about God as a provider of food and nourishment.

John Chapter 6 has a lot of content. This brings us the feeding of 5 thousand and walking on water, before we come to the verses we are focussing on today. Jesus then describes himself as “the bread of life”.

There seem to be 2 simultaneous allegories happening in this discourse between Jesus and the crowd.

Jesus is telling people that they need to take into their body His teachings, His essence. Miraculous feeding is not enough, people need to understand the spiritual truth behind Jesus’ words and actions. Making Jesus our way of life is vital in becoming a real follower.

The words of Jesus in this chapter are reflected both in his words to the disciples at the last Supper and those we use in the liturgy for communion. The more complex idea that John may be putting to us is that if we take in Jesus as our spiritual food, we then become more like Him and are able to represent Him, inspire others to follow Him.

My understanding of this reading is that spiritual food is essential for an abundant life. If we take into our minds and spirit the core concepts of Jesus’ teaching, then we will be sustained by them. That energy can then be used to share with others our knowledge of Jesus, His love and grace.

Please take a moment to think about your favourite meal…… What would you choose?

Something you love the taste and smell of, but also something that reminds you of good times, probably with people you love and maybe a memory of happy times. Talking about food reminds me that meals are more than just food for our bodies,
they can be times of great social bonding and the making of new memories.

I invite you to reflect on the image below, taken from the Roots material, by Maria Hunt and titled “the gift of self”

I ask you to reflect on this image of floating hands, open and palm upwards, looking as if light is shining from them. Smaller, darker images of hands float in the lower, right hand side of the image.

As you reflect on this image, and we close this reflection I ask you to consider the two questions:

Jesus offers himself for us and to us; how might we receive him?

How would we offer ourselves and Jesus, to others?

Amen.

Prayer and Lord’s Prayer

Lord Jesus, you feed us with your word and our daily food. We thank you for interweaving your life with ours, being an unseen guest at every meal. Help us to be grateful for all we eat and drink, for the nutrition we receive to give us strength for life. As we eat, may we be reminded that you are part of us, life giving, always within us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, may we share your word of life with others.

Amen

The Lord's Prayer

Please use the version that you prefer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.

Amen.

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.

Amen.

Bread of Life

Lord, I know I am not worthy to receive you.
You speak the words and I am healed.
Here at your table, love’s mystery:
one bread, one cup, one family.

Bread of life, Truth eternal,
broken now to set us free.
the risen Christ, his saving power,
is here in bread and wine for me.

Lord by your cross,
you reconciled us to the Father.
we have only to believe.
Your sacrifice, our victory,
now by your blood we are redeemed.
Refrain

Lord, you gave your people
manna in the desert;
still you fulfil our every need.
Lord, when we hunger, Lord, when we thirst,
we come to you and we receive:
Refrain

Blessing

Come to me, broken hungry, incomplete, I am the bread of life, break me and eat.
Amen

Listen to our new Podcast

Service prepared by Jenny Brooks

Webpage: Paul Deakin