(All our songs this morning are from Hymns & Psalms (H&P) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Northcliffe Church where the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church work and worship together in a local ecumenical partnership, led by John Darnbrook one of our Circuit Local Preachers & his son Sam.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
The Right Food (Jesus is the Bread of Life)
Call to worship:
Greetings to those who are reading this service online! As we will read in our Gospel reading today, Jesus is the Bread of Life; the bread that God gives is the one who comes down from heaven. Lord, give us this bread always.
So we’re going to be thinking about food today! I’m pleased that my son Sam is helping me lead worship here at Northcliffe this morning, as when I was preparing my service for last week at Calverley, Sam told me he’d prefer not to help lead that service for once as he said, “I’ll need a rest Dad, after cooking our evening meals all week!”
Yes – in his first full week of holidays after leaving primary school, Sam wanted to be the chef in our family for a week! And, well, I’m still here, so he obviously didn’t do too bad a job! To be honest, with my wife Caroline’s help and supervision, we ate very well last week, and Sam ensured every meal was very nourishing.
And we’ll be considering this morning whether in different areas of our lives, we are nourishing our souls by feeding on the right food, the food that God provides, the Bread of Life.
And thinking about all that God provides for us, we sing our first hymn…
Song – H&P 66 – Great is thy faithfulness
Prayers and the Lord’s Prayer:
God our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can gather here to worship you. For you are worthy of the very best we can offer. It’s amazing to think that you created the universe, all the stars in the sky, you set the planets on their courses, and you created the perfect conditions for life on earth. You are beyond time and space, you are mighty and powerful, you alone with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are worthy of our highest praise and adoration.
And yet you know each one of us intimately. You know our deepest needs, and if we trust you, you provide for all our needs, physical, emotional and spiritual.
In Jesus, the Bread of Life, you offer us the way to eternal life, a way back to you. Without Jesus, we would not know you as our Father, for our sin gets in the way of us having such a close relationship with you.
Lord, Father, we are sorry for the wrong things we do. We try not to, but somehow we keep giving in. And we are sorry too for the good things you prompt us to do, but in our selfishness we ignore you and leave them undone. Please forgive our foolish ways, and reclothe us in our rightful mind, ready to feed on Jesus and live for you.
We thank you Father for Jesus, for the way, through him, you love and feed us, for the many ways you lead us, we thank you Father. In his name we pray. Amen.
Let us say together the Lord’s Prayer.
Song – H&P 137 – Jesus the Lord said, “I am the Bread”
Sermon 1:
John: Sam, would you like to tell people what you cooked for our evening meals last week?
Sam: Monday was spaghetti carbonara; Tuesday was the most delicious pepperoni and fully loaded pizzas – starting from just a pizza base and adding all the toppings; Wednesday was omelettes; Thursday was home made burgers; Friday was chicken in a barbecue sauce with lots of vegetables.
John: They were all tasty for me, but which would you say was your favourite?
Sam: The pizzas – they were just sooo nice!
[John: to the congregation]: I’m sure you all have your own favourite foods. As well as, obviously, everything Sam cooked with Caroline, my favourite foods are: egg sandwiches, anything with bacon in it, and then there’s a good vanilla slice, and those little egg custards you can get, and I’ve always been partial to those big Cornish pasties – not those filled with air, I like them to be stuffed full of, well, filling – what do they put inside a Cornish pasty? Maybe I don’t want to know!
All these foods. Mind you, you’d never know to look at me (I’ve got to spend the rest of the service holding my stomach in now having said that!)
Most of our favourite foods wouldn’t be good for us in large amounts, but it’s probably true that a little bit of what you fancy does you good.
We’re thinking today about Jesus, the Bread of Life – and I don’t suppose that many people would say that bread is their favourite food, but it is very good for us. It provides vitamins and fibre and the energy that we need for the task ahead.
I was quite surprised when Sam said he wanted to cook our evening meals last week, as normally when he comes home from school he’s most excited by tea if I tell him he’s having sandwiches!
But thinking of all our favourite foods – if I was to give you just a slice of bread –[show one] would that be really exciting? It’s a bit boring really, isn’t it? Jesus is the Bread of Life, and some people think that Jesus is a bit boring, and that people who go to church and follow Jesus are a bit boring too. Well, I don’t think so. I don’t think Jesus is boring, and I don’t think you and I are boring either.
Just think what you can do with bread. You need bread to make your favourite sandwiches. You can toast bread for soldiers to dip in a soft-boiled egg. You can enjoy feeding bread to the ducks. So it’s anything but boring really.
In our reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul certainly wasn’t writing to boring people, for he felt the need to challenge them not to get angry, not to steal, not to say harmful words to others, not to harbour hateful feelings for anyone. He summed up how they should live with his encouragement that “Your life must be controlled by love.”
He told them they should seek to earn an honest living so that they can help the poor. They should speak kindly to each other, to build each other up, “So that what you say will do good to those who hear you.” And also, “Forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ.”
And if we direct those words from Paul to ourselves, we too will be challenged to live a better life. Not a boring life, as though we were just a solitary piece of bread, but an exciting life, gained through spending time feeding on Jesus the Bread of Life, getting to know him, and allowing him to influence us to be the best people we possibly can be.
Just as ordinary bread gives us the nourishment we need for the task ahead, so Jesus the Bread of Life will provide us with what we need for every task he has for us. If it’s a difficult thing we have to do, he will give us the courage and strength we need; if we need to be patient, he will help us to be; if we feel we should be kinder to other people, he’ll show us ways in which we can be, and then help us make use of those opportunities.
So Jesus, the Bread of Life is not boring at all, and we should make time to get to know him better, to feed on him, so that we can then display those characteristics of a good Christian that Paul mentioned. Let’s think about that as we sing our next hymn, after which we will hear our Gospel reading where Jesus tells people that he is the Bread of Life.
Song – H&P 138 – Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Reading:
Sermon 2:
In the United States, you can now buy the world’s first Christian breath fresheners. Each mint has a cross stamped on it, and each packet of mints carries a Bible verse. Unfortunately, it wasn’t reported which Bible verses have been chosen. They presumably do include Psalm 119 v 103: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (with no added sugar!). But probably don’t include Job 20 v 12: “Evil is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue”!
It’s true that if we eat healthily, it will show in our outward appearance. On the other hand, if we don’t feed our bodies, we will lose the use of them; or if we feed them the wrong types of food all the time, then we won’t be nearly as healthy as we could be.
There are many examples of famous people who have done just that – people like the actor Oliver Reed or the footballer George Best who gave their bodies too much drink. The singer Robbie Williams is now well known for giving the crowds at his concerts an anti-drugs message, because he has been through the horrible effects of doing drugs earlier in his life.
So we need to be careful about the food we feed our bodies. And we also need food for our minds. Just as we need to feed our bodies the right kind of food to stay healthy, so we need to ensure that our minds stay healthy by taking in the right kind of mental food. If we don’t make use of our brain, our brainpower will lessen; and if we feed it the wrong type of things – pornography, violence, foul language or other damaging material, we will suffer for it.
And as well as feeding our bodies and our minds with the right kind of food, it’s just as important that we feed our spirit with the right food as well. In our Gospel reading we heard that Jesus is the Bread of Life and that we should feed on him. But what does it mean to feed on Jesus? We can do this by reading our Bible and letting it speak to us, approaching it with an open heart and mind, allowing ourselves to be influenced by God through what we read, taking on board the lessons in how to live a better life.
We can use Bible notes to help us understand what the Bible is trying to teach us. There are plenty of good Bible notes out there, but do we make good use of them? Bible notes which give a portion of Scripture and an explanation of how that is relevant to modern-day life can be really useful in our daily devotions, but only if we devote the necessary time to really allow God to speak to us through what we read. So often it’s just so easy to read such notes very quickly, mutter a hurried prayer and then get on with the day’s tasks. But that is no way to adequately feed our spirit. That is not choosing to feed on Jesus in a real and meaningful way. That is almost paying lip-service to the Bible and its teaching.
Similarly with our prayer life. My previous job a few years ago was in Harrogate, and I had a 15-mile drive to work and a routine where, when I got to a particular roundabout that was about three miles from the office, I would switch off Terry Wogan on the radio (that dates me!) and say my prayers as I drove. Being a bloke, that’s about the only example of me multi-tasking!
But if Terry was making me laugh, as he often did, then I would leave it until a bit later in my journey to switch off and start my prayers. But then if the traffic was light, there was very little of my journey left and my prayers become hurried.
Hence, I made a conscious decision to make more of my daily prayer time, and deliberately turned Terry off 5 miles earlier in my journey than I used to, when I got to a very straight stretch of road and could really concentrate on my prayers.
These days, in a different job, I spend most of my days working from home and try to do my Bible readings and say my prayers before I switch on my laptop in the study. This has the added benefit of helping me start work in a positive frame of mind, which always helps!
Dedicating proper time to my prayers is a discipline I’ve needed to work at but it’s worthwhile – for there’s nothing better than having your prayers for other people answered, and being sustained by remembering to pray for yourself! But they won’t be answered if you rush through them and simply throw a list of names at God.
Caroline and I have taught Sam to eat his food properly, and just as it’s best to chew your food and ensure you properly digest it if you want to have a healthy physical life, if we are to feed on Jesus and receive the spiritual nourishment he provides, it’s best to spend time working on our relationship with him, it’s best to make time to pray, creating time and space to listen to what God is saying to us, if we want to have a healthy spiritual life; rather than rushing through our daily Bible readings, prayers or however else we choose to feed ourselves spiritually. Rushing any kind of food is not good for you – and that’s true of spiritual food too.
And so it is right that we all feed on Jesus, just as we feed on bread, one of our staple foods, which provides so many good things. And Jesus, as the Bread of Life, provides us with so much that is good for us, that we should always feed on him.
And if we do so every day, in a relaxed and devotional manner rather than hurrying our way through it just so we can say to ourselves, “Well I’ve done my Bible reading, I’m OK for the day now!” – if instead, we give Jesus his rightful central place in our lives and we begin to live our lives under his guidance, then we will reap the benefits of a healthy spirit, in much the same way as our bodies become healthier if we improve our physical diet.
And if we offer our time devotionally to God, we may be surprised by how much he offers us in terms of spiritual sustenance – but we have to be open to receive it. For if we are not open to receive from God, neither will we benefit from what he provides for us. But a truly open heart, that is ready and willing to feed on Jesus, the Bread of Life, will be sustained for the spiritual journey ahead.
Today’s reading from John’s gospel follows the story of the feeding of the 5,000 where Jesus provided for the real hunger of the crowd. In our passage today, Jesus declared himself to be the Bread of Life, the living bread that came down from heaven.
For Sam’s cooking last week, we had to shop for different items to normal and think carefully about what we needed. How do you find food shopping? Is it something you look forward to, plan carefully, do you search for bargains, or see what takes your fancy or is on offer before you decide what you are going to eat or cook?
The cost of food production is rising, crops are dependent on the climate, which is
changing, there are places in the world where bread flour is scarce and hunger is a reality. And when we are hungry it is hard to focus on anything else but being hungry.
In John chapter 6, when the crowds came to Jesus, he criticised their motives for seeking him out. He challenged their need simply to focus on the food that perishes, and asked them to raise their aspirations higher. He wanted them to understand that what he was offering was so much more than physical nourishment, but a way of living that would offer eternal life both now and in the life to come.
But the crowd spent a lot of their time moaning and complaining, which Jesus asked them to stop. He invited them to turn from their complaints and focus their attention instead on him. He challenged them to believe in him, to commit themselves, to turn away from the distractions of the temporary and to hunger for the Bread that lasts. In doing this he assured them that their lives might be given a sense and a meaning that would go beyond this earthly life.
What does it mean for us to really hunger for God? To not be satisfied with what we knew in our faith last week, last year, but to ask ourselves today, are we hungry for an ongoing deeper relationship with God? Are we finding ways to spend time daily to be equipped and sustained by God, just as we wouldn’t wait days to feed our physical hunger?
Are we ready to follow the path of a follower of Jesus whatever the cost? Are we ready to wrestle with things that don’t have easy answers, are we ready for people to challenge us and disagree with us, because we follow Jesus?
So I invite you to shop, cook, eat, pray and share your faith in the days to come and may Jesus the Bread of Life, sustain you, feed you, and encourage you for the journey ahead. For we all need spiritual food. And only Jesus can provide the right kind of spiritual food, and that’s definitely good for us.
And this is therefore a challenge to the Church. Just as our bodies grow if we feed them, if we want our Church to grow, then we need to reach out to those outside the Church with the Bread of Life. We need to look beyond just the people who worship with us on a Sunday, and be prepared to share with others the Good News of our Christian faith, being prepared to share with them what it is that makes us different. For if we don’t, then we are just as guilty of starving them of the right kind of food, as we would be if we shut them in a room and never fed them a meal – our actions would be just as damaging.
So many people these days are on some form of diet. And I believe we should all start a new diet today. A diet of feeding ourselves the right kind of food, in all areas of our lives, but most especially in our spiritual lives. And once we have started to feed on Jesus, the Bread of Life, then we need to share him with others. Are you ready to feed on the Bread of Life and then to share that Bread with those you meet? Will you accept that challenge today? Amen.
Song – H&P 739 – May the mind of Christ my Saviour
Prayers of Intercession:
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you are the Bread of Life and your harvest is the harvest of love; love sown in the hearts of people; love that spreads out like the branches of a great tree covering all who seek its shelter; love that inspires and recreates; love that is planted in the weak and the weary, the sick and the dying. The harvest of your love is the life that reaches through the weeds of sin and death to the sunlight of resurrection. Lord, nurture our days with your love; water our souls with the dew of forgiveness; that the harvest of our lives might be your joy. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
God our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have enough food to eat. We thank you that we have access to the right kind of food, for our bodies, our minds and our spirits. We are sorry that so often we choose to ignore the right kind of food that you offer us, and instead choose to feed on harmful things. Forgive us Father and help us to feed on Jesus always, so that we may be so full of him that we can and do share him with other people. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Father, thinking of food, we pray for all people who do not have sufficient as we have. For the hungry in our own locality and in so many areas of your world, we pray for an equal sharing of the adequate supply of food that there is …
For those who feed their bodies with drugs of all sorts, we pray for healing, and for the strength and courage they need to turn their back on their current way of life … For those who feed their minds on damaging material, on pornography, on violence, who see being greedy as their natural right, we pray for a change of mind, that they will see the positive influence of others and be touched by it …
For those who are searching for spiritual food, we pray that because of our witness, they may end their search by coming to feed on Jesus. We pray that we will learn to accept all who come to you, just as you do, and share with them the joy and blessings of knowing you as the one who provides for all our needs. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
And Father we pray especially today for anyone we know who is in need right now… for those who are not with us in worship today … for those who are sick or infirm … for those dealing with difficult problems … and for those who have yet to experience your mighty love, help us to show it to them. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We thank you Father for hearing all our prayers, for we bring them to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the bread of life. Amen.
Offering – Lord, we bring you these gifts of money, along with those we give by any other means. Take all that we offer and use it to the glory of your name. Amen.
I started this service telling you of my love for all sorts of foods, and especially my favourite – egg sandwiches! And I’m sure you’ll be aware of my love for many types of hymns, but especially a good Charles Wesley hymn!
And so for our final hymn this morning, I have chosen one of his best. Only he could get the 16-letter, 6-syllable word “inextinguishable” to perfectly fit the rhythm of a hymn! The words of this hymn speak volumes about how we should live our lives.
Song – H&P 745 – O thou who camest from above
Blessing:
Fed, nourished, uplifted – as we have fed on Jesus, may we go out into the world to share with all we meet, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. Amen.
