(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) or 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 Allerton Methodist Church led by Rev Nick Blundell one of our Circuit Ministers.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Call to worship – John 6:27
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
For our opening hymn we use Karen Lafferty’s hymn
Song – StF 254 or H&P 138 – Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Prayer
Lord our God, we come to you because you first came to us. We call out to you because you have called to us, inviting us to celebrate the gift of life you give, and promising love, love from which we will not be separated. You come to us in the beauty of the world you have made, taking our breath away. You call to us in the living, dying and rising of your son Jesus Christ, holding him before us as your promise and pattern for our lives. You bring us together through your Spirit, blessing us in the fellowship and friendship you build in your church. We praise you and thank you, and ask that you help us to live as those in whom your love and grace is always clear to see. Amen.
Reading
Song StF 685 or H&P 758 – In Christ there is no east or west
Reading
Reflection
Christ the head, Christ the bread.
Today’s Bible readings give us two distinctive pictures of Christian life.
In the first Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, paints for us with confident brush strokes a figure, a person. First we see the head, and know that it is Christ, looking with love and speaking the truth. Below the head he draws the body, limb by limb, piece by piece, a body healthy and vibrant because it is steered by the head which is Christ. In Paul’s picture the body is active, busy, working hard and well as it does the work the head is asking of it.
One imagines the members of the church in Ephesus, as Paul’s letter is being read to them, looking to one another with smiles and nods. But wait a moment. Paul is shaking his head. The point has been missed. ‘Then’ he says, notice the ‘then’. Then we will grow to become…..then will come maturity, but now?……infants, tossed about, not yet mature. This picture is a challenge, an invitation, a representation of what can be, may be, will be? The healthy body with Christ the head and the church, its members, responding perfectly to the head’s direction.
Many of you will know that I’m living with Parkinson’s. Thankfully I have more good days than bad, but sometimes it is very clear that Mr Parkinson is in the room. Parkinson’s is basically a lack of dopamine, a chemical that connects the brain, the head, to the rest of the body, the muscles, limbs, organs. On those days when Mr P is in the room, I feel the disconnect – my hands, legs, face won’t work as I want them to. There’s a clumsiness, a slowness, and a deep sense of emptiness in the pit of the stomach. I wonder if this might be a helpful picture to hold alongside Paul’s? When we allow Christ to be the head, all is connected and works as it should. When we don’t, when immaturely we rely on our own strength, we find ourselves clumsy, slow, empty.
Our second picture comes from John’s gospel, and gives us Jesus not as head but bread. I am the Bread of life, he says, whoever comes to me will never be hungry. The context for these words seems to be a situation where people have been full of bread and full of themselves! Full of bread provided by Jesus in feeding the 5000, and full of themselves as descendants of Moses, somehow entitled. Jesus counters this with a picture, not of people replete with bread ancient or modern, but of himself as the bread of life, and of his hearers receiving that bread, receiving by believing, finding sustenance in the truth and gift present in Jesus. This bread found in believing puts into perspective all other breads, even Warburton’s.
You can be as full as you can be, says Jesus, of the world’s bread, but it will not satisfy. Only heaven’s bread will do that, and in the process lead you to share the world’s bread with those who are hungry. To know the truth that is Jesus, has to make us generous providers of bread for others. The thought of those who are really hungry, and my limited experience of missed meals with subsequent rumbling tummy, I think helps me understand a little better what Jesus is saying here. There is a health and vitality that comes from eating well, and a slowness and unease that flow from not receiving the nourishment we need, both in the short term and, more seriously, in the long.
To be fully healthy we need to be regularly feeding on heaven’s bread. When we live as if it is true that Jesus is the bread of life, that he is the nourishment we need, we find that it is indeed true. Believing in him means we can believeinlife, and receive whatever life brings as blessing.
So, head and bread. May we find our direction in being connected to Christ the head, and may we be nourished and sustained by the one who is the bread of life.
Song – StF 153 or H&P 467 – Break thou the bread of life, O Lord, to me
We offer our prayers….
Creator God, you have made a world full of beauty and potential, and we thank and praise you for your creativity. But we have not cared for your earth as we should, and have put it at risk through greed and neglect. As we seek to respond to the climate emergency,
Christ our head, guide our ways and shape our steps.
Saviour God, you have come to us in Christ, providing us with a model for life lived in love and generosity. But we have often looked with disdain on such a life, and filled ourselves with selfish junk,
Christ the bread of life, nourish our spirits and fill us with generosity
Spirit of God, you desire the best for all your children, but often bad choices and wrong priorities have stifled health and caused harm. We pray for those on our hearts who are living with the consequences of theirs or society’s failure to care or protect.
Christ our head, guide our ways and shape our steps.
Loving God, you would break the bread and feed the world, but we have failed to share, so many are hungry, for bread, for peace , for justice. We pray for those places where the need is greatest, including the holy land – Israel, Palestine, particularly Gaza, and its neighbours; Ukraine; Yemen; Sudan,
Christ the bread of life, nourish our spirits and fill us with generosity
Connecting and sustaining God, we pray for one another, and ourselves. May the fellowship of our churches be deep and welcoming, the worship be rich and challenging, the commitment to serving our neighbours be unswerving and generous, and the willingness to learn and change be clear to see
Christ our head, guide our ways and shape our steps.
Christ the bread of life, nourish our spirits and fill us with generosity
Christ, head and bread, save us and send us to share your love in all the world. Amen.
We bring our prayers together, as we pray, with all God’s people, the Lord’s Prayer.
We close with Willliam William’s great hymn, originally in Welsh, translated into English by Peter Williams,
Song – StF 465 or H&P 437 – Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
We go in peace, in the power of the Spirit, to live and work to God’s praise and glory. Amen.
We bless one another, and all those we have brought to mind this day, as we share the Grace: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, now and always. Amen.
(CCLI 1094975. Service prepared by Rev’d Nick Blundell)
