Here is the link to the YouTube Broadcast of today's Service: The Service for 1 August 2021
The Tenth Sunday after
Pentecost
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Prelude, Welcome, and Information Hymn
#618 Guide Me Ever, Great Redeemer |
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The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. And also with
you. Psalm 78:
23-29 23 Yet he
commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; 24 he
rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven. 25 Mortals
ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance. 26 He
caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south
wind; 27 he
rained flesh upon them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas; 28 he let
them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings. 29 And they
ate and were well filled, for he
gave them what they craved. |
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The Lord be with you. And
also with you. Let us pray. O God, eternal goodness,
immeasurable love, you place your gifts before us; we eat and are satisfied
Fill us and this world in all its need with the life that comes only from
you, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. |
Reading:
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
A reading from the book of the Book of Exodus
2The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and
Aaron in the wilderness. 3The Israelites said to them, “If only
we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat
by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into
this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4Then
the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for
you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In
that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or
not. 9Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation
of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your
complaining.’“ 10And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation
of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of
the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11The Lord spoke
to Moses and said, 12“I have heard the complaining of the
Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning
you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am
the Lord your God.’“
13In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning
there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14When the layer of
dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance,
as fine as frost on the ground. 15When the Israelites saw it,
they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to
eat.
The Word of the Lord
Reading:
Ephesians 4:1-16
A reading from the letter to the Ephesians
4I
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the
calling to which you have been called,
2with all
humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in
love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to
the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one
God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7But
each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s
gift. 8Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity
itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” 9(When it says, “He ascended,”
what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the
earth? 10He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11The gifts he gave were that
some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and
teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up
the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full
stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and
blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their
craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we
must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from
whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it
is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in
building itself up in love.
The Word of the Lord.
Gospel
Verse:
Alleluia! One does not live
by bread alone, but by every word that come from the mouth of God.
Alleluia!
Gospel Reading: John 6:24-35
A reading from the Gospel of John
24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for
Jesus. 25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they
said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26Jesus answered
them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw
signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27Do not
work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal
life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father
has set his seal.”
28Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of
God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you
believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “What
sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What
work are you performing? 31Our ancestors ate the manna in the
wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32Then
Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the
bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from
heaven. 33For the bread of God is that which comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir,
give us this bread always.” 35Jesus said to them, “I am the
bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes
in me will never be thirsty.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Sermon
(added at the end of the document)
Hymn #487 What Feast
of Love
Thanks and Offertory
Prayers
of the Church:
Rooted in Christ and
sustained by the Spirit, we offer our prayers for the church, the world, and
all of creation
[Short pause]
Hear us, O God… Your mercy is great.
Loving God, bless Bishop Susan Johnson and the National ELCIC office and Support Staff. Hear us, O God... Your mercy is great.
We lift these and
all our prayers to you, O God, confident in the promise of your saving love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Hymn #472 Eat This Bread
The
Lord’s Prayer
Finally let us pray for all things as
our Lord would have us ask:
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, and the power,
and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
Hymn
#536 God Be with You Till We Meet Again
Benediction and Sending
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine on you and
be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and +
give you peace.
Amen.
Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks
be to God!
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Jesus
said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be
hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
·
Lots of ink
has been spilled over this passage. It is often taken as an indicator of what
Holy Communion is and various parties in the church are still digging trenches
and stringing barbed wire regarding that. I don’t want to add to that wrestling
match.
·
Still I’ll
ask what would our lives be without bread? Bread is so, so common on our
society’s tables that for many, a meal is not complete without it. Loafs, buns,
rolls, cakes, pita, flatbread, tortillas – you name it. There are those who
cannot eat such things and often use an alternate made from something other
than wheat, the most common flour. And still, even in those cases, there is
bread made of some grain. [There are places in the world where rice is the
necessary food, but for Jesus in his time and place, bread is the focus.]
·
I remember
that years ago, we used to call bread “the staff of life.” A staff supports a
person’s walk and could hold up flags and banners to show the way or to build
the group’s spirit. Maybe we could even say that it is the “spine” of life.
·
Jesus told
the people who came looking for more bread that HE was the bread of life, that
he was the necessary for all of life. John almost always has people
misunderstand Jesus when he uses such language. Remember Nicodemus and his
confusion over being “born from above” or being “born again.” Since the Gospel
was written for those reading it, they (and we) would understand the reference
without mistaking it for Jesus somehow identifying himself as a loaf of rye
bread.
·
Bread figures
into this story because it follows on the heels of the story of the
multiplication of the loaves and fish at the lake side for about 5000 people.
John’s narrative sets the stage for Jesus’ teaching about the Bread of Life. In
the multiplication story, the bread (and the fish) are simple and yet take on
great power and meaning. The baskets of left-overs is a sign of the abundance
of grace in the Kingdom of God.
·
Did you
notice that no one had to pay for the meal nor did anyone have to do something
to qualify for that meal? Jesus didn’t ask, but gave freely. Such is the way of
grace. It is freely given and can be freely received
·
Whenever we
pray the Lord’s Prayer, don’t we say “Give us this day our daily bread…”?
Luther’s exposition of this in the Small Catechism expands the idea of bread to
all those things necessary of life and he’s not wrong. We can take that even
further in the light of today’s reading. Without slighting the bread we need
for our bodies, “Our daily bread” is Jesus whom we are in need of all our lives
and in all situations. In asking for the day’s bread, there are even hints of
the banquet to come.
·
In Jesus’
reference to hunger and thirst, he places himself in the midst of each person’s
desire and hope and struggle for meaning and for true life even though futility
and death are all around us. It is Jesus who feeds and thereby satisfies our
deepest needs. His grace is the nourishment we need to live out what we were
called to in our Baptisms, in the words of the Gospel, and in our continuing
life in grace.
·
Jesus IS the
“bread of life” and we need to eat hearty!
Jesus
said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be
hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
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