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Mark Wheeler
John 6:30-39
12/31/2023
"Bread, Bapt & Beyond – Sacraments and Worship 1" Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
On the Sixth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me – six geese a laying, five gold rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a … sing it – partridge in a pear tree!
Today is the sixth day of Christmas – six days into the Christmas season. Wouldn't it be nice if we actually invested 12 days of Christmas, like one present a day for twelve days, so we could settle in and rest in the celebration – rather than rushing into a hectic day breakfast, visits, presents, fancy dinner, lots of dishes, and hitting the hay hard, so the next day we can go back to the stores to return what doesn't fit and shop after Christmas sales!
Today, we didn't advertise this, but some of you remembered that today is what we have called "Flannel Sunday" – a made-up tradition for the last 15 or 20 years – a day we wear something new we got for Christmas – like flannel pajamas.
Today we also begin a between Christmas and Lenten series on Worship and Sacraments – what do we do on Sunday mornings, and why do what we do it, and how that impacts how we live every day! Bread, Bapt and Beyond!
To invite us into that experience, Pastor Kathy calls us to worship from Psalm 8:
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5-8 And our Prelude of Praise and Worship ––– #173 … O Come, All Ye Faithful –
9 Good morning Friends! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem! May the PEACE of Christ be with you!
Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!
Be filled with God's Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God's Word.
10 This morning our Chancel Choir leads us in this joyous Christmas anthem: "Ring the Bells"
11 Children's Message
12 Pastor Kathy opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving
13 Gloria Patri
14-17 Praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and prays [The Lord's Prayer]
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19-22 Song of Devotion and Preparation to receive God's Word – #146 – Joy to the World –
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On this Sixth Day of Christmas, this Flannel Sunday, during this Season of feasting and celebrating, we begin a new series that will take us from the Book of Ruth that centers around the town of Bethlehem – the House of Bread – toward the Season in which we prepare our faith for the purpose of this Christmas Season.
It's been a few years, but some of you remember when Scott introduced this Christmas Carol to us:
It's not just about the manger Where the baby lay
It's not all about the angels Who sing for him that day
It's not all about the shepherds Or the bright and shining star
It's not all about the wise men Who travelled from afar
It's about the cross It's about my sin
It's about how Jesus came to be born once So that we could be born again
It's about the stone That was rolled away
So that you and I could have real life someday
It's about the cross
That's where we're headed in just a few more weeks. In this liminal, in between, time – we are exploring what we do with that information; how that causes transformation.
Bread, Bapt and Beyond – a look at the Sacraments that demonstrate and perform the grace of God, and the worship that develops from them.
To that end, today's Gospel reading from John takes place right after Jesus feeds well over 5,000 people on a hillside near the Sea of Galilee – with nothing more than a little bread and a few fish!
Marvelous, you might think!
Memorable, you might think!
Miraculous, you might think!
Hear the Word of God, from John 6:30-39 …. ---- (I am reading from the English Standard Version, and the screen is showing The Message paraphrase)
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30 So [the crowd] said to [Jesus], "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? [What had He just done? He fed over 5,000 people – and then He walked on the water across the Lake – they had asked Him what they need to do to do God's work – and Jesus had told them, "Believe in the One whom God has sent" – so they say, "Why should we believe You? Give us a sign that says You're believable!" – how 'bout that feeding the 5,000 thing? How 'bout that water-walking thing?] 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He [Moses?] gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 32 Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
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34 They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
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39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
What sign do you do? What have you done that is worth our respect? Our belief? Our faith? Our Worship? Yeah, yeah, You fed the 5,000 yesterday, but that was just earthly bread – Penn and Teller could probably do that! Oh yeah, you walked on water – David Copperfield could probably do that!
For the questioners, in their very human insensitivity, unawareness, their obtuse inability to observe reality, after having been miraculously fed with earthly food, they, in their desire for miracles, require something higher to warrant their putting the required faith in Him, and expect a sign from heaven, heavenly bread, maybe something like what God had given the Israelites all those centuries ago by Moses in the Old Testament book of Exodus. Thus they explain their own question, which would be strange only if John 6:31 did not immediately follow. Their eagerness for Messianic miraculous attestation (John 6:14-15) had grown during the night.
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Think of a time you might have wondered if God even existed, let alone cared for you or your loved ones. Maybe some tragedy took place – a fire, a divorce, a death, a diagnosis, a job loss, some combination of any/all of those things at once. Maybe you felt like screaming at God, but then wondered why you should bother – He obviously doesn't care, or doesn't exist…..
They don't come often, but moments of despair are real. Weeping and gnashing of teeth can fill a night, or a very long season! Ten days ago, on the Thursday before Christmas, at our Blue Christmas service, we lamented together, and cried together, and felt abandoned together … and we listened for Hope together.
This passage closes with what God wants for us – the reason we celebrate Christmas, the objective of the Incarnation, the purpose for the birth in Bethlehem. Jesus says, "This is the will of Him (God the Father) who sent me, that all He has given me I (Jesus, the Son) should not lose any – none, not even a fragment – from the entire mass of humanity given to me," He says, "no solitary soul could be plucked from my hand – whether by trial or by temptation!"
The Pulpit Commentary says, "The claim of a Divine authority and absolute power could not be put more strongly. The care with which the Divine hand can protect every fragment of his universe, and hold it by its everlasting laws and keep it in the career assigned to it from the beginning, illumines this passage. Should the speaker not sustain this stupendous assumption, it is only too certain that he was giving utterance to the most reckless raving. These words cannot be honestly watered down to the language of the influence of an ethical reformer or prophetic messenger. Jesus proceeds to clinch his argument and reassert his claims as follows. But in proof of the very opposite of the supposition that I can drop one atom of this great charge, I will raise it up at the last day."
In my opinion, the Gospel of John states more clearly than any of the other Gospels Jesus' claim to be the one and only means of reconciliation with the God of the universe!
Last Sunday evening, we met right here for our Christmas Eve Candlelight-Communion Service, in which we were reminded that even in His birth in a barn in Bethlehem, His entrance into this world in the land of Ephratha, Jesus was already fulfilling His function with location.
Just before He was arrested and crucified, hours before Jesus paid our sin-debt by His self-death, He completed the Passover Pesach by claiming that the 1,400 year old ritual meant to remind God's chosen people of God's salvific nature now proclaims salvation through faith in Him. "This bread is my body, broken for you; this wine, the fruit of the vine, is poured out for you; every time you eat of this, eat it in remembrance of me." This Communion ritual demonstrates God's gra mor, God's perfect love, God's ultimate act to reconnect His people to Himself and to each other.
This House of Bread village in this Land of the Fruit county, Bethlehem Ephratha, was already announcing Jesus' bread and wine ritual reminding us of His death and resurrection.
In the middle of this passage we read how Jesus said to them, now dropping all disguise, and gathering up into one burning word all the previous teaching, which they might have fathomed, but did not, "I am the Bread of Life". He uses the people's Manna from Moses comparison to say "that which comes down from heaven, the veritable Life-eternal-giving Bread, which I as the steward of the Divine bounty, am giving, is my very self, my Divine humanity."
"I am the Bread of Life" is one of Jesus' famous "I am" statements: "I am the Light of the world", "I am the good Shepherd", "I am the resurrection and the Life", "I am the true Vine".
Here He claims to be giving Himself to the world, as the Source of its true life. The method in which any human being can so embrace this Bread that it should accomplish its purposes and transform itself into life, is by "coming" or "believing."
Jesus says, "He that is in the process of coming to me, shall by no means hunger; he that is learning to believe in me shall never thirst."
Again, the Pulpit Commentary says, "Christ, in 'coming down from heaven,' by revealing the Divine Sonship in a Son of man, brings all heaven with him, opens all the Father's heart. To come to him and to believe on him is to feed on the [bread] of heaven and drink of that river of life, clear as crystal, which is ever issuing from the throne of God and of the Lamb."
Last Sunday evening was Communion Sunday; next Sunday is Communion Sunday; every Sunday, every day, we are invited to partake of the Bread of Life, to come to Jesus, to be on the way to Jesus, to decide to get on the bus, call the Uber, look toward heaven, repent and turn in the right direction, approach the Throne of Grace – and find our spiritual hunger completely satisfied in Him.
May the beginning of 2024 bring us to this resolution. As a Church, and as individuals, "come to Jesus" and be eternally nourished with this Bread of Life. Amen.
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28 Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ's name, Amen.
Offering (4449 N Nevada St., Spokane, WA, 99207; click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code "Lidgerwood")
29-31 Expedition Song #384 – This Is My father's World!
32 Benediction:
May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God's Holy Spirit. And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
"May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace."
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Announcements
- Happy New Year!!
- Potluck Lunch & Annual Congregational Meeting – Sunday, January 28, to receive Annual Reports, Elect new Church officers, listen for God's call on us in 2024
- Furnace Fundraiser
Resources:
Ball Brothers, The; "It's About the Cross"; Breakthrough Album; 2009.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/john/6-30,35,39.htm (Meyer's NT Commentary; Pulpit Commentary)
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