Pastoral Letter 76

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and Peace to you all in the name of the Father, the God of Love and Power, the Son, the Good Shepherd and the Lord of Grace and the Holy Spirit, the Source of our Peace and Comfort.

Hope you are all well and safe.

Sadly, it has been over a month for the lockdown, and we are told that this will go on for at least one more month, till the end of August, which means we still have to worship at home and miss the fellowship with each other. But we should look forward with hope and anticipation that soon we will be able to return to normal. Let’s continue to pray and hope.

The Lower North Shore Uniting Churches Study Series on Zoom, based on Dr. Kenneth Bailey’s book “The Good Shepherd – A Thousand Year Journey from Psalm 23 to the New Testament”, had its second session last Wednesday with 27 participants. We have been receiving positive feedback from the participants. Hopefully we will have three more sessions on Wednesdays 4, 11 and 25 August. We have to skip the 18 August, due to the Sydney Central Coast Presbytery meeting. The short one-hour sessions include a 30-minute video followed by a 30-minute discussion.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://uca-nswact.zoom.us/j/94813548762

Meeting ID: 948 1354 8762

Ivy is doing well, and she is in rehab now and she will stay for a week or so, before she goes home.

A big thank you to those who have contributed to sponsor the Demirchian family in Artsakh. We have raised almost 2/3 of the total $3000. We believe with a few more donations we will be able to achieve our goal.

As the restrictions go on, please pray and join the rest of the members Sunday morning for worship from home following the attached Order of Service, light a candle, have a small roll and a small cup of wine/juice for Communion, sing along to the hymns chosen, read the Message. Thanks to Mark for suggesting hymns every Sunday. This Sunday some of the hymns are from Mark’s suggestions.

Continue to pray, remembering those who need our care, support and love.

Here are some prayer points for this week:

1. Pray for our Service tomorrow and hope soon to return to our face-to-face services and weekly activities.

2. Pray for the local and federal governments, as they struggle with the vaccination rollout and controlling the spread of the virus.

3. Pray for those who are under stress because of the COVID-19 tight restrictions and not being able to work and are struggling financially.

4. Pray that soon this wave of Delta strain of the COVID is gone and people get vaccinated.

Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.

Remember, whatever challenge we face, God is with us to keep us safe. Thanks be to God.

Krikor

MESSAGE

I Am the Bread of Life

John 6:24-59

As we saw last Sunday, in the beginning of John 6 we have the miracle of feeding 5000 with 5 loaves of barley and 2 small fish on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. That was one of the incredible deeds that Jesus did during His earthly ministry. As we read further, we see that the crowd who had witnessed the feeding miracle and ate plenty of fish and bread followed Him in Capernaum, the other side of the lake.

They followed Him with the expectation of more food, bread and fish and maybe this time, cooked meat. So, they go after Him asking for more. This is natural. We, as human beings, have the tendency to want more: more money, more possessions, more joy, more fun, more holidays, more life. There is nothing wrong with such desire, as long as we don’t become obsessed with the thought of having more means we will be well and safe, and we will be able to face any challenge we face in life.

People’s Concern – Give Us Bread (24-29).

The crowd went after Jesus, and in verse 25 we see that they have found Him and in verse 26 Jesus immediately challenges their hearts and the reason they are seeking Him. He points out ‘bread’ (food) is their immediate concern. They have sought Him because the day before He had provided a meal for them, but Christ’s desire is that their hearts would be moved from the temporal to the eternal, from physical food to spiritual food (v. 27). It is the materialistic mindset of these people and their spiritual blindness.

In verse 28 they ask what is the ‘work they must do’ to receive this bread of which Christ speaks. They think they should earn it. They believe there is something they could do that would merit the giving of this bread. How slow of heart and mind they really are. Jesus quickly points out that the only work required of them is ‘believe in the one sent by the Father’ (v 29).

God’s Concern – Bread from Heaven (30-33)

In verses 30-31 we see how the hearts of the crowd were fixed on the provision of physical food. They speak of the gracious provision of manna by God for the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness for those forty years. The people began to grumble against Moses that they have no food and God provides manna for them. The manna fell each day and each day they had sufficient for all their needs. For 40 years God graciously provided for them in the wilderness. The people cite this provision and mistakenly credit its provision to Moses. They challenge Christ to provide such ‘manna’ for them now. Christ corrects them and states that it was God the Father who had provided the ‘manna’ and who has now provided another ‘bread from heaven’ (verses 32-33). This is the ‘true bread’ from heaven and is distinct from ‘manna’ in that this ‘bread’ ‘gives life to the world.’

Here is an amazing request. Here is a request which those asking do not realise, do not understand what they are speaking of. Their hearts and minds are still fixed on the temporal and the physical. They fail to comprehend that Christ is speaking of Himself. In verse 35 we have this wonderful statement – “I am the Bread of Life…” it seems a simple enough statement and yet to those listening this was shocking. Shocking because Jesus dared to utter the name of God (‘I am’). Shocking because He applied it to Himself. Shocking because He then adds to it by claiming to be ‘the bread of life.’

What did He mean by such a statement?

In the time of Christ ‘bread’ was fundamental to daily life. Most people only ate bread. Anything else was a luxury. Bread was the main part of their diet. Christ claiming to be ‘the bread of life’ was saying that He was fundamental and necessary to daily life. You know it is interesting that Christ was born in Bethlehem and the two parts of that name ‘Beth’ (house) and ‘lehem’ (bread) when put together means ‘House of Bread.’ Christ Jesus ‘the bread of life’ was born in the ‘House of Bread.’ He was saying to these people that He was the sustenance of life and that He was all they needed for life- as can be seen by the second part of verse 35.

Physical hunger would return no matter how much bread they ate. Christ claimed that He alone could satisfy the hunger and the thirst of their lives. By speaking both hunger and thirst Christ was moving their minds and hearts from the temporal to the eternal and from the physical to the spiritual. Verse 53 helps us to understand how we are to partake of this ‘bread of life.’ This was a shocking statement to the Jews. The Law forbade the drinking of blood and here was Christ insisting that partaking of his flesh and blood was essential to receive this ‘bread of life.’ This is not an explanation of Holy Communion, but a shocking illustration of what ‘faith in Christ’ means. To have faith in Christ means to partake in His death. On several occasions in this passage Christ speaks of eating this ‘bread of life.’ He is speaking of the exercising of faith, trust, and belief in Him.

So, what happens if the people, who came after Jesus, and we desire to have the bread Jesus offers to them and to us. The usual bread, which we need to secure our nutrition and health to live our life on this earth is necessary and essential to sustain our physical life, but the bread that Jesus is talking about and offering to us, has different dimension. The bread Jesus is offering gives:

Security vr. 36-40.

We read that when you have partaken of this ‘bread of life’ you have security. Do you see? ‘All’ whom the Father has placed into the hands of the Son will be kept and raised on the last day. Here is eternal security but it only comes by faith in the ‘bread of life.’ As the ordinary bread is necessary to sustain our physical life, the bread Jesus offers, His body, which was broken for us, will give us security, not for this world only, but security to eternity. The bread Jesus offers, sustains our lives for ever.

Destiny (vr. 41-51)

The people grumble at Christ for claiming to come down from heaven and being the ‘bread of life.’ He hears their grumbles and answers by revealing that the Father has sent Him to bring eternal life/salvation to those who would believe in Him by defeating death by his death on the cross. He points out that a generation died in the wilderness despite eating ‘manna’ (bread from heaven), but those who eat ‘the true bread from heaven’(Christ) will not die but have eternal life. Note verse 51 – in order for this to happen ‘the bread of life’ must be ‘eaten.’ Just as physical bread must be ‘eaten’ and become part of us to bring nourishment to our physical bodies so the ‘bread of life’ (Christ) must be ‘eaten’ (received by faith) and become part of us to impart spiritual nourishment. Please note that the reception of this supernatural gift did not free the believer from death (v. 49), but the reception of this gift alone guarantees eternal life (v. 51) and the resurrection to new life (v. 47, 50-51).

Identity (vr. 52-29)

Their identity is in Christ, literally in partaking in His death they are identified with Him. In these verses Jesus uses the language of consumption to speak of faith in Him. Faith is like eating His flesh and drinking His blood – it produces communion with Christ. His body broken, His blood poured out, the conquest of sin and death. In verse 47 everlasting life was connected to believing and in verse 54 it is connected to eating/drinking, therefore both are connected to ‘faith.’

In all of this the key is actually partaking in this ‘bread of life.’ We can only do that if we repent of our sins and put our trust in Him. Unless we eat and drink of Christ, receive Him by faith then we have no part of Him. Just as you do not buy ‘bread’ merely to look at but to consume so we are not merely to gaze upon Christ and his sacrifice for us but to ‘consume’ Him by faith so that we might know all the benefits of His life, death, resurrection and ascension in our lives. Some who heard Christ that day in the synagogue in Capernaum failed to understand what He was saying. Some had eyes and hearts fixed on the physical and the temporal and like the generation who ate manna in the wilderness they were destined to die in their sins. Some of those who heard went on after His death and resurrection to eat His flesh and drink His blood by placing their faith in Him and they received the ‘bread of life’ who conquered death and will raise them on the last day.

Should that not be all of us here this morning?

Today we will symbolically break bread and eat, pour wine and drink in remembrance of His death for us. By faith we come to eat His flesh and drink His blood that we might know the ‘bread of life.’ Come this morning to Him, trusting in Him for salvation, for He is the “Bread of Life”. And we need Him today more than ever.

Amen!