This week’s Readings and Sermon for the 16th Sunday after Trinity
The Collect for This Week
Creator God, you made the goodness of the land, the riches of the sea and the rhythm of the seasons; as we thank you for the harvest, may we cherish and respect this planet and its peoples, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Post Communion Prayer for this week
Lord of the harvest, with joy we have offered thanksgiving for your love in creation and have shared in the bread and the wine of the kingdom: by your grace plant within us a reverence for all that you give us and make us generous and wise stewards of the good things we enjoy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Psalm 100
1 O be joyful in the Lord, all the earth; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. 2 Know that the Lord is God; it is he that has made us and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. 3 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and bless his name. 4 For the Lord is gracious; his steadfast love is everlasting, and his faithfulness endures from generation to generation.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever. Amen
The Old Testament Reading for this Sunday is taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 26, verses 1 to11
1When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the Lordyour God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.’ 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5you shall make this response before the Lordyour God: ‘A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, 7we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.’ You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The New Testament reading for this Sunday is taken from the First Letter St Paul to the Philippians, Chapter 4 verses 4 to 9
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is taken from the Gospel of St John, Chapter 6, verses 25 to 35
Hear the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, according to Luke Glory to You, o Lord !
25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, 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.’
35 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.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, o Christ !
Note :All readings are shared from the Church of England Lectionary App and are subject to copyright . © The Archbishop’s Council
The sermon this week is delivered by Rev Laura Brinicombe
Today’s talk is all about food and drink! Two of my favourite subjects!
Can you remember the best meal you’ve ever eaten? Does anyone want to share what it was and why it was so special?
Food is very important to us isn’t it? Going without food or drink is a very painful experience.
Prior to our gospel reading, Jesus has just fed 5000 hungry people. John tells us that with five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed them all and they were satisfied.
As a result of this, many people wanted to follow Jesus because He had filled their rumbling tummies.
What He did reminded them of Moses and the way God had used him to feed their ancestors for forty years with manna when they were wandering around in the desert. Raw manna used to appear every day on the ground and was known as “bread from heaven.”
I can see why people were impressed! I love people who bring me free food!
Receiving fuel from a healthy, balanced diet is part of how our bodies are designed to work isn’t it? Put your hand on your stomach, can you notice whether you’re hungry or not? When we eat, we get hungry again don’t we and we know we need to find food because we feel empty.
But that doesn’t just happen with food does it? We often want all kinds of things, then we feel dissatisfied or bored and then we crave something else to fill us up.
It’s like every day we all start with an empty plate like this…we’re hungry for life!
*Display plate with the words ‘Hungry for Life’ written on it*
And, in the course of our day, we try to fill up our plate with all sorts of things.
I wonder if somebody would like to help me fill my plate? (add objects to plate: t-shirt, suntan lotion, phone, trophy, remote control).
Maybe we crave love, so we buy clothes to make us feel more lovable? Perhaps we’re hungry for peace, so we pile our plate up with holidays? Maybe we need relationship, so we fill it with likes and posts on social media? Perhaps we’re hungry to feel in control, so we stack up lots of achievements? Or maybe we’re missing comfort, so we escape by turning on the telly?
My plate is nice and full now but these things, however good they are, never fully satisfy us do they? When our TV show ends or our holiday is over, we soon wind up feeling empty again.
This is the ‘junk food’ problem Jesus wants to address when he says, ‘I am the bread of life.’
Jesus fed the 5000 but He didn’t just come to fill rumbling tummies with bread. He was talking about giving us soul-food and satisfying the much deeper hunger within each one of us.
We have been made to live in relationship with God and we are all hungry and thirsty for a life of unconditional love that never ends.
Jesus was saying that just as bread and water are essential for giving life to our physical body, He is essential for giving life to our spirit! And this life will really satisfy us and last forever, so we won’t become hungry or thirsty for love EVER again!
So Jesus isn’t like a regular slice of Hovis, He’s the bread of life!
We all have a choice. Instead of filling our lives with things that don’t satisfy us, we can bring our plate to Jesus and ask him to fill us up with His Spirit!
We can say sorry to God for all the times we’ve filled our plate with things that just aren’t as satisfying as Jesus *empty plate*
Then, just as we satisfy our body’s hunger and thirst by eating bread and drinking water every day, we satisfy our inner hunger and thirst for life by spending time with Jesus every day.
We ask Jesus to fill us up when we worship together (like we are today), when we read the Bible and feast our eyes on Jesus’ words and when we pray. And we ask Jesus to fill us up when we receive the bread and wine at communion – like we’ll do a little later on in this service. *fill plate with a bible, cross and communion wafer*
If we do these things, if we keep bringing our empty plate to Jesus, He promises to never turn us away when we ask for more of Him.
Because Jesus always wants to give us MORE life!
Let’s see what this ‘bread of life’ diet can do...
I’m peckish now! But all I’ve got are these sweets - they represent all the rubbish, not very filling stuff, from earlier that I piled up on my ‘hungry for life’ plate – it’s not Jesus, it’s lots of other junk. I don’t think one or two sweets is going to fill me, so I’m going to try and produce something more satisfying.
Could somebody come and plant some of these sweets in the pot of soil for me? I’ll see what I can make.
I’ve got Jelly Beans– to grow a Jelly Bean tree, obviously! They look like seeds right? And beans grow from the ground? Yes? So it makes sense to me!
I also brought some chocolate chips – I’m thinking that if I plant those I’ll get nice big stalks that have bars of Dairy Milk hanging off of them? Right?
And I brought these cheerio’s – they definitely look like donut seeds, right? So they’ll grow a donut bush?
If we leave these ‘seeds’ long enough do we think they’ll grow and thrive? No? Can anyone tell me where I’ve gone wrong?
Yes! I’m not using real seeds, I’m using man-made things that can’t keep growing, I’m using junk that isn’t Jesus.
If I just leave those sweets in there do we think they’ll get mouldy and sticky and rot eventually? Yes! So, they won’t fill me up and they might make me sick -great! Lovely as these things of the world are, they don’t have much life in them, without God we can’t grow good things and whatever we can make won’t last.
I’m getting VERY hungry now but don’t worry, I’ve got a back-up plan!
Jesus, the bread of heaven, promises that if we feast on Him in our lives, He will grow and fuel all kinds of amazing things, not in the ground but in our hearts! In the Bible, the things that God grows in our lives are called ‘fruits of the Spirit’ and these things aren’t junk, they’ll last and last and last forever!
So, could I ask the people who have all our godly ingredients to come forward and I’ll mix together our lovely, healthy and very tasty Spirit Fruit Salad!
*invite those with labelled fruit boxes to come forward and create a fruit salad. Boxes labelled; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.*
I think that looks pretty tasty! I’m going to put a nice big helping on my ‘hungry for life’ plate.
At the end of the service, please do come and fill up one of these little cups because I’d love us to share these gifts from God.
As we do this, we’ll be reminded that when we fill up on Jesus, rather than other things – we don’t only receive more life, eternal life, life in all its fullness for ourselves - but our Spirit fuelled life overflows and brings more and more life to others too.
So let’s pray: Jesus, You are the bread of life. Keep us feeding on You, so that our spirits are satisfied and we can learn to share your good gifts with our hungry world. Amen.
Amen.