Bread of Life

Me - Testimonies

For a season of my life I spent time in a ministry that had a practice of sharing testimonies on the regular

A testimony is essentially a story or an account of you your relationship with God

The way that they were often told was narratively who you were before having a relationship with God, what happened, and what you are like now.

Oftentimes the people who were invited to share these stories tended to have rather moving testimonies where the difference between who they were before and after their faith was rather different.

They could point to the tangible

I was a person who largely was raised in connection to a church community, and when I heard these testimonies I was thinking about my own story as you do, and I was thinking about how there wasn’t or at least wasn’t yet a big dramatic 180 degree turn where I suddenly turned things around.

Hearing testimonies growing up and sensing that everything had to be going absolutely off the rails in my life in order for me to NEED a God

What does that God really do for me?

What would I God even ask of me?

What could I expect out of a God?

Why did I NEED God?

I saw why other people might

I saw why humanity might need a God but why did I NEED a God

Pray

Oh God as we explore the stories of your people throughout all time would we find truth for us in the here and now! May the words of my mouth and the meditations and minds and thoughts of all of us here be pleasing and acceptable to you our rock our redeemer.

Review of Series - I am your God, you are my people

We are a People - Jul 28th

God’s Chosen people

The sense that there is A God out there - that there is often an uncertain art of having a God

That our God is not just the God of our ancestors

it is not the God of our ancestors, but that God is the God of us here and now

In our scripture today there is a group of Galileans that are asking Jesus a series of questions.

Oftentimes when people ask questions there is the question that is on the surface level, and then there is the question that is under the question.

As I think as I have read and re-read this story of these Galilean’s interaction with Jesus.

We - Do we really NEED a God?

(now before that get’s recorded as a sound bite and sent to the Bishop I want to clarify that the answer is very much so yes, and we will get to that)

They don’t ask it this explicitly they ask about bread and where they can get more bread. They ask about signs and miracle proof of Jesus’ credentials. They are asking about the deliverables to see why it is that they would possibly need a God. Under all of it though I hear them saying in a unique almost materialistic way…We think we’ve pretty much got this under control. We are looking for bread, for we know what it is that satisfies. Why do we NEED whatever it is that you are selling?

Why do we NEED a God?

Let’s pray

God

Context to the story

It is unclear in the text but Bethsaida (where Loaves and fishes happen) and Capernaum (Jesus’ hometown and where they think he is) are like next to each other, but apparently they find Jesus on the other side of the Lake of Genesserett (Sea of Galilee later named)

This group of Galileans is tracking Jesus down, and Jesus is at such a distance across the lake that he might have literally only been able to walk on water to get there.

The people were following him after the feeding of the 5,000 they came seeking Jesus and he had gone onward.

You are not seeking me because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

They ask a series of Questions of Jesus

In the ways that the Galileans ask the questions we get a window into their heart

John 6:28 NRSV

28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”

John 6:30 NRSV

30 So 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?

We ask these questions in the same way, just with our modern examples. I hear myself say and perhaps you "don't really go much for the prayer stuff or the Bible Study stuff" they are "practical Christians" folks who want to do stuff. Folks who show up to the church because the Church is a meaningful institution in the community. This is true and it is not the whole truth .

I hear friends and family speak of hope in the good that communities of faith DO in the world and ask, but I don’t know about all of that belief stuff.

John 6:29 NRSV

29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Point 1: The DOING of faith matters, but it doesn’t matter the most

What is the work? It is that you believe Jesus.

The only work necessary is belief

We are people who are built to be amazed by the miraculous

We have a need to worship

We don’t need a God that we work for. A divine task master.

We don’t need a God that we are trying to constantly earn the favor of. That is not a very compelling God to be a people for.

Once they realized that it was not something they could do they asked if it was something that HE could do for them. (What are the signs?)

If it is really about belief then how will we know that we are correct? they give the example of Manna in the dessert

We hear the Galileans next line of thinking as they are asking for a sign from God they say: When we look back we remember our ancestors and they needed a God because they were out in the wilderness all alone, but do I need a God.

Maybe you are feeling that right now.

We are fortunate to be born where we were born.

Perhaps some of us have privileges that can make us comfortable.

We ask this about other people in our lives

Do we need a God when it would seem that we are already pretty full of the bread and juice that we have made for ourselves.

In a very real and ironic way we have gone so far in creating more and more elaborate bread

The things that consitute a sign are God's power and God's promises

- Jesus reminds the people that in all of the stories they were referencing

It wasn’t Moses

It wasn’t the Israelites

It wasn’t that time or that place

or the Glory Days

or the way things have always been

It was God. The one true God who was, and is, and is to come.

Point 2: God is still speaking

Sometimes with art we can become so consumed with what it was saying to particular people that we can miss what it is saying to us now.

The manna was

not God

a symbol merely of God

Jesus finally gets to the answer under the answer.

That they have a need for a God. That in a very real way the fact that they ask these questions that we ask these questions is proof enough that we have eyes that are fixed on the heavens.

Jesus answers with

John 6:35 NRSV

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.

Point 3: Your faith in God is the most lasting, significant, and recession proof investment that you could ever make.

The bread that actually satisfies

Not only do we have a need for a God, but it is one of the more urgent and important needs that we in fact have.

You

As Jesus declares himself as the Bread of Life he also declares you and me as hungry people. As people

hunger for...

love

hope

faith

forgiveness

We worship and believe in a God that is the bread of life, even for those hungers. The only work left, is to figure out how one goes about having a God.

Us

As people we have become rather talented and finding any and all distractions available to not have to think about the deep hungers of our hearts

We create all sorts of band aids, and comforts, things that feed the body but not the soul.

When that doesn’t work we make up for ourselves rules that God might have for us

We do just about anything possible except to accept the gift of faith the gift of bread of life that is reaching out to us.

The work friends, is in needing a God.

Transition to Communion

- The irony is not lost on me that later in our service this morning we will be celebrating Communion

- In communion we partake in bread and as we accept and receive communion we are reminded that faith comes to us in a similar form factor, something that we have the opportunity to receive.

- there is nothing that we need to DO to earn it, and it is entirely an opportunity for the Grace of God to be known in this place and at this time.

An opportunity for God to speak and for us to respond.

Prayer time

For our prayer time I have an invitation for a way that you can be in prayer. But before I make that invitation I want to read a letter that I wrote this morning.

Read Letter

We have an opportunity that in the next month 20-30 thousand people will be moving to our community to be students at Iowa State University.

They come with fears, hopes, griefs, pain, joys, senses of humor

In a small way I have to imagine that they are looking hard around Ames asking that same question that the Galileans asked and that maybe you have asked “Do I NEED God in my life?”

In the gathering space outside of church we have a table with a ton of these notebooks, and a guide for how to write a letter like the one that you just heard.

These are a simple thing about 60 pages, card stock covers......I am convinced though that for someone or perhaps several people this will pop up at a time when they really need it.

As the opportunity is so great so is the need. We plan to distribute these notebooks to students throughout welcome week, and to be specific about it we 300 of them to give out. 300 opportunities to be a light in a difficult place. 300 potentials to say the right word of encouragement at the right time. 300 ways to remind people that we are a people together.

I want to say a quick prayer over these, and then encourage you as you leave today to pick up one or 8 of them to write to a student and to bring back to worship over the course of the next 2 weeks.

Invitation to the Table

We come to the table of communion Open table If you are worshiping in-person

Intinction Gluten Free Offering Plates If you are worshiping online

Prepare It is a challenge to enter the communion table without a thorough and honest evaluation of how we come to this table.

Prayer of Confession/Pardon

People: **Grieved God, We confess that we have not loved the way this world deserves. We have allowed children to starve. We have cast away generations of people behind bars, often for “crimes” that were necessary for our survival. We’ve been more concerned with performative activism and online diatribes than looking our own neighbor in the eye, than demanding more for the marginalized in our communities. We have not voted with compassion. We have exploited land and sea, allowing our own filth to colonize the deepest beauties of the world/** **Have mercy on us, all our heartlessness, that we would be filled again with the fullness of our humanity.** *Adapted from Arthur Riley, Cole. _Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human_. First edition, Convergent, 2024.*

Lauren: People of God, even with what we’ve made of this precious sacred world—what we’ve made of one another; God forgives us.

In the Name of Jesus Christ You are Forgiven In the Name of Jesus Christ You are Forgiven

Let us as sinful, and forgiven people greet each other with Signs of God's forgiveness of us.

The Great Thanksgiving

Lewis:

The Lord be with you. **And also with you.** Lift up your hearts. _The pastor may lift hands and keep them raised._ **We lift them up to the Lord.** Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. **It is right to give our thanks and praise.**

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from slavery, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through the prophets.

with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

**Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,** **heaven and earth are full of your glory.** **Hosanna in the highest.** **Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.** **Hosanna in the highest.**

Lauren:

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Your Spirit anointed him

to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

Breaking of the Bread

Lewis:

And as we eat together at this table we remember the importance and the words and the actions of all meals in the tradition of Jesus…

We remember how he took bread, raised it, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his friends. _Bread broken_

He poured a cup of the fruit of the vine, gave thanks to God for it, and gave it also to his friends. _Juice poured out_

_The pastor may raise hands._

And so, in remembrance of these mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

**Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.**

_The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup._

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

_The pastor may raise hands._

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and forever. **Amen.**

Prayer after Communion

Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery and feast** in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.