The Bread Of Life
Worship
Bread for the Journey
A High-Carb, Multisensory Lenten Worship Series
Object:
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Jesus said, "I am the bread of life ... I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever ..." (John 6:48-51). Brothers and sisters in Christ -- grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Bread is called the staff of life. It is the staff we lean on for our journey from birth to death. Bread has been the staff we have leaned on this past Lent. This Easter morning, we end our journey with the Bread of Life.
Many of you will enjoy a special meal today. Holiday meals are good times to gather the family together. We want them to be wonderful. We may look to Martha Stewart on ideas for decorating. We may ask Emeril Lagasse to help us "kick it up a notch" in the kitchen. Or, perhaps we'll go out and let others do the cooking. We will stuff ourselves and compliment the cooks on how wonderful everything is. But tomorrow we will get hungry again. There will be more meals to fix and more bread to eat in order to keep body and soul together. That's one way to look at life -- an endless parade of meals.
Have you ever stood at a grave and hoped that there was more to life? Somehow, when faced with death, many of the things that give meaning to our lives just don't seem to be enough. Eating, sleeping, learning and working, loving and being loved, as important as these are, we human beings seem to want and need more lasting meaning for our lives. If this life is all there is, then we might as well "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." The good news is that there is more to life. On this Easter Sunday Jesus offers us the bread of life "so that one may eat of it and not die." Christ is risen. Death is defeated. We are given a food that sustains us in this world and the next.
Did you know that food is an important part of how the Bible portrays heaven? Heaven is like a banquet, a wedding feast. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah painted a vivid picture of heaven.
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
-- Isaiah 25:6-8
The greatest chefs in the world couldn't come close to this feast. Rich food and well-aged wine God promises to all people. That is what God feeds us. But did you notice what God eats? "God will swallow up death forever." God eats death; we eat eternal life.
I wonder if the apostle Paul had this in mind when he wrote about the resurrection to the church at Corinth. "When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory' " (1 Corinthians 15:54). How are we to think of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Jesus has eaten death, tasted it fully, and swallowed it completely. His resurrection proves that death is defeated. Christ is the victor. He has eaten what we could not. And we are now offered the bread of life "so that one may eat of it and not die."
There is a story of a frugal man from Scotland who came to America many years ago. He had purchased passage on one of the great ocean liners. Not having any money, he decided to save on food by stocking up on crackers, cheese, and fruit before he left. The ship sailed, and he began to eat his skimpy meals. This went fairly well for the first four or five days. But as the ship drew closer to New York the crackers got stale, the cheese became moldy, and the fruit spoiled. Finally, there was nothing left that was fit to eat. The man decided that he would go to the dining room and have one good meal before the ship docked and he went ashore. Imagine his surprise to discover that nothing in the dining room cost anything, and that all that he could ever have eaten had already been included in the price of his ticket!
Today, Jesus is offering us the bread of life. It's free, paid for on the cross. Grab hold of it, taste it, and savor this life-giving food that nourishes the deepest part of our souls.
Several years ago, a man wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper. He said he couldn't remember any sermons preached in church and he questioned whether they were all that important. "I have been attending a church service for the past thirty years and have heard probably 3,000 sermons," he wrote. "To my consternation I discovered that I cannot remember a single one!" Many readers responded in the Letters to the Editor column, but this letter settled the issue: "I have been married thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals -- mostly of my wife's cooking. Suddenly, I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I received nourishment from every single one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago." I suspect many of us are like that man. We don't remember many of the sermons we have heard. But what we do know is that somehow God's Spirit gave us exactly what we needed to hear, and we were fed and nourished. We were given the bread of life.
Today is Easter. We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and his victory over death. We acknowledge that the power of death is all too real. We see it in our world in wars, hunger, poverty, and disease. We see it in our homes when families fight and hurt each other. We see it in ourselves when we give in to temptations we know are wrong. But today we are here to claim the victory won by Jesus Christ. Today, we celebrate a power that is stronger than death. Jesus Christ is able to enter the most hopeless situations and transform them. That is the message of Easter. Death has been swallowed up and transformed by the power of God. That is the resurrection! And today we are given a foretaste of the resurrection feast that will be ours in heaven. "I am the bread of life," Jesus said. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever" (John 6:51). People of God, today is Easter. Today you have eternal life. You have the power of Christ's resurrection in you to turn whatever of death's power you are dealing with into new life. Today, let us eat the bread of life and join our voices in praising God. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Favorite Morning Bread
Ingredients
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon instant coffee (mix coffee in with water)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons nonfat dry milk
1 Tablespoon oil/butter
1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cups warm water
Directions
Add ingredients according to the manufacturer's directions for your bread machine.
Bread is called the staff of life. It is the staff we lean on for our journey from birth to death. Bread has been the staff we have leaned on this past Lent. This Easter morning, we end our journey with the Bread of Life.
Many of you will enjoy a special meal today. Holiday meals are good times to gather the family together. We want them to be wonderful. We may look to Martha Stewart on ideas for decorating. We may ask Emeril Lagasse to help us "kick it up a notch" in the kitchen. Or, perhaps we'll go out and let others do the cooking. We will stuff ourselves and compliment the cooks on how wonderful everything is. But tomorrow we will get hungry again. There will be more meals to fix and more bread to eat in order to keep body and soul together. That's one way to look at life -- an endless parade of meals.
Have you ever stood at a grave and hoped that there was more to life? Somehow, when faced with death, many of the things that give meaning to our lives just don't seem to be enough. Eating, sleeping, learning and working, loving and being loved, as important as these are, we human beings seem to want and need more lasting meaning for our lives. If this life is all there is, then we might as well "eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." The good news is that there is more to life. On this Easter Sunday Jesus offers us the bread of life "so that one may eat of it and not die." Christ is risen. Death is defeated. We are given a food that sustains us in this world and the next.
Did you know that food is an important part of how the Bible portrays heaven? Heaven is like a banquet, a wedding feast. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah painted a vivid picture of heaven.
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
-- Isaiah 25:6-8
The greatest chefs in the world couldn't come close to this feast. Rich food and well-aged wine God promises to all people. That is what God feeds us. But did you notice what God eats? "God will swallow up death forever." God eats death; we eat eternal life.
I wonder if the apostle Paul had this in mind when he wrote about the resurrection to the church at Corinth. "When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory' " (1 Corinthians 15:54). How are we to think of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Jesus has eaten death, tasted it fully, and swallowed it completely. His resurrection proves that death is defeated. Christ is the victor. He has eaten what we could not. And we are now offered the bread of life "so that one may eat of it and not die."
There is a story of a frugal man from Scotland who came to America many years ago. He had purchased passage on one of the great ocean liners. Not having any money, he decided to save on food by stocking up on crackers, cheese, and fruit before he left. The ship sailed, and he began to eat his skimpy meals. This went fairly well for the first four or five days. But as the ship drew closer to New York the crackers got stale, the cheese became moldy, and the fruit spoiled. Finally, there was nothing left that was fit to eat. The man decided that he would go to the dining room and have one good meal before the ship docked and he went ashore. Imagine his surprise to discover that nothing in the dining room cost anything, and that all that he could ever have eaten had already been included in the price of his ticket!
Today, Jesus is offering us the bread of life. It's free, paid for on the cross. Grab hold of it, taste it, and savor this life-giving food that nourishes the deepest part of our souls.
Several years ago, a man wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper. He said he couldn't remember any sermons preached in church and he questioned whether they were all that important. "I have been attending a church service for the past thirty years and have heard probably 3,000 sermons," he wrote. "To my consternation I discovered that I cannot remember a single one!" Many readers responded in the Letters to the Editor column, but this letter settled the issue: "I have been married thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals -- mostly of my wife's cooking. Suddenly, I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I received nourishment from every single one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago." I suspect many of us are like that man. We don't remember many of the sermons we have heard. But what we do know is that somehow God's Spirit gave us exactly what we needed to hear, and we were fed and nourished. We were given the bread of life.
Today is Easter. We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and his victory over death. We acknowledge that the power of death is all too real. We see it in our world in wars, hunger, poverty, and disease. We see it in our homes when families fight and hurt each other. We see it in ourselves when we give in to temptations we know are wrong. But today we are here to claim the victory won by Jesus Christ. Today, we celebrate a power that is stronger than death. Jesus Christ is able to enter the most hopeless situations and transform them. That is the message of Easter. Death has been swallowed up and transformed by the power of God. That is the resurrection! And today we are given a foretaste of the resurrection feast that will be ours in heaven. "I am the bread of life," Jesus said. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever" (John 6:51). People of God, today is Easter. Today you have eternal life. You have the power of Christ's resurrection in you to turn whatever of death's power you are dealing with into new life. Today, let us eat the bread of life and join our voices in praising God. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Favorite Morning Bread
Ingredients
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon instant coffee (mix coffee in with water)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons nonfat dry milk
1 Tablespoon oil/butter
1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cups warm water
Directions
Add ingredients according to the manufacturer's directions for your bread machine.
