Today’s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston
Welcome
As Dolly Parton’s song, highlighting how hard work doesn’t bring riches or reward, fades into the background we come to worship the One who freely gives us bread from heaven. God invites us all, without regard to wealth or riches, to the feast. God shows us a different way to live and offers a different way to structure our world, so the wealthy no longer rule the roost, the poor are lifted up, the hungry fed, and the rich sent empty away. Of course, such sentiments might not be seen as instant vote winners as we’ve learned to internalise the ideologies which rule our world. My name is Andy Braunston, and I am the United Reformed Church’s Minister for Digital Worship. I live in beautiful island county of Orkney which was at the forefront of the transition to an oil-based economy in the 1970s and now is at the cutting edge of the transformations bought about by the renewable energy unleashed by sun, wind, and wave. Our readings lead us to think a little about both faith and economics today. So let us worship God together.
Call To Worship
Come & worship, all who hunger! We come to worship.
Come & worship, all who thirst! We come to worship.
Come & worship, all who want to see real change! We come to worship.
Come & worship, all who want to rely on God alone!
We come to worship.
Hymn All Who Hunger Gather Gladly
Sylvia Dunstan (1955-93) © 1991, GIA Publications, Inc. OneLicence # A-734713 Performed by members of the Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and used with their kind permission.
All who hunger, gather gladly;
Holy manna is our bread.
Come from wilderness and wand’ring.
Here in truth, we will be fed.
You that yearn for days of fullness,
All around us is our food.
Taste and see the grace eternal,
Taste and see that God is good.
All who hunger, never strangers,
Seeker, be a welcome guest.
Come from restlessness and roaming.
Here in joy we keep the feast.
We that once were lost and scattered,
In communion’s love have stood.
Taste and see the grace eternal.
Taste and see that God is good.
All who hunger, sing together;
Jesus Christ is living bread.
Come from loneliness and longing.
Here in peace, we have been led.
Blest are those who from this table
Live their lives in gratitude.
Taste and see the grace eternal.
Taste and see that God is good.
Prayers of Approach, Confession and Grace
We come to worship you, O Gracious One,
from our restlessness and roaming, and from our loneliness and longing.
Like your people of old we come with our grumbles and groaning,
longing, in truth, to be fed.
We come to worship you, O Risen One, our living bread.
In our wandering we seek you, our hungry hearts yearn for fulness,
our thirsty souls long to be quenched
and we come to taste and see your goodness.
Forgive us when we stray from your path,
when our hungers make us devour our planet,
and when the noise of our complaining obscures your voice.
We come to worship you,O Holy One,
as you guide us through the wilderness,
refine us as we are built into your people,
and teach us to question the way things are.
Help us to experience the power of your love,
the love that enables us to forgive others and ourselves,
which drives us out to feed the hungry,
quenches the thirst of the lost and scattered,
and teaches us to labour for the things that will last. Amen.
Introduction
One of the puzzling things about our contemporary world is how much we don’t see and how many things we see as normal and natural. For millennia God’s people thought it was wrong to charge interest on a loan; pragmatism in the 16th Century led Christians to change their mind on this and now our whole economy is founded on debt with a huge degree of precariousness introduced with fluctuating interest rates. We read today of the newly liberated Jewish people rather regretting their precarious freedom because they were hungry. They looked back to fuller bellies in Egypt and ignored all that was wrong with their lives there, maybe they thought slavery was natural. We read too of God’s gracious provision, giving them enough to eat each day but not so much they’d hoard and allow some to grow rich at the expense of others. Jesus warns us not to labour for that which does not satisfy and freely offers himself to us as bread from heaven. Jesus’ words call into question the whole basis of our society; it’s hard to learn to labour for spirituality, values which transcend the passing ideologies of our age, and for the good of others when we’re expected to work hard and, as Dolly Parton sang “barely getting by, it’s all taking and no giving.” We listen now for a different way as God’s Word is proclaimed and expounded.
Prayer for Illumination
Feed our hunger, Liberating God,
as we read your word which you break open for us.
Quench our thirst, Satisfying God,
as we learn to see the world as it really is.
Provoke such longing in our hearts, Loving God,
that we are not satisfied until the whole earth
tastes and sees your goodness. Amen.
Readings Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.'” And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. The LORD spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'” In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.
Reading St John 6:24-35
So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus 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. 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. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 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? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Then 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. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 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.
Hymn Jesus the Lord Said ‘I am the Bread’
Bert Polman, Dermott Monahan sung by members of the Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey and used with their kind permission. Stanzas 1-5 © 1969, Christian Conference of Asia, GIA Publications, Inc. OneLicence # A-734713
Jesus the Lord said, ‘I am the bread; the bread of life for the world am I.
The bread of life for the world am I; the bread of life for the world am I.’
Jesus the Lord said, ‘I am the bread; the bread of life for the world am I.’
Jesus the Lord said, ‘I am the Life; the resurrection and the life am I.
The resurrection and the life am I; the resurrection and the life am I.’
Jesus the Lord said, ‘I am the life; the resurrection and the life am I.’
Jesus the Lord said, ‘I am the way; the way of truth and the life am I.
The way of truth and the life am I; the way of truth and the life am I.’
Jesus the Lord said, ‘I am the way; the way of truth and the life am I.’
Sermon
Goldfish, they say, aren’t aware of the water they swim in. I’ve never been terribly sure how they have come to this conclusion but it’s an interesting idea. Often we take for granted the way things are thinking they are normal, natural, and can’t be changed. Those who profit by the way things are, of course, like the fact that we don’t see what’s going on. Governments in repressive regimes take great steps to stop their people finding out about other ways of life, ideologies, and possibilities so they stay, like goldfish, unaware of the water they swim in. Our readings today show both this reality and a way out of it.
In Exodus we read of the newly freed Jewish people becoming very uncomfortable with the insecurities of freedom. Back in Egypt (when they were slaves) they had all they needed (or so they thought). Now they were free and starving and, despite having seen God’s marvellous deeds, are now having a good grumble and dreaming of the halcyon days of sated slavery. We read the story and may be tempted to laugh at the grumbling people; we may see ourselves as those who grumble and, of course, when we’re hungry we’re more likely to get grumpy. I wonder, however, how able we are to see some of the other things going on and how they may relate to us now.
First, in Egypt the Jewish people were slaves. Their labour was used by others, and they had no reward for it. No wages, just the provision of shelter and food. Beaten if they disobeyed, oppressed – the earlier stories about the Egyptians killing the male babies were part of the oppression the Jewish people endured. Then as now the poor laboured and the rich got richer due to the blood, sweat, and tears of others. We don’t know enough about slavery in the ancient world; when it became an established part of the Western economy in the modern era it was a by-product and driving force of capitalism. As the rich had to find new ways of making money, people had to be enslaved so their cheaper labour could be set to work; of course, that work led eventually to environmental collapse as forest and land was cleared to grow cash crops. As the economic systems that rule our world have learned to pretend they are normal and natural we’re told that hard work pays and that those without work or means are to blame for their own misfortune. Yet if hard work pays every African woman would be a millionaire.
Like the Jews of old we can become so used to the systems we live with we don’t see them until it all changes. We don’t see how wealth is transferred from the poor to the rich until we look at how people become bankrupt in America to pay their medical bills, or how public services here are denied proper funding and councils go bankrupt as we’re bribed with tax cuts. We’re told that decent pensions and benefits that ensure the vulnerable live with dignity are unaffordable; yet there’s always money for the latest war. We’re told that it’s too expensive to insulate homes properly and get heat pumps rolled out, yet the rich continue to poison our rivers and live in unimaginable luxury. The rich, who control the media, scare us if any politician urges redistribution of wealth or more realistic taxes – even when the changes proposed would benefit most of us. Like the Jews with their newfound freedom, we’re easily scared.
Of course, when the system changed the ex-slaves complained! They may have been beaten, they may not have been paid, they may not have had their freedom, their boys may have been murdered, but they ate better than in the desert! I’d love to know what Moses and Aaron really said when no one else was listening! I can only imagine their frustration.
The people of Israel looked back to the security of slavery and compared it with the insecurity of freedom. I wonder if we look back at our economic past and wonder if it was more secure. People on the left might look back to the post war economic growth which lasted until the 1970s and which meant that people in the industrialised world grew richer each year and where wealth inequality within those societies was controlled. People on the right might look at the economic boom of the 80s and 90s where the post war attempts to control the economy gave way to something rather different. In the post war period, the growing wealth was at the expense of our former colonies and the developing world where murder, corruption, and exploitation saw wealth transferred to richer countries. From the 1980s the growth was at the expense of those who worked for the former nationalised industries who found themselves jobless when these closed or changed. The change within the richer countries has meant the gap between rich and poor has increased, and youngsters now find it hard to earn enough to afford rent – where places are available – and where buying one’s own home is an unachievable dream. Like the Jewish people of old we dream of security yet must live with insecurity and end up grumbling. We remember the past with rose tinted spectacles, like the Jews in the story, not quite remembering all the past.
Amid this grumbling God acted. God, thankfully, didn’t send the people back to their slave drivers. God didn’t tell them how to replicate the systems they’d left but, instead, started a process of educating the Jewish people to live differently. After bringing them to freedom God enabled their needs to be met with the provision of manna from heaven. In the stories, we find God gave water from the rock, manna – or bread – from heaven, and quail for meat. No one was to take more than they needed; no one was to store up extra rations for themselves or to sell to others. There were no get rich quick schemes for early entrepreneurs; instead, everyone was given what they needed. Echoes of this are written into the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament – the idea that every 7 years: loans were forgiven, land was transferred back to the original tenants, and slaves were freed. This is part of a wider Biblical vision of a society which looks out for its members. These ideas wouldn’t be seen as wise now by the economic captains of our age. Similarly, the lending of money with interest was seen as sinful and forbidden by the Jewish Law – a prohibition that Christians followed until the sixteenth century, and which is still followed by Muslims today. In the desert God started to teach us a new economic system, a new way of living, a new way of trusting for our needs to be met by not hoarding, by taking only what was needed, and by ensuring all were fed and secure. It’s a radical idea that we hope might catch on!
Jesus plays with themes which undermined the economic realities of his day and confuses his listeners as he does so. A hungry crowd wants some bread; Jesus tells them not to labour for food which perishes but for “food that endures for eternal life”. Knowing their Bible the crowd immediately made a link with God’s provision of manna from heaven. In an age of brutal conquest, the rich could protect themselves by making themselves useful to the Romans – the poor couldn’t. Jesus suggests, it seems, ignoring some of the economic realities of the day and focussing on God’s kingdom. That might sound like being too heavenly minded to be of much earthly use, but it undermined the culture of the day. Bearing in mind the Exodus story, Jesus told the crowd that he is the bread of heaven; those who come to him will neither hunger nor thirst. As the passage continues it’s clear that the crowd get more and more confused by this – who can blame them? Christians have mused over this passage for millennia. Is Jesus referring to how he gives himself to us in Holy Communion? Later he says his body is real food and his blood real drink, or does he mean that belief in him satisfies our hunger and thirst? Does he mean this literally – Christians can go as hungry as anyone else, or did he mean this as a spiritual thing?
The compilers of the Lectionary clearly married these two passages due to the reference the crowd made to the Exodus story so we’ve got some interesting themes to explore – relying on God’s provision each day and not storing up riches, breaking away from an exploitative system and building a new one that was fair, not labouring for things that will perish and Jesus being the bread of life. What might we do with these various themes?
First, I think we need to think a bit about grumbling. As my husband would tell you, I do love a good grumble. But let’s grumble about the things we can change, the systems which control so much of our lives but remain out of sight and benefit only the superrich. Whether it’s unfair electricity charges, unfair taxes which mean the rich pay proportionately less than the rest of us, unfair terms and conditions at work, or the deep-seated racism which infects so much of our world let’s grumble – and organise!
Secondly, I think we need to pay a little more attention to Jesus’ undermining of the systems and structures within which we live. He invites all to dine with him at no cost, to eat his living bread. That sounds radical in a society wedded to what your wealth can buy, on working harder to live better – even though it’s clear that hard work doesn’t lead to wealth or riches. Working for those things which perish is foolish; working instead for values and ideas which last is more satisfying.
Thirdly, we can learn to emulate Jesus who invites all and gives to all without regard to cost. Like a foodbank for the needy, Jesus offers all we need; like a congregation which opens its doors to all, we can show the radical, inclusive love of God which values the least, lifts up the poor and fills the hungry.
In our story from Exodus we see God’s people with looking back to a precarious, painful, yet secure past, weighing it in the balance with an insecure yet faith-filled future. In a moment’s uncertainty they were tempted to choose their precarious past over an insecure future. In our own lives we can look back, often with rose tinted spectacles, at the past forgetting how precarious it was. Instead, with Jesus, the bread of heaven who offers himself again and again for us we can choose a future full of faith, adventure, and challenge. Let’s pray:
Thirst quenching God,
help us to labour for what lasts,
labour so that no one is hungry,
see the systems and structures that oppress,
and work that all your people be free. Amen.
Hymn Bread for the World
Bernadette Farrell OCP Publications OneLicence # A-734713 sung by Chris Brunelle
and used with his kind permission
Bread for the world: a world of hunger.
Wine for all peoples: people who thirst.
May we who eat be bread for others.
May we who drink pour out our love.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the bread of life,
broken to reach and heal the wounds of human pain.
Where we divide your people, you are waiting there
on bended knee to wash our feet with endless care.
Bread for the world: a world of hunger.
Wine for all peoples: people who thirst.
May we who eat be bread for others.
May we who drink pour out our love.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the wine of peace,
poured into hearts once broken and where dryness sleeps.
Where we are tired and weary, you are waiting there
to be the way which beckons us beyond despair.
Bread for the world: a world of hunger.
Wine for all peoples: people who thirst.
May we who eat be bread for others.
May we who drink pour out our love.
(repeat)
Affirmation of Faith
We believe that the One who gave us birth
invites all to eat freely of the bread of life.
We believe that Jesus, the Bread of Heaven,
calls us to labour for the things that last.
We believe that in our wandering and confusion,
the Holy Spirit helps us see the world as it really is.
We believe that God, the Eternal Trinity,
sates our hunger and quenches our thirst
so that we work for a world where
the poor are lifted up, the rich sent empty away
and the pain of life is transformed into joy,
in the God’s coming Kingdom. Amen.
Intercessions
Lord, see this banknote, it frightens me.
You know its secrets, you know its history.
How heavy it is!
It scares me, for it cannot speak.
It will never tell all it hides in its creases.
It will never reveal all the struggle and efforts it represents,
all the disillusionment and slighted dignity.
It is stained with sweat and blood.
It is laden with all the weight of the human toil which makes its worth.
It is heavy, heavy, Lord.
It fills me with awe, it frightens me.
For it has death on its conscience,
all the poor folk who killed themselves for it…
to possess it for a few hours…
to have through it a little pleasure…a little joy…a little life.
Through how many hands as it passed Lord?
And what has it done in the course of its long, silent, trips.
It has offered white roses to the radiant lover.
It has paid for the baptismal party, and fed the growing baby.
It has provided bread for the table.
Because of it there was laugher among the young
and joy among the adults.
It paid for the visit to the dentist,
it has brought the book that taught the youngster,
it has clothed the child.
But it has sent the text breaking the engagement.
It has paid for illegal drugs that cause addiction.
It has paid for the alcohol which leads to violence.
It has helped produce pornography.
It has helped pay for violence.
It has brought for a short while a woman’s body,
it has paid for the weapons of crime and the wood of the coffin.
Lord we offer you this banknote
with its joyous and sorrowful mysteries.
We thank you for all the life and joy it has given,
and ask for forgiveness for the harm done.
Above all, Lord, we offer it as a symbol of all our labour,
indestructible money which will be changed into your eternal life. Amen.
Offertory
Jesus tells us not to labour for that which perishes but for those things which endure to eternal life. So often our culture tempts us to spend our resources on the things which perish – fast fashion, the latest fad, the gym membership we never actually use, the gadgets we forget to use. Yet we’re called to build an eternal kingdom based on values of justice, integrity, and love. When we support charities and good causes we do this, we do this too when we give to the church. So now we give thanks for the gifts that are given and the use to which they are put. Let us pray.
Giving God,
thank you for all you give us,
thank you for these gifts of love and the work they represent.
Help us to use all your gifts wisely,
that we may not perish but endure to eternal life. Amen.
Hymn In Bread We Bring You Lord
Kevin Nichols © 1976, Kevin Mayhew OneLicence # A-734713
Sung by Emmaus Music and used with their kind permission.
In bread we bring you, Lord, our bodies’ labour.
In wine we offer you our spirits’ grief.
We do not ask you, Lord, who is my neighbour,
but stand united now, one in belief.
O we have gladly heard your Word, your holy Word,
And now in answer, Lord, our gifts we bring.
Our selfish hearts make true, our failing faith renew,
our lives belong to you, our Lord and King.
The bread we offer you is blessed and broken,
and it becomes for us our spirits’ food.
Over the cup we bring your Word is spoken;
make it your gift to us, your healing blood.
Take all that daily toil plants in our hearts’ poor soil,
Take all we start and spoil, each hopeful dream,
The chances we have missed, the graces we resist,
Lord in thy Eucharist, take and redeem.
Holy Communion
Long ago, O Most High, you called us to be your people;
to reject the ideologies of the age and to follow only you.
When your people were enslaved you freed them,
through fire, cloud and precious law,
sating their hunger with bread from heaven,
quenching their thirst with water from the rock,
teaching them, again and again, to use freedom wisely.
When your people were in mortal peril
you raised up judges to protect them
and prophets to remind them of their responsibilities
to care for the poor and vulnerable and turn again only to you.
In the bitter years of exile, you sustained your people
teaching them to sing your song in a strange land,
keeping alive the memory and purpose of freedom,
and, in your good time, you set them free.
In the dangerous years of Roman occupation,
you sent Jesus as manna from heaven,
to teach and preach, to heal and to warn, to love and to welcome,
yet the powers of his age sent Jesus to the Cross
where your awesome weakness was displayed on high.
Before he was given over the powers,
and executed as a criminal,
Jesus shared in the simplicity of meal with his friends.
During the meal he took bread, blessed it, broke it
and gave it to his friends saying:
Take this all of you and eat it,
this is my body which is broken for you.
Do this in memory of me.
After Supper he took the cup filled with wine,said the ancient blessing, and gave the cup to his friends saying:
Take this all of you and drink from it,
this is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and everlasting covenant,
which is shed for you and for all.
For as often as we eat this bread and drink from this cup we proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes again. So, let us proclaim the mystery of our faith:
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Most Holy Spirit, our source, goal, and guide,
gather us now into your presence,
that through these gifts of bread and wine
which we set to this holy purpose,
you may set us to eat and drink with Jesus
at the side of the Most High.
As we eat and drink we remember
both his death and resurrection to new and abundant life.
In a world of hunger let us share your bread for the world.
In a world thirsting for authentic living let us share your wine.
May we who eat be bread for others.
May we who drink pour out your love.
So, let us eat and drink as Jesus taught,
inviting the poor and excluded to this table.
May their absence here provoke a longing for truth and justice in us,
may their presence here truly transform us into the
body and blood of Christ which we now share.
The gifts of God for the people of God.
Music for Communion Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Knees
Public Domain, sung by Chris Brunelle and used with his kind permission.
Post Communion Prayer
You have fed us, Lord Jesus, with the bread of heaven
and quenched our thirst with your own self.
Guide us with your love through the beauty and barrenness,
the fire and cloud, and the tide and times of life,
that through the weakness of the Cross, we may find your strength,
that we may ever sing you our praises. Amen.
Hymn Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch William Williams, 1717-1791,
translated Peter Williams, 1723-1796 Public domain
Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore,
feed me now and evermore.
Open now the crystal fountain, where the healing waters flow.
Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer, ever be my strength and shield,
ever be my strength and shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death, and hell’s Destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever sing to you,
I will ever sing to you.
Blessing
May the One who leads us through cloud and fire,
the One who feeds us with His very self,
and the One who fulfils our longings,
lead you, feed you and fulfil you,
that you may lead, feed and fulfil others.
And the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
be with you all now and always, Amen.