A way to live in the mission field of church life and outreach:
The church centers in Jesus for bread to meet the hunger of everyone.
Based on John 6:35, 41-51(see a retelling below); a reading that comes from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, 8/12/18.
Some of the crowd of five thousand who have been fed by Jesus catch up with him on the other side of the lake. He says 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.”
The crowd becomes angry because of that he has just said. They say they know him and his mother and father. How, then, can he say he has come down from heaven? Jesus says that they should not complain. No one comes to him unless drawn to him by the Father who has sent him. Any who come to him will be raised from death to everlasting life when the end of the world comes. This is the promise of the prophets. Any who learn from the Father come to Jesus. No one has seen God except the one who is from God.
Jesus says, “Whoever believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread from heaven. Anyone who eats it does not die. I am the living bread that came from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread I give for the life of the world is myself.”
A theme: Jesus satisfies the hunger and thirst of those who come to him.
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