Paula's sermon for August 1, 2021

We’re in the centre of three weeks where the Gospel of John holds us with crowds who followed Jesus after the feeding of  “thousands.”  It is a one of the ‘pillars’ of this Gospel.   There are layers to the “Bread of Life” passage.  Some have to do with authority:  who has greater authority, Jesus or Moses?  Part of that discussion has to do with bread and manna, where they come from and who they come from, leading to Jesus’ teaching about a greater bread, the “Bread of Life.” 

Another layer is what they are, signs, or something else (?).  And the word “work” also bounces around, beginning with Jesus saying, “Do not work for bread that perishes…” which gets turned into the crowd’s question, “What must we do to perform the works of Gd?”   We could get tangled up in these verses alone, like a swimmer in seaweed.  

Please click on the links below to read the rest of Paula's sermon, and to follow up on her references to the catechism of the Episcopal Chuch and Anglicans' Five Marks of Mission.