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From the Desktop of the Pastor – Week of the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

Hi everyone,

I’m back from my holidays and I’ll admit that I’m feel awfully sluggish off the bat. This is normal, I guess, as I have to relearn my routines and all that. Still, it was a good time away and I got to spend a fair amount of time with my family. We did a lot of day trips around town and a quick trip up to Whistler, and course, a fair amount of time in the pool. We were able to experience different things, see different sights, and eat different foods (the 50% of the meals that weren’t McDonald’s, that is).

One thing that I noticed up at Whistler and commented to my wife about, was the line up outside this bread shop. Having been born and raised in an Asian family, rice was our staple food and bread was just something we’d have on occasion (like when we go to McDonald’s). So it was weird for me to see people wanting bread enough to stand in line for 20 minutes.

My wife understood it though, as she is an accomplished baker and can appreciate a good bread (to me, it’s just what holds the burger ingredients together) and she was even about to stand in line for some but ultimately decided against it (not because of me, mind you). I would have been willing to wait for her as she waits, but there were other things to consider (like the increasingly wet weather and the decreasing amount of daylight the kids had to play in the hotel pool).

But I guess if something fills (or fulfills) you enough, it’d be worth the wait.

Here are the readings for this coming Sunday:
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:9-14
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

I guess I missed a lot of the Bread of Life passages out of John while I was away. This is near the end of Jesus’ discourse, and it really should be looked at as a whole in order to really understand the imagery. Because as it stands here and now with this short passage, it all sounds kind of gross.

Of course Jesus isn’t talking about his literal flesh and blood, but he is speaking metaphorically of the experience of all he offers: the peace, the joy, and the community in his name. Jesus is speaking of the love that doesn’t end. Jesus is talking about the life that truly is life.

This is the bread that we can chew on, interact with, and rely on for sustenance, support, and survival. This is the truth that we can wrestle with, contemplate, and glean wisdom from. This is the promise of God’s grace to us all, that we can trust that throughout all of life’s ups and downs, we are taken care of and loved.

This is the bread of life, from which we can see and feel and taste God’s goodness and mercy. Thanks be to God!

Have a great week, everyone!

Photo by Vicky Ng on Unsplash

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