Sunday March 27 Lent 4
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Psalm 66
God, you have made the earth wonderfully, and have rescued us from disaster so I will delight in praising you.
Psalm 67
Because of God’s blessings to nature and the nations we will all sing God’s praises.
Genesis 48.8-22 What’s Genesis about?
As he is about to die, Jacob blesses Joseph’s two sons, and as has happened so often before, the younger receives the blessing to be in charge. Joseph objects, forgetting that he himself was the youngest and was placed in charge. But Jacob insists. Yet again God upsets the normal human assumptions of who should have power—nothing can shake the unique Israelite insight into the nature of social justice and God’s character—those without power are to be given it.
John 6.27-40 What’s John about?
As often in John’s gospel, the writer presents Jesus as starting a conversation about the meaning of a significant event. Following his feeding of five thousand people, Jesus asks that they understand that for one’s life to be deeply fed is more than eating physical food—we must be fed by Jesus in the same way that the Israelites were fed with manna—he is the real bread. He means that his life of self-offering love is the only way for humanity to be truly alive and the way we can accomplish that is by taking his life into ours—his purpose is to feed us with himself.
In this part of the conversation Jesus makes two points—that God feeds us now, in the present time—we do not need to assume this only happened in the ancient past, and that “belief” is essential, by which he means “trusting” in the power of his loving death and resurrection. Through trusting in the self-offering love we experience in Jesus all people can live full lives.
This week’s collect:
Gracious Father,
whose blessed Son came from heaven
to be the true bread which gives life to the world,
evermore give us this bread,
that he may live in us, and we in him,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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