There is nothing like a slice of freshly baked bread, toasted and then covered with cheese and melted in the microwave to remind me of the farm in Paradise. Every culture and every family probably has their own version of comfort food whether its mashed potatoes and country fried chicken or creamy chowder and biscuits.
Sunday morning worship has an element of comfort food: good music, faithful friends, beautiful sanctuary. But faith goes beyond simple comfort and provides real meaning a purpose to life.
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The soul food that we have in Jesus is available to us in prayer and study, mission and service.
We’ll be thinking this week about the ways we are spiritually fed.
Join us for worship on Sunday morning.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
CANNIBALS?
John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Bruce D Prewer writes:
In all developed civilisations, the eating of human flesh has been regarded as repugnant. You may recall that true account of a plane crash in the high snows of the Andes, where the survivors only kept alive by finally agreeing to eat their dead companions. They achieved it by overcoming violent feelings of revulsion. Some of their first attempts ended with much vomiting. The very thought is repugnant to us.
There was an unfortunate rumour circulating around the Roman Empire in the 1stC of this era. It was a rumour which led people to despise Christians, and made it much easier for authorities to launch vicious persecutions against them. This rumour had it that Christians were cannibals. It was reported that when they met early in the morning of the first day of the week for their religious observances, they ate human bodies and drank human blood.
It is not difficult to see how this rumour started and took off. Anyone who listened in on a Christian service, even standing outside the door, might well draw that conclusion. They might hear a person reading the words from a letter of Paul about the Lord’s Supper: “This is my body......eat this remembrance of me. This is my blood....do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Or later on they may have listened to them reading from John’s Gospel: “I tell you plainly: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ” You can understand how such words may have shocked outsiders.
Also there is no surprise that Jesus shocked his listeners when he first used similar words. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” It sounded like cannibalism to those critics who were present that day.
Bruce D Prewer writes:
In all developed civilisations, the eating of human flesh has been regarded as repugnant. You may recall that true account of a plane crash in the high snows of the Andes, where the survivors only kept alive by finally agreeing to eat their dead companions. They achieved it by overcoming violent feelings of revulsion. Some of their first attempts ended with much vomiting. The very thought is repugnant to us.
There was an unfortunate rumour circulating around the Roman Empire in the 1stC of this era. It was a rumour which led people to despise Christians, and made it much easier for authorities to launch vicious persecutions against them. This rumour had it that Christians were cannibals. It was reported that when they met early in the morning of the first day of the week for their religious observances, they ate human bodies and drank human blood.
It is not difficult to see how this rumour started and took off. Anyone who listened in on a Christian service, even standing outside the door, might well draw that conclusion. They might hear a person reading the words from a letter of Paul about the Lord’s Supper: “This is my body......eat this remembrance of me. This is my blood....do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” Or later on they may have listened to them reading from John’s Gospel: “I tell you plainly: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ” You can understand how such words may have shocked outsiders.
Also there is no surprise that Jesus shocked his listeners when he first used similar words. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” It sounded like cannibalism to those critics who were present that day.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)