A Message from Pastor Kaji
Click here for Pastor Kaji’s sermon playlist
Dear Church:
We are still glowing from Homecoming Sunday, where we celebrated our 215th anniversary with worship, potluck, and bingo. While I’m sure there will be reports that I lost miserably, I just want to remind you that the first shall be last.
This Sunday, we turn to a passage that many of us quietly squirm at: Jesus saying “eat my flesh and drink my blood.” Those words once made the Roman world suspicious enough to brand the early church as dangerous.
How do fear and distortion still work on us today? That’s what we’ll explore together in worship.
Study Guide for the Week
John 6:35–40, 54–57
1. What does “bread of life” mean to you? Have you ever experienced a sense of spiritual fullness even in times of material or emotional lack?
2. Why do you think Jesus chose such visceral, physical metaphors for his teaching?
3. How do you see fear turning into hate in our world today? Where do you see people mishearing or misunderstanding one another?
4. Imagine the earliest disciples hearing this teaching. What might it have sounded like to people who knew hunger well?
5. What practices or communities sustain you when life feels scarce?
Looking Ahead
Join us in worship this Sunday as we continue in this Pentecost season, listening for what Jesus means when he calls himself the bread of life.
And, if you’d like to read up to prepare for this week’s Nerd Moment, here’s an article you might appreciate. One more note: in the coming weeks, we will be transitioning to send the newsletter on Fridays. This works best for our rapidly changing church universe.
Can’t wait to see you on Sunday!
Pax Christi,
Pastor Kaji
SCRIPTURE
John 6:35–40, 54–57 (Year C, p. 319)
35 Jesus said to [to his disciples asking about eternal life], “I am the bread of life. The person who comes to me will never be hungry and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 Rather I said to you all that you have seen me and yet you all do not believe. 37 Everything that the Creator gives me will come to me and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away. 38 That is why I have come down from the heavens, for this reason, not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. 39 And this is the will of the one who sent me, that out of all that God has given me I should lose nothing, but rather raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Abba, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.
54 “The one who eats my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life and I will raise that one up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in that person. 57 Just as the living Creator sent me and I live because of the Creator, and so then will that one who eats me live because of me.”