Words of Welcome

  John 6:56-69 Last Sunday I shared a word from John Calvin, who wrote about the connection between Jesus’ declaration that he was the Bread of Life and the Lord’s Supper. He wrote:  [T]he Lord intended, by calling himself the “bread of life” (John 6:51), to teach not only that salvation for us rests on faith in his death and resurrection, but also that, by true partaking of him, his life passes into us and is made ours—just as bread when taken as food imparts vigor to the body.   [John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV:17.5].    I invite you to keep these words in mind as we dive into the reading for today from John 6, which continues the discussion from last Sunday. To set the stage, I invite you to envision Jesus teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. He’s telling them that he is the bread from heaven. He also tells the congregation that those who partake of his flesh as true food and his blood as true drink will abide in him, and he w...

Matthew 16:13-20 Maybe a pollster has called you wanting your opinion on a product, issue or politician. Politicians don’t want their approval numbers to dip under 50%. There’s a problem when your numbers dip below that mark.  Jesus once took a different kind of poll. What he wanted to know was what people were saying about him. Who did they think he was? The disciples reported that based on what they were hearing, most people thought he was a prophet, like John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah. It’s interesting that Matthew chose these three prophets, because they all had run-ins with the authorities. John was executed, Elijah was chased out of the country, and Jeremiah was sent into exile. That put Jesus in dangerous company!