It was good to have our own minister lead our worship last Sunday morning. The Rev’d Mark Lawrence was warmly welcomed by Rosalind, our duty steward. The theme of the service was “Give us today our Daily Bread” as Jesus said “I am the bread of life” which Mark used as his call to worship. To Rod Smith on the organ, we sang our opening hymn “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus, his the sceptre, his the throne” following which Mark led us in a prayer of praise adoration and confession.
There were two bible readings interspersed with a wide ranging prayer for others. The first was read by Ron Lucas, from Exodus , chapter 16. This told of the dissatisfaction of the Israelite community with their lack of food and drink on their long journey out of Egypt led by Moses and Aaron, some 1,400 years before Christ but God provided manna from heaven and quails to eat. The second was read by Richard Lucas and was taken from John, chapter six. This told about Jesus speaking to the crowd on the other side of Lake Galilee when he taught them that he was the bread of life. In this he recalled the deliverance from Egyptian rule and the great trek through the desert of his ancestors to the promised land led by Moses explaining that it was his father who gives them the real bread from heaven.
Mark spoke about the relationship of the Old Testament story with that from John’s gospel and Jesus telling the crowd by the lakeside that he was the bread of life. On the one hand the Israelites were a whingeing lot complaining that they were being led through a barren desert without food and drink and loosing their creature comforts enjoyed in Egypt even though they were captives. On the other hand they were now grateful for their freedom and related to Jesus as he spoke to them about his being the bread of life. The Lord provided the Israelites their daily bread during their exodus from Egypt but it was God who was sustaining them spiritually. Jesus followed this up 1,400 years later when he said, “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never grow hungry and will never grow thirsty”. Through Christ we have the assurance of great comfort as only he can save and through him we have the means of grace for he gives us on this day our daily bread.
We celebrated the sacrament of Holy Communion concluding our worship as we sang “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land” with great meaning.