Tenth Sunday

Today's Saying

Nikka - age 6:
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

It is Sunday in Pigeon Falls and Pastor Joan is just finishing her sermon. Here is a part of it:
I assume you all noticed that the text that ended the Gospel last week is the text we started with today. The people who put the lectionary together must have thought it was important to give it to us two Sundays in a row. Either that or they assume Church people are so slow to get something you have to give it two them two weeks in a row for them to even notice. I’m betting it was important because we all know how carefully you all listen to the Gospel.
It is an important text. Jesus wants us to know He is the bread of life. For us as Lutherans this impacts on our Communion understanding. We believe Jesus is really present in the bread and wine as do our Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican neighbors. We believe that He who told us He was the bread of life comes to us in the bread and wine of the sacrament.
Jesus gives us someplace where the promise meets the physical world and we know He has come to us.
There are many , like those in the text today who just can’t accept this as a reality. They are sure we are deluded. That we don’t even need God in this scientific world let alone one that comes in bread and wine,
I understand what they are saying . I understand their reasoning. They sound so convincing.
Then I come to the Sacrament and Jesus comes to me and I am fed.
My hunger is taken care of.
I rejoice.
Jesus is the true bread which comes down from heaven.
Remember that as you meet Him in Communion today.
Then rejoice.