Exploring the Sunday Gospel – Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Today is the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Gospel reading is the last of a series of five readings drawn from chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. In this chapter, John has developed a clear progression of thought from feeding the five thousand, to Jesus as the bread of life, to Jesus giving his flesh for the life of the world, and to the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Now John draws that progression of thought to its conclusion. ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood’, says Jesus, ‘abide in me, and I in them… Whoever eats me will live because of me… The one who eats this bread will live forever.’ This is the guarantee of new life in Christ, fed on the eucharist.

For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited reflection on the image of festival flowers. In today’s picture, from their book, Easter Family Service, Aled and Sian are helping to arrange a festival of seasonal flowers in their church.

Thank you Lord Jesus,

for sharing bread with the five thousand

when they were hungry.

Thank you Lord Jesus,

for sharing bread with your disciples

before you suffered death.

Thank you Lord Jesus,

for sharing bread with your people

in the communion service.

Thank you Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Next Sunday the Gospel reading returns to our journey through Mark’s Gospel, picking up the narrative in chapter 7. Here Jesus is coming into conflict with some Pharisees over the matter of ritual purity. The image to help us prepare for next Sunday’s theme is washing. You can find out more about that theme by looking at the Educational Resources and the Preparation Resources.

Preparation Resources

Eductation Resources