Today is the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. The Gospel reading is the fourth 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, and to Jesus giving his flesh for the life of the world. Now in verses 52-58 John leaves us in no doubt that this progression of thought is driven by the Church’s experience of the eucharist. Now the two elements of the bread and the wine are linked as Jesus proclaims, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’
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 communion cup. In today’s picture, from their book, Bread, Aled and Sian are with their friends Peter and Mary. Peter and Mary’s mother (who is priest in the local Anglican church) has baked a special loaf of bread for the Sunday communion service. Here Aled and Sian are placing that loaf of bread alongside the eucharistic paten and chalice.
Lord Jesus Christ,
you teach your people
to share your bread
and to drink your cup.
Come and stand among us
when the bread is broken
and when the wine is poured,
that we may know your presence;
for you are the Bread of Life.
Amen.
Next Sunday concludes the series of five readings from chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. The image to help us to prepare for next Sunday’s theme is festival flowers. You can find out more about that theme by looking at the Educational Resources and the Preparation Resources.
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Exploring the Sunday Gospel – Eleventh Sunday after Trinity