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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

A healthy diet

For a healthy life and a healthy world, be careful what you consume (John 6.51-58; Ephesians 5.15-20).

Context (with URLs)

• The enduring popularity of food programmes in our television schedules appears to continue unabated, with the BBC launching its latest – sixteenth! – series of Celebrity MasterChef on Monday of this past week.
• On the same day, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a major scientific report into climate change (the ‘sixth assessment report’). Billed by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres as a ‘code red for humanity‘, the report states that it is ‘unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land’ and calls for immediate action worldwide.
• If left uncorrected, global warming and other climate-related changes will likely lead to a global food supply crisis, with many staple crops becoming challenging or even impossible to grow at current yields.

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• Food and drink has always featured strongly in language and culture, from the metaphor and analogy we see in Scripture and Jesus’ teaching, right up to the way tv channels today rely on a staple diet of food programmes like MasterChef to bulk out the schedules. It’s no surprise, as without food and drink, we cannot survive; they quite literally fuel everything we do and make us what we are. Just as this is a physical truth, it is a spiritual truth too. In John 6.51-58 we are urged to feed on the flesh and blood of Christ, the ‘living bread’ (John 6.51), so that we can renew our lives with the stuff of heaven (John 6.58). Just imagine the quality of those ingredients, better than anything the TV contestants will have at their disposal. A truly healthy diet leading to a long – and everlasting – life!
• The visceral images of flesh and blood in the Gospel reading can be challenging in a modern context, but may have been less so in the past. The symbol of the ‘pelican in her piety’ – drawn from a legend that in hard times a pelican would peck open her own chest in order to feed her young with her blood – was used in Christian art for many years; there is a pelican lectern in Durham Cathedral and you may even have an example in your own church. It was seen as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice for and nurturing of us.
• Taking up the thread of motherhood from the pelican’s story, in a gentler but still visceral form, could the image of a mother breastfeeding her baby offer us any insight into how Jesus hopes to nurture and nourish us, giving us new life from his own?
• Having renewed our life in Christ, how then should we live? What might this mean for our response to the climate crisis? Ephesians 5.15-26 seems apt here: ‘Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.’ The urgency of that challenge is echoed in further remarks from Guterres about the IPCC report, as he urges governments and people across the world to take action now to change the way we live for the health of the world: ‘If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as today's report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses.’ We need to be careful what we consume.
• The warnings are stark but we need not despair. Having fed on God’s word and drunk our fill of the Spirit, we will be equipped for the challenge, and can hope to live with joy, ‘singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 5.18-20).
• Reading the words in Ephesians 5.19-20, I’m immediately reminded of the amazing Gospel music that features within the Sundance 2021 award-winning documentary film Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which I watched this week as it had recently been added to the Disney Plus streaming service. The film brings to a wider audience an insight into the context and creativity of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, and all the joy, sense of freedom and will for justice that music can inspire, even in the face of hardships like poverty and racism. What sounds, sights, scents, tastes and sensations fill you with that sense of rushing towards the stage to make a joyful response to the voice of the Lord?

Questions for discussion

• What steps can you and your church community commit to now, to help tackle the climate crisis? There are many suggestions online to help you explore further. For example, Tearfund has a ‘Christianity and climate change’ video series designed for small group study. There is also a set of prayer room resources for praying for climate justice. CAFOD also provides climate campaign resources, as do other organisations.
• What do you feed your mind?
• How might we want to ensure we’re getting a balanced and healthy diet in our media and entertainment consumption, as well as in our physical diet?
• Do we need to cut down on junk and add some substance and fibre? Or might we need to expand our palate and try out some new creative flavours so that we can live life to the full?

Rebecca Froley was part of the original ROOTS online launch team and now looks after digital publishing technology for a business news and information website. She lives in the London Borough of Sutton and currently worships at both her local Baptist church and an Anglican church, thanks to the availability of online services.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Jesus says a lot of amazing things and this week’s passage is no exception. John’s Gospel tells us that anyone who eats the bread of Christ will have eternal life…like, forever! Wow! Have you ever stopped to think about eternal life? If you haven’t, take a moment to now…it’s mind-blowing, isn’t it?! How can something or someone live forever? And Jesus says that all we have to do is follow and love him? Jesus is a life-giver to all, but we have to play our part too.

Have you ever stopped to think about the eternal life of earth? If you haven’t, it’s time to check the news this week as UN scientists plea for leaders to change their ways to be able to reverse the damage we have caused on our beautiful planet; with headlines quoting ‘Code red for humanity.’

Perhaps the two go hand in hand. Taking in the bread of life, only relying on Jesus for our needs and stripping back on everything else could parallel how we create an eternal life for our planet:

• Only taking in good food which has been provided for us by God and not wrapped in plastic;
• Reducing our waste and living out a more conscious way of life;
• Receiving goodness from Jesus but offering him our love in return;
• Receiving all that we need from our planet but offering care and protection in return.

This week try reflecting on eternal life – both for us and for our planet. Think of Jesus’ simple offer and let it inspire you to love him, but also to protect the world he created and sustain the life of our planet.  

Natasia Bullock is the children’s worker for the South Liverpool Methodist Circuit and director of Christian theatre company, The B Tales.

 

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