BREAKTHROUGH
(Open-ended, Life-centred Explorations of the Sunday Gospels for Home
Groups)
JN 6: 35 & 41-51...9th /
10th S. after
Pentecost
NOTES:
1] Bread ( = food) loomed large for people on a subsistence
diet. 2] Jesus connects with both Elisha &
Moses. 3] Compare the
grumbling in v.41 with that against Moses in EX 17. 4] In Jesus' day, some Jewish
people believed in a Resurrection, but it was not a defined part
of their beliefs. 5] In v.45,
the quote from IS 54:13 is a loose one, but another example of Jesus
connecting with what's been taught by Prophets in earlier days.
WARMING UP: Are we someone who
grumbles under their breath or do we do it openly?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
35 What does it mean for us that Jesus is
the 'bread of life'? Given v.35 gives continuity with last week's
Gospel, are we growing more conscious of the inter- connectedness of
Scripture, or does that all go over our head? What about connections
between the passages set from week to week? Is Jesus just on about
eucharistic bread here, or is there more to it than that? What?
41-44 Do we
complain much about God to ourself? to others? to
God? Are there any plus-es in doing one or the other? What
about minus-es? Do we understand any better than those Jesus is
talking to what he means when he says he has " come down from
heaven"? Where is heaven anyway? Is it time we got out of
'up there & down here' understandings of God?
What do we understand it will mean to be 'raised up on the last day'?
Is it too simplistic to say it means something like being tranformed
into a continuation of our life in another dimension we can't
understand yet? Can we do better than that?
45-46 Is it
reasonable to understand what Jesus is saying here as meaning no-one
reveals, or can reveal God like he, Jesus, does? Do we need to go still
further than that? How far? Is that the kind of belief we live by,
promote, take our stand, stake our life on?
47-51 Can we
put into words what kind of life it is we experience as a 'believer'?
What difference is there between what we experience and what
'non-believers' experience? Now? Later? Have we gone soft on the
difference between 'believers' & 'non-believers' today, or are the
lines just too blurred? If so, who or what blurs them? Is it
better to be soft than too hard-line? Which does most damage? To whom?
Has the way
we understand Jesus to be the 'bread of life' become too restricted to,
too locked into
the eucharist these days? Could this be a form of escapism
from what it / Jesus really means? Do we need to somehow put more value
back into understanding Jesus as bread not just for us but for others,
too? What might that involve us doing? Are we generous enough in
offering our 'flesh' (= our humanity) as a gift for others? How can we
become more willing, like Jesus to offer ourselves as 'bread' for
people? How are we to turn any of this kind of thinking from theory
into practicality? Do we need to form a committee when faced with this
kind of question?
