I Am the Bread of Life

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: John 6:24-35 CLASSIC POEM: The Feast Henry Vaughan O come away, Make no delay, Come while my heart is clean & steddy! While Faith and Grace Adorn the place, Making dust and ashes ready. No bliss here lent Is permanent, Such triumphs poor flesh cannot merit; Short sips and sights Endear delights, Who seeks for more, he would inherit. Come then true bread, Quickning the dead, Whose eater shall not, cannot dye, Come, antedate On me that state Which brings poor dust the victory. I victory Which from thine eye Breaks as the day doth from the east, When the spilt dew, Like tears doth shew The sad world wept to be releast. Spring up, O wine, And springing shine With some glad message from his heart, Who did, when slain, These means ordain For me to have in him a part. Such a sure part In his blest heart, The well, where living waters spring, That with it fed Poor dust though dead Shall rise again, and live and sing. O drink and bread Which strikes death dead, The food of mans immortal being! Under veyls here Thou art my chear, Present and sure without my seeing. How dost thou flye And search and pry Through all my parts, and like a quick And knowing lamp Hunt out each damp, Whose shadow makes me sad or sick? O what high joys The Turtles voice And songs I hear! O quickning showers Of my Lords blood You make rocks bud And crown dry hils with wells & flowers! For this true ease This healing peace, For this taste of living glory, My soul and all, Kneel down and fall And sing his sad victorious story. O thorny crown More soft then down! O painful Cross, my bed of rest! O spear, the key Opening the way! O thy worst state, my onely best! Oh! all thy griefs Are my reliefs, And all my sins, thy sorrows were! And what can I, To this reply; What (O God!) but a silent tear? Some toil and sow, That wealth may flow, And dress this earth for next years meat: But let me heed, Why thou didst bleed, And what in the next world to eat. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: I Am the Bread of Life Malcolm Guite SNIPPET: Where to get bread? An ever-pressing question That trembles on the lips of anxious mothers, Bread for their families, bread for all these others; A whole world on the margin of exhaustion. … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]