Today's Service: 8 August
Leader: Maranny Jones
This is best viewed in Landscape orientation
You will appreciate the sound better if you use earphones or an external loudspeaker, whatever type of device you view on.
Call to Worship: Psalm 34: 1-4
I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
Hymn 378: Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Tune: Morning Hymn, with Intro.
1. Awake, my soul, and with the sun
thy daily stage of duty run;
shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
to pay thy morning sacrifice.
2. By influence of the light divine
let thine own light to others shine;
reflect all heaven's propitious rays
in ardent love and cheerful praise.
3. Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,
and with the angels bear thy part,
who all night long unwearied sing
high praise to the eternal King.
4. Lord, I my vows to thee renew;
disperse my sins as morning dew,
grant my first springs of thought and will,
and with thyself my spirit fill.
5. Direct, control, suggest this day
all I design, or do, or say;
that all my powers, with all their might,
in thy sole glory may unite.
6. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
praise him, all creatures here below,
praise him above, ye heavenly host,
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Thomas Ken (1637-1711)
Prayers
Limitless God,
we thank you that we cannot contain you,
that you are unfathomable and always up to something!
We worship and adore you.
Just when we think we have worked it all out, you surprise us!
Gracious God, we are truly blessed by you.
Thank you, that as we bow down humbly at your throne,
we know that only you can satisfy our needs.
We thank and praise you, Lord God,
that despite our assumptions and judgements
and the way we sometimes treat others,
you never stop loving us.
Bread of life, you are always with us.
We praise you that as we draw near to you,
you quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger,
so that we never need hunger or thirst again.
Thank you that you equip us and resource us
with everything we need for this journey of life.
We thank and praise you, Lord God.
Forgiving God, when we make wrong assumptions about others and judge the way they live:
when we don’t allow others to speak out and be the people you have called them to be:
when we cast judgements on particular communities or neighbourhood that are different from ours: forgive us, Lord, for limiting people and possibilities.
Let us journey together towards wholeness and healing, knowing that only God can sustain us and set us free.
Amen.
Prayer of Assurance of forgiveness
Giver and sustainer of life,
through the power of the cross
we are a forgiven people,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
chosen by you
who has called us out of darkness into your marvellous light.
Amen. We pray as Jesus taught us….Our Father
Lord's Prayer
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
In earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
1 Kings 19: 4 - 8
4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, 
and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
John 6: 35, 41 - 51
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” 43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[a] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Hymn 90: O Lord, all the world belongs to you
Tune of the same name, with full verse Intro.
1. O Lord, all the world belongs to you
and you are always making all things new.
What is wrong, you forgive,
and the new life you give
is what's turning the world upside down.
2. The world's only loving to its friends,
but your way of loving never ends,
loving enemies too;
and this loving with you
is what's turning the world upside down.
3. The world lives divided and apart,
you draw men together, and we start
in our friendship to see
that in harmony we
can be turning the world upside down.
4. The world wants the wealth to live in state,
but you show a new way to be great:
like a servant you came,
and if we do the same,
we'll be turning the world upside down.
5. O lord, all the world belongs to you
and you are always making all things new.
What is wrong, you forgive,
and the new life you give
is what's turning the world upside down.
Patrick Appleford (1925 - 2018) altd.
Reflection: Life without Limits
I am the bread of life,” Jesus said, not once but twice. “I am the bread of life.” When was the last time you ate the bread of life? I’m not asking about our Holy Communion because I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. I’m not denying that communion can be and is bread of life but maybe it’s just one slice in a larger loaf of bread. Maybe the bread of life is the Communion and more than the communion Maybe you and I are to become the bread of life, just like Jesus.
Think about all the people, relationships, and experiences that have fed, nourished, and sustained your life. Think about a time when someone else fed and nourished your life and I mean more than that they fixed your supper. I’m talking about the kind of people that spend their time and their presence with us. They love us. They teach us. The care for us. They encourage us. And our lives are fed and nourished by them. Sometimes it’s not even what they say or do, just being in his or her presence is itself bread. Aren’t there some people that when you spend time with them you just feel well fed and full? If we cast our minds back over the last eighteen months, I am sure someone will come to mind.
Recall someone 
who offered you wisdom or guidance, who listened to your life, or spoke a word of hope or encouragement that nourished and sustained your life. They were bread for you.
Or maybe there was someone who helped you discover meaning or purpose in your life. Perhaps it was someone who said, “I forgive you” and you were strengthened to move forward. Maybe someone believed in you when you weren’t so sure about yourself. Our lives are nourished and fed by others in thousands of ways.
How have you been fed by the life of another? What if that’s what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of himself as the bread of life? Throughout the gospels we see him feeding and nourishing life in so many ways and circumstances: through his love, presence, guidance, and teaching; through his healing, forgiveness, and mercy; through his generosity, compassion, and wisdom. This is the bread that feeds the soul.
Those qualities are not unique to Jesus. They can be ours as well. It is one way God shares God’s life with us. We both eat that bread of life and we become it. We partake of the bread of someone else’s life and our life is nourished, our life is sustained, our life is strengthened. Who would that person be for you? What’s her or his name? What did he or she do or say that fed your life?
And the corollary question today is this. When have you been bread in someone else’s life? When have you fed and nourished them? When have you sustained them? When have you strengthened them?
We so often hear Jesus say, “I am the bread of life,” and we assume he is the only loaf in the basket. But what if that is not what he is saying? What if he is not claiming to be the exclusive loaf of bread in this world? What if he is teaching us what bread of life looks like so we can find it in this world, so we can become that bread, so we can be that bread for another?
Have you ever been given a starter batch of sourdough? It holds the potential to become bread, to feed and nourish. What if Jesus is the starter batch in us? What if rather than making an exclusive claim about himself Jesus is giving us the recipe to become as he is, to become the bread of life for the world? Maybe that’s just how God works in the world. Something in us gets leavened, rises, and becomes bread.
Could you believe that about yourself? About another? About God? Often we don’t. That is the problem that the religious leaders and authorities have in today’s gospel. They begin complaining because Jesus said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
The issue is not that they don’t believe that God provides or that God feeds. The issue is that they know Jesus and his parents. They know where he is from. He is the child from Nazareth; he could not be bread from heaven. That’s often the problem for people of faith like them. They know just enough that they can’t know anything more or consider that there could be more to know. They’ve made Nazareth and heaven mutually exclusive. He couldn’t be from heaven because he is from Nazareth.
We don’t have that problem. We know Jesus is from heaven. We have a different problem, however. We know Jesus is the Son of God come down from heaven. Maybe it’s not one or the other, but it’s both. Maybe Nazareth and heaven are not mutually exclusive. What if both are necessary ingredients in the bread of life? What if it takes both to be and become the bread of life?
I think that is the direction and focus of Jesus these last few Sundays. We have been in the sixth chapter of John’s account of the Gospel for the last three weeks. It’s been three weeks of feeding, three weeks of bread, and we’ve got two more to go. Something is going on here.
Jesus begins it with five loaves of bread and two fish. But maybe that’s only to get our attention and to tell us that it is really not about the bread or fish. It is about a way of living; it is about a way of relating. He said you have got to know the difference between food that perishes and food that endures for eternal life, between bread that is perishable and bread that is imperishable. And then he takes off on this bread of life stuff: the bread that lasts, the bread that endures, the bread that never runs out, the bread that never gets stale or mouldy.
The reality is that there is a lot of bread in this world. For Jesus, however, the only bread that matters is the bread that endures, the bread of life. But if you look through scriptures you will find references to all sorts of bread: the bread of adversity, the bread of tears, the bread of affliction, the bread of mourning, the bread of wickedness, the bread of idleness, the bread of the stingy, and it goes on and on. And when you get right down to it, there are really only two kinds of bread; the bread of life that feeds and nourishes and sustains, and all the other bread that leaves us hungry and malnourished.
What kind of bread are you eating today? Does it fill and nourish you? Or does it leave you hungry and malnourished? Is it sustaining and enduring or has it become hard and dry? The bread we choose to eat says something about our appetite and what we hunger for. What’s your hunger? What’s your appetite? Do you need a change in diet, to choose a different bread?
Let’s not forget the old saying, “You are what you eat.” If we want life then we need to be eating the bread of life. If we want to bring life to another then we need to be the bread of life.
What kind of bread will you eat this week? What kind of bread will you be for another this week?
Hymn: Come and Find the Quiet Centre
tune:Lewis Folk Melody, with Intro
1. Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.
2. Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, touches base,
making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we're shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.
3. In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other's pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain:
there's a place for deepest dreaming,
there's a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit's lively scheming
there is always room to spare!
Shirley Erena Murray (b. 1931)
Prayers for ourselves and for the world
Heavenly Father we thank you for the gift of life and above all for your love in dying for us who so often act as your enemies.
Break down any barriers which prevent us from being at peace with you and fill your church with your love, you are our hope and joy.
We thank you Lord for the blessing of family and the love and protection that is shared in our homes. We pray for our families and we raise before you families where someone is ill, having tests or recovering from illness. We ask for your love comfort and support for those who are ill and those who look after them and worry, ease their anxieties. We pray for all who feel unwanted and rejected, open our eyes and our minds to those around us, who are in real need, don’t let us walk by on the other side
Lord, we pray for our government in these testing times. Lord where there is a lack of trust there is a lack of confidence. We are wary as we look to our own government and we ask that you might build up politicians we can trust, politicians where there are no double standards and where there is no hypocrisy. Lord the task seems enormous but no task is ever too great for you. We ask that you strengthen us that we work for justice, in our street, in our towns and in our country. To change the world we need to begin at home.
Lord we pray for the dying and those who have recently died, commending them to the joy and safe keeping of your love. We pray that those now gone from us have entered into the fullness of eternal life and that they share with your saints in glory.
In Jesus name
Amen
Hymn 574: Go forth and tell!
Tune: Woodlands, without Intro.
1. Go forth and tell! O church of God, awake!
God's saving news to all the nations take;
proclaim Christ Jesus, saviour, Lord, and king,
that all the world his worthy praise may sing.
2. Go forth and tell! God's love embraces all;
he will in grace respond to all who call:
how shall they call if they have never heard
the gracious invitation of his word?
3. Go forth and tell! The doors are open wide:
share God's good gifts-let no one be denied;
live out your life as Christ your Lord shall choose,
your ransomed powers for his sole glory use.
4. Go forth and tell! O church of God, arise!
go in the strength which Christ your Lord supplies;
go till all nations his great name adore
and serve him, Lord and king for evermore
James E Seddon (1915-1983)
Sending out and Blessing
Thank you, Lord, for believing in us, for seeing beyond our outside and knowing who we really are inside.
Thank you for giving us all we need to do your work.
Thank you, Lord, for calling us to be adverts for you, so that others can see that you also believe in them. Amen.
Next week, the service will be led by Derek Jackson
Don't forget the live streamed hymns on Sundays at 10:45 a.m. from Zöe (via the 'Northgate URC Darlington' Facebook page)
These are available to view later as well. (via YouTube, for those without Facebook, and also Facebook)
The streamings are a great success - well done, Zöe!
The recorded streamings are now, thanks to Harry Marshall, available to all on YouTube - search for 'Northgate URC Darlington'.
Ask Harry to invite you to the Northgate Facebook Group 
and you will get a notification of the live stream.
- Or you can just search for 'Northgate URC Darlington' in Facebook.
The URC denominational church audio Services (podcasts) at https://devotions.urc.org.uk/ are excellent, with well-delivered prayers and readings using a selection of voices and well-presented hymns.
Do give these a try - they are excellent.
(Just start the sound playing and scroll down to the written words)
Why not put the time aside for Zoe at 10:45, our preacher's service after that and follow up with the podcast - you will feel as if you had been IN church, as well as WITH church.