Pastor Linda Pokrajac - "Something New About Bread"

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Messages of Grace

(Past Recorded Sermons)

This Sunday

October 30, 2016

Sermon Title:
"Something New About Bread"

Scripture:
1 Corinthians 5:6-8

October 27, 2016

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

I grew up on sliced white Town Talk bread - as toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and always offered with dinner. Bread is a staple of life and it's hard to imagine going too far in the Pittsburgh area without seeing a Panera Bread restaurant. Bread has been around from the earliest of Bible times, it first appears in Genesis 3 in the story of Adam and Eve. So what can we learn that is "new" about bread? The Apostle Paul writes in
1 Corinthians 5:6-8, our scripture text for Sunday:

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

As we look at the historical content of this passage, I learned something "new" about bread - I learned that leaven, also known as yeast, is dough that has been kept over from a previous baking and has fermented. The Jews identified fermentation with something that was rotten, and the context of our passage helps us to understand these words of Paul - something was rotten and sinful in the early Corinthian Christian church. Then as we approach the communion table yet again, we can apply this metaphor of leaven to our own hearts, knowing that we all sin and fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). We come to the table of the Lord's Supper humbly, knowing that we need that "old leaven" cleansed from our hearts to become, yet again, a "new lump." Confusing? Yes, a challenging passage to reflect on, but come to worship and you'll hear an expanded version of the three points above. And you'll hear a "Gus story," a "tale" about our dog Gus, who does everything with "gusto," including showing us God's unconditional love even though we have to correct his behavior over and over again. But I'll save that story for Sunday, and if you are reading this from home and unable to join us, know that I'm always happy to visit and talk about both "God and Gus!" Hope to see you in church!

Love, in Christ,

Linda Pokrajac, Director of Congregational Care

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