Prevenient Bread

The lectionary reading from John this week contains the phrase:

No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent meJohn 6:44

My original plan for the Children's moment last week involved baking bread in the small kitchen outside of the sanctuary so that the wonderful aroma of baking bread would be a part of worship.

Maybe that's one of the other ways that bread is like church.

Think about the aroma of baking bread. Think how it draws you in, how it makes your mouth water for fresh baked bread.

Grace is like the smell of baking bread. We can sense it from far away, and it creates in us (preveniently) a yearning for the bread of life. In communion, we take and eat, remembering Christ, and hopefully, others around us can receive the aroma from grace from us, from our lives, so that they yearn for God.

None can come to the father unless he draws them in -- preveniently.