Signs and Symbols

This week's gospel lectionary text is John 6:24-35. Using signs and symbols is a great tool 
throughout the Bible and this is a story in which bread becomes "I am the bread of life", a symbol for Jesus Christ. Some symbols are important to the culture of the time but bread is still one we can relate to today. 


The lines and colors in this art make me think of the energy and fuel we receive from actually eating a loaf of bread but is also symbolic of the life we receive through Jesus Christ. We see similar images in our worship spaces including sheaves of wheat which is a reference to bread.

Bread of Life by Kennedy A Paizs

In the studio we too use the bread or wheat symbols whenever we can. For example on these two stoles...

Go here to see this ordination stole.

This Communion stole can be seen on the website here.

The teacher in me is always looking for connections and when I stumbled up this statement by Dietrich Bonhoeffer it seemed like a perfect sentiment to end this post with. He said, "The table fellowship of Christians implies obligation. It is our daily bread that we eat, not my own. We share our bread. Thus we are firmly bound to one another not only in the Spirit but in our whole physical being. The one bread that is given to our fellowship links us together in a firm covenant  Now none dares go hungry as long as another has bread, and anyone who breaks this fellowship of the physical life also breaks the fellowship of the Spirit."