Use Your Loaf!

We got to church just after 8.30 this morning because Bob wanted to set up for All-Age Worship. He was preaching on Matthew 13:33 -the woman who hid some yeast in the flour and it worked all through the dough.

Three points about bread-making

• The dough has to be stretched and kneaded for the yeast to work properly
• After proving, the dough has to be ‘knocked back’ to get rid of the large holes left by air bubbles, in order to make a better loaf
• When the bread is cooked, the aroma is fabulous – and you just want to enjoy the bread – and share it around.

So here we have

On the left side of the communion table, a loaded breadmaker, set on ‘timer’ function, making a loaf

Two sets of ingredients, aprons and bowls for making dough

And out of shot, two bowls covered in cling film, with the dough which we made when we arrived, slowly rising!

There was no shortage of volunteers to help – here’s the picture on the big screen of Bruce and Sophie kneading their dough

All went well – and as well as sharing the breadmaker loaf at the end of the service, [a sort of impromptu communion] we also cooked up the other dough, formed into bread rolls to eat at the Fellowship Lunch afterwards.

Oh – you want a spiritual point to all this?

• God stretches us, and exercises us, and works within us, to make us fit for his Kingdom
• Sometimes we are knocked back a bit by the circumstances of life – but God uses those times to improve us
• The joy of knowing God’s love is fabulous – not only do we want to enjoy it, but we want to share it around.

It was a great service, and as usual, people really entered into things. We did not sing any of the following hymns

I knead Thee, O I knead Thee

From the Yeastern mountains

We Shall Rise

Let Us Break Bread Together On Our Knees

After the lunch, many of us stayed on at church, and at 3pm our friends from Groby URC came over to borrow our baptistery for Tom’s baptism. That was a great service too, conducted by Louise, the Groby Vicar. [Groby is pronounced Groo-Bee and is the next-but-one-village to us]

And now – after EIGHT HOURS at church, I am home for the rest of the day. Bob is catching up on his recording of the Grand Prix, and I am planning to go to bed ridiculously early because tomorrow I am going to London on the 5.20am coach.[I must be mad]

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s Bag Post. I forgot to say you can use any paper – but a sale roll of wallpaper is beautiful and strong and thrifty [modesty forbids me to say “rather like myself”]