Living in the Spirit

August 1, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 14:13-21
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

There exist a significant disconnect between the haves and the have nots in our world today, especially in big cities where populations cluster in groups by economic status. Growing up on a farm and going to a small rural school provided me a different perspective on life. In every classroom, there was a bell curve of the haves, and the have nots and all those in between. Everyone lived off the land to one degree or another. Wild poke grew on the creek that flowed through our farm. I like poke, but not as much as I enjoyed lamb’s quarter, which grew in our yard and the pasture near our house. As the youngest in the family, I was the primary harvester of lamb’s quarter. There is nothing better than wild blueberry or sand plum jelly. I did not know frog legs were a delicacy in some places in the world until I was an adult. When my dad got hungry for frogs legs, he would venture down to our pond and bring enough back for dinner. While urban gardens exist, a couple just a few blocks from my house, living off the land is not a choice for most. Many even live in food deserts where there are no grocery stores for blocks. The available businesses selling food often only provide pre-packaged overprocessed food with little nutritional value.

In the scripture above, Jesus is illustrating both the importance of meeting bodily nutritional needs as well as teaching our spiritual responsibility assuring that everyone has enough of both foods for the body and the soul.

Prayer:  Creator God, you provided for us the earth and all that is within it, filled with the resource potential to assure that everyone has enough of the necessities of life. Help us build a world that ensures all have access to enough. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.