Monday, July 31, 2006

A Feast of Hope!

In our worship on 30th July, we enjoyed a feast of fish and bread - tuna sandwiches! - to celebrate the story of the Feeding of the 5000 (found in Mark, chapter 6, verses 30-44). In the same way as Elisha had had compassion for famine stricken people (2 Kings 4: 42-44), sharing a simple offering with them, so Jesus saw the needs of a hungry crowd, who suffered like neglected 'sheep' under care-less 'shepherds', so calling us to have compassion as well. We saw, too, that he used his head, as well as his heart, asking what gifts the disciples had between them. Although they did not think much of their handful of loaves and fish, Jesus saw them as invaluable - so how can our few gifts be used to great purpose? For he then organised the disciples to organise the crowd - and all were fed and filled. So, too, we are called to use what we have, to help to create a fairer world where everyone has enough. So we shared peace with one another, encouraging the gifts we have within us, and enjoyed a simple feast, with the young people taking the lead to hand out the sandwiches. And there were left-overs, temporarily! The challenge, though, is to ensure it was not only "food for thought", but a vision to pursue ...