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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
November 10, 2023
Invitatory
Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
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.
Meditation: Rebecca Northington
I cannot count the number of times in my life when a meal or dinner party has expanded at the last minute to twice the number I had anticipated. Relatives and friends dribble in and all of the sudden you are feeding 25, when you had enough for six! As a child my mother would exclaim, “loaves and fishes tonight”, and I understood that to mean, we would make it work. To me the translation was, “the more the merrier”. And miraculously we always had enough; in fact we usually had, and have, leftovers.
I do believe that Jesus also subscribed to “the more the merrier” motto; but beyond that this story expresses both the value of hospitality and the importance of evangelism. Hospitality as an extension of loving thy neighbor as a direct expression of God’s love. When we welcome the stranger, or feed the hungry, we offer God’s love through our actions. We are streaming God’s love if you will. Time and again Jesus shows us through both the parables and his own life that we can never underestimate the importance of hospitality. It is as true today as it was in the first century.
But evangelism feels different, it can be a scary word for many of us; but at its core it means spreading the Gospel of Jesus: spreading Christ’s message of love and forgiveness, peace and hope. When we invite strangers in through hospitality to share a meal, we are spreading the word and way of Jesus.
As we prepare for the Youth Group presentation for this Sunday’s adult forum I am reminded of the hospitality and evangelism we experienced in Navajoland this past June. By the mission that housed us and the Diné people who welcomed us. One could argue that we journeyed to that far away land to share our version of Christianity; to work for and serve a community in need, to practice evangelism. But as often happens, God played a trick on us, and in fact, we became the recipients of the teaching of Christ. We were shown God’s love by and through our experiences with those we perceived to be on the margins. We left with fuller hearts, and a greater understanding of God’s activity among us. We left with “twelve baskets full” of love.
When we give of ourselves, when we share our love, God’s love, it is inevitably given back to us twelvefold, and likely we are changed forever. And perhaps most importantly, when we turn to God, and surrender completely our own sense of preparation or control, in faith, God’s abundance is immeasurable. God will provide.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
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