Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
August 17, 2022
Invitatory
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: Come let us adore him.
Reading - John 6:1-14
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
Meditation - Winnie Smith
Food seems to have significance in every culture and country. Think of your family’s holiday traditions, or of significant celebrations over the course of your life: how many of them have involved a shared meal? Think of how often you have been asked to introduce yourself to a new group of classmates or colleagues by sharing your name, background, and favorite cereal or ice cream flavor. There is no person on earth who can exist without food; it is a great equalizer among us all. In Jesus’s ministry and the life of a Christian, food is central.
The miracle told in today’s reading from John, the feeding of five thousand, is familiar to us all. Jesus turned a meager offering of bread and fish into more than enough for a huge crowd. It is easy, after hearing this story multiple times, to lose the amazement at that action. What strikes me today is that Jesus’s feeding did not only satisfy the physical hunger of the crowds; there was a spiritual and emotional dimension to his miracle. Food comforts people and draws them together. When Jesus performed this miracle for the crowd, he didn't merely feed their hungry bellies, he nourished their souls by giving them what they most needed and what no one expected. He showed them the infinite bounty God has for us, and he brought fellowship to a crowd of strangers. Rightly, the people were amazed. This miracle was the sign they needed to believe in the divinity of Jesus: “this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
Eventually, Jesus will preside over a meal with friends for the last time. As he did in this miracle story, he will sit down with his friends, give thanks for the food in front of him, and share it with the disciples. This feeding of the five thousand is a foreshadowing of the most important meal to come, and ultimately of the heavenly banquet to which we will all be invited. Just as there was miraculously enough for the crowd by the Sea of Galilee, there will miraculously be a place for us at that banquet. We can always count on God’s abundance, and on it showing up even when that seems impossible.
Sara Miles, journalist, author, Episcopalian, and founder of The Food Pantry in San Francisco, writes extensively about the power of food in her book Take This Bread. Reflecting on its importance in her own life, she writes, “What mattered to me in those years…was that I could launch myself into a morning, an unknown town, a war zone, and be fed - usually by strangers and sometimes by comrades, occasionally by enemies, but always by someone who was as hungry as I was or hungrier. We had hunger in common, and we had food.” Thank God for our hunger, both physical and spiritual, and for a God whose bounty is always enough to satisfy us.
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.
