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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

November 15, 2023

Invitatory

The earth is the Lord’s, for he made it: Come let us adore him.

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.

Reading - Matthew 15:32-39

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’ Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

If one reads the book of Matthew as literature - or at least reads a few chapters at a time - this brief story might elicit a feeling of déjà vu. A mere chapter ago - in my bible it’s on the page immediately preceding this one, we heard of Jesus feeding the five thousand. And now, a story of his feeding four thousand. Same meal: loaves and fishes. In one story, five loaves and two fish, and in the next, seven loaves and a few fish. Same outcome: exponential growth of the quantity of food made possible simply by Jesus’s looking to heaven and giving thanks. Why the repeat miracles? Is it really necessary to tell nearly the same story twice?

Perhaps it’s as simple as this: feeding miracles never get old. The magnificence of turning little into much cannot be overstated. This most simple kind of miracle is the clearest reminder to us that God’s abundance is unfathomable. In our liturgy we repeatedly hear descriptions of God’s vastness and capacity for love: “to [God] all hearts are open, all desires known, and from [God] no secrets are hid,” “[God’s] is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever,” “Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.” When we try to picture a couple of fish multiplying to feed massive crowds, that power is brought to life.

Reading this miracle story regularly might be a good practice for us all. If we continue to read it and internalize the amazingness of it, then we might be able to move into a state of awe and wonder at God’s work all around us. God appears to us not as thousands of fish or loaves of bread (at least I don’t think that has happened to any of us), but in the beauty of changing seasons, in the joy of community, in the comfort of family and loved ones, even in our very existence. These are miraculous, too. They are the living out of God’s all-powerful, all-loving nature. Let the miracle of the loaves and fishes be reminders to us of God’s abundance in all things, and let us be grateful for it.

A Prayer of Self-Dedication:

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you, and then use us, we pray you, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

- Book of Common Prayer, p. 832