We are wayfarers, following your paths
Pilgrims on the way to the end of the age
We are travellers on the road to freedom
A community of love
With good news for all we meet
Jesus says
Behold I am with you
Song “Ubi Caritas” https://youtu.be/z9zvDBPkgOk?feature=shared
God of love and forgiveness
Save us by your tenderness
From each deed that is destructive
From careless thinking
From words that hurt
Save us by your love and forgiveness. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen
We say the Lords Prayer in our own language
Reading Mark6v30-56
Reflection
Most of the significant meals I’ve had have been in unusual circumstances. When I was in Leipzig in 1990 I was invited to the flat of a Russian woman teaching in the city. As I crossed the city early in the morning, I was confronted by gangs in black shirts, mimicking fascists and made my way hurriedly to an enormous area of large tower blocks row on row. I was received by my host who lived in a tiny two room flat and asked if I wanted a shower. I was somewhat taken aback at this, but it was dry and dusty. I was given fresh fruits, sliced, a luxury then and enjoyed a level of hospitality second to none. Meals are made special by how they are made and who we share them with. Its no accident that many of the stories in the gospels are set in the context of meals and middle Eastern hospitality.
The feeding of the 5,000 is told against the backdrop of growing dissent. You were either for Jesus or not. Many people were coming and going so that they didn’t have time to eat so Jesus calls them away to go to a deserted, lonely place by boat across the lake to eat, identified as as the north-east side of lake Galilee. But the people saw them going and ran on foot getting ahead of them. When Jesus got out of the boat he saw them and (instead of being annoyed as I would have been) he felt sorry for them and even though he was hungry he began to teach again. By this time it was late in the day, so the disciples told him to send them away so they could buy something to eat. But he said back to them “Give them some food yourselves" and they responded that it would cost eight months wages! So he asked them “How much bread do you have?” And they found five barley loaves, probably flat bread and two fish, probably cooked or pickled fish.
So he told them to tell the people to sit down in groups and they sat in groups of hundreds and fifties (how many picnics have you been at like that!). Having looked up to heaven, he blessed the bread, and gave thanks and gave it to them in successive distributions. He also divided the two fish and distributed it. They ate until they were full and couldn’t eat anymore. The left overs were collected in 12 strong wicker baskets as well as pieces of fish. The men present were more than 5,000 plus women and children.
In the desert the people find spiritual and real food. In hard times, desert times, it’s the same. I know of a family this week who have lost their mother. That is a desert place. Hopefully they will find the right people to lean on during their hard journey.
Every 3 seconds someone dies of poverty in our world. To address this and usher in a new way of being, where everyone has something to eat, we will have to share and have less. That would be good for us too. A different sort of miracle.
Our Prayers for our world, our countries, our communities, our families and friends and ourselves
Song “Take this bread” https://youtu.be/Qs9dIV43WS0?feature=shared
We are called to be the church
To celebrate God's presence
To love and serve others
To seek justice and resist the destructive
To live the life of Christ
By the presence of God's Spirit within us. Amen
