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| Image by Sacred Heart Cathedral Knoxville |
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A GREETING
To you, O God, I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 25:1)
A READING
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.
(Matthew 14:15-21)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
And Mary said,‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.
(Luke 1:46-7)
A REFLECTION
The problem with the miracles is that we tend to get mesmerized by them, focusing on God's responsibility and forgetting our own. Miracles let us off the hook. They appeal to the part of us that is all too happy to let God feed the crowd, save the world, do it all... Jesus says, “You give them something to eat.” Not me but you; not my bread but yours; not sometime or somewhere else but right here and now... Bring what you have to me; that is where to begin. Remember that there is no such thing as “your” bread or “my” bread; there is only “our” bread, as in “give us this day our daily bread.” However much you have, just bring it to me and believe that it is enough to begin with, enough to get the ball rolling, enough to start a trend. Be the first in the crowd to turn your pockets inside out; be the first on your block to start a miracle.
- from The Seeds of Heaven: Sermons on the Gospel of Matthew, by Barbara Brown Taylor
VERSE OF THE DAY
For God satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry are filled with good things.
(Psalm 107:9)
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| "Still Life with Bread and Fish" by VadimVaskovsky |
With today’s story of the loaves and the fishes, we hear an echo of the ‘magnifying’ or ‘making great’ that was a part of Mary’s hymn of acceptance (see Day 1). ‘Magnify' in "My soul will magnify the Lord" in that story had the nuance of being made great in the body as she carries Jesus. Now Jesus is in the world, and is showing the disciples how they will ‘make great’ who he is for others. He is demonstrating how much living into the promise of a new way of being will manifest in a changed world. By bringing what faith we have to Jesus, we will eventually feel that faith expand. Our increased faith will become known to others through the activity of our faithful selves, through the ways in which we work with friends, families and communities to meet everyday needs. However, as Barbara Brown Taylor writes, it can become easy to let go and assume that God will provide, without our participation. We can find many ways to justify to ourselves that sharing from within our own small means will not really be very helpful. Jesus is demonstrating how much each one of us matters in transforming the world around us. When we share in our love for God, we uphold each other, we shore each other up and give each other new life; our love for God is multiplied and expanded many times over, one meal at a time, one act of caring at a time. In today’s song, we hear the Spelman College Glee Club sing a spiritual that asks the question, “Children, how should I send thee?” As the verses unfold, the numbers expand, flowing out from the image of Jesus in a manger, through the biblical story and into the world of our own faith communities. “You want the story to grow?,” sings YaNi, the rapper in the choir, “then it’s time to go. You want the story to grow? Love and light, it’s time to go!” The hospitality of Jesus is to know and believe that all can be fed. We are the bread that multiplies and magnifies God. Where is God sending you? How will you multiply God's love in your own work in the world today?
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| Image by Berthold Werner |
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LC† Love, the Guest is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year. Thank you and peace be with you!