Finding Community in Church: The Missing Piece
October 15, 2024
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."
~ Matthew 14:15-16
Called to Share
On Sunday morning, I shared the story from my childhood of how we would all gather in the church kitchen after worship and eat breakfast together. During this time, we would not only eat together, but we'd also laugh and share the stories of our lives with each other. It felt like an extension of worship each Sunday morning as we gathered around tables together, but it wouldn’t end there.
My grandmother, who had been preparing Sunday dinner early that morning before church or sometimes even the day before, would invite people from church and throughout our community over to her house for dinner. She believed that all people deserved a good meal and wanted to make sure that people were fed beyond the church and beyond Sunday morning.
Not everyone in the world gets to enjoy a nice meal. Food insecurity continues to be an issue in the United States, but on a global scale, extreme hunger and famine plague our world in ways that many of us can't imagine. Each year, the World Food Program, which is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide, publishes a document called Hunger Hotspots. This document is an in-depth report on countries where people are literally dying from hunger. This year, they warned that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots, including a total of 17 countries or territories and one regional cluster which comprises four countries.
The countries of Mali, Palestine, South Sudan and Sudan remain at the highest concern level. Haiti was added to the list of countries/territories of highest concern due to escalating violence. Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen are places of very high concern. The report offers recommendations on how to support these countries and at the heart of these recommendations is the practice of sharing. The countries that have resources must share with those that do not.
Dr. Marilyn Salmon, Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary, has this to say about the story of the feeding of the 5000: “I wonder if the ‘miracle' of the feeding is not so much what Jesus does as what happens among the crowds in the presence of Jesus. Maybe the crowds experienced the transformative power of Christ’s presence when he ordered them to make themselves comfortable on the grass, as if they were honored guests at a meal. And when he blessed the loaves, the crowd sensed this meal was special. Perhaps as the disciples moved through the crowds distributing the food, no one feared there wouldn’t be enough, and so they didn’t think of themselves and their own needs. The men shared with their wives and sisters and mothers, and the children were fed first. Maybe Jesus’ compassion was contagious in the way they cared for each other.”
As individuals, it is often difficult to know what to do when it comes to major issues such as world hunger, but there are two things all of us can do from any place in the world: We can continue to increase our awareness of the issue of world hunger, and we can commit to continual prayer for those who are hungry.
One informative resource that provides extensive information about hunger throughout the world is www.fightfoodcrises.net. Here is a responsive prayer from the World Council of Churches that focuses on those who are hungry that we can pray alone or with others:
God help us to recognize you in the hungry,
thirsty and vulnerable amongst us;
Help us to worship you by serving those in need.
God help us to strive for Justice and Peace;
Help us to resolve conflicts and help people
to live safe and fulfilling lives.
God help us to share each other’s burdens;
Help us to unite to face our common struggles
to overcome hunger and injustice.
God help us to strive for the rights
of small farmers and farmworkers;
Help us to protect and promote the biodiversity
of our world and the richness of indigenous wisdom.
God help us to live responsibly and tread gently on this earth;
Help us to reduce food waste, irresponsible consumption
and increase the use of renewable energy,
to preserve and protect the environment.
Amen.
