The menus and seating arrangements are quite diverse
this week. While two of the stories are familiar, as usual, none of these
readings are in the Revised Common Lectionary [RCL]. In the first reading from
Exodus, is the very familiar and first “bread of heaven” called manna.” **
There is SO much interesting information about manna in just one Jewish
source, Chabad.org, that I’ve put the link below. For one thing, as Dr. Gafney
has translated mah na, which became the name of the food, it
actually means “what is this?” Rabbi Shurpin from the Chabad website also uses mon
which is the Egyptian word for “what.” It makes sense that from their exile in
Egypt, of course they’d know and use the Egyptian language. While most of us,
even those who have never actually read the account or heard it read, as again, this is not
in our RCL, we know the story possibly from Sunday School or children’s Bible
story books, or, of course, the movies.
In the link below, Rabbi Shurpin, among other
information, gives details about what it looked like ~ the size of a coriander
seed and was the color of a white crystal substance, and more about its layers.
Another piece from the Rabbi’s article is that they received 2 servings on
Friday so as to observe Shabbat/Sabbath for which there is no food preparation
permitted. I’ve certainly never dwelled on this story long enough to think
about their practice of Shabbat on this incredibly long journey, let alone that
the quails that arrived with the bread-like manna would, of course, have
needed to be plucked and cooked in order to be eaten. The most important piece
of the story is that the Israelites grumbled, God heard, and sent food. After all,
it was God who orchestrated this exodus, deliverance, from generations
of oppression.
While more indirect, the Psalmist also makes
reference to the God who with wondrous deeds you answer with deliverance…and
hope, that feeds us in a different way.
Moving to Acts, Paul is on board a prison
ship taking him and others to Rome for trial. This story starts ‘way back in
Acts 21 and very little of it has made its way to our hearing other than Paul
was imprisoned and sent to Rome. He could not be tried in Jerusalem, a Roman territory, because he
was a Roman citizen. The timeline for this piece is from about the years 62-65 CE/AD.***
The timeline is interesting given this referential meal where Paul says in
the sharing of the food it was helpful to their salvation and then gave
thanks…broke it and everyone had enough. Of course he would have known of
the Exodus and that may have been his reference point. Also, he would have heard the stories of Jesus’ feedings and
other miracles including The Last Supper although the Gospels were not
yet written.
And then in Luke’s Gospel [also the by author
of the book of “The Acts of the Apostles”], we have what is commonly known as The
Feeding of the Five Thousand. Luke says, “For there were about five
thousand men. Yet in Matthew’s Gospel [Matthew 14:13-21], it says, And those who ate were about five thousand
men, besides women and children.
With the variety of the settings and
seatings from wilderness, to a prison ship, and to a grassy area, it opened my
inner box of memories to all the places and ways I’ve eaten and ways that tables
are set. One grandmother’s house had a tiny but very formal dining room with
crystal glassware, silver flatware, and the “good china” for the adult table
on holidays. The kids’ table in the living room was two card tables and plain
dishes. My other grandmother also had a formal dining room, rarely used. We ate
at the kitchen table, a wooden table with pull-up leaves painted an enamel green
with at least a dozen layers of paint. At home we had a dining room table with
chairs and china closet and the occasional formal setting for holidays. We also
had tray tables for more casual meals or snacks. Having gone camping later on, of course we started cooking
with fires, and even moved up to a small portable gas stove. Sometimes there
was a table at the campsite but usually we had folding chairs and paper or
plastic reusable plates. Like most of us, I’ve eaten in many more ways and
places, even at “drive-ins” with the “car-hops” who had trays that attached to
the driver’s car door. Yet how rare it is,
if ever, than in preparing or receiving or buying a meal have I given thought to
these deliverance stories.
I am VERY aware, however, of the many beyond measure
in this country and around this planet, of those who have very little access
to regular feedings. I have given time and donated money and food to churches,
Food Banks, etc. I’ve taken people into restaurants occasionally where they are outside asking for
money to eat and bought them a meal. And I have given thanks ~ not quite as well as I have done since Dr. Gafney put these readings together. Another
piece that struck me, not at all for the first time, is about the pleas whether
in grumbles or fear and downright anger for deliverance, and realizing how
often the manifestation of quails and manna and fish and bread, and the
spiritual and physical sense of salvation, and hope, do not
arrive for far far too many.
As we set our tables in this season of Lent
and continuing on into the celebration of Easter with cute bunnies, great candy, a traditional dinner or a pizza or fast food,
let us give our true thanks beyond the familiar words of a long-used "grace." What has been delivered to us by our own hands and our own means can awaken us to the lives of others who have much more or much less. Let us live our
thanks through our time, our talent, and what treasure we have to offer, to
bring a moment’s deliverance from the hunger, the shame, the anger, the cold, the
hot, the wet, especially in these precarious times. And then let us move to
set, serve, clean up, work the tables, fill the bags, in one or more of the many
organizations established to help in small and larger ways. May we serve as we
are served in so very many small and larger ways. And always: Let us bless the
Lord. Thanks be to God.
LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY
Leader: ~ Most HOLY ONE OF OLD, guide our
hearts and minds to trust in Your Divine sustenance to carry us through times
of fear, worry, and sorrow. Open us to seek moments of peace, and beauty in
Your creation, to remind us that even in the midst of turmoil, You are with us
in every moment of life and living.
O
GOD WHO HEARS
Grow our faith to feed our
souls
~ MOST HOLY ONE OF OLD, root us
so deeply in Your presence that we may not add to or be consumed by the
violence and hatred of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, and all that damages
any of Your children. We pray for all who govern in this World, in this Nation,
and in this Community to lead us out of inhumanity and injustice, especially
for: add your own petitions
O GOD WHO HEARS
Grow our faith to feed our souls
~ MOST HOLY ONE OF OLD, nurture the hope of all who suffer with
chronic pain, debilitating anxiety, or a frightening diagnosis, and revive the
spirits of their caregivers. We now join our hearts to pray for those in
need… add your own petitions
O GOD WHO HEARS
Grow our faith to feed our souls
~ MOST HOLY ONE OF OLD, gather the grieving under the shadow of Your
wings, as our faithful departed now live again in contentment of spirit, joy in
their souls, and life everlasting in You. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
O GOD WHO HEARS
Grow our faith to feed our souls
~ MOST HOLY ONE OF OLD, we pause in this moment to
offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and
memorials, aloud or silently…add your own petitions
O GOD WHO HEARS
Grow our faith to feed our souls
~ MOST HOLY ONE OF OLD, we give You thanks for all those anointed to nourish
our spiritual hunger and satisfy our thirst for Your grace. Grant them the
tools to light our paths forward, as we journey together toward a new life in
Christ. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
O GOD WHO HEARS
Grow our faith to feed our souls
The Celebrant adds: Jesus, our Christ, bless
all who set their tables before you to feed and be fed, to assist and be
assisted, to serve and be served. Grant us unending faith and hope to give and
to receive in unexpected ways filled with never ending grace from you. We ask
through the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier; and the Majesty of the Ages, our Creator of all that is; who
together with You are One God, now and forever and ever. Amen.
