People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Setting the Table ~ 3rd Sunday in Lent, WLWC* ‘25 Yr C

For Sunday, March 23, 2025; Readings: Exodus 16:2-18, Psalm 65:5-13, Acts 27:1, 27-38; Luke 9:12-17

And it happened that in the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. Now the layer of dew lifted and…On the surface of the wilderness was something thin, flaky, as thin as frost on the ground…they said to one another, “[Mah na meaning,] What is it?”…Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the HOLY ONE OF OLD has given you all to eat…the MAJESTY OF THE AGES has commanded: ‘…for each mouth to eat, an omer [about two quarts] to a person according to the headcount of persons, each person taking some for those in their own tents.’” And this the Israelite[s]did…some more, some less…when they measured against an omer, there was no excess for the one with more, and the one with less had no lack; they gleaned enough for each mouth to eat. [Exodus 16:13-17]

When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. Through wondrous deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation, hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. [Psalm 65:3-5]

Now, when it was adjudged that we were to sail for Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion…Now as day was beginning to break Paul urged all of them to share some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting, having received no food. Therefore I urge you all to share some food, for it will help your salvation… Paul said this and took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. 36 Then they were all encouraged and accepted food for themselves. 37 (We were in all two hundred seventy-six souls in the ship.) [Acts 27:1, 33-35]

Now the day was beginning to fade and the twelve came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go into the surrounding villages and countryside to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a desolate wilderness place.” Yet Jesus said to the twelve, “You all give them something to eat.” But the twelve said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish lest we go buying food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. [Luke 9:12-14]

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