Dear Friends,
It seems we spend a lot of our time worrying about whether we will have enough and be okay, all the way from the stories that fill the headlines, to our own day-to-day struggles. Will we be able to beat COVID? Will the Olympians be safe? Will there be some rain for the fires in BC? Will we have enough to pay the rent next month, and even to be able to retire sometime. We live our lives with a sense of scarcity, with a very commonsense idea of what is possible and what is not.
In biblical times, for most people their existence was pretty much hand to mouth — much more precarious than ours. And yet the message Jesus proclaimed was of a God of abundance. Not the abundance of hoarding up our riches in storehouses, but of being cared for and having our daily bread and something to share with others. When a huge crowd gathered around Jesus to hear his teaching and he instructed his disciples to feed them, they asked, “How do you expect us to buy enough for this many?” And from a gift of a boy’s lunch, all are not just fed, but “filled,” and with basketsful of leftovers (John 6: 1–14). There is an abundance, even beyond what we thought was possible.
There will be enough and extra. This might be Jesus’ response to our tendency to view the world and our lives through the lens of scarcity. God’s sheep are fed, and able to live in peace. By grace may we look forward in the confidence that God will provide enough, for all our needs, and with leftovers to share.
In Christ,
Revs. Bob and Helen Smith