Fed

What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast?
-Anthony Bourdain

I’ve been troubled all day by a brief news item that came across my feed this morning. Apparently we’ve arrived at the stage of global capitalism in which supply chain issues, inflation, and, presumably, someone’s need to maintain profit margins that satisfy investors have resulted in a shortage of infant formula. Stores are struggling to keep it in stock. Some parents report that costs for this basic necessity have risen sharply–if they can find it at all.

Jesus’ disciples stood before him as the afternoon wore on. They wanted to send all the hungry people away into the surrounding villages to buy, beg or borrow food. Jesus just looked at them, “You give them something to eat.”

It’s what I hear from the risen Jesus today–an echo of that day in the Galilean hills. And it strikes me with the same confused dread that I imagine the twelve felt in their guts. We have so little at hand. So little energy. So little money. So little space left in our hearts and minds. Incorporating another cause or need into our basket of worries seems impossible.   

Dear God, we are tapped out and tired. Find us where we have fallen apart or are frozen with fear or have soured against our neighbors or friends or families. Save us from the stale stories of scarcity and free us for abundance. Give us this day our bread for tomorrow, and forgive us our debts. Let your will be done, on earth as in heaven, and may it be done among and in and through us as well.

Amen.

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
-Matthew 6.26