Food for thought

So Jesus ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks to God, broke them, and gave them to the disciples; and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and had enough. Then the disciples picked up seven baskets full of pieces left over. The number of men who ate was four thousand, not counting the women and children.

Then Jesus sent the people away, got into a boat, and went to the territory of Magadan.
(verses 35-38)

Read Matthew 15:29-39

Just this evening I read in a magazine that the combined incomes for one year of the 582 million people living in the 43 least-developed countries in the world would amount to 146 billion dollars. At the same time the combined wealth of the 200 richest people in the world would come to a trillion dollars. l suspect that the main lesson to be drawn from these figures is that, although God provides plenty of wealth to the world, we are not very good at sharing it around in such a way as to make sure everyone gets fed.

The biblical story of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the 4000 by sharing a few loaves and fishes among them has some relevance to this situation. Among other things, it shows that Jesus does things differently: he gives, not takes; he shares, not accumulates; he has compassion, does not harden his heart; he offers a solution, is not part of the problem.

God provides. He uses his followers to share it out.

Dear God, I thank you for all the good things in life. Help us to understand there is enough for everyone when we share. Amen.

by Richard Hauser, in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)

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