Lectionary
of the Day: Mark 8:14-21
Jesus asked
them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or
understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and
ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for
the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
“Twelve,” they replied.
He said to
them, “Do you still not understand?”
———
Dear Community UCC and Friends,
This week, like so many others, if
we choose to we can read headlines and listen to podcasts and fill our screens
with news of yet more scandal and deception while our angst about these
circumstances continues to grow, or we can choose to “hear” and “see” a
different story. The story of abundance where there is more than enough “bread”
to feed the multitudes.
My week invited me into community
conversations and one-on-one discussions with good folks who are committing to
do good works.
Today, I sat around a table with
SAGE volunteers at Raleigh’s LGBT Center with area UCC clergy and
representatives from United Church Homes discussing the development of a
housing community for LGBT seniors in Wake County. Even with the sting of
scarcity lingering in the air as one of Raleigh’s affordable housing
developments closed this week, the creative birthing of new bread as if falling
from the sky is taking hold in our midst.
At Community UCC we reiterate the
United Church of Christ’s theological statement in worship each week: Whoever
you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here. This kind
of radical and inclusive Love is the very bread that we are called to embody,
offering to all with whom we share the journey.
May you take and eat, may you be filled to
overflowing, and may you share with all who have need.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of
life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” John 6:35
Spirit is leading the way,
Rev. Jenny Shultz-Thomas