Bread for the Journey - October 15
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 18:1-20; PM Psalm 18:21-50; Jonah 3:1-4:11; Acts 27:27-44; Luke 9:18-27
Today’s Reflection
As we’ve been continuing in the Acts of the Apostles the last few days, we have been following Paul and his traveling companions on a circuitous journey around the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Cyprus and Crete. Paul was trying to get to Rome, where he would make his appeal before the Emperor of the Roman Empire. In today’s passage, we find them “drifting across the sea of Adria,” which today we call the Adriatic Sea, the body of water that lies between the eastern coast of Italy and Albania, Bosnia, and Croatia.
Their voyage has not been without troubles. They have gone through storms, thrown cargo overboard to lighten the ship, and run aground. Now they are drifting in the Adriatic and looking for a place to let down their anchors and flee the boat for dry land.
For 14 days, due to the stress of the situation and limited resources, no one had been eating. Imagine going through all of this without food and drink to give them the energy to keep going, and how being hungry and weak would have heightened their feelings of desperation and impatience. So, when it’s time to drop anchor and finally get themselves off the ship, all of this has put the crew of the ship in mind to “kill the prisoners, so that none might swim away and escape.” Paul hasn’t helped the dynamic, stopping to give “I told you so” kind of speeches, reminding everyone how he had received a vision of what would happen but that they chose not to listen to him.
The journey has been long, confusing, and chaotic. All 276 people on the ship have been under stress. They are ready for this long, tumultuous journey to be over. In the hours Luke is describing here in Acts 27: 27-44, as the ship’s crew and passengers are looking toward getting off the ship and attempting once again to get themselves back on dry land, Paul takes a more pastoral stance. He acknowledges their collective hunger and their need for sustenance in order to make it through this trying time: “Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, ‘Today is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and remaining without food, have eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive; for none of you will lose a hair from your heads.’ After he had said this, he took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all of them were encouraged and took food for themselves (27: 33-36).
We, too, have been on an unexpectedly long and chaotic journey. All the twists and turns of the last seven months have made us stressed out. Often we find that we have less patience with one another. We miss the familiarity of being on solid, familiar ground together—and we are hungry to be in communion with one another again. The last time many congregations across the Episcopal Church, including Saint Stephen’s, took communion together as part of a Sunday worship service was back in early March. And it’s important to acknowledge that going that long without breaking bread together has taken its toll. We have felt isolated and so we feel a hunger to be back in communion together.
This Sunday will be the first time in about 227 days (or 32 weeks) that we will share communion together in the context of a worship service at Saint Stephen’s. It’s an important milestone to be able to come back together as the Body of Christ in this way. With Paul, we can acknowledge that this journey we are on is not nearly over—but we, too, can acknowledge that breaking bread together will help give us the strength and encouragement we need to keep pressing on through all of this in community with one another.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
When you find yourself in stressful conditions and feeling impatient with others, what helps you to regain a sense of calm and be more at peace with yourself and those around you.
Daily Challenge
Look for an opportunity this week to offer sustenance to someone who needs some extra strength for their journey—maybe a phone call, a text, a handwritten note, or even a meal will help them get through their week with more of a sense of connection and hopefulness.