God Gives Us What We Need - November 5

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; PM Psalm 73; Ezra 7:27-28, 8:21-36; Rev. 15:1-8; Matt. 14:13-21

Today’s Reflection

Back at the end of July, we had planned another of our summer Wednesday nights of food truck, live music, and Vacation Bible School. When I arrived at the church to help get things ready and be there to greet people as they arrived, immediately I noticed something very important was missing. No food truck was in sight. I started asking others on staff what was going on, and began hearing the updates on the mystery of the missing food truck. Minutes continued to pass, and more and more people were beginning to arrive, expecting to quickly grab their dinner and sit down to enjoy some music and conversation out with us in the parking lot. It was hot outside, and after all the heavy rain earlier that afternoon, it was very, very humid.

As more and more people began to arrive and were milling around that humid late afternoon, waiting for the food truck to finally arrive, it felt kind of like the story we hear today in Matthew 14: “When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’” On Wednesday night, we had no backup food prepared, we had no chilled bottles of water waiting in the wings for such a time as this. What could we do to offer hospitality to this very patient, yet still hot and hungry crowd? —including lots of little ones who needed to fill their tummies so they could have a good time at VBS.

Let’s look again at today’s Gospel account and how this exchange continued to unfold between Jesus and his doubting disciples: “They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.”

What did we have easy access to here at Saint Stephen’s on that Wednesday night? Well, we had a secret stash of popsicles and ice cream bars left over from an earlier event. And we could get some ice and water and we could bring out some cups. And maybe most importantly, we had the number to the closest Domino’s Pizza. And so, while there were some moments of wondering, “How are we going to provide dinner to this crowd?” so that they would stick around for music and VBS with us, in the end, God gave us just what we needed: which, in this case, was a basket full of popsicles and Anne arriving with her Honda full of pizza boxes. God gave us what we needed—and then some. Just as in the Gospel, we didn’t run out of popsicles or pizzas—and at the end of the night, we still had at least 12 extra pizzas that we were giving away to anyone who would take one home.

God gives us what we need. God knows exactly what we need in the now, to keep us going from day to day, and from week to week. We need food and drink and shelter. We need work to occupy our hands and engage our minds. We need friends and family to stick by us and encourage us. We need all of these to “pass through things temporal” —the circumstances of this world that are passing away, the things that won’t last—in order that we may lay claim to the eternal: God’s love and peace that are from everlasting to everlasting, those things that will last.

Becky+

Questions for Self-Reflection

Recall some moments in life, whether recently or in the distant past, when you feared you would not have enough—whether money, or time, or the strength needed to get through a challenging time. Looking back on it now, how were your needs provided for? In what ways do you see now how God made something out of nothing, or made a way out of no way?

Daily Challenge

Today’s reflection is drawn from my sermon given on July 25, 2021. You can listen to the full sermon here on our Saint Stephen’s YouTube channel.