Bread – August 21, 2024

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130, Judges 18:16-31; Acts 8:14-25; John 6:1-15  

Daily Reflection:

Five barley loaves and two fish. That is what we are told disciple Andrew rounds up when Jesus wants to feed the large crowd following him. Jesus takes the bread and gives thanks before he breaks it up and distributes it. He does the same for the fish. The people – many who tag along because they know of his acts of healing – eat until they are satisfied. Five thousand people share this meal, and then they realize that Jesus is something really special.

We read from this same gospel passage just a few weeks ago in Sunday worship, and so these words feel fresh on my heart. The detail of five barley loaves really sticks with me. I can imagine them in my mind, browned and hearty. I think about Eucharist at Seminary of the Southwest, where several of us baked the whole wheat bread for worship in our homes. Those heavy rounds of bread with simple ingredients were nourishing on multiple levels. At the rail to receive the blessed bread as the Body of Christ and the Bread of Heaven, it felt deeply personal knowing that loving hands within our seminary community intentionally prepared the bread.

I wonder who made the five barley loaves in this gospel account. Was it the boy’s mother? Did the boy help her shape the bread into rounds? I wonder if news got back to the baker that it was bread from their own hearth which was blessed, broken, and distributed to thousands of people?

Jesus tells us that he is the bread of life. He longs for us to be nourished by him. For our needs to be sated by his divine, healing presence. For us to feast on the Word…the Word of God. For in partaking of the bread of life, we draw our bodies and our whole selves closer to God.

I imagine Jesus telling God in prayer of all those he has fed and tended. I imagine God beaming at the ways the Son has brought divine nourishment to a people in need. It truly feels like a space of gratitude and mutual thanksgiving. Those five barley loaves are an image of beauty and love for me today. And I give thanks.

May God bless and nourish you this day,

Katherine+

Reflection and Challenge

Reflect on how you see bread in your daily life. Some may feel tension around bread - for carbohydrates, for gluten, and the like. What would it be like to revise how we see all food, so that we see it as a sacred and nourishing gift extended to us with God's blessing? How would we eat this food differently? Consider living in this appreciative mindset for one meal, or one day. Savor the bites of food. Listen to the ways you experience the meal. Give thanks. And take a moment to journal or talk with a friend about the experience.