In the early part of the 1980’s, at a time when our children were still all at home, Marc and I went through a period of struggling financially. The economy was poor and Marc couldn’t find full time work and I was pregnant with our youngest child. So our only recourse was to apply for and accept welfare.

We were friends with a couple, who, like us, had four children. They, too, were suffering financially and also relied on the welfare system to survive. As a way to supplement our groceries my girlfriend and I started meal sharing. If I had meat in my freezer she would bring the potatoes and vegetables. Or vice et versa. One of us would bake or we’d share ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs etc in order to provide cookies or cake as a treat for our children. This was the way in which we ensured that our families were fed. As I look back on those days I still marvel at how I was able to feed a family of six on $20/week. Thanks to the addition of meal sharing there was always enough to go around and more for our families.

Today’s first reading from 2 Kings (4:42-44) about Elisha's miraculous feeding of 100 people foreshadows the Gospel story of Jesus' feeding of the 5,000 people.

Crowds of people are in need. Not only are they hungry but the food supply is limited, and there doesn’t appear to be enough to satisfy the hunger of all. Obviously, some will be sent away with little or nothing. Those responsible for controlling the crowds wonder how this precious food should be distributed. Then, in the midst of this need, something extraordinary happens. Not only is food provided, but more is available than is required. How did this happen? What are we to make of it?

It is not accidental that so many stories in both testaments use food, eating or hunger images to make a theological point. Food is one of our most basic needs; and I would add that shelter, clothing, health care, education, work, personal safety and security are survival needs as well.

Bread is a good word. Bread is a word we use a lot especially around church. Bread is important to life. It is a universal food for our bodies. You can go around the world and some sort of bread is found in every culture. We have Italian bread, Winnipeg rye, Matzah crackers, scones, white bread, whole wheat, English muffins, etc. In years past, even prisoners in jails were entitled to at least bread and water. Jesus knew the needs of the human body. Remember, he hungered and thirsted in the wilderness. He also grew up in a Jewish home where his mother, Mary, as part of her daily routine made bread. Bread has been central to human existence.

Immediately after fighting had stopped in World War II, soldiers gathered up many hungry and homeless children and placed them in tent cities. Many of them were malnourished and in need of medical care. The soldiers shared their bread with them. However, the soldiers noticed the children were afraid to go to sleep at night. One of the soldiers tried an experiment after dinner--he gave the children a piece of bread to hold. The result was astounding. When they had the security of bread for tomorrow they slept like babies because the bread took away the fear of hunger.

Bread! There is a surplus of meaning in this word. The word evokes strong emotions like security, community, the presence of God, provisions for the journey.

People invest the word bread with special meaning and even with religious significance. For the Jewish people, bread was a symbol of the Torah, the Law and God’s covenant with the people. For us bread is the symbol of communion, of the Lord’s last supper with his disciples.

Bread is the opposite of fast food. It cannot be made in ten minutes, the slow work of kneading and shaping offers opportunity to quiet our noisy and over-scheduled lives. Bread demands peace; grain will not grow in a battlefield. Bread demands justice; cheap bread that results from the loss of the family farm is too bitter to eat.

In fact, bread is the very picture of the just society. In 1995 a group of folks began making enquiries about building wood fired ovens to bake bread etc in a park in Toronto Ontario. Today in Dufferin Grove Park, in downtown Toronto nearby residents use communal wood-fired outdoor bake ovens which were built with city help. By doing so this community has created a neighbourhood where people gather to bake the breads their mothers taught them.

M.F.K. Fisher writes: “Bread baking is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.” (M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating.)

The smell of fresh baking bread for me provides a sense of peace, it fills me with a homey feeling, one of security and safety because after all that is what a “home” should provide. A home should be filled with love, laughter, safety, contentment and enough food for all who live there with extra for those surprise visitors. However, as we know that is not the case for everyone.

There is much hunger in the world today. Millions of people go to sleep with empty stomachs. Children are bloated from malnutrition. Wars are fought over food, and people starve as a consequence of war.

In Canada we have social agencies that provide things like welfare, we have food banks, agencies that provide clothing, shelters that provide cots for sleeping on a first come first serve basis, churches and agencies that provide a hot lunch or supper. In Jasper we have a food bank, community outreach services, the aquatic center which will provide showers and in our own church we have the thrift shop for those in need as well. The United Church sends a portion of our Mission and Service funds to support the Bissell Centre in Edmonton where folks can receive clothing, some food, perhaps find a day of work, or some health care from an on duty nurse.

Sadly, all of these social agencies are Band-Aids they are not solutions. Some of us might say well what is wrong with these folks, some might wonder why people who live on the streets choose to do so rather than getting a job or having a roof over head, after all if you and I can work then why can’t they. There are some of us right now this morning who have sat in judgment of someone who was panhandling on the street or perhaps one of us has observed a man or woman picking through garbage or pushing a cart filled with what we might call junk down a sidewalk. ‘Why would anyone want to live that way’, is the question many of us are left wondering? So I ask you; have you ever been homeless? Has your belly ever been so empty of food that it hurts? Would you hire a person who came in off the street in dirty clothes, unwashed and disheveled?

When our children were growing my husband and I sometimes would complain about our children's seeming lack of gratitude or even awareness of all the love and material advantages they had and still have today as adults with families of their own. But, then aren't we all a bit guilty of that?

Even more basically, which of us did anything to cause ourselves to be born in a country with at least an even chance at a good life as compared to others around the world?

Which of us endowed ourselves with our particular intelligence and character, enabling us to succeed?

Which of us controls any force of nature that allows us to grow food, breathe and live comfortably? The truth is that much of what we take for granted and depend upon is simply a gift we did not earn.

Someone told me once that if each Sunday the reflection was about or contained thought about social ministry that they might not come to church. It was shared with me that this person understands the message that Christ preached and that colleagues reflect upon around the globe regarding social ministry. If that is true then I can’t help but wonder why there are still those who are hungry in Canada, the United States and around our globe. If we understand the message then in what way are each of us affecting the needs of the world, in what ways are we working toward eliminating the need altogether or are we more focused on contributing to the band-aid solutions. Until humankind understands that there is truly enough abundance for all, until greed disappears, until oppressors recognized themselves for who they are, poverty will never disappear and as a minister I will continue to lift up Christ’s message.

This gospel tells us that not only did the 5,000 have enough to eat, but that there was much left over. God is not a minimalist! This is good news.

God intends, I believe, for each of us to be filled to overflowing with what we really need most, love, nourishment, safety and security along with a sense of purpose. God intends us to be so overfilled that each of us cannot help but share it with each other.

Until each person truly understands that we are to love our neighbour as we love ourselves, words given to us by Christ, until those of us blessed to be living with abundance recognize that we can and should share our abundance willingly and responsibly, until we live into and enable the world to be the world God intends the needs of the world will not change.

If we are truly a people of faith then we are to believe that the generous power of God mysteriously meets basic human needs. Again and again we are assured of this through the scriptures. From the psalm: “The hand of the Lord feeds us; God answers all our needs.” Acting through the prophet Elisha, God fed about 100 people with 20 barley loaves, to the miracle described in the Gospel. God will meet our basic human needs. Five thousand were fed with five barley loaves and two fish. However the food needed came into being in each case is not the point, the people were satisfied, and food was left over.

We may not be able to explain the miracles, but we cannot overlook one very important element in each story—God works marvels through ordinary people. Elisha’s servant and Jesus’ disciples distributed the bread. These events unfolded through the working of their hands. In other words, God meets the needs of people through the works of ordinary folks.

Paul sketches the profile of a caring community. The members are humble, gentle and patient; they belong to the one body and share the same Spirit; they are children of the one God who is over all, and in all, and works through all. We are the community that he describes. We are the ones called to feed the hungry today. We cannot allow empty stomachs to cry out in hunger, or children to be bloated. We can no longer fight over food or allow the war-torn to starve. As members of the body of Christ, we are diminished whenever another goes hungry. But miracles can unfold through the workings of our own hands, when we distribute the food destined for all by our generous God.

In conclusion I leave you with these questions for you to ponder: What might you do concretely to alleviate the hunger of others? What traits of your “old self” keep you from serving others?

In God all things are possible, thanks be to God. Amen.