Friday, January 31, 2014 – Week of 3 Epiphany, Year Two
[Go to Mission St Clare for an online version of the Daily Office including today’s scripture readings.]
Today’s Readings for the Daily Office:
Psalms 40, 54 (morning) // 51 (evening)
Genesis 17:15-27
Hebrews 10:11-25
John 6:1-15
Well, it’s the end of the work week for many of us. This month, I bumped up my working hours to full time after being half-time when my son was born in October and ¾-time in March. While I’m loving my new projects and activities, I do sometimes feel like Andrew in today’s gospel. Andrew and the other disciples are facing 5,000 hungry people, and all they have on hand is a boy’s five barley loaves and two fish. As Andrew says, “what are they among so many people?”
So little, so many. So little time and energy, so many people and plans. Our resources seem out of proportion to the task at hand. But in today’s gospel, seeing things this way is merely a temptation . . . perhaps even an illusion.
Jesus responds to the five loaves and the two fish by asking all of the people sit down. (Maybe the crowd seemed smaller that way!) Then, he takes the loaves and fish, gives thanks, and distributes. What an excellent model for us when we seem to be faced with only meager fare: sit down, give thanks, and only then start spending what we have.
So today, on the last day of the week, perhaps we can take a moment to sit down, say “thanks,” and then set out to do what God has given us to do with the week’s remaining hours. Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves sufficiently fed and with a few fistfuls of fragments to carry us through.
Lora Walsh blogs about taking risks and seeking grace at A Daily Scandal. She serves as curate of Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs and as director of the Ark Fellows, an Episcopal Service Corps program sponsored by St. Paul’s in Fayetteville, Arkansas.