It’s no longer August, but we have one more week of our Summer Pastimes series at my church, looking at how they speak to us of the life of faith. As always, we abandon the Lectionary for a gospel selected - here is this week's.
I don’t know about you, but I will be attending a picnic this Labor Day Weekend – maybe not the last time we’ll eat outside before fall, but traditionally one of the Big Picnic Weekends of the year. Picnics are one of the best summer pastimes there are, combining as they do food and fresh air and bringing an indoor activity outside. But how do picnics speak to us of the life of faith?
Certainly the themes of food and fun and fellowship resonate with most churchgoers I know. Picnics bring these elements out of the buildings where they often occur and into the open, where anyone might happen upon them, and possibly even join in. Earlier this summer I served smoked salmon canapes during the sermon one Sunday (the gospel passage was the loaves and the fishes… same as for this week…). I suggested to my congregation that our mission as the Body of Christ might be as guerrilla picnic planners, mounting feasts, large and small, in unexpected times and places. What if we really adopted that mission, at least once a month? What would you provide, and where?
Even ants and other uninvited guests at a picnic remind us that we are not in control of our lives, try as we might to think otherwise – and that enjoying the beauty of creation comes with the responsibility to make sure all of God’s creatures have a safe environment in which to thrive.
Picnics also remind us of God’s provision, as we feast in abundance on food that somehow tastes better for coming out of a cooler or a basket. And unless we packed the basket, we don’t know exactly what we’re going to be served, especially not when we’re enjoying a potluck picnic with goodies brought by many. Sometimes we get fed even when we haven’t brought anything along.
Our life in God is like that – a feast that can happen on any given day, not in a formal dining room but on a field or by a lake or in a stadium parking lot, alone or with others. Often, the life of God in us gathers others to us, both to be fed and to share their food with us. And as we experience the variety and try new tastes, we find our spirits expanding to receive more and more unexpected blessings.
That psalmist was onto something when he sang, “O taste and see how precious the Lord is." Must have been coming from a picnic.
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