9-19-16 - Feasting Every Day

I am involved in supporting a residential school in Western Kenya called the Nambale Magnet School. Initially designed as a place that would provide home and education for children orphaned by AIDS in a region that provided no services for thousands of such children, it also includes fee-paying students who have family support. The need-based calculus for how the indigent, “supported learners" are chosen, though, is heart-breaking. The many candidates for limited places at the school are vetted by the social worker, who visits each home and assesses the needs. If a child has one parent living, shelter at night, and/or gets at least two meals a day, the place will go to someone with even less.*

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. (This week's gospel passage is here.)

We may sometimes feel like that beggar, aware of what we do not have. In terms of global poverty, though, we are the rich man, feasting sumptuously every day. In fact, we feast so much that we often cannot consume it all – some 25 percent of food in American households is thrown out, uneaten. (Add in commercial foods, and we as a nation waste 40 percent of the food we buy.)

I do not wish us to begin the week feeling sad and ashamed. We can rejoice in our good fortune. I suggest, though, that we acknowledge how wealthy we are and take the time and mindful presence to truly enjoy the feasts we have each day.

We are invited to share out of our abundance, not out of guilt or a teeth-gritted sense of justice. Our tables are a place to begin to cultivate that awareness of abundance that is real for most of us. We might move from giving thanks for each item on our plates and where it came from, to naming other areas of abundance in our lives. Do you have time for a break at work? Can you exercise? Do you have friends? Leisure activities? Memories and dreams? All of these are kinds of abundance to be celebrated.

It’s easy to approach this parable with a sense of guilt. I believe that shuts us down and prevents us from opening ourselves to participating in God’s reign of justice. If we can approach it in gratitude for what we have, we just might be able to see how to better share our feasts so that everyone has one. There is enough… as we are released in grace we release our resources in love.

*We estimate it costs about $1200 a year to support the indigent students, including tuition, clothes, school and medical supplies and food. If you’d like to join me in providing annually for one such student, please email me or click here.