You can listen to this reflection here.
At week’s end, let’s go back to the beginning, to the story that brought about all this “I am the bread of life” talk in the first place: Jesus’ feeding a multitude of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. How does this “picnic” – indeed, any picnic – speak to us of our life of faith?
Well, picnics happen outside, which is where our faith is meant to be lived – outside the walls of churches and homes, on the road and in the streets, taking God’s love and life to wherever people are hungry for it. Faith is a pilgrimage and it gets stronger when we exercise it, stretching beyond our comfort zones and comfortable communities.
Picnics can take place anywhere. They might happen on a blanket laid out on a grassy field, at an outdoor concert, or wolfing down a sandwich at a bus stop. And sometimes, as once happened to me in Turkey, you’re invited to join a group of strangers grilling spiced meat and chopping up salad on a beach where you least expected a feast – and find it’s the most delicious meal you’ve ever had.
Picnics don’t just happen – someone needs to prepare them. I remember being a child in Congo - every Sunday afternoon we’d go to the ambassador’s pool, and my mother would always make egg salad and tuna fish sandwiches, and various other foods, each wrapped in their particular containers. So our faith lives require some preparation and intention if we’re to get the most out of them.
And picnics, like faith, need to be unwrapped. They come in baskets and boxes and bags, each element neatly nested. Watching a picnic come out of its containers is like seeing a mystery unfold – what’s in that bag? What’s in that container? What does it taste like? At its best, that’s what growing in faith can be – discovering nuggets in scriptures, learning new songs of praise, sensing God’s presence in prayer or ministry, tasting the richness of love in community.
Picnics are usually shared experiences, and often the meal is a combination of foods brought by different participants. This is how we live our faith communally, in church and out, with each person bringing the “dish” they make best, providing their gifts in beautiful diversity to make up a picnic that is delicious and varied, with unexpected pairings of tastes and textures and colors.
In fact, we add our gifts to a feast God has already prepared for us. On that hillside that day, Jesus sent his disciples out into the crowds to find out what was already there. Seems hard to believe they only found one boy who’d brought food, but that’s the story. That contribution, enhanced by Jesus’ faith, distributed by his faithful followers, provided more than enough for everyone.
God wants us to bring our gifts to the picnic, even if he gave us those gifts in the first place. God’s feasts are always joint efforts, and as we contribute our gifts and enjoy what others have brought, we are brought closer to the heart of love, to that Lord who is both host and feast for us, inside and out.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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