Eccles. 8:14-9:10; Gal. 4:21-31; Matt. 15:29-39

Today in Matthew, Jesus cures many and feeds many more.   We follow a God who stood in our midst and doled out grace.

These stories go well beyond Jesus showing compassion for the people around him.  They testify to the fact that, for we Christians, God is not far away and aloof from us. God stands with us, beside us in our broken and troubled and suffering world.  Paul reminds us that nothing in existence can ever separate us from the love of God, revealed in Christ.

In our Core Foundations class on Sunday, and in the coming weeks we will continue to explore that our faith is not one of easy answers and unrealistic solutions.  Jesus entered life and died on the cross for us, showing us that in whatever we experience, in whatever may trouble us, in whatever distress or threat we feel, we need not fear because God is in it with us. God will lift up in our midst what we need to make it through, because God is good.

I encourage you to join us for more weeks of studying BEING PRESBYTERIAN IN THE BIBLE BELT.  Sundays.  9:30am.

What we learn in today’s story is that in whatever crisis or issue we face in life, in whatever trouble may come our way, the power of God’s love will provide what we need.  From the midst of the Body of Christ, God will lift up the resources to accomplish his loving purposes.

These stories are reminders.  We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God may give us daily bread.  We learn in these stories that it is we who are to be involved in, not only the receiving of daily bread, but in the giving of it too.

A good image of this is in the context of the Lord’s Supper, especially when we pass the bread around in a circle, or when we serve each other in the pew.  In that image of receiving bread and then turning to share bread with the person to our other side is the reality of God’s gracious action within the meal: each person is fed solely through God’s grace, but each person also plays an important role in making sure God’s grace continues with the others gathered there.

May these stories of curing and feeding enrich and enliven your day.  May they also be reminders that you play a part in God’s inbreaking kingdom.

-Matt