Bread

Written by Barb Spies, OFS, Director of Mission Services and Pastoral Care

As we approach the holidays, we think often about the meals we will have at family gatherings, serving at the community meal program, and potlucks with friends. A key component of these meals is the simplest. Bread. In my house, a holiday isn’t complete without homemade rolls. I have the recipe memorized, even though I get it out for each holiday just to be sure I remember all the ingredients. We always send people home with extra rolls.

Barbara Brown Taylor, and Episcopal priest, has recently published a book of her sermons called, Always a Guest. My favorite message is called “Follow the Bread.” This excerpt provides food for thought: “[Jesus] always works with what his disciples give him. When he asks his disciples to feed the crowd and they give him exact numbers so he will understand how little they have (two fish and five loaves), he ignores their math along with their insecurity and asks them to bring him what they have. Then he makes more of it (they add; he multiplies) without ever cutting his disciples out of the equation. His miracles depend on their willingness to give him what they have, because he ‘takes no bread’ either. He carries no bottomless backpack full of Super Bread so that he can be the one-man solution to a world of need. Instead, he relies on his followers to remember what he taught them when he sent them out two by two: when God answers the prayer for daily bread, God does it through other people.”

Our prayers guide us to action. If I pray for the hungry, I should offer them bread. Our prayers fill our hearts with the desire to partner with God in caring for the world. As you prepare for the day of Thanksgiving, when we offer up our gratitude to God for all that we have, find a way to share those blessings with others. Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Follow the bread and it will lead you to the source of all life.” When we share that bread, we lead others to that source of all life as well.