I love potluck picnics. There is always so much variety in the foods like calico beans, chicken, buns, brownies and chips. My very first Sunday with the church I served for 30 years included a potluck picnic and worship service while sitting in the gardens of Enger Park.
Ever since that day the church has had a picnic the first Sunday in August. Some of the potlucks included Jello contests. Our daughters put blue Jello into a fish bowl and sank plastic fish into the gooey mess. Others were even more creative with the gelatin.
Even during Covid we had our annual picnic. It wasn’t a potluck but a drive thru. The food was hotdogs in paper boats, small bags of chips and pre-wrapped rice Krispie bars. We shared what we had safely and yet the bread was still broken together.
Jesus knew the power of bread when he took a simple loaf, blessed, broke and shared it. He transformed its meaning for us forever. With bread, Jesus nurtured himself and those around him. He eats over and over again in the Gospels: feeding a young girl he healed, eating at Peter’s house when he first begins his ministry, and even cooking fish on the beach on a charcoal fire after his resurrection.
One of my favorite picnic stories is the feeding of the 5,000 with the bread and the dried fish. While visiting our partner churches in the Philippines, we often ate fish like that pictured pictured above. Fish and fruit were abundant in Mindanao, but for the crowd gathered around Jesus food scarcity was real. The disciples are stumped when Jesus says, “You feed them”.
They whine, “We can’t, we don’t have enough.” Jesus must patiently teach them again. He shows them how to use the resources they have. Taking the five loaves and two fishes, he looked up to heaven blessing the bread. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to pass out. I think it is in giving thanks and the passing around that the miracle occurred.
As we talked about this story on Monday with the women at bible study at the county jail, one of the women said, “the mommas brought snacks”. Yep. I agreed. No one would travel that far without some food and water. The snacks were shared.
The bread still needs to be shared in the potluck of our time. As we dish up our plates, we need to keep one eye on those in line behind us. Too many others have not been served. Jesus looks upon the crowd and us with compassion. And to us he also says, “You feed them.”
As followers of Jesus we dare to offer what we have, ask God’s blessing on it, break it open and share. This bringing, blessing, breaking, and sharing is not just a model for fish and bread, it is how we are to live. Let us all be mommas who keep bringing snacks.
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