Wednesday 16 May 2012

Sunshine Wednesday

Museum Day was awesome as always but did come with a few "oh nos".   The Oh NO's  being the Artefact Computer System that contained all our artefacts entered over the last three years is gone, gone, gone.     And the backup copy we kept is corrupted.   How amusing.    It is times like this that I would be down on my knees, weeping in tears but what did the Museum Volunteers say?   "Well,  let's start all over again"   Simple as that.   Start again.   They did not say it with sighing nor frustration,  it was a simple "Let's start again".   How amazing!  I love their positive attitude.

Old Son got up yesterday all ready to go to the Museum -- his first day on the job... and promptly got sick.   Many prayers indeed.   

Wednesday Retreat.....
Prayer:   Creator,  Redeemer, and Sustainor,   we look up to the mountains and know that our strength comes from the Lord God of Hosts.  It is the Lord God of Hosts who made heaven and earth and the mountains.    We know that You will not let us stumble because You never sleep.    You guard our lives and You protect us.  For this and all things,  we give You thanks and praise.  Amen.

Read St. Matthew 15: 29 – 39

Jesus continues to heal person after person.  By the third day,  Jesus has compassion on the crowd and asks the disciples to feed the crowd.    The disciples  scrounge up seven loaves and some small fish.   Jesus tells the crowd to sit down.  Jesus blessed the food,  breaks the bread, and asks the disciples to distribute the meal.     After this meal there were seven baskets of leftovers.    
Are you saying, “Wait  a minute.  This story sounds very familiar to one that we just read about a few days ago.”   And you would be right.  
The Sacred Space website  “Living Space”   understands this reading to mean “the abundance that comes from God. This is what salvation means – the fulfilling of all our needs: spiritual, emotional, social and physical. In the Gospel, full of trust and confidence, people bring their lame, the crippled, the blind and dumb. Jesus healed them all and the crowds were amazed. There then comes a scene which is a kind of parable of what Jesus stands for: the compassion of God and his desire that the needs of all be supplied. They have been with him for three days and are hungry. They must be fed. There’s not much to feed them with – seven loaves of bread and a few fish. It is enough for Jesus. And again and again people who have dedicated themselves to caring for the hungry and homeless have found what they needed turning up on their doorstep.
At the end seven (a perfect number) baskets are still left uneaten. All this symbolises the care God takes of his people. And yet, where is it happening in so many parts of the world today? There is a crucial element in today’s Gospel we cannot overlook. It was not Jesus but his disciples who distributed the food. In our world there is an abundance. Food production outpaces population growth. If there is hunger, malnutrition and other unmet needs, it is because we, God’s stewards, are failing in our task of distribution. If there is hunger and suffering and death, it is not the work of God. It is our failure to work.”   (Sacred Space, “Living Space”  Wednesday First Week of Advent,  2010).  With enthusiasm and compassion as a Church,  we can help those who are in need.  We simply say, "let's start again".   

Prayer:   Great God,  You are our food of life.   You sustain us and provide us with nourishment.    You shield us from harm and shelter us under the shadow of Your wings.  
Help us to share our resources with those who are in need and those who do not know they are in need.   Help us to fulfil the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.  This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Many blessings!

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