crumbs from our table

one of the things that always scratches at my heart after our sunday night dinner is the incredible abundance of left over food. whether we are a group of 9 or a group of 29, we always always have more food than we can eat. we wrap it up, we divide among ourselves, and probably a lot of the left overs are eaten (although i can confess that i have ended up throwing out more than i would like to admit).

but i just keep thinking about how we are insulated and warm with piles of food and there are hungry people right outside the window. hungry for food, hungry for the love of Christ, hungry for connection and friendship and someone to care about them.

in all the things we have been talking about lately, this tension between our inward and outward vision has been the most salient to me.

a couple of weeks ago, i mentioned to some of you that our food and love abundance reminds me of the story of the isrealites and the manna. when the gift of food rained down, they gathered it up - even more than what they needed to feed themselves and their families for the day. and it rotted. rotted and stank and drew flies and disgusted everyone. we can't let the incredible blessings of our gifts, our love for each other, our resources, and the training ground/spring board of our group rot. not only will we end up turning our noses at it, but so will our neighbors.

all that to say, i do think that it's valuable that we can continue meeting together, encouraging one another, praying together, giving thanks, praising the LORD, remembering his blessings, and strengthening one another to go out and be the salt and the light. but i also feel really really strongly that if we keep it all for ourselves it will start to stink.

still pondering what this could mean for us, but wanted to put it out there. let's keep talking about this, ok? it's important.

here's a link to a recent sermon posted on the sojourner's page about the rich guy and the beggar lazarus - it's kind of along the same ideas....

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/10/why-rich-people-will-or-wont-g.html#full