Pastor’s Corner – November 2012

In the October 3, 2012 “Christian Century” there is an article by Martha Bayne.  Martha was a journalist making ends meet as best she could.  In 2008, she needed to bring in a steady paycheck and thus became a bartender in a Chicago bar called the Hideout.  She tells how things got harder for the patrons and people could no longer afford to drop in for a beer after work, so she decided to offer food on Wednesday afternoons.

Starting in January of 2009, every Wednesday afternoon, the Hideout began providing Soup and Bread to everyone who wanted it.  Donations were accepted and directed to various hunger organizations.  Some of Martha’s friends in the food business provided 2-3 gallons of soup and would come and serve it until it was gone.  Day old bread, provided by a local bakery, rounded out the meal.  Starting with only 30 people on the first Wednesday in January, they provided soup to anyone from January through April.  People dropped in a dollar, $5, maybe $20, and by the end of April they had raised $30,000 to fight hunger.

Soup and Corn Bread will be the menu for our November Fellowship Dinner.  We will collect food supplies to share with a family or two at Thanksgiving.  Last year we covered a pair of tables in the Fellowship Hall.  Times remain hard for a lot of people.  We cannot end hunger as individuals, but together we can end some hunger, especially during a season when we are to give thanks to God for all the blessings each of us has received.

Over and over in the Bible we hear God and Jesus tell us to be aware and feed the hungry, to take care of the people pushed to the margins of survival.  Most of us during this month will sit down with family and friends and share in more food than we can eat in one sitting (often more food that we should try to eat in one sitting).  Let us truly come together in the Fellowship Hall and give thanks not for our  bounty, but for the bounty we can share with those who are on the fringes, those who are hungry, those we are called to feed.

Peter denied Jesus three times the evening of Jesus’ trial.  Later, after the Resurrection, Jesus challenged Peter three times by asking if Peter loved Him.  Each time he said yes, Jesus told him to either feed my sheep, or to feed my lambs.  This month, listen and hear Jesus ask you, “Do you love me?”  Will you answer yes and accept the response Peter received?

Shalom, Darrell