Feeding the 5000

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: John 6:1-21 CLASSIC POEM: Whence Shall We Buy Bread? Edward Hayes Plumptre THE AFTER-GLOW lies purple on the hill, And o’er the listening crowd, There falls the boding of the evening chill, And mist of thickening cloud. Where shall they go who all day long have stood Hearing the news of joy? Where in this town, that village, gather food For woman, man, and boy? Weary, and sad that journey through the waste, Half-fainting by the way, Through darkness pressing with bewildering haste, Down sinking ere the day. And some are lame, and palsied, deaf or blind, Still waiting for His hand; Or, healed that very day, can hardly find Their strength to walk or stand. Rumour had told that once before He fed Five thousand in the wild, And satisfied the hungry souls with bread, And all their fears beguiled. Oh, was it true that He a feast can make When man’s resources fail, And spread His banquet by the lonely lake, In grassy upland vale? Can He, with one poor fisher’s scanty store, For all that crowd provide, The bread and fish still growing more and more, Till none are unsupplied? Yes, He who gives the full corn in the ear, The olive oil and wine, Who guides the seasons of the circling year Through every changing sign, He can compress within a moment’s space The magic of the spring, Seed-time and harvest in one act embrace, And home the full sheaves bring. Yes; evermore He feeds the hungry souls With bounties full and free, And calms the waters when the thunder rolls, And storms-blasts sweep the sea. Our souls were faint; we deemed no helper nigh, When lo! He gave us bread; Calm breezes lulled the waters surging high, And all our terrors fled. The fragments of God’s store are bounteous feast To weary souls and faint; They gather round, the greatest and the least, The sinner and the saint. He can refresh, and bid His servants take The fragments that remain, And peasant’s meal, if He but bless and break, Whole thousands can sustain From out the fulness of His bounty free, We treasure what is left; His joy, once known, can never wholly flee, Though we’re of all bereft. Through the dark night we journey o’er the hill, Not knowing where we go; That food sustains us through the dark hour’s chill Until the morning glow. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Logos Mary Oliver SNIPPET: Why worry about the loaves and fishes? If you say the right words, the wine expands. If you say them with love and the felt ferocity of that love and the felt necessity of that love, the fish explode into many. … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]