My mum went from being a family of four to living on her own in just two years following the wedding of my brother, the death of my father, and Karen and I marrying. She loved baking and enjoyed laying on a feast for her family, I can remember my brother and his wife and Karen and I being invited to mums for tea on a Sunday afternoon, the kitchen table would be groaning under the weight of all the food she had prepared, far more than we could realistically eat, in fact,
I guess looking back that there was enough for about twenty people, let alone five of us. I smile now, as I remember those days, almost forty years ago now, my mum knew the value of food, she had lived through the war and rationing and it was always her fear that she would under cater, so she went in the opposite direction. The truth was, she loved baking and managed to lovingly give us a choice of goodies, all stuffed with calories, carbohydrates, and fat, thoroughly bad for us, but absolutely gorgeous. I miss her cooking nearly as much as I miss her.
In the set Bible reading today, Saint Matthew tells us of an occasion when a vast crowd gathered to hear Jesus speak, hungry for his words. In his wisdom, Jesus understands that before he starts teaching, the greatest priority was that they were also hungry for food, so he decides to feed them.
To the disciples, feeding this enormous crowd feels like an impossible task, yet we are told how Jesus took one young lads’ packed lunch of bread and fish and fed the multitude. I smile when I compare this feast with the ones my mum would lay on, they didn’t get the choice of goodies we had, but we are told that Jesus didn’t simply give what they needed, he gave in abundance, so much so that Matthew tells us that they collected up the leftovers. I treasure these stories, because they remind me of how generous God is in our hours of need.
As summer gets under way, we are reminded once again how the children who receive free school meals loose that benefit during the long, summer school holidays. It is a sad reflection, that in a developed country like this people are going hungry as energy and food costs stretch people’s budgets. In much the same way as with Jesus we become moved to help to feed the hungry.
Four of our Churches in the Ipswich Circuit have introduced Free Little Pantries. The idea is to provide people with emergency food for a meal, there is a notice that reads “Take what you need. Leave what you can” these pantries do not replace the excellent work done by food banks and both initiatives need our constant support. We also support the work of FIND (Families in Need in Ipswich) who have offered a lifeline to people in need for over thirty years and run an excellent Food Bank to provide more than 7000 food parcels a year to help those in need.
One little boy, two thousand years ago offered his packed lunch to Jesus and fed a multitude, if a multitude give just one item from their weekly shop to initiatives like Free Little Pantries and Food Banks, together, we can feed a hungry nation.