Open Table for the Kingdom
Bible text: Matthew 14:13-21
Nourishment and hydration are basic needs of all living beings. The difference between other living beings and human beings is that, as beings created to live in community, these biological needs have a social character. In many cultures, sharing food and drink are signs of familiarity, love, respect, and the joy of being together. In my country we say: where two eat, ten eat. In fact, the early church, according to New Testament texts, very often, if not always, gathered to celebrate the bond that united them in Christ, and they did so around the table, eating and drinking in communion.
One of the fundamental contents regarding the mission of our church in Cuba today has to do with the need to serve those people in need, even in the midst of our limitations, especially the economic ones. We are always grateful that many of our sister churches and project agencies come in solidarity to supply these material needs. The challenge for us is to put limits on this diaconia so as not to turn it into a form of assistance that can easily turn into meaningless charity. To understand that satisfying the basic needs of every human being is not enough to build the foundations of the Kingdom of God is not an easy thing, but we Cubans know that!
A text like the one that corresponds to this 9th Sunday after Pentecost, not only helps to reflect on the subject but also empowers our capacity to understand where the true meaning of our diaconia lies. The narrative offered by Matthew's Gospel about the so-called miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes confirms that Jesus' ministry, as a prelude to the Kingdom of God, was full of signs that affirmed the values that give meaning to God's proposal for human beings in Christ Jesus. Because it is not only to satisfy those basic needs but to create a community spirit that communicates with God's intention that every human being has the right to have those needs satisfied. The project of the Kingdom is to build a community, a human family in harmony with all creation. Solidarity and justice are indispensable for the full life that the Kingdom proposes and that Jesus announced.
The easy solution, which is what we as humans are always looking for, was the one that the disciples brought to Jesus: "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." (Matthew 14:15). Jesus' response is firm: "... you give them something to eat" (14:16). The call as followers of Jesus is to be agents of solidarity and promoters of alternatives in which the solution is not to "buy" but to "give."
Offering what little we are or what little we have can be like that mustard seed in the parable, which is the smallest of all but when it grows and multiplies it can be shelter for the birds of the air. Five loaves and two fish then become that seed, that incentive so that even in the midst of needs and limitations, God's people can feel their needs, all of them, satisfied. The great problem of the world today, this story reminds us, is not the lack of resources to feed human beings, but the lack of solidarity, the lack of alternatives to the commodification of the basic needs of human beings, the foolishness of not understanding that the table of the Kingdom is for all and all, not for a few.
May God help us to be a community of men and women, a church with open doors and the table served in the name of Jesus. As a song that we sing here says: "Bless our bread, Lord, and give bread to those who hunger and hunger for justice to those who have bread"
Nourishment and hydration are basic needs of all living beings. The difference between other living beings and human beings is that, as beings created to live in community, these biological needs have a social character. In many cultures, sharing food and drink are signs of familiarity, love, respect, and the joy of being together. In my country we say: where two eat, ten eat. In fact, the early church, according to New Testament texts, very often, if not always, gathered to celebrate the bond that united them in Christ, and they did so around the table, eating and drinking in communion.
One of the fundamental contents regarding the mission of our church in Cuba today has to do with the need to serve those people in need, even in the midst of our limitations, especially the economic ones. We are always grateful that many of our sister churches and project agencies come in solidarity to supply these material needs. The challenge for us is to put limits on this diaconia so as not to turn it into a form of assistance that can easily turn into meaningless charity. To understand that satisfying the basic needs of every human being is not enough to build the foundations of the Kingdom of God is not an easy thing, but we Cubans know that!
A text like the one that corresponds to this 9th Sunday after Pentecost, not only helps to reflect on the subject but also empowers our capacity to understand where the true meaning of our diaconia lies. The narrative offered by Matthew's Gospel about the so-called miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes confirms that Jesus' ministry, as a prelude to the Kingdom of God, was full of signs that affirmed the values that give meaning to God's proposal for human beings in Christ Jesus. Because it is not only to satisfy those basic needs but to create a community spirit that communicates with God's intention that every human being has the right to have those needs satisfied. The project of the Kingdom is to build a community, a human family in harmony with all creation. Solidarity and justice are indispensable for the full life that the Kingdom proposes and that Jesus announced.
The easy solution, which is what we as humans are always looking for, was the one that the disciples brought to Jesus: "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." (Matthew 14:15). Jesus' response is firm: "... you give them something to eat" (14:16). The call as followers of Jesus is to be agents of solidarity and promoters of alternatives in which the solution is not to "buy" but to "give."
Offering what little we are or what little we have can be like that mustard seed in the parable, which is the smallest of all but when it grows and multiplies it can be shelter for the birds of the air. Five loaves and two fish then become that seed, that incentive so that even in the midst of needs and limitations, God's people can feel their needs, all of them, satisfied. The great problem of the world today, this story reminds us, is not the lack of resources to feed human beings, but the lack of solidarity, the lack of alternatives to the commodification of the basic needs of human beings, the foolishness of not understanding that the table of the Kingdom is for all and all, not for a few.
May God help us to be a community of men and women, a church with open doors and the table served in the name of Jesus. As a song that we sing here says: "Bless our bread, Lord, and give bread to those who hunger and hunger for justice to those who have bread"
—Rev. Dora Arce Valentin
Moderator
Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba