Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about fie thousand men, besides women and children. [Matt 14:19-21, NRSV]
My step-grandma Butera was from Italy. She immigrated to this country along with her husband when they were very young. Together, they lived in a row house in Bloomfield, the Italian section of Pittsburgh where they raised three kids. Grandma Butera was a woman of deep faith. She was Roman Catholic and went to mass on almost a daily basis.
Furthermore, like most Italian women of her generation, she was also an amazing cook. Grandma Butera made cheese ravioli from scratch that would melt in your mouth. Her spaghetti sauce, a closely guarded secret, was out of this world.
Any time you were invited to her house for dinner, you knew you were in for a treat because from the moment you entered the door of her house you were treated like royalty. When you were seated for dinner, the table would be set to perfection. There would always be enough food on the table to feed a small country.
What made this dining experience even more remarkable was the size of her kitchen which was literally smaller than a bathroom in a ranch style house! It was like one of those clown cars you see at the circus where the clowns keep coming and coming and you have no idea how they all fit into that tiny automobile. Likewise, food kept coming and coming and coming out of Grandma Butera’s kitchen. It was miraculous. You had no idea where it was coming from .
Finally, when the evening came a close, Grandma Butera would always pack a doggie bag for you just in case you needed a snack later in the evening or lunch the next day. She was the perfect hostess. Dining at Grandma Butera’s house was always a wonderful experience: Good food, good wine and good conversation, where you were always treated like royalty and there was always more than enough food for everyone.
Like our gospel lesson for this coming Sunday, Grandma Butera's kitchen is a lesson in kingdom living. Do we really believe that everyone is welcome at the table? Do we really believe there is more than enough to feed the crowd?
I've always loved this gospel story because Jesus didn't take an reservations. Everyone was invited to the feast. Furthermore, while some panicked that there wouldn't be enough resources to feed the multitude, Jesus never even flinched for a second. He took the bread, blessed it and gave it to the crowd trusting that there would be enough.
We need to challenge ourselves as well as our churches to live this boldly. Can we really invite EVERYONE to the table? LGBT? Homeless? Immigrants, illegal or otherwise? OR will we continue to be an exclusive little supper club? [It's one of the things that's killing the Church of Jesus Christ!] Will we be manna to the hungry and trust that even in this difficult economic climate there will be enough to feed everyone who accepts the invitation to come and dine? Let's give it a try and see what God can do with whatever resource we may have to offer!
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