- When You Want Knowledge As Much as Air
- The Teacher & the Eager Student & the Water
- Asking Socrates for wisdom
- When you desire wisdom as much as you desired air …
- The Pilgrims & the Lore of Starving Before Feasting
- Trying to survive in a new world
- When you have been starving, you appreciate being fed …
- Getting to Where You Are REALLY Hungry (Passionate)
- In both stories, the reward comes after a shocking struggle
- Comfort numbs us to the need & robs us of the desire …
- The Teacher & the Eager Student & the Water
- People are Hungry
- The people in our reading needed to be fed, by the thousands
- Jesus feeds the five thousand & teaches through a great sign
- Jesus feeds those who follow & have an even greater need …
- The people in our community need to be fed, unprecedented numbers
- This year we have felt like the disciples seeing the hungry crowd
- The need is even greater than food & shelter & stability …
- We, all of us, need to be fed; not just food, but peace, hope, joy, & love
- Seem to be living through a famine of love & an abundance of fear
- It leaves us hungry for & desiring of hope & joy & peace & love
- The people in our reading needed to be fed, by the thousands
- We Try to Feed that Hunger
- The hungry people in our story followed after Jesus to be fed
- The crowd gathered at signs of healing & followed at hunger fed
- Recognizing power & compassion, they sought after more; hope?
- The hungry people in our community seek out where they can get fed
- We see it in the behavior of the hungry & needy around us and sometimes we call it taking advantage or gaming the system
- Instead of desperation born of need we see greed & manipulation
- We, all of us, seek out ways to feed our own emptiness & need
- Maybe it connects to our own fears of loss & famines of all sorts
- Maybe it connects to our own efforts to satisfy our own needs
- The hungry people in our story followed after Jesus to be fed
- Jesus Feeds Their Hunger & Offers Living Bread
- Jesus didn’t send the hungry away. He fed them & then He led them
- Jesus fed the hungry crowd & met their base physical need
- Jesus pointed them to hope & life that met an eternal need
- Jesus recognizes their need & meets it, the offers something better
- Jesus knows our selfish habits; He knows how deep our need is
- Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you …
I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
- Jesus invites us to the table where he himself is the bread of life
- Jesus’ words here are a precursor to The Lord’s Supper
- Jesus gave us bread & wine as a remembrance of Hope & Life
- Jesus didn’t send the hungry away. He fed them & then He led them
- Thanksgiving is Our Only Appropriate Response
- The Lore of Pilgrims Giving Thanks & Showing Gratitude in Unity
- The core of that First Thanksgiving legend is Gratitude
- The celebration of that First Thanksgiving was in Unity
- Taking a Day … Even a Month … to Feast on Gratitude is Good! Gratitude is a discipline we should develop & practice every day.
- So, as we gather in Thanks-giving, let us remember the feast giver
- As we over-eat on Thursday & over-buy on Friday; remember
- A challenge to us all; Intentionally Place Jesus at The Center
- The Lore of Pilgrims Giving Thanks & Showing Gratitude in Unity
- Jesus At The Center of Our Thanksgiving
- An Opportunity & A Gift – Simple Bread & Simple Juice
- Gather in our Families & Remember Jesus, the Bread of Heaven
- As we Gather with Jesus at the Center, Remember Our Eternal Hope “O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.” – Psalm 34:8
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