Dinner Tables in the Wilderness with Rev. Dr. Amy Slaughter Myers
St. Francis Spiritual Sustenance : July 27, 2022 ===================================
Can God set a dinner table in the wilderness, they asked (Ps 78:19 CEB).
Tables in the wilderness - a dinner table, no less.
Water flowing - over-flowing, gushing even - from rock.
Manna falling from heaven - enough for everyone; no need to store that manna up or buy more than we need or hoard more than we can use for daily sustenance because God provides each day our daily bread.
These are all images of God's provision, God's grace. God nourishes us in body, mind, spirit. God yearns to gather God's people in community to nourish one another, to feed one another and be fed.
Tonight at St. Francis Episcopal Parish and Community Center all who would like to may gather for Pop-Up Bible Study in the Common Room on a portion of Psalm 78 and the moment in which our community finds itself seeking tables in the wilderness.
At our End-of-School Picnic a few weeks ago, all who wanted to gathered and shared a meal cooked and coordinated by the Food Ministry Strategy Team, got to know one another better, enjoyed the music provided by Bonnie and the playground equipment and new benches and tables made possible by Jacob's vision of his Eagle Scout project.... all were fed at God's table in countless ways.
How will St. Francis Episcopal Parish and Community Center gather together in the coming months?
How will St. Francis Episcopal Parish and Community Center eat together and love one another as God loves us at the dinner tables God sets in our wilderness?
The wilderness is so vast - the wilderness of weariness from Covid, the wilderness of no functioning kitchen in our building, the wilderness of fully remote work and community center programs, the wilderness of our own fears and anxieties, the wilderness of so much rapid change in church, in our own lives and in those of our families and friends, the wilderness of so much division and hostility in our country...
And yet, even now, God sets before us tables to gather around and to be fed.
