In junior high and high school, some of us might recall the fear-inducing task of deciding where to sit in the cafeteria for lunch and with whom. As any high school/coming of age/angst-filled movie suggests, this pivotal decision can give rise to twisted stomachs and evoke the fears of yesteryear of who will be our friend. From Grease to Mean Girls, Footloose to Breakfast Club, Rebel without a Cause to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, in a moment, we can remember our own trepidation.
Do I sit with the kids who play together in the band? Do I sit with the troublemakers? Do I sit with the jocks or the nerds? Or anyone of the other tables of niches groups? Walking into the cafeteria and not knowing where to sit, not seeing your friends, not knowing anyone, trying to navigate an unfamiliar terrain can give rise to deep anxiety. Do you remember?
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
I doubt the psalmist could have projected the culturally specific situation of the 20th century American high school cafeteria; however, we adeptly retrofit scriptural truths and our own experiences. The Good Shepherd provides for the needs of the sheep. In the midst of the stomach-churning lunch period of high school as well as white knuckle moments of middle age bill-paying as well as the quiet moment of older age loneliness, the Good Shepherd will provide what we need. I know that there are simple and profound testimonies among us, even today of how God has provided.
As I proclaim this timeless and reassuring truth, let me respond to a few other voices in this conversation. Sometimes, we find ourselves wishing and hoping for more than what we need, even deciding we need much more than we need. Then taking the grand leap, from “I want more” to “if I want it, God can and should give it to me as a sign of God’s pleasure with me”. This myopic vision leads one to only reflect on the needs and wants of me and mine. We have often called this the prosperity gospel or prosperity theology, this idea that if I pray enough, if I study enough, if I serve enough, God will shower me with financial and physical health blessings.
In fact, as a society, we have been so shaped by the prosperity gospel, that we begin to think if we are not living surrounding by bags of money, maybe God doesn’t love us. If we aren’t pain free, maybe we are not living in God’s way. Friends, please hear me. This is NOT gospel or the way of God’s love. This is NOT what the God who loves all of God’s children say. God says the world is broken and people make their own sometimes, pain-filled choices. However, I will provide for you all that you need. My love’s hand will provide. God is always making abundance out of the scarcity. But there is another twist: This curious line about preparing what we need in the presence of our enemies modifies how God hosts us. It is not an anomaly. This is the standard operating procedure of God’s way.
The stories of miraculous feedings are some of the best known of the gospel stories. Whether feeding 4,000 or 5,000, in Mark, Luke, John, or Matthew, Jesus provides what is needed. Out of what is offered, everything that is needed is offered. From a young boy’s lunch, a community was filled.
Jesus feds a community. Jesus does not divide the crowd into those who have more than they need, and those who are barely going to make rent. The crowd is not separated into conservatives and liberals. It is not divided by those who like fantasy football and those who do tough-mudders. Racial, ethnic, and gender divisions do not make it into the groups of 50 or 100. Jesus feeds a full community – complete with everyone who shows up.
This sounds like the church. The church is not just for those who prefer the same music as you or like to give their tithes in the same way. The church is not just for those like quiet reflection time during prayer of those who want to add their voice in loud AMEN! Affirmation. Not just for those who prefer potlucks over catered suppers or pre-perked coffee over fresh every time. For those who enjoy time together and those who are irritated at others.
Any of these limitations are ours and not God’s. We are the ones who have offended and been offended. We are the ones who have drawn circles of those who are in and those who are out. We have decided who should be at our table and who we will ask to go sit at another table, and preferably in the next room, house, or country over. God not only provides what it is that you need, but also what your neighbor needs, regardless of whether you experience that person to be your worst nightmare or close friend.
This kind of table fellowship is not a candle-lit table for two, but rather an act of table fellowship with the larger community. In a world in which we are always looking for someone else to have figured it and serve it up hot and fresh on a locally made plate, we forget that a part of the work of faith requires time and practice, devotion, and presence. This was the radical kind of act that Jesus lived in inviting all to the table. Maimed and diseased, favored and outcasts, comfortable and the bothersome included around this table. Jesus knows what we need and often, it as much about being in relationship with those who we might disregard as enemies as fulfilling any one of our basic needs.
Thou anoints my head with oil
Throughout the biblical texts, prophets are always anointing kings and priests as those set aside by God for the special responsibility or task to which God has called them. But shepherds do not only pour oil on some of the sheep, the need is too great.
Phillip Keller, author of A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, tells of the time of year when days get so dreadful hot and flies live on sheep. Days where you would do anytime for deep shade, and sheep are bothered by the flies that live on them and buzz around them. They are so bothered that they itch their matted wool against anything – the ground, a rock, branches, in order to relief the flies’ nuisance. They can even go so far as to bash their own heads against the sharp surface in seeking relief. Shepherds developed a concoction of linseed oil and tar to be put on the head and neck. This salve is the difference between aggravated itching that leads to bleeding and contentment in the flock.(1)
My cup runneth over.
In every way, the shepherd provides for the sheep. In every way, God gives us more than we need. It is almost abundance and wastefulness, extravagance, and love. Throughout time and across biblical texts and lived experiences, God provides amply for what we need. However, we do not always feel like a people whose cups are running over with blessings.
Walking into the stratified school cafeteria with a soft pretzel and a soda, it can be hard to feel as though my cup runs over. Trying to make the paycheck cover food, gas, mortgage, and activities, it can be hard to feel like I have everything that I need. Not knowing how to cover the dental bills for a child can be hard to feel like all I need. Living with chronic pain can feel like an underfilled cup. But it not just an adjustment of pessimism upon which our faith is grounded.
It was two fish and five loaves that satiated a crowd. It has been the providence of God that has attended to the needs of God’s people. At each time and in each season, God has provided what was needed from manna to milk and honey.
God’s providence multiples in our lives. God’s abundance knows no ends. Henri Nouwen said, “When Jesus fed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish, he was showing us how God’s love can multiply the effects of our generosity. God’s kingdom is the place of abundance where every generous act overflows its original bounds and becomes part of the unbounded grace of God at work in the world. “
May you know the presence of the Good Shepherd, Provider, and Abundant Giver of all we need. May the Good Shepherd calling you to share your testimony of how God has provided for you. Then, may God call you to generous acts that provide for others in the name of the most generous Good Shepherd.
This is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
[1] Keller, Phillip. A Shepherd Looks of Psalm 23. 1970, p160.
Old Testament Lesson: Psalm 23: 5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Gospel Lesson: Mark 6: 34-44
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, May 21-Saturday, May 27
Sunday: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” Psalm 23: 5a. Our providence is always in relationship with others. We are never provided for only for ourselves. Even our provisions connect us with those we have drawn outside of our circles. Ask God to open your hearts to how you might relate to those you consider to be enemies.
Monday: “You anoint my head with oil;” Psalm 23: 5b. Anointing was a sign of God’s blessing and consecration. Anointing sets you apart for holy purposes. What holy purposes does God call you to? The vocation of parenthood? The vocation of your occupation? The vocation of love? The vocation of friendship?
Tuesday: “My cup overflows” Psalm 23:5c. God does more than the minimum. God provides us more than we need. Have you noticed the places where your cup is overflowing?
Wednesday: “As he went ashore, Jesus saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Mark 6: 34. Teaching is an act of compassion. Jesus sought to share the ways of God out of compassion. Ask God to open your heart to the compassion of learning God’s ways.
Thursday: “When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’” Mark 6: 35-37. The disciples were looking for someone else to do it. We are often looking for someone else to take care of other’s needs. Come before God in prayer to ask God whose needs God is asking you to care for.
Friday: “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he’d divided the two fish among them all.” Mark 6:41. Jesus asks God’s blessing on even the meager gifts, and they are enough. Have you turned your meager gifts to God for blessing?
Saturday: “And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.” Mark 6: 42-44. God’s provision is sufficient. Where is God providing enough for you, even when it was not what you were anticipating?