Did you see baby Avi last week? We’re having sort of a baby boom around here. Jordan, Jonah, and Faith. Abbie has a baby on the way. My baby girl is 12 years old today. Every baby is a wonder, you know? It’s mother’s day, and I’m a mother so allow me just a moment to reflect on the wonder of God’s creation. You see we have a world, where every one of us comes in, under the same circumstances. We are helpless, and cute. We have nothing. We have the ability to do just about nothing except breath (well Jamie’s arrived a little late, but that’s another story), suck and well, you know, pee and poop.
But, if everything goes well, there are systems in place, to take care of us. Now, I know sometimes, those systems don’t work. We’ve got some of the “walking wounded” around here, the “survivors” of some of the ways the systems have broken down. BUT God gives us – here in the created world-- what we need. Every child HAS parents. We know that biologically it takes parents to produce a child.
Now we can agree, here at this church, that families take many different forms. But this planet is set up so that there is truly enough food for every person. There is adequate shelter. We have the ability for education, and meaningful work. If we could learn to share, (like we all should have learned in Kindergarten) there really is enough. Every child, like Avi, and Jordan, Faith, and that baby that Abbie is carrying, would all have a fair opportunity. That is the design God has for this world. It does not always work out that way -- YET. But it is God’s way. It’s the way we are working for and praying for here at The Village Church. It’s why we follow Jesus, so we can change the world into the world God desires – into the world God wanted from the first day of creation.
So today, I have a couple of stories to share, as a way to encourage us, and to invite us to participate in God’s way – it’s the way of ENOUGH, and not the way of just enough, but PLENTY for everyone. We’re starting a three week series today based on a folk tale called “Stone Soup.” Do you know the story? It’s traditional roots come from Europe, but the version of the story we are using comes from a children’s book where the Stone Soup story is told and illustrated by Jon J. Muth. He sets the story in the mountains of China with three monks. They are walking in the mountains of China discussing wise and deep subjects that you would expects Buddhist monks to be talking about, such as this: “What makes one happy?” Then one day when they come upon a village.
We’re told “the village had been through many hard times. Famine floods and war had made the villagers weary and untrusting of strangers. They had even become suspicious of their neighbors.” “The villagers worked hard, but only for themselves. When the monks reached the gates of the Village no one came to greet them. Everyone disappeared into their houses. And when the people saw them enter the village they closed their windows up tight. “
The monks knocked on door after door but no one would answer. “These people do not know happiness,” they all agreed. “But today we will show them how to make stone soup.”
“They gathered twigs and branches and made a fire. They gathered a small tin pot on top and filled it with water from the village well. A brave little girl who had been watching came to them.”
“What are you doing?” she asked? “We are making stone soup and we need three round smooth stones,” they said. She helped them find the stones and they put them in the water to cook.
Now they told the little girl that the stones would make excellent soup, but such a small pot would not make very much soup. She said her mother had a bigger pot. She ran home to get it. When her mother asked what she was doing as she rolled their huge pot out of their house she said, “The three strangers are making soup from stones; they need our biggest pot.” “Hmm,” said the girl’s mother. “Stones are easy to come by. I’d like to learn how to do that!”
Well as you can imagine, people began to poke their heads out of their windows to see what was happening with these three monks and this huge pot in the center of their village! “One by one, the people of the village came out to see just what this stone soup was.” One of the monks said, “Of course, old-style stone soup should be well seasoned with salt and pepper.” “That is true,” said another,” But we have none. . . “ Well, you know what happened. Someone from the village went home and got some salt and pepper. Then another of the monks said, “The last time we had soup stones of this size and color, carrots made the broth very sweet.”“Carrots?” said a woman from the back. “I may have a few carrots! But just a few.” And off she ran. She returned with as many carrots as she could carry and dropped them into the pot. Well we will finish the story next week, but you can guess what happened, can’t you. That stone soup turned out quite well. God provided, out of their generous hearts. They had all that they needed. There was enough. There was plenty to eat. They just had to put it together.
There is another story in our scripture for today (Exodus 16:2-15 for those who didn’t get to join us today at The Village). This is one of my favorites. (I know I say that often, but this really IS one of my favorites.) Do you remember the story of Moses saving his people from being slaves in Egypt? Remember he goes to Pharaoh and says “Let my people go!” and over and over again Pharaoh says “No.” And finally they just go anyway. And then they have to flee through the sea, and Moses parts the waters, and all that. Well then, if that is not enough, they have to travel for 40 years in the wilderness before they get to the Promised Land. It’s sort of like a test. It’s a time of trial. A whole generation passes, before the people who had been slaves grow old, and their children get to have a new life as God’s people in a new land. Well, so, they are out in the wilderness, living as nomads. They have left behind their life as slaves. So it is sort of a step up. But this is the scene.
This is one of my all-time favorite lines of the entire Bible. The people of Israel say to Moses: “Were our lives not bad enough bad there in Egypt as slaves, did you have to bring us out here in the wilderness to DIE?” And so we read, then, in the book of Exodus, that God heard the cries of the people and God responded, with bread from heaven: God spoke to Moses: "I've listened to the complaints of the Israelites. Now tell them: 'At dusk you will eat meat and at dawn you'll eat your fill of bread; and you'll realize that I am God, your God.'" 13-15 That evening quail flew in and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew had lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine flaky something, fine as frost on the ground. The Israelites took one look and said to one another, manna (What is it?). They had no idea what it was. 15-16 So Moses told them, "It's the bread God has given you to eat.
This is where we get the miracle of the “manna” – the bread from heaven. Every morning God gave the people of Israel bread from heaven to eat so they would not go hungry.
God provides. I know there are times, when we feel like we don’t have enough. And some of us, as individuals, have gone through times of being unemployed, and it’s tough. It’s scary. But here in the United States, when we really compare our standard of living to the rest of the world, we have to admit that we live in luxury. Clean water and sanitation are things we take for granted. Grocery stores with food readily available are luxuries that some people only dream of. And we complain when we have to cut back on going out to eat. Really? Really!
The message of today is a simple one. We all came into the world as a baby. Helpless. And we have received plenty. Sure, we have had our struggles and our challenges, who has not? But we have also been blessed. And God has provided and will provide for our needs, usually WAY beyond what is necessary. Think about people who are really poor: People who have to walk miles to get clean water. People who cannot get childhood vaccinations, or don’t have an emergency room right around the corner from where they live. Think of people who run out of food and don’t live in places where there are food pantries and soup kitchens. We’ll hear more about the Stone Soup story next week, but the story reminds us of this: from just a little , we can share, and we can help one another. We have plenty, when rather than hiding alone in our houses and protecting what we have, we decide to come together and share what we have so that all have what they need. That’s the definition of plenty.
Jesus calls us to be generous, because God is so generous with us. Everything we have comes from God. All of creation is a gift from God. We are simply caretakers.
Next Sunday, after worship, you are invited to join me down the street at Monroe Street United Methodist to help with their Community Garden. What better way to give a little time to help feel hungry people right here in Toledo who need fresh vegetables to eat? We are going to go over there at 1 p.m. You don’t need any tools, except some gardening gloves if you have them, and a willingness to help out for a couple of hours. Time is precious, I KNOW. Trust me, I KNOW. But what better way to give thanks to God for all the blessings God has given us?
We have plenty of soil to produce healthy food for people on this planet, and right in this town. We don’t have to eat unhealthy food. But it takes a re-ordering of our time and our resources. The dollar menu is one of the cheapest ways to eat, but also one of the unhealthiest.
Then in two weeks, we are going to ask you, during worship, to make a financial commitment to The Village Church for the next year. You’ll be getting more information in the mail, and these three Sundays you’ll be hearing some of our own folks talk about why they give. If you are a new visitor at The Village during this three week campaign, we want to let you know that this is just some “family business” we are taking care of. We know sometimes new folks who visit for the first time and hear a church talking about money get discouraged and think that’s all al church talks about. So we want you to know that you just happened to stumble upon our first annual financial campaign. But we also don’t apologize for the fact that we talk about money. It costs money to have this amazing ministry. And we understand that every penny every one of us has is a gift from God. So we are not going to apologize for taking some time to consider, what portion of our money we each might want to give back to God through the ministry of The Village. But we won’t be asking to see your tax forms. We consider this a personal decision between you and God. Today we want to invite everyone to pray.
During worship we came up to the Soup pot, and took a stone (we’ve got them still at the Village), and a prayer card, and pray for our church and for your own discernment (same as next week). Give thanks to God for all the blessings in your life.
Do you have a community like this? Where you can share your abundance or need? If not, go find one. They are out here. If you’re near Central & Monroe Street in Toledo, stop on by, we’re here Sunday mornings at 11 AM & out there in the world the rest of the week.
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