Seeker

If it's Shrove Tuesday then it must be the day for pancakes. We have the eggs, flour, milk, fresh lemons and sugar all ready for tonight's pancake feast.  And I'm still as undecided as yesterday about how to observe Lent which starts tomorrow. Maybe the pancakes will help. Stephen Cherry's poem 'Feast', a reflection on making a pancake, is giving me food for thought. It is from his book 'Barefoot Prayers'. You can read the poem and listen to Ron Glusenkamp reading it here.  I particularly like the central stanza: A few more seconds   and it is done.   sugared and soured, it is   ready for the feast...   that initiates the fast.   The long, slow,   rambling fast,   the map-less fast where no   recollection can find the way ahead. Rambling without a map and not knowing the way ahead? Perhaps being too organised about a Lenten discipline can be restricting, like setting out on a journey with too much baggage. W...

It was the end of a long day when our coach broke down in the middle of nowhere. The driver couldn’t restart it. Another coach was promised in 3 hours. I was in charge of 33 lively eleven year olds who wanted to know what I was going to do. They were hungry and tired. So was I. With 2 assistants I’d been with the children for 12 hours. After my silent prayer - “help” - these words came to mind: “you give them something to eat" .  When the Lord tells me to do something, then like Jesus' disciples faced with the impossible task of feeding 5000 men (besides women and children), I tend to respond by telling Him why I can't. We had no food left, minimum emergency cash and no credit card. The shops were closed. How could we feed the children and ourselves? A miraculous free delivery of pizza? Someone to take away the children while I slept? Not a hope! (This was before mobile phones.) What happened? I’ll tell you later. When Jesus needed to be alone to grieve after ...

I wish I could help, but I can’t. The problem’s too big. I've only got 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Earthquakes and tsunamis, hunger and homelessness, thirst and fear, destruction and oppression, corruption and greed, poverty and sickness. What’s the use of the little I've got? I wish I could help, but I can't. The problem's too big. I've only got 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. It would take a miracle to feed all these people. I can't do miracles. I've only got 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. What's the use of them among so many? These are all I've got for me today, with maybe a little to sell. It would take a miracle for me to give them away. I've only got 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Not much of a feast are they? This post is the 9th in a series of Lenten reflections based on daily Bible readings from the Common Worship Lectionary of the Church of England. This one is based on the story of Jesus feeding ...