Passiontide

Gospel Reading

John 6: 1-21

After this Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee near Tiberius, and a great crowd of people followed him because they had seen the signs of the Spirit he had performed on those who were ill. 
 
Then Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near. When Jesus raised his eyes to the world of the Spirit and beheld how crowds of people were coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread that all these people may eat?" He asked this to test his understanding and presence of mind, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 

Philip answered him, "200 denarii [or, seven months wages] would not buy enough bread for them each to have only a little." 

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "A boy is here with five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these among so many?" Jesus said, "Let the people sit down in groups." There was plenty of green grass in that place, and the people sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave to those seated, likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 

Now when they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost." So, they gathered them, and they filled twelve baskets with the broken pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 

Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, "Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world." When Jesus became aware that they intended to come and make him king by force, he withdrew again to the mountain alone by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off over the sea for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "I AM, have no fear." Now when they wanted to take him into the boat, immediately the boat was at the land, at the place where they wanted to go.

Ship in  Stormy Seas, c.1858 
Oil painting by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Dear Friends, 

It is a custom in earlier times, and maybe in some cultures still today, to not discard but save the shards of broken clay pots. Come spring, the shards can then be used as seed beds for new growth. 

Brokenness and shards are something well known as part of human life, perhaps we know it from our own lives. 

Broken promises, broken relationships, shattered dreams and hopes. Perhaps even a broken heart. One way of dealing with the shards and broken pieces is to cast them aside or bury them deep within to help us to forget. But what if we considered them as more than broken pieces, more than shards that only remind us of past grief, of all that feels beyond recovery? 

Lent and Holy Week are a good time to unearth and ready some of those soul shards so that with the rising of the Easter Sun, they are ready for some healing seed-word to fall into them:
“Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain … Love is come again like wheat that springeth green”. What, if love were to become the moral sun of the world?

Ship in  Stormy Seas, c.1858 
Oil painting by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky