Feeding the World

With today’s two accounts of feeding miracles and the psalm response about the Lord’s hand feeding us, it is easy to gloss over the marvelous hymn in Ephesians. It is built around the most potent biblical numbers: one, three, and seven. The core of it is the word “one” expressed seven times. Three of these describe the church: one body, one Spirit, one hope; the next three are the foundations of the church: one Lord [Jesus], one faith, one baptism. All of these are bound up together in the one Father of all.

While we might feel daunted by the prospect of duplicating the wonders worked by Elisha and Jesus in the feeding of multitudes, Ephesians gives us a more realistic way to live and “feed” others as the church: by living in humility and gentleness, by acting with patience, bearing with each other in love, and always seeking and striving to preserve unity through peace. Who among us cannot increase the way we “feed” the church and the world by living this way? We are always called upon to “feed” the world in the literal sense; but our mission as church tells us that others are also fed by the way we live and act each moment of each day.