Delicious Leftovers!

There is a great Bible Story that seems to illustrate the fallacy of thinking that church is always about getting something. Think for a few minutes about the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand found in John 6. What normally is the focus of our attention in this story; why it’s the miracle of multiplication. Jesus took five loaves and two fishes from a little boy and blessed it. The disciples dutifully started passing it around to feed the hungry masses who had chased after Jesus. To their amazement they never seemed to run out of food and furthermore they collected twelve baskets of leftovers after the people were satisfied.

What does that story have to do with the attitude of the Sunday morning parishioner? Let’s examine this story a little closer. Who is never mentioned in the story? The person who labored to prepare the loaves and the fishes to begin with, probably the little boy’s mother. Out of five thousand people at least one person was proactive and made preparations to go see the Savior. An act of motherly love is the first and unseen essential element of this story. The next act that appears in the story is the unselfish nature of the little boy. I’m sure he was hungry. Don’t you think he thought about quietly slipping away to the sideline and consuming his meal? But that was not his response. He gave all he had that others would benefit.

Now don’t you think its funny (i.e. interesting funny not humorous funny) that Jesus gets all the attention for this “miracle.” Rightly so that the Savior gets the attention but the primary role of Jesus was to bless the gift and honor the preparation. At this instance He wasn't passing out something that He brought with Him.

Let’s relate this to our weekly worship. What do you think it would be like if we would spend the week before preparing for the time? Maybe the preparation is acts of service or kindness to others or maybe it’s simply making our personal quiet time a time of daily worship. Wouldn’t it be great if the Holy Spirit could during our corporate worship look around to see who came prepared, and collected the unselfish gift, and presented it to Jesus so that He could bless it. Can you imagine what worship time would be when God’s instruments (e.g. the Preacher, the singers, the musicians, etc.) passed out the shared blessings so that everyone was stuffed? You know the neat thing about that way of worship? The leftovers! What do you think happens with the leftovers? Why we take that with us and share it with those who weren’t there.

Here’s our challenge for the week. Will you be the one to prepare for worship this week? Will you be the one to bring something that can be a blessing to someone else and unselfishly offer it up for the benefit of everyone? God will be there. He wants to bless something. Will we have anything to offer?

When you think about this story in the future I want you to remember two components that hardly ever get mentioned; 1) somebody prepared the meal, 2) the satisfaction didn’t end with the meal; the leftovers kept on giving. These are not everyday leftovers. Leftovers from the master are better than the finest human cuisine that has ever been prepared.

See you in worship Sunday. Let’s bring something with us!