9th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 13A Rev. Melanie Lemburg

               This week, while on vacation, I read a poem about hope.  It reminds me of today’s gospel reading, the story when Jesus feeds over 5, 000 people with a few loaves of bread and some fish.  The poem is by a poet named Denise Levertov and it is titled:

A Shared Grain of Hope –

 I have a small grain of hope—

one small crystal that gleams

clear colors out of transparency.

 

I need more.

 

I break off a fragment

to send you.

 

Please take

this grain of a grain of hope

so that mine won’t shrink.

 

Please share your fragment

so that yours will grow.

 

Only so, by division,

will hope increase,

 

like a clump of irises, which will cease to flower

unless you distribute

the clustered roots, unlikely source—

clumsy and earth-covered—

of grace.[i]

 

        Think for a minute about the desperation of the crowds, who follow Jesus to a place that is so remote, where they are so unprepared as to not have brought food for themselves and their families.  Think about the disciples, who are at their wits’ end in knowing what to do for and with these people.  Think about Jesus as he calmly tells the disciples to give the people something to eat.  Think about the hope of whomever offered their small basket of food; think about the hope this shared with the disciples to even consider offering it to Jesus.  Think about the gift of the abundance of the food offered out of that hope, how it was spread and shared until all were filled and the leftovers were gathered.

        In a moment, I’m going to read the poem again, and as I read it, I invite you to think about what small bit of hope you have to offer the world this week, and think about asking God to open your heart to how you might share a sliver of it so that it becomes an abundance. 

       

---

[i] –Denise Levertov, “For the New Year, 1981”, Candles in Babylon