When the day was almost over, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so that they can go to the nearby villages and countryside and find lodging and food, because we are in a deserted place.”
He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
Luke 9:12-13
most of these photographs by Katherine Peiper
Sunday afternoon I was invited to visit the amazing Giving Garden at Wake Forest Presbyterian Church. After my mum’s death in September, a number of generous memorials were given and almost $1,000 was raised for the creative hands-on ministry that produces literally tons of food each year in support of local hunger initiatives.
To that end, a new apple tree was also being planted in honor of my parents. It is a Bramley, Dad’s favorite. “The Bramley is without doubt,” the dictionary says, “the definitive English cooking apple.”
So I was invited to be there, to help plant the tree, and to say a couple of things to the middle grade youth volunteering in the garden.
Victory!
I told the kids about the apple orchard behind the house where my dad grew up in Rayleigh, Essex (just east of London), about how my Grandma Maul’s green thumb grew so many vegetables, and about how even in East London my Kemp grandparents were able to grow and grow and grow vegetables, contributing to the war effort by helping to feed their neighbors while the city around them was being destroyed.
They called these vegetable plots “Victory Gardens!” They were huge morale boosters, especially during the dark days of the Blitz when it seemed the bombs would never stop dropping, and the ships carrying supplies were being sunk, one after the other and every day, by U-Boat torpedoes.
“This is a victory garden,” I told the youth. “Because this church is declaring war on hunger! And when you are digging and planting and weeding and sharing, you are working to stop hunger dead in its tracks!”
Of course it’s not only nutritious food that people are hungry for. This world is hungry for peace, and hungry for meaning, and hungry for justice, and hungry – most of all – for something they can believe in.
In a word, this world is hungry for Jesus.
So why is it that, in this the most affluent and powerful nation in history, we invest so much time and effort and focus and money steering people away from the Good News? Why do we seem to value all the things that, “moths eat and rust destroys…”? Why do we follow people and align ourselves with ideologies that promote the exact opposite of the teachings of Jesus?
Jesus values the meek; Jesus supports those who promote justice and righteousness; Jesus stands behind those who are merciful, and pure of heart; Jesus blessed – Jesus blesses – those who “work for peace.”
Blessed are the meek,
Jesus: Matthew 5:5-9
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
