{"id":20584,"date":"2023-02-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotionsaturday-25-february-2023"},"modified":"2023-02-25T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-saturday-25-february-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-saturday-25-february-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Saturday 25 February 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

 St Matthew 15: 29 – 39<\/strong><\/p>\n

After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, \u2018I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.\u2019  The disciples said to him, \u2018Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?\u2019  Jesus asked them, \u2018How many loaves have you?\u2019 They said, \u2018Seven, and a few small fish.\u2019  Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground,  he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.  Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children.  After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018How many loaves have you?\u2019  Jesus has spent time healing the crowds, but he sees they have other needs.  They are hungry.  He asks the disciples, \u2018What can you do to help these people?\u2019  <\/span><\/p>\n

The disciples may be a bit surprised.  Perhaps they think, \u2018Hmm, we only brought enough for our dinner!\u2019  Someone thinks quickly, adding what they have together, and answers Jesus, \u2018Seven loaves and a few SMALL fish.\u2019  Translation:  \u2018Really, we don\u2019t have much, Lord, this is ALL we have to offer.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s enough for Jesus.  He somehow gets the attention of the crowd, orders them to sit (imagine a wave of thousands of people slowly sitting down) and offers the food.  It\u2019s enough for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Corporately, we have lurched from one crisis to another in the last three years.  Personally, we may be facing a crisis.  If this is the case, we may feel we have nothing left to give.  \u2018I can barely make it through the day, what can I do for someone else?\u2019  In addition, as churches, our resources may be fewer than they were 3 or 13 years ago.  We are older; we are tired.  We have less money in our savings. \u2018What can we do for someone else?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe this is how the disciples felt.  \u2018Jesus does such an amazing job, what can we offer in the midst of these healing moments?\u2019  Jesus simply asks them to see the needs of the crowd, look at what they have and offer it with thankful hearts.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are faced with crowds in need. What are we doing in response? We have buildings which we can open to offer people warm spaces and safe gatherings.  We have an extra few cans in our shopping carts for the food bank.  What else do we have, that we perhaps take for granted, that we can share? <\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Living Lord, we thank you for the healing you bring to the life of the world.  For those who dedicate their lives to bring healing through medicine, for the carers who work in homes and care homes, we thank you.  Give us wisdom to see into our own lives and offer what we can, however simple, to provide for the needs of your people.  Amen.<\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 St Matthew 15: 29 – 39 After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion\u00a0Saturday 25 February 2023”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}