A MESSAGE FROM REV. DR. STEPHEN SIMMONS: THAT ALL MAY BE NOURISHED
“Food, glorious food!” sing the street urchins in the Broadway musical Oliver. While we may not be in their desperate circumstances, we can all relate. Food is basic to our existence, both physically and emotionally. “Let’s do lunch” is an invitation, not only to chow down, but to deepen a friendship. Family gatherings generally center around a festive meal. For people of faith, food is a reminder of God’s good creation and provision for our needs.
This past week, our Canadian friends celebrated 
Thanksgiving, and Wednesday marked both United Nations World Food Day and the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates God’s care for his people during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness following the Exodus.
The Lord’s Table is central to our understanding of Christianity (a good argument could be made that it is, in fact, the core symbol of our faith), highlighting as it does Jesus’s self-giving on behalf of the world, our continuing need for physical and spiritual nourishment, and our hope for a new creation when “people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God.” And from the earliest days Christians have understood that we have a commission to extend that table to all, and especially to those who lack their daily bread.
Taking up that call, our congregation actively participates in a variety of food-related ministries, from the recent CROP Hunger Walk, to the Bread for the World Offering of Letters, to Meals on Wheels, in gratitude for God’s bounty.
We also help to support local agencies like Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering and New Bethany (did you know that New Bethany recently opened a “Choice Food Pantry” that makes it possible for people experiencing food insecurity to make their own food choices in a market-like setting?). Our church is also an organizational, founding member-owner of the Bethlehem Co-op Market (formerly the Bethlehem Food Co-Op), and many in our congregation are household member-owners. And we host the Blank Slate CommUNITY Garden, providing fresh produce to area food pantries.
So, as we anticipate the coming season of feasting and festivity, let’s be united in remembering that “all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above,” and so “thank the Lord for all his love” as we pass those gifts along to a world that is hungry for food, faith, and fellowship, that all may be nourished.
Blessings,
Steve