One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a girl about your age picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the girl, he asked, “What are you doing?” She replied, “I’m throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” The man said, “There are hundreds of starfish on the miles of beach ahead, you can’t make a difference.”
After listening politely, the girl bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…” I made a difference for that one. Now, will you join me to save one more.”
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Let’s consider the worth of one another more highly than ourselves. The ancient scholars, the wisemen, followed the star to find Jesus. Let’s consider the starfish on our beaches, in our lives, that we can help get to a safer place.
Our message this week from Pastor Kevin builds upon the recent theme of Jesus as the Bread of Life. We will consider Paul’s advice to citizens in Ephesus about using language that lifts people up in love, and do everything we can to put our hands together to ensure that everyone experiences that love. Take a look at the photo above of two clasped hands across a wall separating the Protestant graveyard from the Roman Catholic graveyard in Holland. In 1880, Colonel van Gorkum died in Roermond, Holland, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery because even though his wife Lady van Aefferden was Catholic, neither could be buried together. A few years later she died, but instead of being buried in her family plot, she chose a secluded spot at the wall that separated the Protestants from the Catholics and commissioned some clasped hands to connect with her husband’s tombstone to her’s symbolizing their love and togetherness. Language matters and how we think and how we speak to each other has profound consequences. Let’s speak to each other with love and in dignity and respect. With communion between Protestants and Roman Catholics remaining “closed,” this photo is a powerful symbol both of how far we’ve come and how far we have to go to put our hands together.
Jesus walks in our shoes and shows us how to grow in our empathy for others by walking in another’s shoes.
The Gospel lesson (John 6:24-35) continues the image of Jesus as the bread of life. This is particularly fitting for communion Sunday when we gather at the table.