If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so. . . Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”
(Deuteronomy 5:7 - 11)
In the December 2014 issue of The Lutheran, Peter M. Marty wrote a challenging, compelling article entitled Permanently Poor. (Page 3) If you missed reading it, I urge you to do so. I read in his article that 17.5% million American households live with “food insecurity” every day. What a sad statistic for a land where food goes bad in refrigerator because there is too much there to eat, where restaurants serve gigantic portions of which large amounts of the left overs are thrown away in garbage cans, and where grocery stores are so large they take over an hour just to walk the aisles and where the amount of selections to choose from is overwhelming.
Whatever ideas you may have, one thing remains central to this story — Jesus’ birth affected the whole world! Kings were threatened. Travelers from afar made their way across long distances to pay homage to God in the flesh. The natural order of things was upended. The light of Christ came into the world and shone throughout the heavens for all to see.
Peter Marty says those in poverty need to be loved. Feeding hungry children, and adults, is an important way to show our love. During the year, some of the members of our congregation help feed the hungry by donating money to the World Hunger campaign. Some do so on a regular basis, others in a lump sum, and some when the Social Ministry Committee provides special envelopes requesting donations for the campaign. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every member would provide a contribution at least one time a year in support of World Hunger efforts? It would be a wonderful way to show our love.
On Thanksgiving Eve, many of our congregation bring bags of non-perishable food to the service. This bounty is taken to Redeemer Lutheran Church for their food pantry where it is gratefully received. But, very quickly that food is consumed and people continue to be hungry. On an on-going basis, the APLC Social Ministry Committee collects food for Redeemer’s food pantry and baskets to collect the non-perishable food are always standing in the narthex waiting to be filled. A small group of members make it a routine to bring food to put in the baskets. Seldom are these baskets filled. Whatever is donated is taken down to the Trenton Lutheran Church monthly by volunteers from APLC. It is not too late to make another New Year’s resolution. Resolve to bring a donation of non-perishable food when you attend service. I challenge you to budget a weekly amount to spend purchasing non-perishable food for the waiting collection baskets. Together we can make the amount collected weekly overflow the baskets rather than only at Thanksgiving time.
Prod us, Lord, to feed our hungry brothers and sisters. We know they need us to show them our love and realize that knowing of their need is not enough.
Contributed by Nancy
Monday January 12, 2015
Liturgical Year: B Week 7
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading: Epiphany1
First Sunday after the Epiphany