Let us feed every body, every soul

I once heard an African Anglican bishop at a church camp for junior high students. He spoke about those things that we use to separate ourselves in negative ways from one another. He had an engaging teaching method and soon we had created a long list of things we thought were the culprits, such as skin color, money or our different denominations.

He listened patiently and then said that as far as he could tell, the only thing that really does separate us into groups is our different blood types. He noted that certain blood types are incompatible with other blood types when there is a need for someone to have a life-saving transfusion! I remember his tongue-in-cheek suggestion that we should have our blood type tattooed on our hands so we would know who to be around and who was incompatible with us.

We do separate ourselves in all kinds of ways until there is a crisis. Then we put aside our differences and work together.

I am interested in the food miracles of Jesus, including the feedings of large crowds, such as in Matthew 14:13-21. Jesus had been teaching a large crowd of people when the disciples interrupted him and announced it was time for supper. They directed Jesus to send the people away so they could go to neighboring villages and get something to eat. Jesus said, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat."

They replied, "We only have five barley loaves and two fish." Jesus blessed the food and it fed all the people, and there were a lot of leftovers.

Jesus had been feeding the people spiritual food. The Bible and the interpretation of the stories were at that time called "food." The people were spiritually full. But physical hunger also hurts, and true hunger, defined as the lack of any expectation of ever eating again, really hurts. The closest I have ever come to understanding true hunger is through conversations with men and some women who had once been prisoners of war.

The feeding of the soul and the body is a healing ministry. Healing brings with it hope that can empower us to open up our eyes and see new possibilities. Divine healing reconnects our hearts and souls, which may have been separated by a hunger, be it physical or spiritual.

When it was recently announced that there was a critical need for food donations at Helping Hands, we responded in a good, healthy way and did not withhold our love and affection from those in need. We lived again into calling to be neighbors of all of God's people.

I am often asked, why do you live in northwest Arkansas? It is because we have hearing hearts and are willing to make unconditional sacrifices for one another. That's a gift and a rare treasure I don't intend to give up.

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Parks is rector of St. Theodore's Episcopal Church in Bella Vista. He can be reached by email to [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column don't necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper.

Religion on 08/06/2014