Multiplying Christ's Presence

We were ready for 350 people at our community Thanksgiving drive-by meal. We didn’t plan for quite enough. One car beat Ervin to the church, even though we had posted we would start handing out food at noon. I don’t know what time Ervin got here, but he was putting turkeys in the oven as early as 4:15 last month. You don’t simply beat Ervin to church on a day like our Thanksgiving meal. I had told Ervin we would have people showing up early, but neither of us expected anyone to be waiting when he arrived.

We had planned to go ahead and deliver plates as we had them ready, so as to keep down the number of cars in line. By noon, when we were supposed to start, we had sent 150 plates out the door. I made a few trips to Food Lion, as did Karen and at least a couple of others. We ran through our 550 clamshell take-out plates and Buckey managed to requisition us some more. Those 10 turkeys Ervin had cooked, cut, and heated up to serve were gone by 1:00 pm. Three extra hams and some rotisserie chicken filled in the gaps, along with instant mashed potatoes, newly purchased stuffing, two gallon cans of corn, and a four more gallons of green beans. Meanwhile, the line was still growing.

I started warning people in line not to go to Food Lion to buy coconut-pineapple cakes, as I had bought them out. When I headed out the door to calm expectations, we had filled and handed out over 700 plates of food. The 50 meals John and Diana had delivered started seeming like a drop in the bucket. The Stewart Street home picking up for them and another home whose van was broken down did not seem to make an impact on the number of plates going out the door.

In the kitchen, we were feeling a little stressed and overwhelmed. We were trying to keep as close as possible to ten people indoors, but we had only expected to do 1/3 of the business at hand. Our scouts ran plates to cars, checked how many plates eat car was requesting, delivered desserts to cars still waiting in line, along with flyers with information about Wingate UMC, including reference to my Thanksgiving message. Around 4:00, an hour after we had scheduled to be done, we set the last few cars away. We had finally run out of juice but got supplies to several families in line from the Blessings Box and other stores of food.

I don’t have a really good count, but we served between 850 and 900 plates of food, thanks to your giving and faithful service. Gene mentioned something about God multiplying our loaves and fishes, and indeed that is what happened. We made extra trips to the store. People brought in unexpected donations. Food Lion gave us another gift card. Members not expecting to cook found their way into the kitchen to create more potatoes, greens, green beans, corn, and stuffing. Adding it all up, we just about tripled the number of plates we expected to serve. When I got home, there was a message on Facebook by a stranger in the community who saw we had fed about 900 people. He brought us food to deliver a full Thanksgiving meal to a family in need. By my calculations, this congregation of about 55 people fed essentially 1/3 of Wingate’s population beyond the University.

One of the lessons here is that while the need around us is indeed great, greater than we might have imagined, there are also resources in God’s harvest. God can take what is in our hands and multiply it to meet the needs around us. All we really have to do is make ourselves available. We don’t know how it will all work out. I don’t know who all brought in food at the last minute. I know that some of the food I bought at Food Lion did not even get cooked to serve. We still sent more than one family home with the makings of another meal.

The scouts helped clean up. Kurt washed dishes (to no one’s surprise!). The tables in the fellowship hall were wiped down and moved aside to clear room for Sunday school and Bible study gatherings. Ervin’s desk table was put back in place. People went home tired and happy. Several left our fellowship hall not having eaten all day but filled from the opportunity to serve this community in which God has placed us. We got to see something of what it means for God’s Reign to find its room into our lives and offer grace, mercy, compassion, love, and acceptance to the larger community.

May the advent of Christ’s presence within us continue multiplying the loaves and fishes in our hands as we offer of ourselves to the community around us as emissaries of Christ Jesus.


— ©Copyright 2020, Christopher B. Harbin

http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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