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Bread and Broth for the Soul: Week 1

As we begin our journey through Lent, we sense that it is still not safe enough for us to gather on Wednesday evenings, sharing food and fellowship around the tables. In place of that favorite time-honored tradition (which, according to my memory, we have been doing for at least fifteen years), we would like to offer you some “Bread and Broth for the Soul.”

Each Wednesday during the five weeks of Lent we will send out these weekly words, lifting a different theme for reflection and posting a video message on our website. Our program will be “Sensing the Passion,” and each week we will consider a new sense:

Sight (Seeing is Believing)
Sound (Blessed are Those Who Hear)
Smell (An Odor Pleasing to the Lord)
Touch (Who Touched Me)
Taste (Taste and See that the Lord is good)

Tonight we invite you to picture people gathering in the Purple Room. Imagine the tables set with purple tablecloths and place settings…utensils, napkins, salt and pepper shakers, candles. Imagine bread baskets lined with purple fabric and filled with a variety of breads…a basket at the door receiving gifts to the America for Christ offering. Imagine friends and families greeting one another, getting caught up on the week’s events…taking time to share prayer concerns and thank those who have provided the meal.

Perhaps Peg Straub made chicken noodle soup, or Pat Tootell made Butternut Squash soup. Perhaps Gail Neff brought the bread, or Marilyn Benson made the cheddar biscuits. Picture the kitchen crew preparing and moving among us, serving hot bowls of nourishment. Picture the many faces as we say grace, enjoy the meal, have conversation, and pray. Picture the single sheet of paper on each table, suggesting topics for table talk, asking…What do we see these days? What are we NOT able to see? What does God want us to see?

God, we give thanks for the gift of sight. May we use it to see more clearly.
Let us be joyful for the many shades of light and color which it can discern.
May we remember that our view is one view.
Even when it becomes part of a broader picture,
let us recall it is never the complete, overall view.
We give thanks for the Savior,
for Jesus’ vision of purpose and Jesus’ compassionate sight on us.
May the power of your sustaining Spirit bring what we see into the unifying vision of you…
We ask this through our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.
(By Kevin Scully)