Ordering food

You can hear them now.

"So let me get this straight.

They come to Him,

listen to Him for hours

and they still get hungry?

Why go through the business

of multiplying loaves and fishes?

Why not just stop them 

from being hungry

in the first place?"

[PAUSE]

It's an objection

we hear many give

as their reason for 

why they do not believe 

in God.

Indeed, David Attenborough 

says that he can't believe 

in a God that created parasites 

that would infest small children.

It's all very well 

that Our Lord

walks among us 

and helps those 

suffering from hunger,

illness and even death.

But why didn't he

stop hunger, illness and death

to begin with?

[PAUSE]

As Christians,

we have to accept 

that any answer we give

will not address the whole

problem of our pain.

What we do have to accept 

is the responsibility that we hear

for the way that things are.

For example,

if everyone looked after each other

and only consumed what they needed

and did not hoard things up,

there would be no need of money,

there would be no starving millions

there would be no people living in places 

where they might get 

infected by parasites.

If everyone loved each other

and trusted each other

and valued the trust 

others have in them,

the world would be a better place.

[PAUSE]

God's order of creation works

but we suffer 

when we corrupt it ourselves.

And we corrupted it 

from the beginning 

when we took the fruit 

at the instigation

of the Wicked Serpent.

Once we add

the chaos of our own selfishness 

into the order of God's Creation 

then it is no wonder that

there is poverty, illness and death.

[PAUSE]

But then, God loves us

and He wants us to be free

so it is out of Love 

that He allows us

to live in the consequences 

of our freedom

and yet He Himself

enters in to the chaos

we have caused 

to show us that

if we love Him

if we trust Him

if we follow and obey Him

we can find our way back 

to a universe 

that is ordered to joy

not just despite our free will

but because of our free will.

God gives grace to us all

to endure and learn from

the follies of this life.

He does not forget the hungry

but perhaps we should not

forget the hungry either 

and feed them 

because we love them.

He does not change 

the habits of parasites

but perhaps 

we need to find ways

if living our lives

so that no child lives

in places or conditions 

where they can be infected 

by parasites.

Perhaps we need to use

what God has given us

to treat all those who are ill.

Perhaps we need to live lives

so that we can prevent 

painful sufferings and

painful deaths.

[PAUSE]

While this sounds

like we're the ones to blame

for the disorder in the world 

we should remember that

we are affected by the disorder 

we inherit from those

who came before.

This is not a blame game.

God isn't here to condemn us

for not giving enough to the poor

or to charities that care for the sick.

Guilt is not something 

God wants for us.

So instead He feeds us

He shows us that His love

for us never stops

bur rather we should 

learn to love each other

as best we can,

limited though we may be 

in this fallen world.

We do what we can.

That's okay.

But we do it

with prayer 

and pleading 

for the bread of life 

to help us

and to nourish those

who are hungry.

If we just keep praying 

keep loving 

keep serving God

to the best of our 

abilities 

then we will have done

what we can.

We will have given

our paltry loaves 

and our scrawny little fish 

into those pierced hands 

and God will do the rest.

God will always 

order good food

for His children.

Sometimes we just need 

to go and collect it.