Have you ever seen one of those “hoarder shows” on TV?
They’re kind of fascinating, but they’re also kind of upsetting.
Reality television is largely a case-in-point that truth, or at least “real life,” is stranger than fiction. When I was watching, I was about to totally disengage with the lives on the screen, till a behavioral psychologist came on. It seems that these professionals’ main role is to get to the bottom of some fundamental problem of “enough-ness” in their patient.
I can connect with this issue. The old man on the program hoarded because, in his estimation, there was a good chance that at some point there just was not going to be enough. He held onto things and food and memories because he didn’t believe that the future will be so kind to him.
The sad irony was that this holding onto resulted in him being threatened with losing his home because it was dangerous, losing his relationships because he had alienated the people closest to him, and losing his own possessions because of rust, corrosion and rot.
Sunday we’ll explore a famous passage in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 6:30-44), but common to all four accounts, about Jesus feeding more than 5.000 people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. Sounds suspicious given the lack of “enough-ness” in Jesus’ camp.
We get the privilege of not only hearing the good news about how Jesus manages this, but we also get to participate in a meal of communion together, remembering another dramatic moment when Jesus fed his disciples with bread. Look forward to seeing you then.