This Sunday's reading from the Gospel according to John, chapter 6, tells the well-known story of Jesus feeding the 5000 from the meager offerings of a young boy in the crowd. Before reading the following piece, I had never considered the woman who must have baked those 5 simple loaves. I love a fresh perspective!
"Just a Housewife"
by Cordelia Baker-Pearce
I packed five cakes of bread and two small fishes,
Sent him off, my youngest lad,
To take his father's dinner to the field.
Came back alone he did, all goggle-eyed.
Came back alone he did, all goggle-eyed.
My fresh-baked bread that varmint gave away
To some young travelling preacher out of Galilee.
It fed five thousand people.What a tale!
It fed five thousand people.What a tale!
It can't be true... but if it is,
What kind of dough did these hands knead
This morning?
She baked holy bread for holy people
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3 comments:
What a splendid little piece!
thank you!
Hey you! Ooops I'm SO informal with someone I barely know. But I've known Anita for enough years, and I've met you once to know you're a cool chick, to think I'll get away with it. I added your blog to my Favorites under Senses Sixth folder and will check back to see what's new.
Roberta, I like this thought, especially since it's so well written. But here's yet another thought. Bread back then was often baked just as it was in Greek villages until a few years ago - in an outdoor, wood-fired oven. You burned wood or brush in the oven with the oven sealed up, to get the rock and mud oven hot. Then you raked out the coals and ash and put in the bread or whatever else you were baking. Sometimes you had your own oven. Sometimes you took the dough to the village oven, or you traded with the baker to get the bread. Often it was a man, not a woman, who did the bread preparation. And often you only fired up the oven once a week or once every two weeks, baking enough bread for many days. Our oven behind the house on the island can bake maybe 20 big loaves, and it was meant to serve only one family. So what's this all mean? It means a beautiful, miraculous thing happened with the most common of material. Something everybody had, to which nobody paid attention, became a miracle because of our needs and Jesus' compassion. And what about the fish? Isn't it neat to think about who may have netted them - another everyday staple that served a much higher purpose. Didn't mean to get so wound up, but maybe it's our everyday staples, the common things about us, that can be part of miracles when there's need and when we accept the power to change them.
Give us this day our daily bread - Amen! Love, Brad
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