Sacred Texts

August 4, 2002
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob Wrestles

On my fiftieth birthday I had determined to go around Presque Isle, a park sticking out into Lake Superior. A snow storm, on the way to becoming a blizzard, blew into town. I would need to ski around, not just walk. As I got about halfway around, I began to realize that I had bitten off just about all that I could chew. The last stretch, dark and into the wind, was rough going. Even once back at the car, it was not easy driving in the snow storm. We think of nature as lovely and bountiful, and so it is. Now and then we are reminded, like Jacob, that life/creation/God is bigger than we are. If we are smart we dive in, but with a certain caution and respect. -cw

Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus feeds 5,000 people
(In fact 5,000 men - no one bothered to count the women and children!)

The crowd was there on the lake shore, and when they were hungry, Jesus instructed the disciples to feed them. The disciples objected that they had only 5 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus broke the bread and fed everyone with plenty to spare. A miracle!

But that one miracle should not keep us from seeing the other miracles - there was water, there were fish, there was green grass to sit down on, there was the blue sky to look up into. Creation itself cries out "miracle" just by being there, long before "being useful." Can you picture your favorite meadow along the Lake Superior shoreline? Is it not a miracle? -cw

A prayer

Dear God,
what a blessing it is to live next to Lake Superior, cooling us in the summer, warming us in the winter, making just enough storms of autumn and lake effect snow to remind us of your awesome power. Thank you for the miracle we have named "Lake Superior". Amen. -cw

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