By Rev. Brent Salsgiver
Recently, I found myself stuck in my office for 45 minutes staring at a computer screen as someone talked. Like most of you, I have had to adapt to online meetings, online worship, and of course, online school. However, on this particular day I would rather have been outside with the people of Paxton UMC handing out free chicken dinners. The meeting was mandatory, but there are times when being a Christian can be really fun.
The day looked so different than the day we originally planned a few months prior, before our lives were turned upside down by the pandemic. We wanted to feed those who are hungry but we also needed money. Then COVID-19 came into our lives. Like many of us, we watched from our windows as we saw essential workers taking on this pandemic. We saw our community step up as doctors, nurses, nursing home staff, ambulance drivers, trash companies, delivery workers, and so many others took this pandemic on as they served, protected, and cared for us. As the pandemic grew, so did our realization that a chicken dinner fundraiser was not an option. We pushed the date back once, twice, and maybe three times.
Then a member of our leadership team sent an email. He said that God had been annoying him for the previous couple of days. He said his idea was crazy and probably wouldn’t work, but he wanted the church to buy the 400 chicken dinners we planned to sell and give them away to those who were so essential. It took the twelve members of our leadership team a few days before God started annoying us. We quickly began to see that in fact, God was calling us to do something unconventional and feed those around us who have taken care of us during this pandemic. As a pastor, these are the God-moments that are amazing and fun to watch.
A few days later we all sat together and realized that God was giving us an opportunity to live out Jesus’ mandate to love others and feed those who are hungry. It wasn’t hard to see that if we were going to live out a practical day to day faith than we needed to take seriously the story of the feeding of the 5,000. This is when Jesus sat in a field and fed over 5,000 people with nothing more than a few fish and loaves of bread. Before this miracle, Jesus’ close followers, his twelve disciples, wanted to send the people away to eat. However, Jesus had other plans. He wanted the disciples to feed them. They pleaded with Jesus to send the people away, but Jesus said to his followers “You feed them”. They were shaken because prior to Jesus, the idea of helping had barriers and who you should help had restrictions. However, Jesus came preaching a message of love for all, without restrictions. This mandate hasn’t changed. We are still called to love all and care for our neighbors especially during trying times like this.
So there I was, stuck in a zoom meeting as the people of Paxton handed out 530 (we had to order more) chicken dinners to those who were working so hard during this pandemic. I could hear people laughing as visitors drove up with their tickets and picked up their chicken dinners. Someone came into my office and told me about a delivery that was made to a local fire station and the shared love that was felt as they dropped off two dozen chicken dinners. As they left, I saw their beaming smile and once again was reminded that Jesus knew what he was talking about.
We admit that we are just a group “of imperfect people doing our best to Know, Love, and Serve God.” We know that we probably missed some people and for that we apologize. If we could, we would have bought more. We are just a small part of our community doing our best to take care of one another. Like everyone, we are scared, annoyed, tired, and masked. However, on this day we realized that when we intentionally live out Jesus’ mandate to love and take care of one another, all of those negative feelings begin to lessen. We see that we aren’t alone and that when we come together, we are so much better than being alone.
I am thankful for chicken dinners, even when they don’t bring in money. I am thankful for every person who had to work while the rest of us had the opportunity to quarantine. I am thankful for zoom meetings that allow me to sit back and see God at work. And I am thankful for this community that is so amazing when we come together.
