Gatherings

    Earlier this week I participating in the Virginia Annual Conference of the UMC, which is a gathering of pastors and laity from across our state to share in worship, church business, and fellowship.  This Sunday at Bonsack UMC, we are doing something different, and instead of our usual two worship services, we will all be meeting for Sunday School at 9 then worship together at 10:15.  Every Friday morning I gather with a group of men from the church to share in breakfast and Bible study.  Through it all, what I am reminded is that there is power in gathering together.
    We live in a society that moves quickly and is easily distracted.  Part of this has to do with the increase of technology and the “shrinking of the world,” but it also has to do with the increased prominence of individuality and tendency toward self-focus that pervades.  As such we find ourselves easily caught up in facebook, twitter, and blogs.  We see the world through OUR lenses and are blind to the needs of others.  We focus on our desires and wants, and we so easily forget that others have desires and wants, or even that their needs are more important than our wishes.  But there is something about coming together in a gathering which can break us out of these tendencies.
    Yes, Annual Conference is not always the most thrilling of events, but in being together I have the opportunity to hear of other ministries and see how God is working outside Western VA.  Coming together for one service may or may not be something that everyone will like (we’ll see), but it is a chance to see the larger body of people devoted to Christ through this church.  Getting to a 6:30 breakfast may cause us to lose a little sleep and cost some money, but in the midst of the interaction, in simply being together week after week, we experience something different.  In all of these we experience God in a different way.

   Recounted in more than one of the Gospels, Jesus is with his disciples, and they are surrounded by people.  All up and down the hillside are folks who have come to hear him preach, and preach he did. So long that it was supper time.    
    Jesus looked to the disciples and said, “Feed them.”  The disciples would have rather sent them home then invited them to return the next day, but Jesus would have none of that.  Instead, they find some fish and some bread.  Jesus blesses the food then tells them again, “Feed them.”  And feed them they did...feed them HE did.  Over 5000 were fed, and there were 12 baskets left over.

    Seems to me, this is an example of what happens at a gathering when Jesus is present.  Jesus said that “when two or three were gathered in His name, that He’d be there,” so when more come, how much more present can He be? 
    Whether it’s the larger body of the Church or a small ragtag group of journeyers, when there is a gathering, He’s with us.  But even more so, when we all come together and all focus ourselves, open ourselves and really look and listen, in the midst of and through those gatherings, Jesus feeds us...with leftovers to share.