I admire the church vestry I heard about that had an annual ritual each January. If the treasurer reported that they had taken in more money than it cost them to keep their ministry functioning, they, with great joy, threw a check writing party. They brought in dinner, opened up a bottle of wine, and proceeded to distribute the past years surplus to any worthy charity they could think of. They figured that God had blessed them with a good year they had been given more than enough they needed why not share the abundance with others. Certainly we will need to anticipate large capital costs in the future, such as the rather expensive and aging slate roof overhead, yet the church I mentioned and its annual check writing party is a witness to God s promise to provide.
Society is no help.
My generation has been downright spooked to believe that Social Security will all but dry up when we get to the age of retirement an age that gets pushed higher and higher. We can do quite an effective job throughout of lives us holding up to God our sins, bad decisions, our blemishes, our seemingly unforgivable sins, the shame of our deepest secrets. Yet, after a life of pointing our shortcomings, of looking down instead of looking up and out, of holding back instead of giving in, we become very thick skinned to the truth of what Jesus was trying to convey by feeding so many people with such little food. There s enough to go around. God s grace will not run out.