In our Focus Text for this week, we hear John’s version of the Feeding Stories, which appear in all four Gospels. John’s is the only version that mentions the source of the little bit of bread and fish that end up feeding a multitude: a young boy in the crowd. John’s Gospel is reminder that God works with what we would likely dismiss as being too little to bother sharing. The Miracle Jesus performs begins when a little boy bothers enough to share, bothers to care, bothers to love. The Senior High Service Learning Trip students saw first hand the multitude of neighbors struggling in San Francisco, but instead of being overwhelmed they took action on a scale they could  handle: one meal served, one night at a shelter prepared, a simple outdoor project completed at one Bible Camp. Instead of making excuses for why we can’t help especially when the problem seems so big the Focus Text invites us to bother to take one small action for even just one person.

What is your go-to problem solving method? Careful, well-researched solutions that are known to work? Or do you charge in, throwing the kitchen sink at a problem because there are no bad solutions as long as it works? In our Focus Text we encounter people who approach problems in both these options. The friends of the paralytic man don’t stop until they reach Jesus even if that means cutting a hole in the roof! The Scribes are so set in their scholarly understanding of God that they don’t understand how God’s love works even when God is standing right in front of them. The solution Jesus offers is one grounded in the eternal promises, but at the same time taking immediate action to make us whole.

Has anyone famous come out of your hometown? In our Focus Text this week, Nathanael is convinced that nothing good has ever come out of Nazareth and God certainly wouldn’t send a Messiah there! And then he encounters Jesus of Nazareth and his whole idea of how God works is changed. Time after time God is using the ordinary to share the extraordinary love of AGAPe! Even if your hometown isn’t known for its celebrity, God is present working in & through the ordinary and in & through you!