From the Pulpit: A Plate of Food, a Plate of Hope

Provost Jan Cope asks: How are you manifesting the love of God that resides in you?

In her sermon yesterday, Jan offers a meditation of Jesus’ last words to his disciples, and cites two examples of love in action:

If you knew that tomorrow would be your last day, what would your prayer to God be? What would you lift up? I want this idea to stay with you for just a bit. When I was thinking about the self-sacrificial love of Christ who did it all out of love for you and for me, I was reminded of a story I shared with you some years ago of a small village in France by the name of Le Chambon. This village of 2,500 people did something quite extraordinary.

During World War II, the French Huguenot pastor and his wife in that little village and some of their closest friends and church members committed together to try and save as many Jews during the Holocaust as they could. They hid them, they sheltered them, they fed them, they protected them, and they did so, knowing the consequences if they were discovered. They literally put their lives on the line to save others. In so doing, that one little village saved more lives, Jewish lives, than any other place in Europe. I think that the motto for that village was so beautifully captured in the inscription above the entrance of the doors to that church, which simply says, Love one another. They lived it, they embodied it.

Returning to the Cathedral, she has been thinking about the recent memorial service for the seven aid workers who died in Gaza while serving World Central Kitchen:

“Food is a universal human right. Feeding each other, cooking and eating together, is what makes us human,” she said, quoting World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres. “The dishes we cook and deliver are not just ingredients, or calories. A plate of food is a plate of hope. A message that someone, somewhere, cares for you.” There are so many ways that we can serve others— the real byproduct of the love of God in Christ that abides in each one of us. That love motivates us and leads us naturally to serve, to reach out.