Seed Change
Good Morning Friends,
With global climate change and growth in the human population and issues of water use around the world we could be headed into some very tough times. Mechanisms to assure food is available and accessible and nutritious for the people of this planet could become an even more serious challenge in the future.
When we dig deep into the Scriptures to cultivate an understanding of exactly what God’s justice would look like in the global food system it appears that God desires us to Seed Change.
Scripture: And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Genesis 2:16-17 (NRSV)
The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Exodus 16:3 (NRSV)
When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,
Deuteronomy 8:12-14 (NRSV)
Message: Christians have a culture of sharing their possessions in order to feed the hungry. Policy wonks call the focus ‘food security’, and the movement has been to ensure that all have sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. The systems in place have saved perhaps billions of people from starvation and yet in a way perpetuate a kind of oppression and tyranny as an unintended consequence. We cannot live by bread alone. In slavery the people of the Exodus had food security. The structure is so important. So what can we learn from scripture about this important issue. Let’s see…through the story of Adam we learn that God wants us to have food but desires for us to know its source and be part of its production. Part of the story of Joseph is about food security but also that it is more than storing up for a time of drought. The story of the Exodus is about helping us to learn that we cannot live by bread alone. The story about Manna is not taking more than one needs. Part of the story of the prodigal son is about hunger. Friends, people with faith in God have been involved in sharing in order to feed the hungry for a very long time and most people in the world for a variety of reasons do not have food sovereignty. The question for the future is to what extent does God want us to be self-reliant? Most of the people in the world are not able to produce enough food independently. Perhaps our God, who honors a balance of things, wants us to become more self-reliant, but still be in a relationship with others doing together what cannot be done alone. Friends there is strength in diversity. It is a sign of health.
Pray we realize that food is not only a source of health and substance, but an integral part of our relationship to creation and God. Pray we believe that it is God’s desire for people to have enough to eat. Pray as stewards of the land and seas that we work to maintain the greatest diversity possible so that abundance can prevail. Pray we not be greedy. Pray we help people be food secure while becoming more food sovereign.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 