Gleanings, leftovers and making our neighbors a priority...

As I left this morning, it was overcast but not yet raining.  I set up my GPS, plugged in my Kindle and got the new GoPro camera all ready to record. As of today, I have been serving this little church in Pine Bluff, AR for a year.

First Cumberland Presbyterian Church

I started as intermittent pulpit supply on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2013. I became the sole supply in March of this year and was officially recognized as stated supply in September. It's been a great learning experience and I've had a fantastic time!

I know how to get to the church and to get home but I use my GPS for a variety of reasons.  I like knowing how much farther I have to go and whether I'm on track to arrive on time.  The added bonus is finding different routes to come home. At a minimum, the trip is 3 hours in one direction.

Today there was a delay on the interstate due to construction. That last part is a guess, but construction delays are what caused me to begin looking for alternate routes in the first place.  My GPS alerted me to the delay and offered a shorter route home.

This route took me through quite a lot of farmland. I drove through rain and was struck by the complete transformation of the scenery over the last couple of weeks.  The rain and cold have taken their toll and the majority of the trees are now bare of leaves.

I had expected to see flocks of little black birds which swoop and dive in waves across the sky. I was hoping to catch some of these flights with my new GoPro video camera.  Because of the rain, however, the birds were mostly grounded. There were several fields filled with large white geese and small black birds.  Hundreds of birds had descended on these fields and I can only imagine that they are taking advantage of the abundance left after harvest.

This brought to mind the idea of gleaning that we read about in the Old Testament. God gave instruction to Moses saying:

Lev 23:22  When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the LORD your God.

During this week of Thanksgiving, many of us will find ourselves with an abundance of food. Are we working to find ways to share this abundance?  Are we, instead of leaving just gleanings to the poor, offering our best?  Today's lectionary Gospel reading from Matthew challenged us to see Christ in the hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned and the stranger.  If we see Christ in the "other", then shouldn't we be offering the best rather than just the leftovers?  What about our "leftover" time or money. Caring for and loving our neighbor means that we must not relegate them to being just an afterthought.  How are you making your neighbor a priority?