ROJ Summer Focus

River of Joy’s missional focus for this summer is quite simply to feed people who are hungry. We certainly have no grand illusions that we are going to wipe out hunger in Scott County. We realize that our efforts will probably amount to a small ripple in an increasingly expanding pond of poverty in the south metro area. But nonetheless, we are inclined to answer Jesus’ call in Matthew 25 to feed those who are hungry. In this beautiful scripture, Jesus goes so far as to tell us that when we feed people who are hungry; we are actually feeding him.

This focus on feeding those who are hungry has expressed itself in a variety of forms within River of Joy this summer. We have recently purchased an enclosed utility trailer to be used as a portable food pantry for the collection, transportation, and distribution of food in our community. We have packed meals at Feed My Starving Children together, served meals at Dakota Woodlands (a women’s homeless shelter in Eagan), planted a garden that we tend together with the intent of donating the food to community food shelves. We are providing a portion of our offering to world hunger relief, and we are collecting food at gatherings in our neighborhoods.

But how is it, that the providing of food to the hungry in these ways feeds Jesus himself? Isn’t Jesus just speaking broadly in this text about our need to take care of our neighbor? He can’t really mean that feeding those who are hungry introduces us to Jesus himself? Can he? This food might go to a Muslim, or a Hindu, or an atheist. How does that feed Jesus?

When we take Jesus at his word and do as he asks, Jesus is fed in two ways. First, the spirit of Christ in the world is fed and nourished for growth when we step across cultural, economic, social, and religious boundaries as he has directed us to do. In his biblical ministry, Jesus is constantly crossing these lines to tend to the needs of those who are of different socio-religious and cultural backgrounds. And as he crosses these lines he frequently challenges the origin and validity of their very existence. When we engage the world with this same need focused boundary crossing emphasis, Jesus’ life giving Spirit is fed and grows in the world around us. As we allow the boundary crossing Spirit of Christ to work through us, the Spirit’s presence in the world is more readily known.

But the Spirit of Christ is not only fed and nourished for growth in the world when we answer Jesus call; Jesus’ Spirit is also fed, nourished and grows inside those who are answering the call to action. This is the second way that Christ himself is fed in our feeding of others. When we feed others, we are actually feeding Christ within us and nourishing our own spiritual growth. When we feed God’s starving children in the world (and in Scott County!), we are actually feeding Christ himself within us and providing sustenance for our own spiritual growth.

In the end, hungry people get food to eat; the Spirit of Christ is magnified and glorified in the corner of the world in which we live; and the Spirit of Christ is nourished and grows within us.