Sermon – Something’s in the Oven
Leviticus 19:9-18; Acts 6:1-7
10/11/2026
Just to be clear, I probably should have specified Something “GOOD” in the Oven as the sermon title. It occurred to me after the fact that it could sound a little like a Hansel and Gretel scenario, especially as we near Halloween, and I do not need anyone wondering if there are things in oven that have no business being there. Here is my disclaimer: no young people were baked in the writing of this sermon. On the flip side, there are some pretty tasty things in the oven from time to time. What’s in the oven today is something downright important to us as people in Christ.
This is about food. I love that food has been one of the most basic forms of ministry from the very beginning of time. Human beings did not survive by refusing to share what we had with others. When one person had food and another person needed food, something beautiful and deeply important could happen. When one person needed help to hunt or to gather or to plant or to harvest, something wonderful and life-giving could happen. Most certainly, it did not happen all the time that one person would help feed another. It did not always happen back then, and it does not always happen today. Far too many people right now in this moment are hungry or are even dying of starvation. Malnutrition is a problem for God’s children through much of the world, yet we also have a history of sharing food with others and making sure those who are in need of food have something to eat.
This may seem terribly obvious and simple. Many of you have taken food to someone else in times of need. Your delivered meals were ministry and one of the most important ministries that we share as God’s children. Meals and table fellowship are also very important to us. You know those covered dish dinners that we love so much? This is also ministry. This is the work of God’s people to create special blessing between us. With the potato bar coming this Wednesday and the tremendous opportunity to give this service to the community through food, it is worth considering how just by sharing food we can live out our God-given love for others. Make no mistake: this potato bar is love for our neighbor. It is not about just being nice or staying busy or trying to impress. Serving food embraces what it means to be human. This is a gift of God that we are able to extend. Lives can literally be saved with sharing food.
In the Book of Ruth, our hero Ruth is in poverty and ruin. She and her mother-in-law, Naomi, are forced to beg for food after the rest of their family dies or leaves. Because it is a harvest time, there is a good option for gathering food, however. She is able to glean. They arrive at the fields of Boaz, and since Boaz has left the edges of his fields unharvested, there is still grain there waiting for someone to collect it. That is the gift of gleaning, and it is meant to be the most basic form of providing for others. That remaining grain can help the poorest survive. Ruth is one of those for whom gleaning means life. Boaz takes notice of her and makes sure she has what she needs and is safe. The gift of gleaning was not an accident. All who farmed were directed by God to leave the edges unharvested. That command is in the same passage that I read last week, so we get to hear it twice in a row, but that is fine as the whole section is on the love of neighbors. Leaving food for our neighbors is clearly a critical way to show them we love them.
Some of our best stories in the Bible are about feeding others: from the Sidonian widow who was almost out of food completely until the prophet Elijah stayed with her and miraculously made sure she and her son always had enough for another day to Isaac looking to bless Esau after a meal and Jacob giving the food instead to Jospeh feeding his family and giving them a new home and future in Egypt to the original Passover being tied to the eating of a lamb that was to be shared to manna in the wilderness, and that is just a few examples. In the gospels, Jesus does his best ministry eating dinner with others, and one of the few miracles that are recorded in all four gospels is Jesus feeding more than 5000 people with just a little bit of food. The night of his arrest while eating, he gives his disciples and all of us the promise of food from himself that also makes us one. Holy Communion is a meal that we must share. Even after Jesus is resurrected, food is still a part of his time with his followers. Food actually becomes very important for their fellowship and for those in need.
In fact, there was a too much need in the early church. Too many people were hungry in the days following Jesus’ return for the faithful to care for them. That probably sounds familiar. It is an age-old problem. The apostles decided to name help, and they created a group that we know of as “deacons” or “servants.” Notice that the whole reason they were created was literally to feed others and to tend to basic needs. There was already a daily distribution of bread. This is amazing that something like a food pantry or soup kitchen was already there, already happening. This was not a ministry to be neglected or ignored. The people of God needed to do this for others.
Nothing in the need has changed, but I am concerned we do not hold the gift of this ministry the same way that our fathers and mothers did. Even the Apostles struggled to balance all of this. You heard them say that they had better things to do than to “wait on tables.” The world has become busier. Our schedules are hectic. Things are more expensive, and the demands on us are significant. With so much else to do, it is easy to put off this basic care for those in need. With all of the distractions in our lives, it is easy to neglect this most foundational of ministries. Who has the time and the availability and the interest? Do we even have people around us who need help?
There have been times when I have personally benefited from this care. I joke about being Presbyterian for the food, but the people in the churches that I have lived and worked in are amazing cooks. I hope you have been blessed in this same way yourself. It is humbling to hold in our heart the care that comes from the ways that we can share for one another.
Our food ministry will save lives. Literally, Madeline’s House exists to provide safety for those who are in desperate need and risk. Madeline herself was murdered because she had nowhere safe to find refuge. Over food this week, we will have an opportunity to help make sure that never happens here, again. But this also applies to anytime we want to use food to show our neighbor that we care. We may not think of a dish of food as God’s hand working through us, but it is one of the most profound ways we follow our Lord’s service.
This week, we join together to give of ourselves for those who live in the shadow of threat and abuse with the Madeline’s House potato dinner
Do not forget how special it is to share food with those in need. We are not just being nice but being Jesus to others. This is especially important and so easily neglected. We are here to care for one another in the love of God.
Sunday, November 1, we will have our next fellowship food event after the potato bar fundraiser. That pancake breakfast is a gift to others, a time to offer grace and to appreciate what it means to enjoy our life as family in faith. We love getting together and do not share in this gift too often. It is also ministry when we are built up in Jesus’ hospitality.
Lastly, if we do nothing else, we must make sure that God’s children are fed. That is why we are supporting FACES in a number of ways and some of you volunteer there, but people are struggling now. We feel that struggle, also, but my children are not going hungry. Others here in Farmville are less secure. I am grateful to have FACES and other groups working hard to make sure there is food available, but it can never be just them. Jesus said that as we feed those who are hungry, we do so to him. The blessing is for us to share. It is for us to give. It is for us to serve. There is something good in the oven. It is the very love of God in Jesus our Lord. To God be the glory. Amen.