Yesterday (June 20) was World Refugee Day, a specific day to remember the average people who flee their well-loved and familiar homes because of famine, war, or persecution.  Episcopal Migration Ministries invites us to a moment of reflection with these words:

A great commonality across religions and global cultures is the tradition of breaking bread together. The sharing of food between people is an effective and enduring way to foster interpersonal, inter-religious, inter-ethnic, and international connections. 
…This call [to welcome the stranger] is the essence of growth and development for humanity.

Sitting down together at the table, whether with our family or with guests, reminds us that we are not our own masters.  We cannot sustain ourselves by our own will.  The invitation spoken at the Communion Table each Sunday reminds us of this:

“Come to this table…It is Christ who invites us to meet him here, sustaining us for the life we are called to in him.”

How do we allow Christ to sustain us?  How do we allow Love to sustain us?  Somehow we have to go deeper into our common ground.  We have to find our shared foundation, beneath the chaos and volatility on the surface.  Breaking bread with one another calls us into our common humanity.  We’re not sure how to deal with all of the strife (both personal and political).  There is no obvious life-giving answer.  I believe, however, that we’re called to a greater awareness of our connectedness with one another, our shared identity as God’s creation.  This awareness is the seed of action, and the practice that sprouts from this interconnectedness provides a way for God to work.

Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter see on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”  Mark 4:26-29

May we plant seeds of kindness in our common humanity so that God’s transforming work is better able to grow.