A Word from Laura: House of Bread
Two women, one a young adult, one a few generations older, stood close to the Western - Miriam’s Kitchen sign on 24th St. as I walked out recently. English was likely not the older woman’s native tongue, as the younger one spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully.
“Grandma,” she said, “This is an important place in my neighborhood. This is a church. This is where they feed people.”
An important place. A church. Where they feed people. In a DC neighborhood known for so many important places, her words were a holy and humbling reminder. I have never seen the young woman in worship or volunteering with MK, yet this place was an important part of her neighborhood.
In this season of Advent, we remember that a particular location, the town of Bethlehem, was important in Jesus’ birth, not only because it was King David’s ancestral home. “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread,” or in other words, “the place where they feed people.” Jesus’ identity, and the calling of those who seek him, is forever bound with places where people are fed.
As individuals we are rooted in locations across the capital region – and around the world! But as a community of faith, we remain grounded in this location at 24th and G Streets, NW. Where people find food and nourishment of all kinds.
Some of us have been volunteering at Miriam’s Kitchen once again. Some of us have been working to make sure that our neighbors in the encampment on Virginia Ave. are fed. Some of us have been working on feeding our hunger for connection to each other as a community. Some of us have been doing all these things and more! Many of us have pledged your commitment to the church’s ministry for the upcoming year. I’m grateful for all the ways you give faithfully.
If you live in the area and have yet to find your way back to worship in this place, I hope you’ll make time in these last Sundays of the year. I invite you to reconnect as a member of this community, rooted and growing in this place where “they feed people.”
May you discover that you are fed, body and mind, heart and soul, as we look towards the birth of the One born in the House of Bread, long ago and here and now,
Laura