Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in a little village who used to walk to his little school. (ok, sometimes he rode his little bike)

And just to set the record straight, even though it was only about half a mile he did it all the school year long, in snow, rain, wind, or the extremely rare hail. It was also up hill – but only half way – the trip to school. All the more reason to not want to go, but I digress.

Anyway, every day this same little boy in the same little village would walk back home in the afternoon. Things being as they were, along the route home was his grandmother’s house. I suppose his Grandpa lived there too but it was Grandma who would have cookies, a freezer pop, or maybe even a little wedge of cheese waiting to give the boy energy during his “long hard walk” downhill. Every so often, about twice a month, Grandma would have baked big soft yummy delicious loaves of bread. She would give the little boy four or five loaves to carry home to his house for his family of 6 to enjoy. And like clockwork, the little boy would arrive at home with two or three loaves of bread to share with his family from Grandma.

Now, there are many passages we misuse now and again when we gather together, at the building or apart. Some mention things like not muzzling the cow that treads the corn in the context of “I did all the work so I deserve a good hunk of the bounty”. I’ve heard folks quote “The Lord helps those that help themselves” or “do unto others first before they do it unto you” which I am still scratching my head wondering where these came from. Most likely the book of Second Opinions. Maybe this little boy had these little quotes in mind.

I’ve also heard folks proclaim we should “avoid every appearance of evil” in ways that usually mean 1. you are doing something I don’t like but I don’t want to appear judgmental so 2. I am going to quote this at you to hide behind thus my opinion seems to be righteous indignation rather than the petty thing it is. While it is true we need to avoid evil, every incantation of it, it is evil itself to use the word of God to try to manipulate people over trivial, inconsequential things that we might find annoying but are innocent or harmless of themselves.

Usually this is where we would talk about meat, but today let’s take, for our example, the eating of bread. No, not Grandma’s bread. Bread that might appear to be associated with “evil” when we paint with this too wide brush. Adam had sinned and his consequence was to… eat bread. Abraham fed the angels bread on their way to destroy Sodom – for their sins. Jacob fed this brother some lentils – with bread – and stole his birthright. Unleavened bread was included in many of the offerings – for sin. Manna was “bread that fell from the heavens” according to God, yet people found ways to sin over it. How about David going into the temple to flitch a little of the showbread? The devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. Bread is involved in a lot of sinful things! Thus we must avoid it!

Does this seem silly to you? It does to me. I know we should avoid every appearance of evil, but let’s not decide that “bread is bad so to avoid evil we must avoid bread” because that’s crazy talk. Jesus makes the point well, discussing bread, at the beginning of Matthew 12 when he points out yes, there is sin involved sometimes but there is also mercy, and sometimes people do things out of innocence that we decide is evil, but Christ calls them guiltless.

Sadly, our little boy didn’t have enlightened parents the day they figured out he was coming home with a couple loaves in his hand and a couple more in his belly. There was no mercy for the famished tike who had to trudge that quarter mile from Grandmas to home, and he got a good pounding. But from then on, Grandma would make a special loaf of bread just for him to eat, with probably a stick of butter baked inside. Thank goodness for the undeserved mercy of our grand, wonderful parents. Know what I mean?

Little Randy