A Parable

 The kingdom of God is like ...

    To what might we compare the kingdom of God? It's like a food pantry on a wintry afternoon. People from many walks of life and various backgrounds put out part of God's bounty at the edge of a church's parking lot. They have little more in common than a deep desire to be neighbors to their neighbors who are hungry.

    Those who receive the pantry's food also come from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. They have little more in common than a shared food insecurity. They come by car, bus and on foot. They come by themselves or in groups of three or four. They range in age from 2-82.

    No one turns away from this pantry any of those neighbors. The only questions asked are those designed to help the pantry understand its participants. Everyone receives some nourishing food, some of it as fresh as this morning's harvest. The pantry's food never completely runs out.

    Of course, this, like all parables is imperfect.Those who receive the food may eventually run out of it again. Not all who are hungry find their way to the pantry. Basic inequalities lock some people who are hungry in their hunger.

    That's one reason its organizers see this pantry as an appetizer of a time and place where pantries will go out of business once and for all. Of that time and place where hunger will die right alongside its partners that are suffering and death.