Lammas Bread

Our table is covered in crumbs.
I feel your disapproval growing
as an unwelcome guest in our midst.
Yet there are none such at this table.
Even the disapproving are welcome to
gather the crumbs under this table.
Not untidy but loved.
Much bread has been broken around it. As we say
‘Blessed are you Lord God of all creation.’
Broken and shared this bread will sustain our journey.
The crumbs that fall tell the story of those left behind.
‘Through your goodness we have this bread to offer;’
a blessing on those who gather.
Offered back we declare all bread blessed.
A simple offering set aside, to taste goodness.
‘Earth has given and human hands have
made’ crafted and created, kneaded in an
ancient love of giving for new life, nutrition.
‘It will become for us the bread of life.’ Rise up,
living breath of the bread made manifest in the
goodness the earth, sun and rain, bound up in wheat grain.
Broken before us, source and leaven of life itself.
The breath in all that lives, the space
between the strands. Blessed be god in the scattered crumbs
that forever remain as precious as those shared and eaten.