The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
March 14, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 11
When it comes to creating new names for companies and stories, the marketing people know no bounds. Back East I once ran into a chain of grocery stores called “Bread and Circus.” Sadly, the chain has changed its label to the boring “Whole Food Markets.” Ah, the seduction of words - made you want to go in and see the clowns and the pumpernickel bread, except that there were sadly no clowns.
“Bread and circus” goes back a really long way to 1st century A.D. Rome: the government practice of doling out free wheat and conducting spectacular games and events. There were no clowns, because “circus” meant the chariot races run around a “circuit” or track, Ben Hur and all that. The insidious purpose was to appease the public and discourage political involvement or interference with the powers-that-be. When the bread ran out and the circuses stopped running, there were often full scale riots.
The curious short paragraph from Joshua tells about the day the manna stopped for Israel. The Hebrews wandering freely in the wilderness had complained there was better bread back in the fleshpots of Egypt. The best bread was this stuff that appeared every morning on the ground until they arrived in the Promised Land. Just enough bread for a day, but it would mould and spoil if you tried to hoard it. Now having finally arrived, the Hebrews were without bread again until they made some for themselves - a painful transition to maturity.
The prodigal son had trouble with bread too. He tried to spend all of his father’s ‘bread’ as fast as he could and succeeded. But then he had neither bread nor swine food, and he had to come to his senses in order to eat again. Funny though, there would be a circus.
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan