The Ministry of the Extra Cob of Corn

There are certain moments in life that reveal the true character of a Canadian summer. One of them happens when someone asks, “How many cobs would you like?”

Now, sensible people answer, “One.”

Reasonable people answer, “Two.”

But there is always one saintly soul standing beside the barbecue who says, “Go on… have another. We’ve got lots.”

That, my friends, is the ministry of the extra cob of corn.

I have never once in my life heard anyone say those words with reluctance. They are always spoken with generosity, usually while balancing tongs in one hand and trying not to burn the hamburgers with the other.

There is something wonderfully extravagant about fresh Ontario sweet corn. It arrives for only a short season, and for those few glorious weeks we behave as though every meal ought to include six dozen ears. Farmers’ wagons appear along country roads. Pickup trucks become mobile corn markets. Churches seem incapable of holding a summer barbecue without it. Entire families gather around picnic tables looking like participants in some ancient agricultural ritual, complete with butter running down their elbows.

Stephen Leacock would probably have observed that no civilized conversation can continue once everyone has been handed a cob of corn. It is impossible to appear dignified while chasing kernels around your plate or discovering that butter has somehow migrated onto your glasses. Corn is God’s great equalizer. Bishops, bankers, plumbers, teachers and toddlers all end up looking exactly the same.

Perhaps that is one of its hidden ministries.

Jesus seemed remarkably fond of meals where there was more than enough. The feeding of the five thousand was not merely about avoiding hunger. It was about revealing the abundance of God. Everyone ate until they were satisfied, and there were baskets left over besides.

God does not seem especially interested in calculating grace by the teaspoon.

The Kingdom often feels like that unexpected extra serving. Forgiveness beyond what we deserve. Mercy beyond what we imagined. Hope beyond what circumstances would suggest. Joy that sneaks into ordinary Tuesday evenings over supper.

We spend a surprising amount of our lives worrying there will not be enough—enough money, enough energy, enough time, enough love, enough faith. Scarcity becomes our default setting.

Yet the Gospel keeps placing another cob of corn on our plate.

Not because we earned it.

Simply because generosity is what God does.

Looking back, many of the richest moments of my life have come from someone’s “extra.” The extra invitation to stay for coffee. The extra chair pulled up around the table. The extra phone call when life was difficult. The extra prayer offered quietly after everyone else had gone home. The extra chance when I had made a mess of things.

None of those could be measured in dollars.

All of them were grace.

Perhaps that is why St. Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit rather than the ration of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity… these are not commodities to be guarded carefully in a locked pantry. They are crops meant to be harvested and shared freely.

And perhaps that is the invitation for today.

Be the person who offers the extra cob.

Not only at supper, although that would certainly brighten someone’s evening.

Offer the extra smile.

The extra word of encouragement.

The extra measure of patience.

The extra act of kindness that no one expected.

Because somewhere today, someone is quietly wondering whether there will be enough goodness left in the world to carry them through.

You may become the proof that there is.

After all, our Lord has always specialized in feeding people until they discover that grace is far more abundant than they first imagined.

And if there happens to be butter dripping off your chin while you remember that…

Well, that simply makes the sermon more believable.

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Companion Prayer

Gracious God,
thank you for the countless ways your generosity fills our lives, often in places we least expect. Teach us to trust that your grace is always enough, and then make us generous with what we have received. Help us to offer an extra measure of kindness, patience, encouragement, and love, so that others may catch a glimpse of your abundant Kingdom through us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.