A Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Nehemiah 9:16-20
Psalm 78:1-29 or 78:14-20, 23-25
Romans 8:35-39
Matthew 14:13-21
"You give them something to eat."
Jesus is asking the impossible and the disciples know it. There just isn't enough food for 10,000 or more people. (The story only counts the 5000 men. With women and children to be fed the figure must at least double)
This is not even a good church potluck, though some have claimed the point of the story is that everyone held back until they saw the disciples sharing what little they had. At that point everybody pitched in their meager rations, and there was enough for all. Well, that may be true, but it is not the point of the Gospel!
The point of the passage echoes last week's stories of the yeast or the mustard seed: showing us the irony that out of scarcity can come the abundance of God's grace. This is a compelling message for people who have little and struggle with not enough resources in our world of over abundant living.
Jesus has compassion on the people because of their scarce resources. Instead of letting scarcity determine the mission he simply says to the disciples, "You give them something to eat."
Churches often get caught in this scarcity trap. One hears people saying, "If we just had more whatever, we could do this." You never hear Jesus say that. Whatever is present is enough, whether it be food, or faith equivalent to a grain of mustard seed! Wherever Jesus is present there is always enough.
And so in places we've never heard of, the Bible is studied; in places where perhaps only one or two people have a copy of the Bible, the faith is taught. The faith is taught where there are no colorful Sunday school materials and people are brought into the Body of Christ even though there is no building for worship. These things do not depend on material resources because Jesus and the Gospel story are the only resources needed.
Notice in this account how the disciples respond quickly to what Jesus asks of them. They don't quibble, whine, or walk away. The compassion of Christ is so intense that they can do nothing more than show it, and in doing what they are asked to do they discover, as one writer put it, "compassion beyond their wildest dreams."
This miracle happens continually in the church. There is never enough, and yet the things that God asks us to do – to care for the marginalized, the poor, the despondent -- these things are going on in a context of scarcity.
The church in one East African country offers community development to towns that have no government or structure. Church people help the residents develop safe water and sanitation with hand dug wells, ventilated improved pit latrines, basic health teaching about washing and letting things dry in the air, and teaching oral rehydration techniques to mothers. These things do not cost much, nor are they beyond the reach of subsistence people who live off the land. Yet the quality of life improves, and frequently before long these people ask the church to come and teach the Gospel. This is a sustainable method of compassion and care, very much based on Jesus' work. (For an organization whose ministry does provide sustainable methods of compassion and care, visit World Hope International.)
In contrast, there are international relief agencies that build complicated water systems which are constantly becoming contaminated and breaking down, clinics, which depend on paid staff and expensive equipment and complex administration, and require large donations to keep them going. This is a resource-devouring method that usually results in increasing costs and less sustainable living.
Certainly the learning for us is to rely less on material resources and more on the compassion of Christ in our work. Size does not matter, whether it is budgets or buildings. The people of God are capable of doing the work God gives us to do, giving the care God asks us to give. We can ‘do ministry' and show the compassion of Christ without expending large amount of material resources.
But there is something else going one in this Galilean scene. It is obvious that this account contains Eucharistic images. Jesus takes the bread, blesses it and breaks it, and it is the bread that is distributed to the people. Ordinary bread and fish, ordinary bread and wine, can and do work miracles.
Everyone on the lakeshore that day had something in common: they were in a precarious position. Many were sick with the horrible diseases of the time. There were always threats of rebellion and violence, even in the relative calm of Galilee. Jesus and his disciples were always in need of a place to stay, and were wary of the reality that they too might be arrested and put in prison,
accused of stirring things up. There are so many like them today. We usually think of the Third World when we think of precarious existence, but we need not go that far. The homeless and the hungry are here among us. The marginalized and outcast may be our neighbor who is somehow different from us. As we age, we know the precarious nature our lives: we learn the fragile nature of our own bodies. Our churches, too, have been in a precarious position, thinking we haven't enough money or enough people to survive.
All of us should be aware of the fragile nature of our lives, and our need to rely on the compassionate Christ. All of us can come, fragile and resourceless, to the Eucharistic meal with a reverence for how something as simple as a bit of bread and a small sip from the cup can renew us for mission and ministry. Each of us can place ourselves in the crowd by the lake that day, watching, hearing Jesus' words, receiving his healing touch, learning that God loves us very much. We call all find ways to celebrate that love with minimal resources, maximum joy, and a compassion for others.
With Jesus there is enough, enough to eat and drink, enough to heal and care for, and enough to teach others about him.
The Gospel calls each of us to abandon our excuse of not having enough to do the work he gives us to do. The Good News is that whenever he asks us to do something in his name, everything we need is provided.
Thanks to the Rev. Canon Ben Helmer for most of this sermon.