“A Simple Feeding Story”

Original Sermon Date: 
Sunday, July 31, 2011
The Rev. Alice Geils Nord
The 7th Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 14:13-21

 

 

Introduction to Matthew 14:13-21: Upon hearing of the sordid death of John the Baptist, by Herod, Jesus and the disciples withdraw to a quiet place. Jesus gets in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, hoping for some time apart to pray, but the crowd follows; and more than 5000 people are fed.

 Matthew 14:13-21

14:13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
14:14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
14:15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
14:16 Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."
14:17 They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish."
14:18 And he said, "Bring them here to me."
14:19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
14:20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
14:21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
 
Lord, we come to you this day in the midst of our summer months - a time when many of us look forward to a time of relaxation; but for others, a whole lot of people, the burdens, worries, and cares continue to weigh them down. Be with each of us as we open our ears to hear your words, our hearts to feel your presence, and our spirits to receive your healing touch. Then Give us strength and courage to truly be your loving disciples in the ways in which we care for others. Amen.
            
Have you ever had people come to visit in the middle of the afternoon and then seem not to want to leave…or seem not to have any clue that maybe they should? I mean, its 5:30 and the time to think about preparing supper – just a simple meal - has come and almost gone, and you don’t know the people well enough to know whether you might offer…or not offer…and it’s Wednesday and the plan for this Wednesday supper is “left-overs.” Why don’t they leave? You and you’re your hubby, Harry, are giving knowing looks to each other. But you’re decent folks, and you know you ought to be kind. Why don’t they know it’s time to leave?
 
And finally Harry blurts out, “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you folks stay for supper?” O Brother!
 
You begin to have a little appreciation for Jesus’ people – you know, the 12 disciples, the leadership team – on the afternoon he invited 5000 unexpected guests to stay for dinner. (actually there were that many men, but the women and children were invited too - so that makes many many more than 5000)
 
“What?” they said. “Are you kidding, Lord?” The disciples couldn’t believe their assignment. “It’s late and getting dark – and they’ve gotta be hungry because we’re starving. Send them home, this day of teaching and healing is over, and on their way to where ever, they can pick up a little something near whatever villages they’ll go back to.” “Send them home, Lord, “We have nothing here, but five loaves and two fish.” The disciples emphasized the nothing part of the phrase, but Jesus heard that they did indeed have something.
 
“No,” he says, “they don’t need to go away; you give them something to eat!” “What?” they say. “You want us to feed five thousand people? With all due respect, Master, are you kidding…?" But, like our friend Harry, Jesus is already inviting the crowd to sit down and spread their napkins on their laps. 
           
You do your best is what you do. You take what you have, and you share it, split it up best you can. It’s like when Harry invites the “visitors” to stay for dinner, on a left-over only Wednesday night.   You do the best you can, is what you do. It’s like that…I guess. But then again, it isn’t like that. It isn’t because, in the case of Harry and Jane the visitors who come to visit and sit down to supper, it doesn’t work, nobody really gets enough and there aren’t any leftovers afterward – there never was enough to begin with – everybody’s embarrassed and uncomfortable. The evening finally ends and Harry catches it from Jane afterward!
 
It isn’t the same as in the story that Matthew tells us today (and also Mark and Luke, even John’s gospel, incidentally) because in Matthew’s feeding story, it does work. Jesus shows compassion for the hungry crowd and invites all of them to sit down on the grassy hill - he took the loaves of bread, and he took the fish and blessed them. Then he gave them to his disciples to pass around to the people who were sitting.  The crowd of Five thousand plus people gets fed, happily, sufficiently, and there are 12 baskets left over, one for each of the disciples.   It isn’t the same at all. It works. There is more than enough. So what’s the point? What’s Matthew trying to tell us in this story? 
 
Well, I don’t know for sure, but I have a hunch it isn’t just that Jesus can do miracles. We already know that. Matthew’s already reported many of them, and we already know who Jesus is and believe in him. Neither we nor the church of the eighth or ninth decade to which Matthew specifically addressed his gospel needed any convincing about Jesus. They knew about Jesus and what he could do. So do we!
 
Rather, what they needed convincing about was that they could do what Jesus did, and needed to. Jesus wasn’t around anymore. He had died forty or fifty years before, in the third decade or early fourth. He had died but was raised. And where he was raised to and into was the church.
 
To and into those first disciples gathered with him on that late afternoon protesting that there wasn’t any way that all those people could be fed, to and into those early Christians in the seventh or eighth decade scared to death of all the political turmoil going on in the world believing that they couldn’t do anything, and to and into us - 21st century disciples who likewise are reluctant to believe we can do anything either. We’re too small, too afraid, too old, too impotent, too weary (we have already given so much,) and too out of touch with what the world’s really like, to whom Jesus also hands, just as ridiculously, just two small fish and five loaves of bread and says, here, fix the world – give them what they need. It is enough. 
Perhaps this well known “miracle” story is actually about the miracle of generosity rather than a miracle performed by Jesus.
 
Imagine being a member in the crowd of the five thousand. Perhaps a lot of people in the crowd had their own personal meals that they had packed for themselves. No one would blame them for not wanting to share with anyone since they didn’t have enough for everyone. We all feel like those in the crowd of five thousand sometimes. We feel like our contributions aren’t making a big difference in the world. Hopelessness creeps into our thinking and immobilizes us.  
 
But then we hear Jesus saying to us, “You feed them. You can because you too are my risen body. You’ve got my power in you. 
 
For the last two weeks, the 5:30 pm Network news stations have all shown vivid images of starving and dying children in the arms of their mothers or fathers fleeing Somalia and severe draught conditions walking on what has been named “the road of death” for weeks to refugee camps in Kenya seeking water, food and aid. 
 
The United Nations Food Program Director, Josette Sheeran, says the situation is dire and is effecting 11.6 million people. The draught is the worst in 60 years and there are now 45% children who are critically in need of food and nutrients. This is now a children’s famine, and it could claim a whole generation. 
A militant Islamic group in Somalia is trying to prevent food from being dispersed, but the UN Food Program inspite of the violence in the region is reaching 10 million people and has received $250 million from donor countries all over the world including 60 mil from the US. But $250 mil more is needed in the next 6 months. 
 
An urgent call has gone out and world countries have responded according to Sheeran: $50 mil from Saudia Arabia, and Canada, Aus, Europe, and Japan, even as it suffers, and even other African Countries are offering help.   And the church is helping too.   
           
Now it seems to me an occasion like this one, the moment when the place where we Christians come to worship the God who created us and gives us life and power every Sunday, is a good opportunity to also realize that, believe it or not, we, like the first disciples, have also been refreshed, fixed, and are renewed sufficiently, to now fix the broken world, whatever it needs.
 
It’s what our mission is, if you think about it, a mission that is as equally implausible and ridiculous as two fish and five loaves being able to feed five thousand. It just doesn’t make sense. It certainly isn’t a simple feeding story is it? 
 
Yet we are called to try and find out what happens, refreshed, and made new again by what we do in this sanctuary every Sunday morning. It isn’t just to get ourselves refreshed and renewed every week that we are called, much as we’d like to think in our tiredness that that’s all the church is called to be and do. No. It’s to be feeders and fixers ourselves that we are called.  That’s why we preach the way we do, uncomfortable as it may be from time to time. “Jesus said to them, “The world out there needs not to go away. You give them something to eat.” “We can’t,” they said, “We don’t have enough of what it takes.”
 
“Yes you do,” he said, “unbelievable as that may seem.” “Have the people sit down, then go fix things and feed them, implausible as that may seem.”
 
And they did. And they did. And they did. 
 
With Jesus help we do act generously here at St. Philip and are feeding hungry children and donating money and goods to our mission partners throughout Houston and the world. Our contributions combined with others’ make a big difference in the world. Jesus turns our concepts of self-preservation upside down and gives us a more global mind set. We might think that our small contribution won’t help in a big way but through the power of Christ all believers are called to be the change in the world.
 
That’s the miracle of this passage.  
 
And they did. And they did!   Amen.