The Gospel of Matthew tells one of the stories of the feeding of the five thousand. This story is one of the most marvelous descriptions of the mind of Jesus that there is in all of the bible. He has just heard of the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, executed by Herod after Salome's notorious dance. Jesus, in his grief has gone off by himself in a boat on the sea of Galilee to mourn and to hopefully find some peace.
When the people heard that Jesus was in a place by himself, they hurried to where he was. When finally Jesus came ashore, he was confronted by a large crowd. The Gospel says "he had compassion on them and cured their sick". This went on for most of the day. When evening came, the disciples came to him and suggested the he send the crowd away to get something to eat because the day was mostly over. Jesus said to them "give them something to eat yourselves." They complained to him that they only had five loaves and two small fishes. Jesus told them to bring the loaves and fishes to him.
He asked the crowd to sit down on the grass. He then took what the disciples gave him, lifted it up, blessed it and gave it back to them. When they distributed it to the crowd, there was plenty for all, with twelve baskets left over.
Is this story true?
Well, it is told five times in the four Gospels. That gives it a lot of credibility; and it is certainly consistent with the mind of Jesus, with everything that he taught while he was with us. There have been many, many attempts to explain this story, to figure out just how the five loaves and the two fishes could have multiplied.
But that is all essentially beside the point.
We have the story in its multiple versions and it resonates well with everything that Jesus taught. If there is a theme in this Gospel, it is in the phrase "Give them something to eat yourselves". That sounds to me like a commission, like a direction for ministry. We spend a lot of time in our prayers asking God to help the oppressed, the homeless and the hungry. In the paper this week there was a picture of a child in Kenya, seven months old with large vacant eyes, in great hunger.
What can we do about that? That child and his companions have been objects of our prayer all week. The phrase "Give them something to eat yourselves" is an answer to that prayer. Mostly, I think, when we pray for those in need, it is in the hope that God will find a way to provide for the need for which we pray. We do it often in a kind of a hands off way, a detached mode where we think that somebody else, or something else will show up to provide for the need.
God has a more intimate answer for us: Give them something to eat yourselves! When we listen to that answer to our prayer, we find ourselves looking around us at our own provision and discovering that we have much more than we can ever need. The only problem is getting it to the people who are hungry or in need of other things.
Mostly, the Christian church has done a very good job of taking care of human need. The food pantries and the soup kitchens that we have all worked with and funded from time to time; the United Nations agencies, the government programs are a testimony to our listening to the command of our God to involve ourselves in the problem; to be active in the caring for those without who live in our communities and in the world. To the extent that we have been able to do this, we have been responsive to the call of our Lord to be the agents of the establishment of the Kingdom of God in this world and to actively care about the people who live around us who have less than we do. It means that we are willing to spend ourselves for the benefit of others, particularly for those who are in the most need.
That isn't always easy. It is tempting to look at our fortune as coming as a result of our own goodness or our own effort, and to look at the needy as less than ourselves.
I worked in Northwest Washington, DC when I was in seminary as a student working out of a Lutheran church in one of the most troubled areas of that city. Upper Fourteenth street was the area burned after the assassination of Martin Luther King. In the seventies, there were still burned out buildings along that street north of Thomas Circle, and many, many homeless and hungry people congregated in those neighborhoods.
I was stopped at a stop sign one afternoon in my clerical collar waiting to turn onto Fourteenth Street to get on my way home. A decrepit man pounded on my driver's side window and yelled at me "Preacher, give me ten dollars so that I can go into this liquor store and get me a bottle!" It was probably the most honest request that I have ever gotten from anyone. I was terrified, but I gave him what I had in my wallet.
Was that the right thing to do? I have no answer for that, but I know that in that moment, I was willing to involve myself in his life, in this problem and in his need.
Did it change him? Again, I have no idea, but it certainly changed me. I never again looked at the people on those street corners or the people in any kind of need in the same way. Those people in Washington all became for me people in need, not threatening presences. I carried that into my ministry, looking at human need as the main object of our work as Christians.
We aren't the moral arbiters of this civilization, as some Christians seem to think. We are a source of hope. We aren't here to judge, we are here to help. We are given our resources and our learning so that we can be a sign to the world that God cares deeply about everyone's need. That is also what Jesus is telling us in this Gospel lesson. Take what you have, lift it up, bless it and give it to those in need. You will discover, when you do this, that there is more than enough for both yourselves and for those in need.
When the feeding was over in the Gospel lesson, the disciples picked up twelve baskets left over. That is also Jesus' message that giving produces more than we can possibly know. There is a hint of the Eucharist in this story, the bread that we break at our altar every Sunday. It is a symbol of our mission; of our purpose. Let us always use the riches that we have been given for the greatest possible good. To take care ourselves of the need that fills our prayers; and by our prayer filled ministry, to show to the world the goodness and compassion of our God
When the people heard that Jesus was in a place by himself, they hurried to where he was. When finally Jesus came ashore, he was confronted by a large crowd. The Gospel says "he had compassion on them and cured their sick". This went on for most of the day. When evening came, the disciples came to him and suggested the he send the crowd away to get something to eat because the day was mostly over. Jesus said to them "give them something to eat yourselves." They complained to him that they only had five loaves and two small fishes. Jesus told them to bring the loaves and fishes to him.
He asked the crowd to sit down on the grass. He then took what the disciples gave him, lifted it up, blessed it and gave it back to them. When they distributed it to the crowd, there was plenty for all, with twelve baskets left over.
Is this story true?
Well, it is told five times in the four Gospels. That gives it a lot of credibility; and it is certainly consistent with the mind of Jesus, with everything that he taught while he was with us. There have been many, many attempts to explain this story, to figure out just how the five loaves and the two fishes could have multiplied.
But that is all essentially beside the point.
We have the story in its multiple versions and it resonates well with everything that Jesus taught. If there is a theme in this Gospel, it is in the phrase "Give them something to eat yourselves". That sounds to me like a commission, like a direction for ministry. We spend a lot of time in our prayers asking God to help the oppressed, the homeless and the hungry. In the paper this week there was a picture of a child in Kenya, seven months old with large vacant eyes, in great hunger.
What can we do about that? That child and his companions have been objects of our prayer all week. The phrase "Give them something to eat yourselves" is an answer to that prayer. Mostly, I think, when we pray for those in need, it is in the hope that God will find a way to provide for the need for which we pray. We do it often in a kind of a hands off way, a detached mode where we think that somebody else, or something else will show up to provide for the need.
God has a more intimate answer for us: Give them something to eat yourselves! When we listen to that answer to our prayer, we find ourselves looking around us at our own provision and discovering that we have much more than we can ever need. The only problem is getting it to the people who are hungry or in need of other things.
Mostly, the Christian church has done a very good job of taking care of human need. The food pantries and the soup kitchens that we have all worked with and funded from time to time; the United Nations agencies, the government programs are a testimony to our listening to the command of our God to involve ourselves in the problem; to be active in the caring for those without who live in our communities and in the world. To the extent that we have been able to do this, we have been responsive to the call of our Lord to be the agents of the establishment of the Kingdom of God in this world and to actively care about the people who live around us who have less than we do. It means that we are willing to spend ourselves for the benefit of others, particularly for those who are in the most need.
That isn't always easy. It is tempting to look at our fortune as coming as a result of our own goodness or our own effort, and to look at the needy as less than ourselves.
I worked in Northwest Washington, DC when I was in seminary as a student working out of a Lutheran church in one of the most troubled areas of that city. Upper Fourteenth street was the area burned after the assassination of Martin Luther King. In the seventies, there were still burned out buildings along that street north of Thomas Circle, and many, many homeless and hungry people congregated in those neighborhoods.
I was stopped at a stop sign one afternoon in my clerical collar waiting to turn onto Fourteenth Street to get on my way home. A decrepit man pounded on my driver's side window and yelled at me "Preacher, give me ten dollars so that I can go into this liquor store and get me a bottle!" It was probably the most honest request that I have ever gotten from anyone. I was terrified, but I gave him what I had in my wallet.
Was that the right thing to do? I have no answer for that, but I know that in that moment, I was willing to involve myself in his life, in this problem and in his need.
Did it change him? Again, I have no idea, but it certainly changed me. I never again looked at the people on those street corners or the people in any kind of need in the same way. Those people in Washington all became for me people in need, not threatening presences. I carried that into my ministry, looking at human need as the main object of our work as Christians.
We aren't the moral arbiters of this civilization, as some Christians seem to think. We are a source of hope. We aren't here to judge, we are here to help. We are given our resources and our learning so that we can be a sign to the world that God cares deeply about everyone's need. That is also what Jesus is telling us in this Gospel lesson. Take what you have, lift it up, bless it and give it to those in need. You will discover, when you do this, that there is more than enough for both yourselves and for those in need.
When the feeding was over in the Gospel lesson, the disciples picked up twelve baskets left over. That is also Jesus' message that giving produces more than we can possibly know. There is a hint of the Eucharist in this story, the bread that we break at our altar every Sunday. It is a symbol of our mission; of our purpose. Let us always use the riches that we have been given for the greatest possible good. To take care ourselves of the need that fills our prayers; and by our prayer filled ministry, to show to the world the goodness and compassion of our God
This is an excellent lesson and a wonderful reminder, Dad: when we give, we, too, are enriched and there is plenty for all of us. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteI really like your angle on the miracles attributed to Christ. I hadn't considered that relying on conjuring tricks to "prove" his divinity distracts us from his message. With a good agent, imagine what a religious following a biblical Blackstone could have pulled out of his hat! The biggest miracle was always convincing humans to act on their better natures.
ReplyDelete