Matthew 14: 13-21
August 4, 2002—10:05 Worship
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Three mice died and went to heaven. After a few days, St. Peter asked them how they were enjoying heaven. The mice said they were doing OK, but because heaven was so big, and their legs so short, it was hard for them to get around. So St. Peter outfitted the mice with skateboards, and in no time the mice were scooting all over heaven, seeing the sites. Not long after that a cat died and went to heaven. After a few days, St. Peter asked the cat how he was doing. The cat said, “I’m having a great time! This place is great, especially those meals on wheels!”
My sincere apologies for those who are mice advocates! Being more like the cat, we have enough to eat whether the meals come in a truck, down at Capital or when we prepare meals by ourselves.
It is Enough
In today’s passage, we see that Jesus withdrew from the crowds that clustered around him. He withdrew to a deserted place perhaps to pray and to mourn the death of John the Baptist.
Jesus first began his ministry in the desert. Now in the middle of his ministry, he returns to the desert. But the desert is anything but deserted. Crowds pressed in upon him. When he saw them, he had compassion for them and began healing them.
After the hour has grown late, the disciples said to Jesus, “Send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” In this deserted place, there was no convenient place to eat—no fast food stands.
Then Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” But the disciples replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
I think we come into this world with a sense of scarcity. We more readily think that we don’t have enough than having enough. We say, “We have nothing,” when we still have something like five loaves and two fish.
When God calls us, like God has called so many others, we either don’t answer, or we act like the disciples:
“I have nothing.”
“I’m too old for this sort of thing.”
“I’m sorry but I have other troubles to worry about it.”
“I’m too busy.”
“I’ve already given and done my part.”
“We should let the young people do it.”
“I’m not ordained.”
“I don’t know enough about the Bible.”
“I’ve got too much on my plate right now.”
The disciples when told “you give them something to eat” were unaware that they had the resources to fulfill Jesus’ command. They didn’t know it, but they had enough!
Behind the story of Jesus and the feeding of the five thousand is the question: “How do we see the world? Are we trapped in a desert of scarce commodities, declining resources, dwindling goods, and fallen stock prices?”
Or do we live in a lush, garden place where there is enough for all to eat and be filled?
Jesus is telling us that we are living in a lush garden and if there was a commodity in short supply, it’s faith that Jesus is able to provide. We lack the imagination and faith that God does not mean for any to be sent away empty. We lack the imagination and faith that Jesus has given us what we need to give to the world what it needs.
When Jesus enters the desert, the desert breaks into bloom. There is food and plenty to spare. All gets to eat and we all have enough. But what does that tell us about where we live? Why does it seem that we like to live in the desert?
Sense of Desert
When we live in a place with a sense of scarcity, we grab, hoard, accumulate, pile up, and guard. “It’s mine and you can’t have it,” the little child so quickly learns to say.
I was told that one reason why a dog gobbles down his food so quickly is that for the first few million years, when dogs lived in the wild, food was a rarity. When a kill was made, all the dogs gathered around the carcass and wolfed down the meat. It was important to eat fast lest another dog get the food.
So millions of years later, a dog is still gobbling down the food, even though he’s the only one there and has all the time in the world to eat. (By the way, this is not true with Ginger, she is a civilized dog and takes her time eating!)
When we live in the desert, we think that if we give too much to the folks on welfare, it might be a drain on the economy.
When we live in the desert, we think by raising the minimum wage, it would make our hamburgers cost more.
When we live in the desert, we think that we must make fast money and leave all of the pollution and garbage for our children to worry about.
When we live in the desert, we think that by giving everyone medical health care, we won’t have specialized care for ourselves.
When we live in the desert, we think we must hold on tight to what we have because there are only 5 loaves and 2 fish. We think that life is a zero sum game. If I give to you, I am diminished. I end up with less!
Last weekend, Joy and I along with about 45 other people went on our annual Sojourners camping trip. Wes and Sheryl Chan have been the lead organizers of this successful endeavor for the past three years. They assigned different people and families to buy the food and to prepare the meals. When the meal is ready, what is amazing is that there’s always enough to eat! We ended up with more than enough!
Some might say that those who prepared the meals purchased more food than we needed. But I think there’s more to it.
Regardless of how much or little there was—five loaves and two fish—everyone made sure everyone had enough. We go through the line watching out for everyone else—taking just a little when we see that there’re more people who haven’t eaten yet; eating something else when there seems to still be enough.
The miracle of abundance is not just whether we have enough physical food for everyone. Divine abundance is the faith and imagination to believe that God provides for us. Divine abundance is learning to share so that everyone would have enough!
Sense of Garden
When we live in the world with a sense that it’s a lush, green and productive garden, we begin to see divine abundance.
They only had a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. But Jesus blessed what they had and it was enough. Everyone ate and was filled. No, even more than that, they had twelve baskets of food left over. Food just overflowed everywhere.
Although they were in a desert, Jesus made the desert burst into bloom. Once Jesus got there, there was healing for the hurting and food for the hungry. In the dry desert when disciples and the crowds thought there was no way there will be enough, Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on green grass.
There are some of you here who have taught public school for over 30 or more years! Some of you have taught and advised our youth groups for many years. Lots of folks burn out in a job like that, having nothing left to give. The question is why didn’t you give up on the children?
The answer that I have heard is that love is a renewable resource. The more you give it away, the more you get. As someone once said, “in giving you receive.”
I’ve learned quite early in ministry that if you want something done and done right in the church, ask the very busiest member of the church. People who get things done seem to get more things done. They use their time well, but they also seem to have more hours in the day to give. The more these gifted disciples give, the more God provides for them to give some more.
When we live with a sense of a garden in mind instead of a desert, we learn to trust God to provide. We stop guarding, hoarding, keeping, and clutching. Instead we begin to show an open handed gesture of generosity. We come into this world with a sense of scarcity, holding on tight. But by the grace of God, we can learn another way. We can see that all that we have, and all that we are, is but a gift of an incredibly generous God who asks of us only that we respond to our sisters and brothers in the same gracious spirit of giving.
We hold our hands out with what we have been given by God to share with others. We no longer need to hoard for ourselves, as if there might not ever be another bite to eat. When we overcome our fear of scarcity and going hungry, we begin to turn our pockets inside out for one another.
I Love Lucy
A classic episode of I Love Lucy is when Lucy decides to bake her own bread. Following the instructions in her cookbook, she mixes 12 cakes of yeast with the dough. When her friend, Ethel, arrives and asks what she’s doing, Ethel questions whether that isn’t too much yeast.
Lucy insists that she’s simply following the recipe. But when Ethel picks up the cookbook, a crumb falls from it, revealing that the recipe calls for only 2 cakes of yeast, not 12. Yet the two of them figure that since the yeast cakes are small, the difference shouldn’t matter that much. They proceeded to toss the dough in the oven and go off to play cards.
When they return some time later, Lucy notices that the oven door is ajar. When she opens the door to investigate, suddenly an enormous loaf of bread emerges, pinning her against the cabinets on the opposite side of the kitchen. In a panic, Ethel runs out on the porch, grabs a huge lumberjack saw, and races back into the kitchen to save Lucy from the monster loaf of bread.
When we have the faith to believe that God provides, God is the yeast that somehow miraculously turns something small into something far bigger than we can ever imagine.
A World of Needs
The story of Jesus feeding the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels. Obviously, it was a story that early Christians thought to be important. It’s a story that reminds us that we don’t need to be fully qualified, competent, or capable. It is not that we have don’t have enough.
The miracle is more like a potluck or the Sojourners camping trip. We come to God faithfully trusting that he will provide. If we dedicate our lives in faith, God will bless and multiply our offering so that we can give the world something to eat. Jesus invites us to bring him what we have and he will make it more than adequate for what we need. Jesus will take what little that we have and make it more than enough for the needs of the world. That’s divine abundance.
The disciples are like us. We look out at the vast needs of the world and become despair. “Jesus, send them away,” we plead. “Jesus, work some kind of miracle and feed them.”
Well, Jesus works a miracle all right. He asks us, “What do we have?”
We don’t have much. Just a couple of fish and a few loaves in our baskets. But he urges us to take what we have and generously share it, give it away, offer it to the multitudes.
And miraculously, it is enough. It’s divine abundance!
Let us pray.
Gracious God, the greatest of all your abundant gifts is the gift of Jesus Christ. We seek your love made manifested in Christ so that we might be assured that our sins are forgiven. Lead us to be generous in sharing love and the good news of the gospel with all who hunger in the world. Amen.