August 4, 2002—9:00 Worship
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When our daughter, Lauren was in middle school, she would have friends come over to our house to talk, listen to music, and at times, study. Around 5:00 or 6:00 o’clock while I was making dinner, she would come down the stairs and in front of her friend ask me if her friend can stay for dinner! What can I say?
I would defrost another piece of chicken and add another cup of frozen corn. After a while I learned to call up to her room, “Is your friend staying for dinner?” before starting to cook. I learned to plan ahead to have enough!
5 Loaves and 2 Fish
The passage for today describes a time when Jesus saw a large crowd, he felt bad for them. He had compassion for them. They were following him to be close to him because he cured the sick and made them well again.
After spending the afternoon caring for the needs of the great crowd, the disciples soon realized that time passed quickly. It got late. It was time for dinner and there was no fast-food stand nearby to buy food.
The disciples said to Jesus, “You’ve already done your job. We’re in the religion business, not catering business. Why don’t you send them to the nearby villages to buy some food for themselves.”
But Jesus saw this great crowd as his dinner guests. “They need not go away,” he said,
“you give them something to eat.”
After looking around, the disciples found only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish in the freezer. It wasn’t enough!
Then Jesus took the bread and the fish and blessed them. With the crowd of 5000 men not even counting the scoreless number of women and children, Jesus had them sit down on the grass. The disciples started to pass around the food and everyone—men, women, and children had enough to eat. In fact they were full!
After clearing the dishes and gathering together all of the leftovers, they ended up with twelve full baskets of food. They had leftovers for that night’s sui-yeh!
Sharing with Others
As people who live in the richest country in the world, we still think that we don’t have enough to share. We wonder if we have enough food in the packed freezer and refrigerator to share with the unexpected dinner guest. I think we come into this world with a sense of scarcity. I’ve got to grab, hoard, accumulate, pile up, and guard. “It’s mine and you can’t have it,” the little child in us so quickly learns to say.
The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is to teach us that when we trust God to provide for all of our needs, God does that! He feeds us, cares for us, protects us and teaches us to share and show hospitality to others. For me, it’s making sure that when I need to, I always have something in the freezer to take out.
Both the feeding of the five thousand and the Lord’s Supper could be seen as instances of Jesus eating with anyone. No one, no sinner, no outcast was turned away. Whoever comes to the Lord—the 5000 who were in the desert or you and me coming to the Lord’s table today are welcome by Jesus. We join the great crowd of sinners who ate with Jesus, as well as those who were fed by him in the desert with five loaves and two fish.
Jesus welcomes everyone to his picnic dinner in the desert, at his table, and in his church.
There’s a story about a student who came home for the holidays. His father, the local pastor in town was talking to his son about the various problems confronted by the church today: poverty, homelessness, and other social ills.
As they talked, they walked down the street, heading toward a pay phone to call home to ask if they needed to bring a pizza home with them for dinner. They didn’t have their cell phones with them.
As fate would have it, on their way, they met a homeless man who asked them, “Can you spare any change?”
The father reached into his pocket, pulled out a handful of change, held it out to the man, and said, “Here, take what you need.”
The homeless man smiled, held out his hands, and took all of the change. Then they parted.
Heading on down the street, the young man and his father realized that they had given away all of their change. They needed a quarter to make their call. Turning around, they called out to the homeless man.
“We forgot that we needed to make a phone call. Can you give us back one of the quarters?”
The homeless man smiled, reached into his pocket, pulled out all of the change and said, “Here, take what you need.”
When we live with the faith that God has given to us abundantly, we are able and capable of sharing what we have with others. And even in the midst of all of the social-ills that we see—scarcity of opportunities, nurture, and hope, God is still able to teach us to share with one another. We learn to say, “Here, take what you need.”
Youth Camp
For most of you, Youth Camp begins this afternoon. Perhaps not 5000 people, but you will still be a part of a large group. I know that the program staff and the counselors have once again planned a great program for you to grow in faith this coming week. It will be a priceless event!
But just like the crowd in the desert, you too will get hungry. You will be eating your meals in the dining hall. Miracles can happen at Youth Camp when you share around the table with each other—making sure that everyone has enough.
You’ll be staying in cabins with new friends that you’ll be meeting for the very first time. If Jesus welcomed everyone to eat with him, you can also welcome new campers to Youth Camp—no one is left out. Miracles can happen at Youth Camp when you welcome the stranger who has come.
Miracles happen in the world when we do the work of God. Remember what Jesus told his disciples when they wanted to send the crowds away, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” We are gifted and capable in participating in God’s miracles. When the disciples passed out the bread and the fish, they couldn’t believe they really had enough. When you and I trust God in our lives and share what we have with others, we too will be participating in God’s miracles in the world!
Walking Out
In Pennsylvania, it was our custom after dinner to walk our guests out to the driveway as they get into their cars. It’s a bit harder for us in Sausalito with our house situated below on the side of the hill but we discovered that we still like to do this. We practice this form of hospitality to suggest that the sharing that we have just experienced is now extended into the public pathways of life and to return with our guests to their home.
Jesus welcomed the 5000 to have dinner with him and sent the people home with twelve baskets of leftovers. When you arrive at Youth Camp today, show hospitality as you carry the new campers’ sleeping bags and show them around Redwood Glen. When you have friends over this summer, practice hospitality as you invite them to stay for dinner. And when they go home, walk them out to their car and bless them with God’s love.
God’s miracles are always happening to us and in the world everyday.
Let us pray.
Lord, teach us to love and care for each other as you have loved and cared for us. We pray that we will be able to show hospitality especially to the stranger at Youth Camp today and through this church to all those who are lost, alienated, and displaced from their homes. In the name of our Lord, we pray. Amen.