Matthew 14: 13-21 (NIV)
(13) When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.
(14) When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
(15) As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it is already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
(16) Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
(17) “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
(18) “Bring them here to me,” he said.
(19) And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
(20) They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
(21) The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Just out of seminary, a young man became the pastor of a small rural church. Nervous on his first Sunday, he began his sermon by saying, “I will teach from the passage where, Jesus, with five thousand loaves and two thousand fish, feeds five people.” In general, the congregation managed to keep from laughing out loud. But one man couldn’t contain himself and let out a huge guffaw, and then continued to snicker throughout the sermon. The next week the pastor hoped to make a better impression, so he decided to preach a similar message from the same passage. “This morning I have a similar message as last week,” he said. “I am using the story where Jesus, with five loaves and two fish feeds five thousand people.” The pastor looked confidently at the man who had laughed so much the week before. “Now, sir, could you have done that?” he asked. “Why sure,” the man answered, “if I had what was left over from last week.”
This week’s Gospel lesson is one of the most widely known miracles that Christ performs. In fact, if you look at the bible, it might be the most important. Not that the other miracles aren’t important, but they are only mentioned once, or maybe twice. But this story is mentioned in each of the gospels. It is that important! Because it is so important there has been a lot of analysis done over the years on this passage. As I prepared for the service this week I did a lot of reading, more so than usual. There are lots of themes that present themselves in these few lines of scripture. We have miracles. We have faith. We have trust. We have love. We have compassion. We have charity. We have hope. We have need. We have sadness. We have a need for prayer. We have people interrupting us when we need to be alone. I could go on and on, for there are many more themes as well.
This morning, though, I want to take a slightly different angle in approaching this story. Today, let’s start off with something different. Let’s start off with a myth. A myth that has ramifications in this story and in our lives. A myth that has ramifications in how we look at the world, how we live in a community, and how we practice our faith, or sometimes our lack of faith. Let’s start off with the myth of scarcity.
I read about the experience of one pastor who lived and worked in Manhattan. His wife, however lived in Western North Carolina and they would visit each other frequently. On one trip, the pastor realized he needed a battery for his camera, so he borrowed his wife’s car and headed to Wal-Mart. Now, it needs to be said that by law, no Wal-Mart can be opened in New York City. So, this pastor didn’t have a lot of experience in one. He entered the store and started to head back to electronics when he noticed cases of Coca-Cola on sale for a price that was unbelievable for this New Yorker. So he got a cart and grabbed a whole bunch of cases. He continued back towards electronics, but again before he got there he discovered paper towels that were also at an unbelievable price, so he got some of those as well. By the time he left, he had almost filled his wife’s small station wagon. When he got home, his wife came out to greet him and saw the car. She walked around looking in all the windows and slowly turned to him and said, “And we don’t need any of it!”
This isn’t that hard to believe for us, because not living in New York, we experience this all the time. I have to wonder what my grandfather or grandmother would think walking into a Wal-Mart today. They both died before Wal-Mart came anywhere near my hometown. They did their shopping at the local grocery store. The store was small compared to Wal-Mart but still big compared to what they must have seen growing up in the 1920’s and 30’s in the heat of the depression. Anyone who lived through that must be able to tell us first-hand how much abundance there is around us today. It is staggering.
Think about it. We live in abundance, so much abundance we often don’t know where to put it all. We first fill the closets and the attic and the basement and the garage and then we go across town and rent some space to store our stuff. The reality is that in the midst of all of this abundance of stuff, we have a mentality of scarcity. We think we need a little more. We are yearning to buy, if the price is right. Imagine our present day culture in any historical perspective. We have more possessions that any culture in the history of the world. We think of ourselves and our own personal value in terms of how much stuff we have. Yet our basic way of seeing the world is by virtue of scarcity. And if we are honest, almost no one of us is free of that yearning to have a little bit more. We don’t want to be accused of being greedy. We simply don’t quite have enough yet. Maybe other people do, we say to ourselves, but I don’t. I need just a little bit more.
A reporter once asked John D. Rockefeller how much is enough? Rockefeller responded, “Just a little more than I have.” But if our primary motivating factor is a sense of scarcity, it is hard to be grateful. A genuine sense of prayerful gratitude for our abundance has lost its base in our ceaseless passion to perpetuate our myth of scarcity.
We see this sense of scarcity in the lesson this morning. The disciples are anxious about the apparent scarcity of food. They nervously ask Jesus what to do. He says, “How much do we have?” You know the rest; a boy is found who has five loaves and two fish. Jesus gave thanks for the little but they had, and in that moment of gratitude, there was enough for everyone. The central theme here is gratitude. Gratitude is also central in the story of the woman who poured the expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet. The story of the ten lepers being cured and only one returning to give thanks.
Many of us grew up in families where we were taught to always say thank you. We were taught to keep that expression central in our relationships with others. But now, hundreds of times a day on television, billboards, magazines, etc, we are beckoned to want more. We are reminded that the world is a place of scarcity, not abundance. This sabotages gratitude so we can rarely stop to rejoice in God’s abundance but rather we press on with the myth of scarcity.
So we have this myth of scarcity. I label this a myth, because what is really around us is abundance. Extravagant abundance. The lesson this morning speaks to this in lots of ways.
Anyone who has ever been to a wedding will know that in the service, the bride and the groom must vow to love one another in sickness and in health, in riches and in poverty, for better or for worse. In other words, they promise to love one another with everything they’ve got. To hold nothing back.
They promise to love with extravagance, without limits. The church says to love with unbridled enthusiasm. Love is a renewable resource. In giving you receive, when it comes to love.
Love is a spendthrift; it isn’t very good at math. It definitely couldn’t balance a budget, at least not when the love is true.
Jesus has been doing a lot of good. But he is tired now; he needs to be alone for a while. He has just learned of the horrible death of his cousin, John the Baptist. He needs some alone time. But, he is not about to get any. Many of us would be past our ability to be courteous in this situation. But Jesus is more than that, he somehow summons up compassion.
He begins healing and talking and then we hear of the miracle of the multiplication of the food. Scarcity in the face of great need is contrasted with the gracious, extravagant abundance that is offered at the hand of Jesus. Everyone doesn’t just eat, they are filled and there is more food left over than there was at the beginning. Extravagant abundance.
There is extravagant abundance all around us. Creation itself. Mankind, the rich diversity of races, the diversity of sizes and shapes, sounds and senses. Our God does everything in abundance, from creation, to loving, to accepting us even with our faults.
So we see now that even in our mentality of scarcity, the reality is one or abundance, even when we can’t see it.
The final point I want to make today is by far the most important. Have you ever been hungry? I don’t mean it’s two in the afternoon and you haven’t had lunch yet hungry. I mean hungry hungry. Hungry like you haven’t eaten in three days or more. Your stomach aches in pain. You can barely stand up because of the pain and the lack of energy. I mean hungry, hungry. I have never been that hungry and I hope that none of you have been that hungry, but that kind of hunger is a reality for the vast majority of people on the planet.
Years ago there was a major famine in southern Sudan and Ethiopia. Interestingly, there is another major famine occurring there right now. Yet in the last famine many might remember a congressman from Ohio, Tony Hall warning that a million people were in the grip of a life threatening famine. In the same newscast, Dan Rather was reporting another record high on the Dow Jones as the American economy continued its record flight into increasing prosperity.
In the midst of this incongruous clash of famine and fortune in the space of a few minutes on the news, the words from today’s reading would penetrate the soul…”You give them something to eat!”
It sounds nice, but let’s be realistic, what can we do? What can I do? The problem is so big and I am so small. Even if I could help, it wouldn’t even make a dent in the problem. Well, let me tell you a story. Former president Jimmy Carter tells of a change in his church in 1976. Two families left. One family went to the white house. The other family was assigned to be missionaries in Africa.
Jerome Ethridge was an agronomist. He was not a preacher, knew no foreign language, and had no religious education except as a member and deacon at church. He and his wife were given rudimentary training as missionary recruits. There were sent to France to learn the language. Then they were assigned to Sokode, Togo. They ran a Christian library and taught languages to the young people who came by for books. Hundreds learned to read and write, but there was little chance for Jerome to use his agricultural skills or to be an effective witness for Christ.
When the opportunity arose, they were able to go to a much smaller and more isolated village named Moretan, in East Mono, a region of Togo. There, among people who mostly worshipped nature or crafted idols, the Ethridges assessed how they might meet urgent human needs. The greatest need was for drinking water, which was plentiful only during the rainy season. At other times, the women had to walk as far as sixteen miles each day to get water. With diesel well-drilling equipment furnished by some North Carolina Baptists and the help of local villagers, Jerome drilled 167 wells, 130 of them successful and capped with hand pumps. Over a period of eight years, every village within 80 miles of Moretan received a working well.
Next, with a leased bulldozer, Jerome constructed twenty-one deep ponds that hold the seasonal rainwater throughout the year. He stocked the ponds with tilapia, a fast-growing fish that provides a much-needed source of protein for the villagers. During these years, he also used his agronomy skills to help the people increase greatly their production of food, crops, forage for livestock, and trees that provided wood for cooking and home construction. Joann works with families on health and education projects, helped build a pharmacy, and provides transportation to a distant hospital for those too ill to be treated locally.
Finally, Jerome was ready to undertake a long-postponed task, to correct a problem that had always afflicted all of East Mono. For four months each year, rain changed the Mono River into an impassable barrier, isolating the area from the rest of Togo. Using cement furnished by his North Carolina friends, he and local volunteers built a bridge. When Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter visited the Ethridges, they were amazed to see the 230-foot concrete span across the stream.
Much like Moses, Jerome Ethridge has modest skills as an orator, and he doesn’t claim to be an expert on religious or theological subjects. He and his wife have just tried to serve the needy people around them, all without publicity or fanfare, and always in the name of Christ.
In addition to providing a better life for many people, what have the Ethridges accomplished in a religious sense? There are now 5,000 active members in 81 congregations in East Mono, each served by a local pastor. This is vivid proof of what just two people can do, inspired by faith in Christ and willing, like their Savior, to be humble servants.
They used what they had and God multiplied their offerings. But there are three things we can learn from this story and the gospel reading.
1. Compassion draws the hurting. One of Jesus hallmarks is compassion. This compassion draws the crowds to Jesus. We are commanded to be compassionate too. In 3 Colossians we read, “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Outreach and evangelism begin with compassion. Compassion opens doors that were closed by criticism and condemnation. Compassion is also the glue that holds churches together. As the old hymn, Blest Be the Tie that Binds says, “We share each other’s woes, Each other’s burdens bear, And often for each other flows, the sympathizing tear.” In a world rife with brokenness and sorrow, compassion is one of the most powerful healing forces the Christian community has. When we are compassionate we hear the words, “You give them something to eat.”
2. We are agents of God’s compassion. The disciples often waited for Jesus to take the lead in compassion. Members of churches often wait for the pastor to take the lead in compassion. Churches often wait for the denomination to take the lead in compassion. Young folks often wait for the adults to take the lead in compassion. Men often wait for women… But Jesus says, “You, Grace or ST. Paul’s, you give them something to eat.” The followers of Christ’s compassion learned it by seeing it. Though he taught them that God is a compassionate God, seeing compassion in action made it come alive. We must teach our children about Christ, about the church, about the word of God. But it is crucial that they learn compassion by seeing it in action in the fellowship of faith. Maybe our experience isn’t that great and we feel we don’t know how to teach our children this. Maybe we feel we can’t give much in that way. And maybe we don’t have much to give in that way. But it is amazing what God can do with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. That brings us to the most important lesson of all.
3. God will make us equal to the task. It doesn’t matter how much you have!!!!! What matters most of all is what God can do with what you have!!!
You have likely heard the term compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue happens when we see so much pain and anguish our hearts begin to grow accustomed to the daily sight of misery in the newspapers and on television. If we allow it to continue to penetrate our feelings, we would be overwhelmed. Compassion fatigue is a defense mechanism of our inner self to protect us from becoming paralyzed by the horror around us.
So we get used to it. It doesn’t strike home as much. And besides… “I’m just one person. What can I possibly do in the light of such overwhelming need?” Or in terms of our gospel lesson, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
One of the central propositions in our reading is that God can take our “not enough” and turn it into “more than enough.” Amazing things can happen when we see with eyes of compassion and make ourselves available to God as agents of compassion. And remember – Jesus never asks us to do anything he is not able to give us strength to do.
Somewhere in your experience this week, you will see a person or a situation where compassion is needed. If you are open to it, you will know in your Spirit that God needs and agent of compassion. And when you begin to wonder what can be done for this person, or in this situation, and the words will then come to you: “You give them something to eat.”
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