Sermon Aug 7 2011

Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21 p. 506
8The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
14The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.
15The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.
16You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.
18The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
19He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them.
20The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
21My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.
Matthew 14:13-21 p796
13Now Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.14When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.15When 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.”16Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”17They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”18And he said, “Bring them here to me.”19Then 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.20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
This is the word of the Lord…..thanks be to God

If there was only one story you could tell, what would it be? You know, the kind of story that sums up, in one caption, one illustration, the kind of person a person is? We often tell these stories after someone has died. We heard many stories about Jean this past week. If there was one story we could tell about Jesus Christ, about what God is doing in Jesus Christ, what would we say?

This story, of the feeding of the 5000, is the only story to appear in all of the 4 of the gospels. This story must have meant something deep and wonderful to the early church, a way to explain who Christ was, and what God is like.

I can imagine the disciples telling the story, years after the event: a little embarrassed, perhaps, laughing in that sort of shamefaced way….”well, we were just trying to be practical, you know- it was really late, and the people were a long way from home…and then—and then- Jesus looked at us and said “you give them something to eat…….” And then the smiles began, and perhaps a few tears- “and so, we gave him what we had- which wasn’t much!” and then we took up baskets- large baskets- of leftovers- we started with practically nothing, and there were leftovers- 12 baskets- we each went around and collected what was left over- that’s what I can’t get over- we all ate, and had enough to eat, and there were leftovers after having practically nothing at all!”


What kind of God is God? What kind of Savior is Jesus?

A God who is concerned with us on a bodily level. A God who knows that talk is cheap. That hungry people don’t care about religion—they only want to see that their children get fed.

And a God who calls us to participate in miracles.

Very early in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is in the wilderness, tempted by Satan. And Satan shows him all the stones lying on the ground—“turn these into bread” Satan says. People will follow you, you will be popular, you will rule the world if you can feed them. It was a strategy that was working for the Roman army—bread! The people may not like the oppressors, but at least there was bread!

But in that wilderness, Jesus resisted, turned down Satan’s offer. He did not want to rule by being a “bread king”. Here, out in this wilderness, Jesus sees the crowd, and has compassion. Why feed them now? Perhaps it is this: he turns to the disciples and says: You give them something to eat.

Yikes. 5 loaves and two fish. Not even enough for 12 disciples, much less 5000 men and their families. And yet, they hand it over to Jesus.

And Jesus looks up to heaven, and blesses the bread, and breaks it, and hands it out. And there is enough. More than enough—an overflowing, abundant more than enough. Enough so there are leftovers- 12 baskets of leftovers. Twelve BIG baskets—and the words there mean a surprising abundance, more than expected, more than just enough.

We have talked recently about being co-laborers with God, co-participants with God’s work in the Kingdom. It is true here- Jesus calls the disciples to be part of the solution—“you give them something to eat”. It is a participatory miracle. Jesus intends to bless people through the works of his followers. As someone has said, Jesus could just as easily have made a happy meal—or at least the 1st century version of a happy meal—show up in everybody’s lap, and it would have been just as much a miracle. But that’s not what Jesus did. And it’s not the way God calls us to work in the world as followers of Christ.

The church finds its identity when it participates in the mission of God. We are followers of Christ when we are joining the mission of Christ’s compassion to the world. The church knows who it is and what it is doing when we are involved in doing the work- the compassionate, merciful work—of God. I have a friend who says “be careful what you pray for—because God just might use you to be part of the solution.” Praying about the hungry people? God will move you to help. Concerned about domestic violence? God will find a way to use you.

We feed people here. One Great Hour of Sharing. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. The food pantry, the mobile food truck. Free Friday lunch. The clothing drive. Ask anybody who’s worked those events—how moving it is, to be able to help people. The Food pantry truck was in Burdett last week- the entire truck was emptied in 40 minutes.

But we have to remember it is God who is feeding—and we are hungry, and are fed, as well. In Session this week, we talked about where we find ourselves fed: in church, at this Table, in Sunday School, when we are serving others. In a few minutes we will go to the table, and we will celebrate the gifts of God for the people of God. We will be pass the bread around, just as it was passed in that Galilean wilderness all those years ago. We will be fed with God’s amazing, surprising abundance and grace. We will have leftovers, as well. We will tell the story of what God is like, and how God cares for us through Christ, and how we are to care for the world that God so loves. Amen.