Sermons

Jul 31 - The Rev. Brian C. Taylor

When Jesus fed the multitudes, he fed way more than 5,000 people. Those were just the men. As Matthew tells us, there were women and children, too. So it was really the feeding of the 15-20,000. It was a miraculous explosion, a feast of unimaginable proportions.

Jesus waded into the crowd, overwhelmed by the need of so many. Grasping at him, desperate for healing, he had compassion and he cured many of them. Then his disciples noticed the lateness of the hour, and they knew that this huge crowd was a long way away from home – it says that they had followed Jesus along the lake to a deserted place. They would be hungry, and had a long walk home in the dark.

So the disciples came to Jesus and suggested he dismiss them before it got any later, and Jesus said They need not go away. You give them something to eat. Well, okay, Master! We’ll just order up 5,000 pizzas to be delivered! Look, Jesus, here’s what we’ve got: five loaves of bread and two fishes - that’s it! No problem, Jesus says, we’ll just pray.

The food miraculously expanded to feed the 20,000 people: and not just a little bite for each person – All ate and were filled, it says. But even more miraculously, there was more left over than what they began with: 12 baskets of bread and fish, one basket for each of the apostles. In giving, they received more than they gave. It was a miracle that was marked by compassion, healing, generosity, and God’s abundance.

And keep in mind that Jesus did this at an agonizing time in his life. He had just been back home to Nazareth, after weeks of healing and teaching around Galilee. His own friends and his own clan rejected him, drove him out of town. He was a failure. Then, if that weren’t enough, he heard that his cousin and soul-mate John the Baptist had just been beheaded by King Herod.

He was, no doubt, overwhelmed by rejection and sorrow. So he went off by himself in a boat to a deserted place in order to pray. Soon afterwards, he was called back into the intensity of the crowd. Considering his circumstances, it is amazing that Jesus was able to give anything of himself, and it is astounding that he was able to feed so many with so little.

The story is a parable for the spiritual life, for the life of the church. It shows us how we are to live. For God calls us, too, to rise up out of our failures and our losses, and then, in spite of it all, to have compassion on those in need, to heal, to share our resources for the good of all, to delight in God’s abundant love. But how on earth is this possible? We’re not the Messiah, after all. Sometimes it is just too much. We have nothing left to give, too little to share, no ability to see God’s goodness around us.

There are two things about the feeding of the 20,000 that stand out for me, two things that seem to have made it all possible, and which still make it possible for us, in spite of our stresses and difficulties, to give of ourselves. One is the opening of our heart to God. The other is the opening of our heart to one another.

Jesus was grounded in prayer. He had a rhythm of going out and going within. He had compassion and healed the multitudes because he also took time for himself to be nurtured and centered in the Spirit.

After being cast out of Nazareth, after hearing of his friend’s death, he needed to withdraw by himself so that he could pray, cry, and nurse his wounds. Later, after expending all his energy on the crowds, Jesus sent everyone away and went back up on the mountain to pray and rest all night. In his hour of need, Jesus opened his heart to God.

This fits the pattern Jesus lived throughout his life. After his baptismal commissioning in the Jordan River, Jesus withdrew into the desert for 40 days of prayer. When he was scorned by others, he would shake the dust off his feet and leave. To do his work of healing and teaching, Jesus needed to remain grounded. Without this grounding, he would not have been able to give and give without end. Without prayer and solitude before and after the feeding of the multitudes, there would not have been any feeding of the multitudes.

Now you and I are not the Messiah, drawn into exhaustive work of healing the crowds. But we do have many demands. Family, friends, demands at work, repairs on our home, financial stresses, go to bed tired, get up early and do it all over again. Then we come here and listen to all these inspiring stories about how much more we should be giving than we already are.

If Jesus needed time away to recharge his spirit, surely we do, too. A life that is filled with nothing but work and duty is a recipe for disaster. We need days off where we are not consumed with house projects; we need to take our vacation time; we need a little regular time for prayer and meditation; we need days where nothing is planned, nothing being asked of us. We need to stop and wonder, open our heart, and be filled. How we do this is different for each of us, but I suspect you know what nurtures your spirit.

This self-care is not selfish. While it certainly is a joy, and it gives us pleasure, one of the chief benefits is that it puts us in a condition where we can be used by God for the good of others. For it is only when we open our heart to God and find grounding there that we are able to love and to give freely to others. In the same way, it was prayer and solitude that made it possible for Jesus to summon up the energy to feed and heal the crowds that day.

The second thing about this story that strikes me, the second thing that seemed to make possible this miracle of feeding the multitudes, is that the people there opened their hearts to one another. Jesus did not do this miracle alone. He wasn’t even aware of the need until his disciples told him: It’s late. They’re tired and hungry. He knew he couldn’t fix this problem by himself, and so he asked the 12 to come up with something. They scrounged together what they could find - five loaves of bread and two fish - and presented them to Jesus. Somehow this became more than enough.

Some say that the miracle was that the crowd, inspired by Jesus and the disciples, grateful for Jesus’ healing and his teaching, came up with the food on their own. Perhaps it went like this: in a spontaneous outpouring of generosity, they opened their baskets and bags to one another, sharing freely with anyone nearby who was hungry. The miracle was a group of strangers opening their hearts and their resources to one another. There was not enough until they miraculously began to share; then everyone was filled and there were 12 baskets left over.

This event was a parable about community, and the early church told it in order to remember that they would always have enough. God would provide, not by sending down manna from heaven or inspiring some wealthy person to leave them a fat endowment, but by all the people of God opening their hearts and their baskets. In community, there will always be enough - even an abundance - when it is shared.

When we are overwhelmed by the needs of the world, we need to tell this story to ourselves and remember. When we start to believe that we cannot feed the hungry in this world or provide health care for everyone; when we start to think that there is not enough in this parish community to do what God calls us to do; when we imagine that we will be isolated and unable to provide even for ourselves, we need to remember the feeding of the 20,000.

It is then, in remembering, that we will turn to one another and share the little that each of us has. The people of the world have more than enough to care for the poor. There are more than enough people around you to help you in your hour of need. Usually, all you need to do is ask. When we open our hearts to one another, God’s abundance comes forth.

Sometimes it seems that the world demands too much of us, even that God demands too much of us. It is too much if we don’t pray and if we don’t share. But if we can find ways of nurturing our spirit so that we stay grounded in God, we will always have something to give to others. And if we share that little bit with others around us, it will always be more than enough.