Sermon

Fed by God – Feeding the Family of God

Isaiah 55: 1-5, Matthew 14: 13-21

The Gospel lesson this morning is a familiar one – the feeding of 5,000. Perhaps it is more accurate to say it was the feeding of at least 5,000 because Matthew says it was about 5,000 men – besides women and children. According to the custom of that day the women and children would stand or sit separate from the men.

We used to do that in some of our own churches. Men sat on one side of the sanctuary and women on the other. The first church I served was in a little town in Missouri and some of the older people still sat separately. Orthodox Jews still worship that way.

I have always wondered about this feeding of the 5,000. It apparently was one of those much-talked-about miracles. It is one of the few miracles that all four gospels record. In the Gospel of John the five loaves of barley bread and the two fish are given by a young boy in the crowd. In the other three gospels all we know is that the only food the disciples knew about was the five loaves and two fish – but we do not know who had the food.

For me the important reality of the story is that Jesus took what someone risked giving – which admittedly was not enough if you only thought about the five loaves and two fish – and in Jesus’ hands, “not enough” became “more than enough.”

Think about the scripture in Isaiah 55 – “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! I will make with you an ever-lasting covenant.

God keeps promises. God keeps covenant.

In Wichita, Kansas, I saw this parable of the loaves and fish come to life nine straight years. The agency I served was an interfaith council of congregations. Every Christmas we had a huge food and toy distribution to more than 3,200 families. Between Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas each year we raised over six tons of food and over $200,000 in cash.

The week before Christmas, every year, when we actually started distributing the food, there was neither enough food nor money. But an amazing thing happened each year. When people in the community saw the long lines of those coming for a holiday box of food and a food voucher, it was a though someone turned on a spigot of food and money.

I would be sitting in a restaurant and people I did not know would walk over and hand me cash or checks for Operation Holiday (the name of the program). Because of the large number of families we served, we distributed the food and vouchers to a little over 500 families daily for six days. The local television stations and radio stations would come to the distribution site for interviews and would then help tell our story on the news casts. We distributed the food at three locations and in seven languages.

Lo and behold, it never failed – by the fourth day we could announce that we had enough to meet our needs. Even then the food and money kept coming to the point that we were often able to send pick-up trucks of food to other programs in the area serving the homeless.

The people who worked at the food centers were all volunteers except for one or two of us from the staff. Most of the volunteers were people who were eligible to receive food. Often persons who were to come on the fourth and fifth days for their food would come and volunteer the first two or three days as a way to thank people for the holiday food and food voucher.

On Christmas Eve almost every Christmas lot in the city allowed the families to come and take a Christmas for free. So, in addition to the food and vouchers we gave them a ticket to pick up a tree if they wanted one on Christmas Eve.

The food was all boxed in a large warehouse and boxes were packed according to family size. One year the 18-wheeler that did the deliveries to our distribution center was late. It was icy and sleeting. By 9:00 p.m. all the volunteers left except two. The truck came at 9:15 to be unloaded and we were to start distributing at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Talk about panic! I had no idea how we three people would ever be able to unload that truck. I called one of the television stations and they sent a reporter over and made the appeal as their top story on the 10 o’clock news that night. Eighteen minutes after that story was on the news, that 18-wheeler truck was totally unloaded! I have never seen such a turn-out of people and especially on a night when it was sleeting. So many people the Wichita police had to send officers over to direct traffic.

The first person arrived even before the TV interview was over. He was at a bar about two blocks away. He told me, “I decided to do two good things tonight – not get drunk and help unload this truck.”

We are fed by the hand of God. We can become the hand of God for others. We see it every first Sunday of the month when we bring food for Earl’s Place. As we are fed the spiritual food at the Lord’s Table, so we send out real food to those in need in our community. Fed by God – feeding God’s family.

I have always had a hunch that there really was more food in that crowd that day when Jesus lifted up five loaves and two fish. Perhaps there were people there who would not let it be known they had food in fear of someone taking it, or because of selfishness. There is a truth in the statement, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” Those who would not share were and always have been a big problem.

It is disquieting, even sinful, to see so much hunger in the world at the same time there is so much waste. It is disturbing that for many years farmers were paid not to grow corn while many starved in other countries. Now, they grow corn that is converted to ethanol. Somehow it does not feel good that something as vital as food is being diverted for use as fuel to help maintain a way of life that is addicted to gas-guzzling vehicles.

Jesus, when told that the people are hungry, makes a simple statement, “You give them something to eat.”

Members of Christ Church - “You give them something to eat.” Christians everywhere - “You give them something to eat. Rich and powerful nation - “You give them something to eat.” Disciples, feed my sheep.

Sometimes when it seems that our single individual actions may not matter a whit in this world, we need to remember this story of the five small loaves and the two fish. Because of that small offering of food in a crowd that needed much more food than that, somehow a miracle happened – people were fed, not only with enough, but so much that food was left over.

Serving in various positions in the church over the years, I can tell you for sure – the church universal is only as strong as the local church. The church world-wide is active only to the degree the church is active in each community. Every dollar that helps an earthquake or flood victim; every cent that provides money to help indigent children; every piece of equipment sent to help a village dig a well or build a hospital; every drop of medicine sent to mission stations – all of those things happen because on some Sunday or at some worship service people like us decided that we would share our loaves and fish with the world.

Some years ago CBS-TV had a series entitled “Look Up and Live.” One of the plays, “The Faith Hawker,” was about a man who went about selling what appeared to be empty bottles. The man claimed to be selling faith in a bottle. Of course no one bought his bottles – until a young man was about to lose his girlfriend to a serious illness. The young man goes to the Faith Hawker but the Faith Hawker now refuses to sell the bottle. He tells the young man, “You have nothing to believe in so now you will try anything.”

At the end of the play the young woman is healed and the young man has found what it really means to pray. The Faith Hawker speaks last in the play when he says: “The world is not changed much. But it is, by the addition of the faith of even one person.”

One person willing to share a few pieces of bread and fish is the seed of a miracle. One person willing to take a risk is enough for others to step forward. One person willing to trust Jesus – and a crowd is fed, a miracle happens, people see God in a miraculous way.

For me and, I hope, for you the question about our own responsibility to both a living Christ and a hungry world is: How will I (and how will we) respond when Christ instructs us, “You give them something to eat”? Will we risk sharing even if it is all we have?

Five small loaves and two fish – blessed, broken and given. A multitude was fed that day. Today we are the ones called to share, instructed to “give them something to eat.”

Amen

Jim Bell

8-3-08