August 3, 2008 Message

August 3, 2008
Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21
"We Have Only…”

"I am a follower of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience."

Jesus told me, "Why don't you give them something to eat?"
But I said, "I have only… “

enough by Thom M. Shuman of Cincinnati, Ohio USA

there was more than enough
grief
for Jesus,
hearing the news
that beloved John
had lost his head
to Herod;

there was more than enough
people
when all those folks,
men, women, children
(the press reported
more than 5000)
crowded after him;

there was more than enough
hunger
following each person,
gnawing away at
their hopes and dreams;

there was more than enough
doubt
feeding the fears
of his disciples,
whining for Jesus
to send everyone packing;

but what they did have
was more than enough
for Jesus–
taking,
blessing,
breaking,
transforming
their paltry panic into manna's joy.

when we look
into our picnic basket of scarcity,
murmuring,
'not enough money,
not enough people,
not enough time,
not enough energy,
notenoughnotenoughnotenough'

remind us, Overflowing Grace,
that it is all Jesus needs.
(c) 2008 Thom M. Shuman

Rev. Bill Cotton, retired pastor and former District Superintendent of the Iowa Conference, tells of a student who sat in the back of the classroom with arms folded as an expression of defiance. The instructor had just read the account of the feeding of the five thousand, not counting women and children, with five loaves and two fish. The student asked: “was that physical bread or spiritual bread”? The instructor replied, “Yes!”

The student’s question reminded him, Rev. Cotton said, of the Hebrew children as they woke up one morning in the wilderness and found the bushes covered with a strange substance. They asked (of course in Hebrew), ”What is it?” – which became translated into the English word, Manna or bread from heaven.

In both stories, the feeding of the five thousand plus and the feeing of the Hebrews in the wilderness, there is enough for everyone with an abundance left over. It seemed too good to be true. Yet I said, “I have only…”

Some say that Matthew is reporting Jesus putting an end to the scarcity myth created in the Joseph story in Genesis. Until the Pharaoh's dream about the skinny cattle eating the fat cattle the Hebrew scripture was all about God’s abundance. In the story of Joseph the scarcity myth was born. There will not be enough. Fear ruled then and today.

Jesus feeding the great crowd is a story and sign of God’s abundance. These days fear of “not enough” is the order of the day. There will not be enough, gas, corn, oil, you name it. Even in the church we are subject to the fear there will not be enough. Yet the role of the church is to make the signs of God’s abundance. Could it be that there is always enough? What is lacking is only our capacity to share.

Jesus feeding the great crowd is also a story about what is involved when we feed others. In first-century Jewish culture, there was more to a meal than just eating or gobbling down food. Meals were about hospitality, about sharing, about bonding. To eat with someone meant engaging in a deeper relationship. Jesus ate with lots of people, from the religious elite to the outcasts of society. For him, the meal was very much a part of his proclaiming God’s kingdom. In the meal, as in the kingdom, everyone is welcome, everyone is important, and everyone is fed.

But when Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.” I said, “I have only…”

What Jesus asks doesn’t even seem reasonable. You don’t have to be a genius to do the math and realize that it isn’t going to happen. Not when there is hardly enough for us. Their isn’t a whole lot, just five loaves and two fish, which is “nothing” compared to what is needed. It just doesn’t work out, especially when I have only… this much.

The disciples, like us, are thinking scarcity… Jesus is thinking abundance. Jesus says, “Don’t tell me what you don’t have. You give them something to eat.” We can look at the world around us, and all its needs, and right away we worry about what we don’t have. Jesus, however, calls us to look beyond what we don’t have to all the hungry people — people hungry for their next meal, hungry for God, hungry for grace, hungry for a chance to change their lives. Jesus says to us, “You give them something to eat.” When God promises to do the feeding, how can we say, “We have only…”

It’s appropriate, as we are about to celebrate Holy Communion, that this is our scripture. Because our belief is that at the Lord’s Table there is always more. With God there’s always more — more grace, more love, more room, more of everything. God takes the smallest that we can offer and multiplies it into more than we can ever imagine. Isn’t it time to get rid of our diet of scarcity and enjoy the abundance of grace God offers us.

From the book, To Bless the Space Between Us, A book of Blessing, by John O’Donohue (Doubleday, 2008. p, 91.)

“As we begin this meal with grace
let us become aware of the memory
carried inside the food before us;
The quiver of the seed awakening in the earth,
unfolding in a trust of roots and slender stems of growth,
on its voyage toward harvest, the kiss of rain and surge of sun;
The innocence of animal soul
that never spoke a word,
nourished by the earth
To become today our food;
the work of all the strangers
whose hands prepared it,
The privilege of wealth
and health that enables us
to feast and celebrate.”