Sermon 31st July 2011
Sermon Pentecost P7 Taupo 31 July 11
Matthew 14:13-21
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When 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.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then 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. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
The following is a true story. After months of hard work and years of saving, the day came for Reb and Jackay to open their own restaurant. All that was needed was the final health inspection and the issuing of their business permit. That was scheduled for first thing that morning; then "Our Place," as they called their restaurant would be in business.
But that morning the winds and rains of Hurricane Hugo hit, unexpectedly making its way 200 miles inland to their North Carolina town. Trees were uprooted, power lines were down, homes and stores were destroyed. Reb and Jackay hurried to their restaurant. Everything was intact.
A deputy sheriff pulled up and told them that their restaurant, the fire station next door and a service station down the road were the only ones with electricity. Reb and Jackay called the health inspector to come immediately so they could open, but because of the power outage, he couldn’t get into his office to issue the permit. No permit, no business opening. With a refrigerator stocked with 300 pounds of bacon and beef and bushels of tomatoes, lettuce and bread, there was only one thing to do: give the food away.
They told the deputy, "Tell your co-workers and other emergency people you see that we’ll have free Bacon sandwich and coffee for anybody who wants to drop by." Soon firemen, policemen, linemen and other workers were filing into Our Place. When the couple heard that another restaurant was scalping people by charging ten dollars for two eggs, toast and bacon, they placed a sign in their window: FREE BACON SANDWICH--FREE COFFEE. Families, travellers and street people were welcomed.
Then something began to happen. People started to clean counters and sweep floors. Volunteers took over the dish washing from Jacky and helped Reb at the grill. Hearing about what was going on at Our Place from the local radio station, people from a neighbouring town that had not been too badly hit by the storm brought food from their freezers. Stores and dairies sent over chicken, milk and foodstuffs of all kinds.
And so the long day went. Those first cups of coffee and Bacon sandwich somehow stretched to 16,000 meals. The restaurant’s small stock increased by 500 loaves of bread, cases of mayonnaise, 350 pots of coffee and bushels of produce.
William Barclay in his commentary suggests that the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 could be understood as an act of sharing. There were people in the crowd who had brought lunches with them in their pockets. When they saw the apostles starting to pass out the meagre five loaves and fishes, they brought out their lunches and shared with one another. Something like the story of the restaurant.
There is in the OT an equivalent story with the prophet Elisha, found in the second book of Kings. The story of the feeding of the 5000 therefore connects Jesus with the miracle story of the OT prophet.
What ever explanation we might consider, the story has, as all stories in the gospel, a religious point.
The story begins with Jesus trying to find a bit of piece and quiet, so he gets into a boat and seeks a deserted place. But the crowds follow him. Jesus has compassion for them. That perhaps is the first point of the story. It is a story of compassion.
Evening comes and the disciples, aware of the deserted place, ask Jesus to disperse the crowd so that they can go to the villages and obtain some food. Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat. They reply, that they have nothing but five loaves and two fish. This perhaps is the second suggestion about this story: it is a story of feeding the hungry.
Jesus then takes the food, gets the crowd to sit down, and blesses and breaks the bread. The disciples then give food to the crowd. All ate and were filled, and what was left over was gathered. The words used here echo the words of communion. That perhaps is the third suggestion – that this is a story of the Eucharist or communion. Bread is a symbol of life and truth.
Compassion to feed the hungry then is connected with our ritual of communion. If there is a punch line in this story, it is that Jesus has a compassion that heals the sick and feeds the hungry. The words of institution in our communion of blessing and breaking the bread are followed by feeding the hungry. If we are to follow the actions of Jesus, we need to care for the sick and feed the hungry.
Brian Rudman in a newspaper column during the week quoted Child Poverty Action Group's words on child poverty in NZ:
A 2002 Ministry of Health survey - the latest information available - found that 17 per cent of children - 83,000 - went to school without breakfast sometimes or always, and that 22 per cent of households with children sometimes or often ran out of food because of lack of money. The report concludes: "If a few children go hungry in the morning then that suggests a temporary or perhaps ongoing problem within individual families. If hundreds go hungry morning after morning then the problem is structural and can be addressed.
The Salvation Army reported during the week that their food survey showed low-income families in one of New Zealand’s poorest suburbs are facing far higher increases in their weekly grocery bills than the reported consumer price index rise.
The Salvation Army’s Consumer Price Survey of prices at a South Auckland supermarket, shows a typical sole-parent family has seen a 9.1 per cent jump in its cost of living in the last year.
At our local food bank in Taupo, Megan tells me that since last year, there have been over 100 new clients, that means people including families, but that she is pleased to say that giving has responded and the Foodbank is keeping up with the need.
Globally, the challenge of a growing population, inadequate and unequal food distribution, and the limits of agriculture, mean that many in our world face poverty. This is one of the critical questions of our planet – how we are to feed a growing population.
The miracle of the feeding of the 5000 then, is to connect the words of our communion, to bless and break bread, to connect this with our actions of feeding the hungry.
There is a final point that can be made. The generosity of Jesus shown in this story was extended to all in the crowd. The final verse puts it in a rather male chauvinist way:
And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
It seems that when it comes to counting you count the men. However, that aside, women and children were fed. The point is that if you were in the crowd, you were fed. This was not a Christians’ only club.
It is a matter worth thinking about in the context of the tragedy in Norway. The crusade to keep Europe non-Muslim, and the absurdity of making this a Holy war, this idea of restricting access to those who seek the bread of life, this does not fit with our story of today. Bread was given to all who needed.
John Howell
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