The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
August 2, 2020
Year A, Proper 13:
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 16
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
Living Parables
Last
Sunday we reached the end of a series of Jesus’ parables. And, as we talked
about last time, many of those parables describe God’s kingdom as growth, as
growth from small to large, growth from small to not just large, but abundance.
The
sower sows seeds all over the place, on bad soil, yes, but also on good soil
where there is abundant growth.
The
mustard seed is tiny but it grows into a shrub or even a tree, providing
shelter for the birds.
Just
a little bit of yeast can expand into a whole lot of bread.
You
get the idea.
And
now today it may seem like we are switching gears from parables to a miracle –
and not just any miracle but one of Jesus’ best known signs, one that was
considered so important that all four of the gospels include it:
What’s
called the Feeding of the Five Thousand or the Multiplication of the Loaves and
Fishes.
Jesus
has just received the bad news that John the Baptist has been executed.
Understandably,
he wants some time alone to grieve and maybe reflect on how John’s fate may
foreshadow his own destiny, but when you’ve become famous as a teacher and
healer, “alone time” is hard to come by.
So,
the crowd – a very big crowd – follows Jesus all the way to a “deserted place”
and, as the day draws to a close, they are hungry.
In
my favorite moment from this story, the disciples are quite certain that the
hunger of the crowd is not their problem, so they go to Jesus and tell him to
send the crowds away to the nearest towns where they can get something to eat.
But,
as usual, Jesus doesn’t let his friends off the hook.
He
says, pointedly, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
I
love to imagine the facial expressions and body language of the disciples.
The
deep sighs.
The looking down
at the ground or nervously at each other.
Did
someone suck their teeth?
Was
that an eye roll I saw in the back?
The
probably frustrated and tired disciples can only provide such a small amount of
food – just five loaves and two fish – such a small amount that sure seems
woefully inadequate for feeding so many people.
And
yet, of course, the blessing of Jesus takes what seems so small and so
inadequate and grows it into unexpected abundance.
Not
only is there enough for the five thousand men - plus the women and children,
too, but there is a whole lot left over.
From
small to abundance.
It
turns out that we haven’t switched gears from the parables at all!
No
doubt, the disciples had been thinking about – puzzling over – Jesus’ parables
- about how God’s kingdom starts as small as a mustard seed or as yeast but
then grows into something big, something abundant.
And,
now, that evening in the deserted place with those many thousands of people all
with full stomachs, the disciples were part of a living parable.
In fact, the
disciples played a key role in this living parable because they were the
ones who provided what seemed so small, they were the ones who gave God the
small gift that God then grew into abundance, so much abundance that there were
even leftovers.
Now,
I confess that miracle stories often make me uneasy.
Over
the years I’ve been with any number of people in real distress who have begged
God for a miracle – who have asked me to pray to God for a miracle – and who
have been disappointed when the miracle that they wanted so much did not happen.
And,
let’s face it, in the days when Jesus walked the earth there were a lot of
people who went to bed hungry, lots of lepers whose skin was never cleared,
lots of blind people who never gained their sight, and lots of dead people who
stayed dead.
The
point of the miracles isn’t so much the wonderful turn of events for the particular
individuals involved – though of course it was great that all of those people
gathered around Jesus had full stomachs, at least for that night.
The
point of the miracles is that they remind us of a deeper truth that is true all
the time: God offers healing and new sight and new life – and God offers
abundance – and that abundance begins with us giving what we have.
I’m
reminded of a beautiful prayer by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the
Jesuits, whose feast day we celebrated on Friday.
Ignatius
prayed to God:
Take,
Lord, and receive all my liberty,
My memory, my
understanding,
And my entire
will,
All I have and
call my own.
You have given all
to me.
To you, Lord, I
return it.
Everything is
yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your
love and your grace,
That is enough for
me.
Like the disciples
long ago, we may think we don’t have very much - some of us may not have even
five loaves and two fish - but God accepts whatever we offer and takes it from
there.
And
that divine growth from smallness and scarcity to bigness and abundance isn’t
only found in the pages of the Bible.
God’s abundance
happens all the time.
Living parables
are all around us.
Which is very good
news, especially today.
I sat down to
write today’s sermon on Friday, the day after the government released economic
data showing what we already knew: we are in the midst of economic downturn the
likes of which have not been seen since the Great Depression.
Thanks to the deadly
virus and abysmal leadership, a whole lot of people including some in our own
parish are unemployed and uninsured - some have not been able to make the August
rent - and we have some people who already lack permanent housing and are
squeezed into motel rooms.
I can’t see the
future any better than you can but it sure seems like we are in for tough
times, yet, sure enough, God is still at work, growing our scarcity into
abundance.
There are living
parables all around us.
For example…have
you heard of the West Side Community Fridge?
Just a few weeks
ago, a woman named Tatiana Smith who lives a couple of blocks away from here, decided
she to help feed hungry neighbors. So, she bought a commercial refrigerator
with her own money and set it up on the sidewalk outside of her house, running
an electric cord out her window.
Now, I want to
stop right there because, just like Freewheeling Wednesday a few weeks ago, if
someone had presented me with this idea, believe me, I could have come up with
a hundred reasons why, although well-intentioned, this is not something that’s
really practical.
“We only have five
loaves and two fish!”
And, yet.
With the simple
premise of “take what you need, leave what you can,” the West Side Fridge has
been a beautiful success.
The other morning,
Catherine Marcial (founder of our Stone Soup Community Suppers) and I took a
walk over there to check it out. The fridge was filled with vegetables and milk
and eggs and other foods, canned goods were lined up on the top, pasta and dry
goods were in a plastic tub. There was a box filled with cans of baby formula
and even a box with feminine hygiene products.
The fridge is
decorated with beautiful messages:
Love more.
Respect each
other.
When you steal,
you invite poverty.
Love yourself.
Practice gratitude.
No exaggeration,
the fridge is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen – a living
parable – a vision of the kingdom of God.
And, yes, as
you’re probably asking, Catherine and I are talking about how our church can be
part of this living parable.
If you’re
interested, the fridge is very active on Instagram, where they post pictures –
photos of the fridge nearly empty and photos of the fridge miraculously
refilled and overflowing, thanks to lots of people giving the little that they
have.
The West Side
Community Fridge reminds me of a day long ago in a deserted place when the
scarcity of five loaves and two fish was grown by God into abundant food for
many thousands of hungry people.
God’s abundance
happens all the time.
And, we are invited
to be part of the living parables that are all around us.
Amen.
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