Lectionary: Proper 13A
Text: Matthew 14:13-21
Introduction
“Jesus liked to eat.” That is how one of the commentaries for this week’s text begins. Here is a little bit from the opening paragraphs of this commentary:
"Jesus liked to eat. The disciples of John the Baptist
noticed enough to question why he did not fast. His enemies noticed enough to
ask his disciples why he ate with tax collectors and sinners. They labeled him
a glutton and a drunkard. His parables are often about wheat, or fruit trees,
or banquets, or vineyards...
Eating is rarely listed as a spiritual practice, but it
should be. Some of the best stuff in ministry happens over meals... Every
pastor ought to have an expense account to be used to fund the pastoral
ministry of feasting. It may be more important than paying the light bill.
Mealtime is often where ministry happens."[1]
The act of
eating together in the Christian tradition is traced all the way back to Jesus.
The early church shared food and meals together. And food was one of the
original controversies, too. The appointment of the original deacons in Acts
was in response to a controversy regarding inequities around the distribution
of food. Acts also contains the vision of Peter and the unclean foods, and how
that led him to accept eating with Gentiles. The Epistle to the Galatians
contains a report of Peter reverting to segregated eating at which point Paul
challenges Peter. Several of Paul’s epistles contain discussions about food
controversies around clean and unclean distinctions and distinctions around
food offered to idols. The First Epistle to the Corinthians contains a
controversy about the differences in the kind of food the wealthy Christians
ate vs. what the poor Christians were left to eat. And of course, the tradition
of the Eucharist, or the Communion meal is found in the gospels and in some of
the epistles. The Didache describes the communion meal as well, and it
is described as the prelude to a full meal.[2]
The miraculous distribution of food is reported in all four gospel accounts.
In the
present-day church, fellowship time and potlucks take place regularly,
continuing the central place of food and meals in the gathered church.
Jesus and Eating
If Jesus liked eating and we love eating as well, why is eating subordinated to the formal order of a worship service? Why is the act of eating, when it is remembered through Communion, reduced to just a symbol?
We read
about Jesus teaching through words, but we also have Jesus teaching through
activities that occur around meals. What happens during this week’s reading is
one, but we also have Jesus teaching at banquets held in his honor, through
meals that happen in private homes, and so on.
In the story
of the Feeding of the (at least) Five-Thousand, Matthew portrays Jesus only as
continuing his healing ministry. In Mark, Jesus teaches the people. In Luke,
Jesus both teaches and heals. And in John, Jesus teaches, but directed to the
disciples. From this I find potentially broader possibilities for worship than what
we have traditionally accepted as the order of worship.[3],[4]
Question About Resources
The issue
facing many smaller churches, including this one, is a lack of resources,
especially the human kind. Many smaller, rural churches are finding it
difficult or impossible to attract a pastor.[5]
The congregation itself is getting older and fewer in number, making any kind
of ministry difficult, both internal ministries and external ones.
And I think
that is where today’s gospel reading touches our present realities.
17 [The disciples] replied, “We have nothing here except five loaves of
bread and two fish.” (Matthew
14:17 CEB)
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When given the audacious task of providing food for the entire gathered crowd, this is all they could find. It wasn’t enough to feed even themselves.
18 He said, “Bring them here to me.” (Matthew 14:18 CEB)
That is
Jesus’ response to human need and apparent insufficiency of resources. And
then,
He took the five loaves of bread and the two fish, looked up
to heaven, blessed them and broke the loaves apart and gave them to his
disciples. Then the disciples gave them to the crowds. (Matthew 14:19b CEB)
Jesus gives
thanks for what they could find, and then he returns the food back to his
disciples.
This story
is nearly always portrayed as Jesus providing a miraculous multiplying of food.
But that is not anywhere in the text. (One can certainly read between the lines
and possibly infer that Jesus might be doing the multiplying.) It is in the act
of the disciples going out among the crowd with what they were each given, that
the food somehow is not only sufficient, but abundant by the end.
That is a
detail I found that I hadn’t really noticed before. Several commentaries I read
noted that the miracle, however it might have occurred, is not the central theme
or even a point of the story.
What is the
point, then?
Start With Sharing What You Have
If the story
is restated, it consists of Jesus seeing an initial need, Jesus having
compassion and acting on it. Then a new need develops which the disciples see,
but they can’t see how it could be solved. They suggest a very reasonable and logical
solution, which Jesus rejects. Jesus tells his disciples that they are to solve
the problem using their means. Their means appear far insufficient. Jesus takes
what they do have, offers gratitude to God, then returns the items back to the
disciples. And it is, as the disciples share what they have, that they discover
that what they have is not only enough, but abundant.
The full mission of Christ’s Church is to minister to all the world. But what this story seems to be saying is that it doesn’t happen all at once. The story seems to be showing the growth of the kingdom through initial small steps of sharing. And that reminds me of the parables that we heard the past three weeks: “the kingdom of heaven is like” a sower sowing seed, a mustard seed, yeast, weeds, and so on.
Perhaps the
gospel writer placed this story in this place, immediately after the parables,
as what he saw to be an explanation and illustration of the meaning of the
abovementioned parables. The beginning of the kingdom of heaven may appear
small, inauspicious, even ordinary, but as God and God’s people work together,
the influence and effects sprout and spread quietly, even mysteriously and
miraculously, until the end of this age when at the harvest the full picture of
how much it has grown is finally seen.
Our
responsibility is to do what we can with what we have. Another parable comes to
mind: the parable of the talents. Some groups start with larger resources, and
they can have greater (in our way of thinking anyway) results. But one of the
messages of that parable is to be faithful and use (or share) all that we were
given, and whatever the result is, is sufficient. Faithfulness is not a
competition or a comparison with the next person or group. Faithfulness is
between you and God; between us and God.
Returning to Food and Fellowship as Worship
This congregation
is struggling, and it is not alone. There are many all over the country facing
similar struggles. What does it mean to be faithful with the resources that we
do have?
When we
think about resources, the first thing that most often comes to mind is
probably financial.
But what
about human resources? That may be a more pressing concern. Where are our human
resources currently being utilized in this local congregation? How are our time
and efforts currently being allocated? Who is being fed? Do we like what we
see, or do we want to see something different? If something different, what
needs to change?
Even if God was
ultimately the source of multiplying the loaves and fish, it was in the act of
the disciples taking and sharing to the crowd, not among themselves, that was
the critical piece of the multiplication. How might that inform decisions we
make about the resources we have among us today?
When I look at today’s story about how a huge crowd was given abundant food, I wonder if the church tradition of compartmentalizing and isolating worship from eating is necessary or good. Can the two be integrated so that worship and eating mingle together, where one moves back-and-forth seamlessly between the two? Where eating and socializing is one form of worship?
If worship
is honoring God, is there a more appropriate way to honor how Jesus used food
and meals to bring people together and teach the importance of sharing and
community? Many of the ancient sacrifices and offerings were “shared meals”
with the divine. Why couldn’t we practice and experience the same here, through
our meals with one another?
The
commentary I started with ends with this sentence: “When you have no idea what
else to do, plan a meal, invite as many people as you can, offer what you have,
and prepare to be amazed.”
[1]
Feasting on the Gospels--Matthew, Volume 2, chapter on Matthew 14:13-21,
section "Pastoral Perspective", p. 44.
[2]
See Chapters 9 and 10 of the Didache.
[3]
Our
Order of Worship brochure (pcusa.org) (https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/order_of_worship_brochure_dec_2008.pdf#:~:text=The%20order%20of%20worship%20that%20centuries%20of%20Christians,deeply%20into%20intimate%20communion%20with%20God%20in%20Christ.)
1 comment:
This sermon would be well worth you and me having a good cup of coffee and time together talking once again. Bob Carter
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