August 3, 2008
Rev Linda Fernandes-Bailey
Blessed, Broken, Given
I want to begin today by sharing a poem by Mary Oliver called Logos.
Logos
Why wonder about the loaves and fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
And the felt ferocity of that love
The fish explode into many.
Imagine him speaking,
And don’t worry about what is reality
Or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept, too, each spoken word
Spoken with love.
So, was it a miracle? And what exactly is the miracle? Is it that Jesus multiples the loaves and fishes? Is it that Jesus gets the disciples to participate in the feeding of the crowd and stop depending on him to fix everything? Is it that the people in the crowd began to share with one another and suddenly there is more than enough? Is the miracle love as Mary Oliver implies? Barbara Brown Taylor says (and I agree) she has a problem with miracles that “mesmerize” us and leave everything up to God. Miracles, she writes “let us off the hook. They appeal to the part of us that is all too happy to let God feed the crowd, save the world do it all.” And in the words of Mary Oliver “Why wonder about the loaves and fishes”….I mean, is that really the point?
It is certainly easier to believe the main point is the miracle, that Jesus somehow multiplied the bread and fish. Then we are off the hook. Then we can lament and say, “why is it that there are miracles in scripture and it just doesn’t seem like there are any miracles today?” Where are all the miracles?
When the disciples tell Jesus to send the crowds away to buy food for themselves he tells them “They need not go away you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fishes.” We don’t have enough. We don’t have enough.
Not having enough seems to be a lament in our culture. No matter how much we have it never seems to be enough to fill us. When we have parties and gather together we always worry if there is enough food for everyone. Yet, more times than not we have more than enough and usually so many leftovers we don’t know what to do with them. We shop at Costco so we can buy huge quantities food sometimes for small families, but we want to make sure there is enough. We never have enough time so we squander the time we do have or live frantic lives trying to fit in as much as we can in a 24hr day. In our fear of not having enough, we live our lives from an attitude of scarcity. An attitude of scarcity leads us to believe we do not have enough of anything. It leads us to believe that we are not enough…not good enough…thin enough… Our homes not big enough, we don’t’ make enough money, on and on. Scarcity leads to living lives in which we hoard things for ourselves. We over eat, over spend, over indulge…trying to fill our hunger of not having enough. It leads to greed. NO? It exaggerates the human condition of deep hunger that never quite gets satisfied, certainly not by external trappings we seek.
When the disciples tell Jesus they don’t have enough Jesus says, about the loaves and fishes, “Bring them to me.” And then he takes them, blesses them, breaks them and gives them to the disciples. Suddenly, there is enough. No wait ….there are leftovers…more than enough! Jesus first looks up to heaven (a sign of his reliance on God)…blesses the food…he knows that everything we have is a gift from God. He lives out of abundance. God given abundance, which spills over with enough to share with everyone. Our deepest hunger is lessened when we are grateful for the gift of our lives, given by God. In our abundance we believe we have the resources we need for everyone. There is enough to share what we have been given.
I just read the book “Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, a beautifully written book. Anyway, the story is narrated by a boy, Rubin, who is about twelve years old, he lives with his father, sister and older brother. They are a poor family with just about enough, not anything extra for sure. The father is deeply faithful. He is forever reading his King James Bible followed by deep meditative prayer. At which time the kids know not to disturb him. The family receives frequent visits by a traveling salesman, who is a bit overweight and really likes to eat. One night he shows up close to dinner time and Rubin is in a bit of a panic because he is very hungry that night. The father is making his favorite soup. Rubin is very worried there will not be enough to satisfy his hunger. He resents the salesman being there. When they sit down to eat there is just about enough for everyone and then suddenly the father asks if anyone wants more. Of course the salesman does. The boy panics further. But as the dinner goes on it seems that there is an endless supply of this soup…it’s a never ending pot that is always full. The father lives grateful for the abundant blessings of God, he centers his life in God and even though he has so little, he shares what he has been given and suddenly there is abundance…more than enough for everyone. Was it a miracle the boy wonders? Make of it what you will he tells the reader.
Hunger is a common theme in scripture…real physical hungry…spiritual hunger. Hunger symbolizes our deepest needs as human beings. In scripture people wander through the desert for years hungry. Jesus fasts in the wilderness, hungry. Even today’s scripture lesson has a parallel story in 2 Kings 4:42-44. It is an account of Elisha’s feeding of the hundred men from a few loaves of barley. In both stories what seemed like a small amount of bread is shared and miraculously there is enough. It is a common theme for people of faith…hunger. And it does seem in scripture hunger can have a double meaning. Hunger can be taken literally as physical hunger and hunger can be taken symbolically or as metaphor. William Willimon reminds us “While in no way minimizing the primary reality of physical hunger for food, the Gospels imply that the phenomenon of hunger, includes, but also goes beyond, the basic need for bread. We hunger not only for bread but also for the other gifts which sustain life; love, meaning, direction, purpose, hope.”
When we share our food with others it ultimately has a much deeper meaning than the sharing of food. It symbolizes the welcome we give, the generosity we extend, love, acceptance of others, a place of belonging at the table. When we live our lives from a place of abundance and know that our very lives, as broken as they might be, are a gift from God we have much to share. When we know we are blessed our instinct is to share. We take the pieces of our lives bless it, break it and give. We participate in the body of Christ by the very lives we live.
My house tends to be the hang out for a group of teenaged boys…my son’s friends. Most weeks I am glad to have them. But sometimes I lament, “Can’t these kids hang out somewhere else!” I asked my daughter “why are they always here?” She says, “Well, mom you give them full use of the living room, with recliner couches, a TV and you do order pizza a lot!” So, one week I decided I am sick of these kids coming over so, I stayed in my room (my deserted place) and let Jim tend to them. A few days later at Stop and Shop I ran into one of the boys who frequents our home. He says “Mrs Bailey where have you been?” I explain I ‘ve been hiding in my room and he says, “Well you gotta come down I miss talking to you.”
Talk about an AHA moment, I practically heard Jesus say right then and there in Stop and Shop, You give them something to eat….don’t send them away. Oh hunger is about many things and teenage boys are very hungry. They can eat you out of house and home. But they are also hungry for a place to be themselves. A place to belong… A place where someone cares about who they are becoming. It doesn’t take that much when I consider all I have. Don’t get me wrong, I am not patting myself on the back here…I am like the disciples saying “send these people home …let them feed themselves.” When suddenly, thankfully Jesus breaks through and says...no you feed them. Take what you have, bless it and share it.
Eugene Ionesco, the playwright said “Overexplaination separates us from astonishment” Maybe that’s why scripture never fully explains what we wish it would. It is meant to astonish and transform us. It is passed on not so much as fact and history but as shared faith of people transformed. So maybe the question shouldn’t be was it a miracle? Did Jesus multiply the loaves and fishes? Why worry about the loaves and fishes? Maybe the real question we need to ask is how does this story transform my life? How does our relationship with God transform our lives?
Mother Teresa said “We give dying people bread because they hunger and perish not just for bread but also for love. When we hand them bread, we are also giving them love.”
Perhaps the miracle was that the disciples realized THEY needed to participate in the feeding of the crowd. Perhaps the crowd shared and realized in the sharing of bread…love was given. A deep hunger was filled. We don’t really know.
We come to the table this morning to be feed by the bread of life, the spiritual food that nourishes our souls and feeds our deepest hunger. This is the table where all are welcomed and all are loved. The bread is blessed, broken and given. We have enough. We are enough. And then, we go forth to BE the body of Christ with lives blessed, broken and given. Jesus commands…You give them something to eat and so we share and all are fed…all are loved… and all are blessed. Amen.