Good Morning Friends,
Today’s telling of the feeding of the five thousand is from Mark and it reads like a Kingdom minded sacrament in anticipation of a feast in heaven and more than just the miraculous provision of food by a compassionate Jesus or a remembrance of how Moses and the tribes gathered in groups of fifties and hundreds. The words of Jesus are nothing less than an invitation to salvation plain and simple. The story is well known to us. But, considering John’s letter in today’s scripture with it and Psalm 72 on the seeking of guidance and support, the question is this given the expanding wealth gap in the world: Will We Be Guided By God’s Inspirational Math For Love Of The Poor?
Scripture: As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Mark 6:34-44 (NRSV)
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:7-10 (NRSV)
Of Solomon. Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice. May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor. May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations. May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more. May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Psalm 72 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus has an amazing gift for taking the traditions of the past and extrapolating their core ideas and the memories of the good times associated with them to create something new. Hopefully, we get a sense of it in today’s lectionary scripture. We see in them that success is not measured by what we possess, but by who possesses us… it is measured in love multiplied. The message is more about what we might borrow and share than what we might buy. It is about our attitude more than altitude and social standing. The thing is friends, that if Jesus Christ possesses us, we are successful beyond measure despite the rung on the ladder we are climbing. When we learn to love the experiences of life God has allowed us to be in, we become fruitful despite position and power. Jesus teaches us the wisdom of being content with what we have but also to thrive and flourish in the abundance of the life victorious despite circumstance. Regardless, it would be wise to set some limits…portion our plate size and set a financial number of what we need so that we can help meet others needs with the rest. Surrounding the storyline of the Feeding of the 5000 is this, John the Baptist has just gotten his head cut off and the people of Jesus’ hometown have rejected him. Jesus has been telling his disciples and would-be followers, parables about the Kingdom of God and now he is going to show them what it is like. And the response is not vengeance or anger but compassion. This is the setting for the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 and its images are so closely linked to the story of Moses that it should jump out of the pages of today’s text for the Israelites had a history of giving in to wanting more. And unfortunately, we share in that characteristic as well. You see, we live in a world that tells us there is always something more, something better, something we must have to be happy. Jesus teaches us the surprising math of how to calculate true happiness. It is not about focusing on what we do not have but on what we do have. Jesus demonstrates the super abundance of God’s provision by feeding 5000 men plus thousands more women and children by borrowing five loaves and two fish and multiplying them in such a way that once all had had their fill, twelve baskets full of broken pieces of food were left over. That is the miracle of mobilizing the Kingdom to God’s glory. It is all reflected in the things Jesus borrows…even you.
And So, the multiplication of God’s love in our heart is the greatest miracle of all. It just keeps on giving whatever is happening in our lives. Here God is the great provider and sometimes God even multiplies a love in us to help others. And it does not have to be just money for if we follow Jesus’ behavior, he often, did not give money, nor did he ask for it, though he did talk about it at length. What he did was borrow what he needed from people willing to lend. He borrowed the loaves and fish to multiply. He borrowed Peter’s fishing boat to give a sermon. He borrowed a donkey to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus even borrowed the Upper Room to celebrate the Passover and borrowed a rich man’s tomb for his burial. Many of the things Jesus borrowed glorified God by fulfilling prophecy and to this day are great examples of how to be rich in the ways of God if we would just realize that we have more than enough if we lend to God what is God’s already. Friends, the calculation hinges on the heart and our ability to love.
Pray we realize that we have been loved into existence though the power of the Holy Spirit connecting the moments of our life together so we might share in the experience of love. Pray we take time to be relational and without limits as God’s love is infinite. Pray we start with what we have, which by the world’s standards is much more than most. Pray therefor we experience the rewards of lending our time and energy and creativity to Jesus. Pray the joy of life is more in the journey than the destination. Pray we not even want the right things if it is the wrong time or if we are motivated by the wrong reasons. Pray we realize that God does not want us to look somewhere else to have our needs met. Pray we are never unappreciative of God’s provision. Pray we do not reject God’s sufficiency. Pray we realize that godliness with contentment is great gain. Pray we look to God. Pray we realize that God can create something out of nothing. Pray we appreciate the abundance of God’s compassion. Pray we loan our lives to Jesus and surrender to him our voice and hands and smiles and eyes and allow God to live inside of us as an example of the life that lives on forever. Pray we let Jesus answer the question of how much we are to love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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