Sermon: From Scarcity to Abundance

Delivered at Monaghan United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on August 6, 2017

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From Scarcity to Abundance

Audio Version

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.

Matthew 14:13-21 (NRSV)

It doesn't matter what you've heard

Impossible is not a word

It's just a reason for someone not to try

From “What Faith Can Do” by Kutless

For the last few years, I have felt somewhat stuck in life.  What I mean is that my life is not what I would like it to be and that I do not seem to be progressing toward the life I want, whatever that is.  At the same time, I have noticed that I have been running from the things in life that I find painful.  At some point, I started to consider that maybe my being stuck in life is somehow connected to my aversion to pain.  Earlier this year, I decided to do an about-face and run head-first into my pain.  I sat down and compiled a list of all the things that have caused me pain over the last six years in order to confront what I have been trying to avoid.  The exercise was not nearly as painful as I expected it to be.  I actually felt that I was writing more of a confession than a list of grievances.

As I looked over my list, I came to the realization that I was not running from pain in general but that I was running from one particular kind of pain.  I have been running from the things in life that make me feel as though I'm not enough – not strong enough, not brave enough, not attractive enough, not talented enough, not accomplished enough, not caring enough, not loving enough, not Christian enough, not good enough.

I suspect that I am not the only person in the world who feels inadequate at times.  I suspect that most, if not all, of us, at some point in our lives, have felt that we are, in some way, not enough.

---

Jesus has just learned that John the Baptist – the voice who cried out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord” – has been killed.  A true prophet of God, John did not hold back when calling people to repent of their wrongdoings, no matter how self-important they were.  He even had the nerve to call the religious elites – namely, the Pharisees and the Saducees – a “brood of vipers.”¹  When John publicly criticized Herod Antipas, the current ruler of Galilee, for divorcing his wife in order to marry the wife of his brother, he got himself thrown in jail.  Such is the life of a prophet.  At first, Herod did not want to execute John, because he feared public backlash.  When his stepdaughter entertained his dinner guests at a rather debaucherous party, he promised her anything she wanted, and, at the prompting of her mother, she requested John's head on a plate.²

No doubt, Jesus thinks back to His own encounter with John.  When Jesus approached John at the Jordan river, wanting to be baptized, John said that Jesus really ought be the one baptizing him.³  Perhaps the news of John's death is, for Jesus, a bitter reminder of what lies in His own future.⁴  Understandably, Jesus wants to be alone at this time, but Galilee is such a densely populated region that He has no choice but to seek solitude elsewhere.⁵  He boards a boat and head across the Sea of Galilee.  As luck would have it, someone sees Jesus embark, and word spreads that He is headed across the lake.  By the time He reaches His destination, a massive crowd is already there, waiting for Him.  Jesus had been seeking solitude, but, as One who always puts the needs of others ahead of His own, He has compassion on the crowd and ministers those who need healing.

As day becomes evening, the people in the crowd grow hungry.  The Disciples are concerned for their well-being because they have gathered in a secluded area.  They urge Jesus to dismiss the crowd so that the hungry people can go to marketplaces to buy food, but Jesus says to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  The Disciples have just learned a lesson that many of us have learned at work or at church when we thought we were being helpful by pointing out a problem.  They have learned that the one who calls attention to a problem will be the one who is called to find a solution to the problem.

This story appears in each of the four Gospels, and each writer offers different details about the situation.⁶  Matthew, whose account we heard this morning, notes that there were five thousand men in the crowd that day, not counting the women and children.  If every man in the crowd had a wife with him and if every couple had at least two children with them, then there would have been an excess of 20,000 people in the wilderness that day.  This is probably still a rather conservative estimate.  According to other Gospel writers, the Disciples crunch some numbers and determine that they would need more than six month's wages to buy enough bread for everybody in the crowd to have just a few bites.⁷  All the food the Disciples happen to have on hand consists of five loaves of bread and two fish.

Jesus tells the Disciples to bring Him the food they have, and He tells the people in the crowd to sit down on the grass.  He blesses the food, perhaps with a traditional Jewish mealtime prayer⁸ like the following: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam, hamotzi lehem min ha'aretz (“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth”).⁹  Jesus then breaks the loaves and fishes into pieces, and the Disciples begin distributing the food to the people.  They start with only five loaves of bread and two fish, but amazingly everybody in that massive crowd has enough food to eat until full.  When the Disciples gather up the leftovers, they manage to fill up twelve baskets.  Somehow, they end up with more food than they had when they started.

What happened in the wilderness that day was nothing short of a miracle, but what kind of miracle was it?  The Gospels tell us what happened, but they do not tell us exactly how it happened.

I suspect that, when we read about Jesus' feeding the multitude, we typically assume that Jesus supernaturally manipulated matter.  In other words, Jesus changed a very small amount of food into a very large amount of food.  In effect, a bag of groceries was transformed into a feast for tens of thousands of people.

That said, there is an alternate interpretation of how this miracle might have happened.  How likely is it that, among the tens of thousands of people who sought Jesus in the wilderness that day, nobody in the crowd thought to bring any provisions whatsoever?  In such a massive crowd, those who had the forethought to bring food with them would probably have felt the need to hide their provisions.  Otherwise, those around them who were less prudent would want them to share, and they would have less for themselves and their families.  Perhaps, when people saw that Jesus and the Disciples had decided to share what little food they had, those who were hiding their provisions overcame their selfishness and decided to do likewise, starting a chain reaction throughout the crowd.  In the end, those who feared that there was not enough food to go around see that there was actually more than enough.¹⁰

Perhaps Jesus performed a miracle that transformed matter, or perhaps Jesus performed a miracle that transformed hearts.

How one interprets this miracle might be affected by one's Christology – in other words, what one believes about Christ.  A person who has a “high” Christology would tend to focus on the divinity of Jesus, while a person who has a “low” Christology would tend to focus on the humanity of Jesus.  The Church teaches us that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, so both perspectives can be beneficial.  Reading the Gospel with a high Christology is helpful because it teaches us what God is like, but reading the Gospel with a low Christology is also helpful because it teaches us what humanity is capable of becoming.  In Christ, we can see both a God worth trusting and a human being worth imitating.

When I first learned about the less “supernatural” interpretation of Jesus' feeding the multitudes, I wasn't very fond of it: I didn't want to jettison everything heavenly about Jesus, as it seems that so many people are doing.  Now, I find this alternative reading a bit more compelling.  Nowadays, we typically dismiss stories about transforming matter, but who among us is not inspired by stories of people who band together in difficult times or stories of people who put aside their own safety and well being for the sake of others?  We need such stories of self-sacrifice to remind us that, as humans, we are meant for more than self-preservation.

The 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty tells the story of a man named Bruce who, after a somewhat humorous encounter with God, has the opportunity to do God's job for a while.  At one point in the story, God, who is portrayed by actor Morgan Freeman, says,
A single mom who's working two jobs and still finds time to take her kid to soccer practice, that's a miracle.  A teenager who says “no” to drugs and “yes” to an education, that's a miracle.  People want Me to do everything for them.  But what they don't realize is they have the power.  You want to see a miracle, son?  Be the miracle.¹¹
It's nice to consider what Jesus was capable of doing as the only begotten Son of God, but we also need to consider what we are capable of doing when we follow Jesus' example of self-sacrificial love.  We cannot transmute matter, but we could possibly affect the hearts and minds of others through the examples we set.

Perhaps we should consider what a miracle is in the first place.  Biblical scholar William Barclay writes,
We must never be content to regard [the miracles of Jesus] as something which happened; we must always regard them as something which happens.  They are not isolated incidents in history; they are demonstrations of the always and forever operative power of Jesus Christ.¹²
Philosopher Peter Rollins suggests that maybe a miracle not some change in the physical world, but rather a change in a person's inner world.  For the one who has experienced a miracle, nothing has changed, yet nothing remains as it was.¹³   Perhaps the significance of Jesus' feeding the multitude, however it happened, is that people began to see abundance where they previously saw only scarcity.

As I noted earlier, each Gospel writer offers us different details about this story.  John, in his version, suggests that it is a little boy who brings the loaves and fishes to the Disciples.¹⁴  If you think about it, only a child would do something so unwise.  Any responsible adult would understand that, in a time of scarcity, one must provide for one's family and for oneself before trying to help strangers.  I wonder if maybe, somewhere between Bible verses, the boy overhears the Disciples talking with Jesus about how they are going to provide food for everybody and then yells out, to his parents' chagrin, “We have some food!”

Were it not for this child and his foolish innocence, the crowd might not have been fed that day.  Perhaps only people with such naiveté can truly understand the ways of the Kingdom of God.  After all, Jesus once said to the Disciples, “Let the little children come to me... for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”¹⁵

The story of Jesus' feeding the multitude, like so many stories about Jesus, is a call to repentance – a call to change the way we think and, ultimately, the way we live.  This story is an invitation to look at the world around us and even at ourselves with new eyes, adopting a mindset of abundance as opposed to a mindset of scarcity.  It challenges us, when we are tempted to think there is not enough, to consider that there might actually be more than enough.  When we look at the world through the eyes of scarcity, we withhold what we have out of fear that there might not be enough; however, when we look at the world through the eyes of abundance, trusting that there is more than enough, we are free to be generous with what we have.

There was enough food for everyone in the wilderness that evening, but is there really enough food for everyone in the world today?

Consider these words of David from the Sixty-fifth Psalm.

You visit the earth and water it,

you greatly enrich it;

the river of God is full of water;

you provide the people with grain,

for so you have prepared it.

You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with showers,

and blessing its growth.

You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks overflow with richness.

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills gird themselves with joy,

the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they shout and sing together for joy.¹⁶

The Psalmist seems to have a theology of abundance: he envisions a God who travels throughout the earth, leaving an abundance of blessings in God's path.  Abundant rain waters abundant grain, and abundant pastures feed abundant livestock.  The Psalmist believes not in a God who provides us the bare minimum required for survival but in a God who provides richly for us.

If we live in a world of abundance, as the Psalmist suggests, then why are there so many hungry people in the world?  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that one in nine people in the world suffer from chronic undernourishment.  A vast majority of undernourished people live in developing nations.¹⁷  If there are so many hungry people, then can we really say that there is enough food to go around?  It is estimated that the world produces enough food to provide every person on the planet almost 2800 calories every day.¹⁸  If you look at the nutrition information labels on the food products you buy, you will see that the calculations are based on a diet of only 2000 calories per day.  We do indeed live in a world of abundance, yet not all people receive the food they need.  The FAO estimates that one third of the food produced in the world goes to waste.¹⁹

There are many factors that contribute to the problem of world hunger, but what I am trying to say is that, though there is enough food to go around, some people do not get the food they need while other people buy more food than they are able to eat.  Think about that the next time you have to clean out your refrigerator or your pantry.  In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that the early Christians shared what they had, and, as a result, nobody in the Christian community went hungry.²⁰  You who have been richly blessed by God, consider that maybe you have been blessed so that you may be a blessing to others.  Consider what you can do to combat hunger at home and abroad.  Jesus says that, “from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.”²¹

If God created a world in which there is enough to go around, then maybe each of us is enough as well.  The Disciples saw a need among the crowd in the wilderness, and Christ challenged them to meet that need.  At first, they did not think that they had enough, but, when Christ took what they had, blessed it, and gave it back to them, it proved to be more than enough.  So often we think that we do not have enough time, talent, or resources to do what we think God is calling us to do, but, if we offer what little we have to God, it just might be more than enough.  In the words of N.T. Wright, “It is part of genuine Christian service, at whatever level, that we look on in amazement to see what God has done with the bits and pieces we dug out of our meagre resources to offer him.”²²

Jonathan Holston, the bishop of the United Methodist Church in my state, likes to encourage people to dream God-sized dreams.  Dreaming big is pointless and even painful if we do not have any faith that those dreams could become realities.  Why should we dream if we do not think we can achieve those dreams?  Jesus says that, with faith the size of a mustard seed, a person can move a mountain.²³  A person who wants to move a mountain needs a little bit of faith to grab a shovel and start digging, but she will need a lot of sweat to keep going.  She will not accomplish much on her own, but others might be so inspired by her fervor that they bring their own shovels and pickaxes and join her in her efforts.  Perhaps people of means, who have access to demolition machines or dynamite, will take notice and offer their help.  Great things can happen when a person takes a step in faith.

We live in a world of abundance, so there is no reason that we should approach life with a mindset of scarcity.  We can give generously of our resources because there is more than enough to go around.  We can give generously of ourselves because we have more to offer than we often realize.  We might not think that we have much to offer, but God has a way of multiplying our resources and our efforts so that we accomplish more than what we thought was possible.  God can do great things through us when we offer ourselves to God.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. Matthew 3:1-10
2. Matthew 14:1-12
3. Matthew 3:13-14
4. N.T. Wright.  Matthew for Everyone, Part 1.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 185
5. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 115-116
6. See also Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-14.
7. Mark 6:37 and John 6:7
8. Barclay, pp. 117-118
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_prayers_and_blessings#Blessing_over_the_bread
10. Barclay, pp. 120-121
11. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bruce_Almighty
12. Barclay, p. 120
13. Peter Rollins.  The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales.  2009, Paraclete Press.  pp. 171-172
14. John 6:8-9
15. Matthew 19:14 (NRSV)
16. Psalm 65:9-13 (NRSV)
17. http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/
18. ibid.
19. http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/
20. Acts 2:44-45
21. Luke 12:48 (NRSV)
22. Wright, p. 187
23. Matthew 17:20

The painting featured above was painted by Juan de Espinal in the mid 1700s.