Food Enough

July 31, 2005 (Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 13)

  by The Rev. Linda Yeager, Deacon

• Nehemiah 9:16-20
• Psalm 78:1-29 or 78:14-20, 23-2
• Romans 8:35-39
• Matthew 14:13-21

(From The Lectionary Page)

Just at the time when the Farmers’ Markets are brimming with the bounty of our land comes our annual journey into the story of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fish. This account of the feeding of many with very little is told in all the gospels, which means that you have the opportunity of hearing it regularly. And if you are like me, you hear something different, something new, each time it is told and especially in conjunction with the other scripture passages that accompany this remarkable story.

So, let’s take a look at what’s going on in the rest of today’s readings and what speaks to us in the familiar but ever-fresh story of the loaves and fish. In Nehemiah, we hear from Ezra, who was a leader among those returning to Judah from exile in Babylon. In this portion of Nehemiah, Ezra the priest has gathered together the people and reads to them from the book of the Law of Moses and speaks about the people’s lack of loyalty to their God. Ezra tells the people their story, much as we do when we preach each Sunday; he is reminding them of their past, of the great goodness that God has provided them. In today’s passage Ezra reminds the returning Jews that their ancestors did not obey God’s commandments, but God forgave them. Even when they made idols, God did not forsake them. God led them through the darkness and did not withhold food or drink from them. God gave them food enough.

The psalmist in today’s section of Psalm 78 reiterates the story we heard in Nehemiah: God led the Israelites through the wilderness, but they continued to rebel, testing God with demands for food and drink. And God fed them. I quote from verse 25: “So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough.”

In his remarkable letter to the Romans, Paul asks the question about Christ that Ezra and the psalmist have already answered regarding God. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” The answer is, of course, that there is nothing that will remove us from God’s love through Jesus.

The reassuring passages that God will always be with us and will always provide for us food enough culminate in the gospel story of the feeding of the great crowd. We all know this story. Jesus, who has just learned of the death of John the Baptist, tries to find a place to be alone. But word spreads that Jesus is in the area and a great crowd follows him. Jesus has compassion for them, healing those who seek his help. The disciples, anxious because there is no food, urge Jesus to send them away. Then appears the passage that should speak to all our hearts: “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” YOU give them something to eat. There was very little to give, just five loaves of bread and two fish. But we know the rest of the story. Jesus blessed and broke the loaves of bread, the disciples distributed the food, and all ate and were filled.

Bread has become the symbol, of course, of Christ’s body, and sacramentally important to us. But bread has always symbolized life in the Bible; we hear it in the Old Testament scriptures as well.

I had lunch one day in another city in a restaurant that is operated by a group of people who live a communal life based evidently on a religious base. I’m not sure what their beliefs are, but I picked up a brochure that they had lying out for people to take. It is entitled “White Bread Jesus.” The pamphlet tells of an experiment with laboratory rats who were fed white bread only. The rats liked the bread, but before long, all of them were dead. The white bread was not able to sustain their lives. This is because, the pamphlet explains, that in the process of making white bread, the bran and the germ are removed from the flour, and then the bleaching removes all other nutrition that remains. The contention of this group is that people in today’s society try to—and I quote—“nourish their starving souls with pleasure, travel, education, drugs, philosophy, the arts, and even religion. They try to fill themselves through a system, both social and religious, which gives them no long-lasting satisfying relationships or purpose. They try to feed their souls with religious experiences which culminate in a once-a-week observance of a ‘thin white wafer’ ceremony.”

As I read this, I understood the concept of the white bread society, but I thought long and hard about the “thin white wafer ceremony.” And I think that the crucial point here is the same point that comes from the story of Jesus and the miracle of the loaves and fish. The key word from Matthew’s gospel, for me today, is “filled.” Jesus 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 . . .” So, if this feeding is a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Christ’s body and observance he established on Maundy Thursday, I think we need to reflect on what this small white wafer does for us on Sundays. If, as the brochure states, it is a once-a-week observance of a thin white wafer ceremony, then we will not be filled. But if the sacrament of the Eucharist is a filling of ourselves with the sacrifice of Christ and the acceptance of His grace and love, if we find in the Eucharist forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our union with Christ, then we will go forth into the world, filled with the Spirit and spread the love and promise of Christ so that others may be filled also.

What really happened on the Sea of Galilee that day? Jesus worked through the disciples to feed the people. He did it then and he does it now. And who are his disciples? They are those to whom he gives and, then, in response, they give to others. When Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd, they told him that all they had were five loaves and two fish; and yet with what they brought to him, Jesus worked his miracle. Jesus continues to work that very same miracle today. And he chooses us even if we think we have very little to offer. Maybe we are like Moses or Amos or Jeremiah who, when called by God, responded that they had no gift of speech or were only humble farmers or were too young. Jesus gives us the task of working with what little we have to feed his people today. If we simply come to church on Sunday and partake of the Eucharist as a symbolic remembering, we are not filled. But if we, instead, are filled by the Holy Sacrament of our savior Jesus Christ, we will be empowered to serve Him in the world, no matter how little we have to offer. And we will serve Him in every word and action of our lives. So, for me in this time of reading about this miracle, I hear this: even with very little, we can accomplish great work for the Lord.

John Westerhoff, in the book we are currently discussing at Adult Forum, Living Faithfully as a Prayer Book People ( p.6), has this to say about our weekly Eucharist: “When the body of Christ assembles, it is not primarily to praise God. It is to transform the lives of those who have assembled to be a more faithful body in the world. The Eucharist is a prelude to a weekly missionary sendoff. Nourished by Eucharistic food, motivated by the witness to Christ’s reconciling action, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, the church is equipped to engage in Christ’s mission of reconciliation in the world.”

There is a white bread society operating in the world today, one that has no nutritive value. It is not a sustaining society; it is filled with useless values. What has God given you? It matters not at all if you feel you have little to offer. God will work the miracle. Our job is to believe that whatever God has given us is food enough. Filled with the sacrament of our savior, we take what we have been given and feed a world that is hungry in body, mind and spirit.