Creekside Church Sermon of August 1, 1999 "Turning Want To Plenty" Matthew 14:13-21	Rev. David Bibbee
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"Whenever two or more are gathered in my name," Jesus said, "there I am in the midst of them." But just as certain as our coming together is a sign of the presence of Jesus, another certainty when we gather is a potluck. And why not? Read the gospels and take an inventory of Jesus' encounters with others which involved eating. On the last night with his disciples he shared a meal with them. On the evening of his resurrection, he ate with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Again, after the resurrection, Peter and some of the disciples went fishing, and after working all night and getting skunked, they met Jesus on the beach fixing them a fish breakfast.

There are other instances where Jesus shared himself and food with others which suggests the nourishment Jesus provided wasn't one-dimensional. He wasn't only concerned with nourishing souls. Today's passage records a culinary miracle...a feast for the stomach and the soul. It's important to note that this is the only miracle story that appears in all four gospels which tells us it was very meaningful to the early Christians and that it conveyed a great truth of who Jesus was and what he could do. There are no critics on the sidelines of this story to discredit Jesus. Nothing is said of the people's reaction, nor are there interpretations of the event. They were fed. They were strengthened and sustained and presumably changed.

Let's set the scene. Jesus learned that John the Baptist had just been beheaded. Jesus needed to get away. He needed some solitude...some quiet time to sort things out. What did John's death mean for Jesus and his movement? Would his head be next on the platter? No sooner had he gotten into the boat than word spread about where he was going, so when he reached the other shore, it wasn't solitude that greeted him, but five thousand plus needy people, and his reaction to them for me is proof that Jesus is God's son.

Several years ago I went on a long awaited fishing vacation up north. The past months had been very taxing, and as I was down at the pier preparing my boat, I thought how good it was to get away, be anonymous for a week, and have a break from people problems. Then a man loading his boat next to mine said, "You're a minister, aren't you?" Great! Five hundred fifty miles from home and I'm discovered. "How, may I ask, do you know?" "I saw you in the open heart recovery room at Memorial Hospital last month visiting a patient," he said. "But don't worry. I won't tell anyone. I brought my priest along for a week of fishing and he said he wanted to be anonymous this week too."

Jesus needed some space with God to decide the course of his ministry, and when he saw everyone waiting for him, he didn't say, "I'm sick of people. Let's split!" Matthew says he had compassion on them. He didn't resent them...he ministered to them. How different was his reaction than mine. This is one way I know who Jesus was. But another is by what happened next. Evening was approaching, and the disciples suggested that Jesus break up the crowd so they could leave and grab a bite to eat. But they were in a lonely place...way out in the boonies. Just a handful of little villages for people to go to. No way could the Seven Eleven and Red-D-Mart handle all those people.

Jesus said the crowd wouldn't need to be sent away. "You give them something to eat." The disciples replied, "What will we feed them? We've got five loaves of bread and two sardines. That's it!" But with Jesus, "that's it" becomes "that's enough". Jesus blessed, broke, and gave the loaves to the disciples who gave them to the crowd. Blessed, broke, and gave. Where have you heard this language before? At another meal Jesus blessed, broke and gave a little bread and wine to his disciples. Yet this little was a lot because he was in it. And just a little bread and fish fed five thousand people plus women and children and they had twelve baskets left over.

I know what you're thinking. "What really happened?" Some say the people were spiritually fed by Jesus and everyone left with the realization of who he was. Everyone received a small morsel and were fed by the miracle of the sacrament. Some say there were many who had brought food, but human nature being what it is, they were selfish. But when they saw Jesus sharing what he had, the selfish were moved to generosity. But to me it doesn't really matter what happened. It really doesn't matter to us if what took place only relates to what happened in a lonely place with five thousand people. It's not what "took place" that matters, but what "still takes place" that matters greatly. Not what Jesus did but what Jesus still does.

Jesus didn't perform miracles to impress people. Miracles weren't good for bringing people to belief, because they would want a bigger miracle the next time. Jesus didn't do miracles to impress or bring about belief. Miracles were done in response to human need.

Bob Bensen recalls the days of the old fashioned Sunday school picnics where you brought your own supper and the iced tea was furnished. Bensen told of coming home at the last minute to pack his picnic and all he could find in the fridge was a dried up piece of baloney and just enough mustard in the bottom of the jar so he got it all over his knuckles trying to get it. There were only two slices of stale bread to go with it, so he wrapped it all in a brown paper bag and went to the picnic. Then he described what happened as he sat down to eat.

You sit at the end of the table and spread out your sandwich, but the people next to you bring a feast. The lady was a good cook who worked hard to get ready for the picnic. She had fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, homemade rolls, sliced tomatoes, pickles, olives and celery, and topped it all off with two chocolate pies. That's what she spreads out and there you sit with your baloney sandwich. But they say to you, "Why don't we just put it all together?" You mutter in embarrassment "No, I couldn't do that" while you have one eye on the fried chicken. "Oh come on...there's plenty of chicken and pie and everything. And we just love baloney sandwiches. Let's just put it all together." And so you did, and there you sat, eating like a king, though you came like a pauper.

"Something similar occurs with our relationship with God," Bensen said. We take what we have and what we are and put it together with what God has and is. We throw in our little with God's lot and are treated to a feast. Another way of saying it is Jesus takes our want and turns it into plenty. Too often we are the disciples dispersing the crowd. We can't feed all these people. We can't find enough people to assume leadership responsibilities. We can't raise enough pledges to support the budget, so how are we going to raise enough money to build a church? What can you do with five loaves and two fish anyway? We'll just sit here holding a dumb bag with a dried up, stale baloney sandwich in it.

Bensen says lots of us are half-starved and hanging on for dear life. And it's not that God needs your sandwich. The fact is, you need his chicken!"

This text tells us that Jesus takes our want, and turns it into plenty. At the wedding of Cana they were running out of wine and Jesus took water and turned it into a fine vintage. Want into plenty. He took a little bread and fish and fed five thousand people. Want into plenty. He took a little bread and wine and fed twelve disciples who have become a countless company into which we are grafted and are fed the daily bread of his live-giving presence. Want into plenty.

The burning issue we face in the daily challenge of life is not the sufficiency of Jesus. With Jesus there is always enough to live on, and always enough to share. The issue is whether we believe or not that all we need his hand provideth...in a word, the issue is trust.

When Deborah Bragg was in college, she lived for six months in Nicaragua, and during this time she learned to trust God for daily bread. She learned this lesson from a poor woman she called her mother who was her host during her six month stay. She lived in a village that had been ravaged by drought and flood. To make matters worse, the corn crop was nearly wiped out by an insect infestation.

Early one morning, Deborah was awakened by her mother who said they had to harvest as much corn as possible before it was consumed by insects. After a twenty-minute hike, they reached the field that looked as though fire had consumed it. Black worms clung to bare stalks. Then her mother got on her knees and praised God for the corn they would gather and for teaching everyone a lesson on trusting God for food and the future. Deborah realized that this was the food God had given for the next months, meager as it was.

The two worked long and hard to collect two large bags of corn. But Deborah was taken aback because on the way back to the village whenever they met someone friendly, her mother would give them a skirtful of corn. Soon she had almost none left. Then they stopped at a home for water and her mother gave the woman of the house enough corn for her entire family. Deborah was resentful because it was taken from her bag. Because of her mother's generosity they arrived home with just four ears of corn. How long could they extend four measly ears?

Prudence says that when your harvest is slim, you don't give it away. When a little is all you've got, you best hang on to it. But the miracle of the loaves and fishes was repeated. While Deborah was in the pit of anxious resentment, a mother and daughter returning from their field stopped at Deborah and her mother's house and gave them enough corn to feed them all for the remainder of Deborah's stay.

The situation of want was turned to plenty. A miracle happened all over again. The Disciples was small, their resources few; the miracles before them were great. Yet they discovered a shepherd who supplied their needs.

What about you? What are you hungry for? What do you have too little of?

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