As It Should Be

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

August 6, 2017

As It Should Be

Matthew 14:13-21

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.

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The feeding of the 5,000 –

a story that appears in all four gospels;

surely it is one of our favorites stories.

It is a simple story:

thousands of people gathered to hear Jesus,

to learn from him

and to be healed by him.

The day is drawing to a close,

darkness about to descend;

Jesus and the crowds are in a deserted area,

wilderness, to use the Old Testament term.

All those people,

tired and hungry after a long day,

and yet among them, apparently,

just five loaves and two fish,

hardly enough to feed Jesus and his disciples,

much less 5000.

The disciples, concerned for the people,

and, sure of the solution

to the problem before them,

said to Jesus,

“Send the crowd away,

so that they may go into

the surrounding villages and countryside…

to get provisions.”

(Luke 9:12)

Jesus, calm as always,

even in the face of his disciples’ fretting,

surely surprised them,

even confused them, with his response:

“They need not go away;

you give them something to eat.”

All of the disciples must have thought

the same thing after hearing Jesus’ words,

“Are you kidding?

How do you expect us to feed 5,000 people

with five loaves and two fish?”

And, although we know this story

as the “feeding of the 5,000”,

if you listened carefully to Matthew’s final sentence,

you know that there were more than 5,000.

Did you hear it:

there “were about five thousand men,

besides women and children.”

In other words, five thousand men,

plus their wives and children.

So, how many were there to feed:

10,000? 15,000?

Five loaves and two dried, salted fish

to feed them all.

Have you ever seen dried, salted fish?

More prune than plum,

more raisin than grape.

The story then turns Eucharistic,

redolent of what we will do in a few moments:

Jesus taking the bread,

blessing it,

breaking it,

and giving it to the people

through his disciples.

It’s at that moment

we come to the heart of the story,

when we wonder,

wonder what really happened that day,

in that place.

Wonder about the miracle.

And it was a miracle –

of that we should have no doubt.

                 

But was the miracle sharing –

that the people gathered there,

all began to open bundles, bags, satchels,

to share the provisions they had,

such as they had,

a piece of bread here,

a piece of fish there?

Everyone surely reacting at first,

as we all have a tendency to do,

not wanting to share,

thinking only of themselves,

worried that they might not even have enough

for themselves and their families.

But then, getting caught up in the spirit,

the spirit of grace,

the spirit of Christ,

and sharing,

sharing joyfully,

sharing with friend and stranger alike.

If that was Jesus’ plan,

then indeed it was a miracle,

getting 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 people

to sweep aside their concern for themselves,

and open their hearts

as well as their satchels

to one another.

We can also read this story another way,

that the miracle was that God provided—

give us this day our daily bread.

That as Jesus handed each disciple a loaf of bread,

another miraculously appeared,

appeared as if out of thin air,

manna from heaven,

as though the angels of the Lord God

had descended Jacob’s ladder,

each carrying a large basket

filled with heavenly loaves,

Jesus then able to hand out loaf after loaf until,

as Matthew tells us, all were “filled”.

everyone was satisfied, no one was hungry,

all were content.

I’ve always leaned more toward

the first interpretation,

that everyone gathered there shared,

shared what they had with with one another,

that the story of the feeding of the 5,000

was a predecessor to the story of “Stone Soup”,

that story most of us read and loved as children.

I’ve always preferred that reading

because to me

5000, 10,000, 15,000 people sharing—

that’s a miracle!

We can read the story either way, though.

Whichever way we read it,

we have a miracle:

thousands upon thousands gathered peaceably,

listening, learning;

then sharing a meal together,

everyone filled spiritually,

as well as physically,

everyone nourished,

no one left out.

5,000, 10,000, 15,000 people.

And, while the gospels don’t tell us,

it was likely an extremely diverse group:

Jews, Greeks, Romans, Samaritans, Ethiopians

men, women, young, old,

olive-hued, dark-skinned,

fair, ruddy,

different languages, different cultures:

but all together.

And, still there’s more:

Jesus and the crowd weren’t even in Galilee,

their homeland;

they were other side of the sea,

in Gentile territory.

But happily no walls blocked them,

no soldiers told Jesus and his disciples,

“Turn the boat around and go back

where you came from

and take this crowd with you.

You are foreigners and you are not welcome here.”

They gathered peaceably even on foreign soil.

All of this is as it should be.

All this is what God wants for us.

Women and men filled with grace,

living peaceably, sharing,

following their shepherd:

God speaking through the prophet Ezekiel,

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep,

and I will make them lie down, ….

I will seek the lost,

and I will bring back the strayed,

and I will bind up the injured,

and I will strengthen the weak.”

(Ezekiel 34:15)

This is what God means when God says to us

that he will give us a future with hope:

that we will learn to live peaceably together,

sharing, feeding,

teaching, healing,

caring for one another.

That we will learn to live by our Lord’s words:

“If you love those who love you,

what credit is that to you?

If you do good to those who do good to you,

what credit is that to you?.

Even sinners do the same.

…Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’

and not do what I tell you?”

(Luke 6:32ff)

I’ve always like the quote,

“I love the theory of the church;

it is the practice that leaves me cold.”

It is a reminder that even within the Body of Christ,

we often fail to get it right,

fail to live as we should,

to do as our Lord teaches us.

Still, we come together,

and, as all those people did so long ago,

we come to listen,

to learn,

to be fed by our Lord,

gathered in community,

all of us together,

all welcome,

peace reigns.

All as it should be.

AMEN