Delivered by Amy Higgins on August 6, 2023

Scripture: Matthew 14:13-21

Jimmy is having friends over. He has four friends and made three sandwiches for each of his friends. How many sandwiches did he make? Jimmy also made six glasses of lemonade. If each glass took two lemons, how many lemons did Jimmy use? Lastly, Jimmy set up four games for them to play. If it took five minutes to set up each game, how long did it take Jimmy to set up all the games? Extra credit: There are over 5,000 people gathered on a beach. They have five loaves and two fish. How many people will get to eat?

          Maybe because it’s summer but, the lectionary commentaries lately have tended to mention whether a story is pretty standard for Vacation Bible School or never included at all. This discussion of age appropriateness adds to our sense of depth and varying perspectives of the story’s meaning. And while some, like the near sacrifice of Isaac are not taught until children are much older, the feeding of the five thousand is one we keep in our VBS and Sunday School curriculums because even children can understand what it means to be hungry. And although this story may be somewhat understandable for children, I doubt it will be included in third grade word problems.

          “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.” We only have… There’s that scarcity mindset again. There’s barely enough for ourselves. We don’t have enough for anyone else. Whether it’s our money, food, resources, or time we barely have what we need so how can you expect us to take care of this crowd? “Send the crowd away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” Send them away to take care of themselves. But Jesus responds, “They do not need to go away. you give them something to eat.”

          But what can they give? To the disciples, five loaves of bread and two fish apparently amount to nothing. At least compared to the size of the crowd. “Do all the good you can, in all the ways you, wherever you can, as long as you can.” How often do we do nothing at all because we can’t do everything? And then no one benefits. That’s not very Methodist, now is it? And not only does John Wesley call on us to do what we can, no matter how small, the feeding of the five thousand shows us the Lord will provide. Jesus feeds the five thousand. He provides the miracle in the multiplication. Or does he?

          “You give them something to eat.” Jesus said, then he gave the fish and the broken loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. We can say that Jesus fed the crowd, that he performed the miracle of multiplication in the blessing of the bread and the fish but, none of this happens without the disciples doing their part. What about the miracle of distribution? That’s the harder miracle. It’s the one that’s up to us. And when we do it, that’s a real miracle because when Jesus says, “I have given you what you need to feed the world”, we still say we don’t have enough.

          How can we have enough? No matter what we do, no matter what we give the need doesn’t go away. And as the disciples pointed out, this is a remote area and they should be sent to the villages where there are more resources. The crowd is not going anywhere. And all they have brought is their hunger. They bring nothing they can contribute. But to God, their hunger is a gift.

          Some may have nothing to offer but their hunger. But those who do have more to offer often squander their gifts, their resources. How often do we buy the wrong things? What do we spend our time and energy on? Do those things nourish us or merely feed us? Are we just stuffing ourselves with spiritual junk food? It can be convenient. And cheap. But cheap still costs us. And it costs us more than we than we realize. And if we truly want low cost, it doesn’t get any better than free.

Isaiah 55: 1-2

                   “Come, all you who are thirsty,

                       Come to the waters;

                   And you who have no money,

                       Come, buy and eat!

                   Come, buy wine and milk

                      Without money and without cost,

                   Why spend money on what is not bread,

                       And your labor on what does not satisfy?

                   Listen, listen to me, and eat

                       What is good,

                   And you will delight in the richest of fare.

Water, wine, milk, and bread. We do not have to go to separate stores to get what we need. These can all be found in the department store of God’s grace. Trusting the supplier of our Great Provision Company, we do not have to ration our supply or worry the stock will run out because the kingdom is always more than enough. This is the extravagance of God’s grace and it’s free!

And as much as we are the customers, the recipients of this grace, we are, like the disciples, also the distribution channel. We are recipients in worship and givers in the world. The crowd waits on the beaches of their lives, far removed from the villages. They hunger for Christ and aren’t going anywhere because they can’t get to the store. And if we no longer act as clerks waiting for others to come to us, but rather live as the traveling salesmen we are called to be, the free samples of Christ we offer will multiply into a feast. We all will eat. All will be satisfied. And there will still be leftovers.