Sharing our Abundance
Alice Edge • August 2, 2020
Matthew 14:13-21
This is one of those stories that has so many aspects to it and is told so many times. It is probably one of the best-known Bible stories, is told in a few of the Gospels, and has so many learning points for us to take away.
But what it also does is remind me of when I was little and we used to go to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house for lunch. For those who don’t know, I’m from a pretty big family. My dad has six siblings, all but one of those has kids, and I’m one of the youngest 21 grandchildren, and Grandma has 24 (I think?) great-grandchildren with at least one more on the way. It’s big. And every Sunday after church, my parents would drive out to my Grandparent’s farm, where we would join a heap of the aunties and uncles and cousins and any other strays that would be picked up along the way for lunch along a huge table. Grandma, like most women in her generation, knew how to put on a cracker spread, and sometimes other people would bring something to contribute, but there never seemed to be enough food to go around.
What would tend to happen, though, and something I found was quite common in big families, was that if you ate too slowly, someone else would start helping themselves to the food on your plate. You always knew you had to pick carefully as to who you chose to sit next to, because, and especially when it’d come to dessert time, if you chose the wrong person, you’d hardly get a mouthful in and there’d be no food left on your plate or in your bowl. We had to be very protective of the food on our plates, keeping your eyes on your plate the whole time, and shovelling it down as quickly as possible before it evaporated.
Thinking back, though, there was also always an abundance of leftovers that we would help put into containers after lunch, wrap in foil, or snack on when coming back in for afternoon tea after playing outside for a while. There never seemed to be enough at the beginning of lunch, but by the end, we would realise how much there really was in the beginning! I wonder now if we’d slowed down in the beginning, we’d have seen how much food we actually had, and maybe more of it would have landed in my stomach than find its way onto my cousin’s plate.
And I wonder if this is maybe what happened a little bit in this story. Leading up to this, Jesus had been pretty flat out. He had been teaching all over the place, and then travelled back to his hometown where he was rejected by people that had known him, saying he was “just a carpenter’s son.” As he left that town and continued on, he finds out that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed. So Jesus tries to take a moment aside to breathe. I don’t know about you, but when grief hits, it seems to suck the energy out of me a bit. I find it comforting to know it had the same impact on Jesus, and that even he just needed a minute to recharge and refocus, but also to be alone to process awful news.
But, sadly for Jesus, and probably for a lot of us, too, he doesn’t really get that moment to grieve. He sees the crowds following him on the boat, and instead of just ignoring them (which, admittedly probably would have been my first reaction), he is filled with compassion, and joins them, healing their sick and spending time teaching them. That in itself could be a whole other sermon, so we’re going to park that for another time.
And, as it happens for a lot of us, before they knew it, it’s beginning to get dark. The disciples realise and panic, not knowing what to do with the crowds of people, including children, who are out in the middle of nowhere and getting hungry. They race to Jesus, telling him to send the people away so they can go to local towns and get the food that they need. But instead, Jesus tells the disciples to feed them. I feel a bit sorry for the disciples at this point, because, as we heard, there are over 5000 people there. And all they have is five loaves of bread and two fish. Not quite enough. But Jesus takes this small offering, blesses it, and the disciples distribute this and gather the leftovers that fill twelve baskets.
Now, I’m quite comfortable with this being a supernatural miracle performed by Jesus to provide a quick-fix solution to the problem of hungry people. But as I think about this a bit more, I wonder if maybe a bigger miracle took place.
I wonder if, as the disciples were handing around what little they had, and were giving sacrificially knowing that once their food was gone, there’d be none left for them, other’s watched and began to do the same. Perhaps the selfless act modelled by the disciples inspired others to behave in a selfless manner, sharing what little they had, or perhaps sharing the abundance they had, so that everyone could eat. I wonder if this had less to do with supernaturally multiplying bread, and more to do with creating a generous heart in the people there.
I know there will be some of you who will be thinking about me that I’m wanting to logic away this story into something that I can understand clearly and easily. And sure, there might be a part of that that’s true. But I wonder what the bigger miracle is? Is it changing bread or changing hearts? And I wonder, probably more than that, which one Jesus is more interested in doing?
We live lives that are very “me-centric.” It’s the way our society has wired us to be, and I think as we continue in uncertain times, that wiring is reinforced. But I wonder what it would look like if we shared what little, or what abundance, we have with those around us. What if, by the end of the sharing, everyone at until they were full, and we had twelve baskets over? What would that look like?
It’s a hard thing to have our hearts changed from one way of thinking to another. We might come from the perspective that we have worked hard for what we have, and others aren’t working as hard, so we will keep what we have for ourselves and allow them to work harder. And I wonder if that day, that was the attitude of some of the people there. Maybe there was a hesitancy from some to share what they had out of fear that there wouldn’t be enough for them anymore? But what it took that day was for the disciples to lead by example, to step out, begin sharing what little they had, and others joined them in doing the same.
Sermons For The Moment
New Year - Matthew 2:13-23
Do not be afraid - Matthew 1:18-21
Luke 2: 4- 15
Luke 1: 26-33
This is a subtitle for your new post
Ruth Chapter 4
Ruth 3
Ruth 2
Commitment from Love, Ruth 1: 1-18
This is an interesting Psalm – another psalm of ascent. We spoke about these Psalms of Ascent a few weeks ago. They were songs the Jewish people sang as they made their way to Jerusalem to go to the temple, through the forest, along the tracks, camping by the roads. And I believe songs like this kept them focussed and kept their spirits up. I can imagine days of walking together, tiring, boring, hot and dusty. And singing some of these Psalms keep them focussed on the faithfulness of God. Much better then eye spy for the kids. Journeys are not all their cracked up to be even if the destination is worth it. As you know, when I was growing up we always holidayed at Bawley Point past Ulladulla, and in those days it was about a 4 hour drive from Sydney. We always left later than we meant to…and the last 20 mins was on a dirt road. One year when I was probably about 4 years old it was dark by the time we got to the dirt road, and half way along the dirt road, was a dodgy wooden bridge over a river. I think part of the bridge had been damaged and we had to wait a bit in the pitch black darkness before we could proceed. Dad was out with a torch ensuring the bridge was safe to drive on and mum and us 4 kids were sitting in the darkness – no street lights, no moonlight. Of course, you might be able to guess what I said to mum in that car, with fearful crying…you’ve probably heard it from kids before. I said ‘I want to go home’. Mum said to me, ‘we can’t go home Robyn, we’re almost there’. In truth, after the bridge we had the last 10 minutes of a 4 hours journey left. We safely crossed the bridge and we were OK. But I remember it. I remember the feeling of being scarred in the darkness. I remember not liking this journey at all. Even though I always loved the destination. Well this psalm celebrates the end of the journey and the arrival at the destination. Psalm 126:1-3, “When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream! We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy. And the other nations said, “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.” Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us! What joy!” Before we can understand the laughter and joy of the Israelites, we have to understand their journey. This Psalm looks back to when they arrived back in Jerusalem after 70 long years in Babylon. The captives had experienced great sorrow and mourning in exile. We read these heartbreaking words in Psalm 137: “Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?” (Psalm 137:1-4). Their tormentors demanded they sing joyfully, but they were like – that’s impossible, it doesn’t come from our heart. So they just sat by the waters of Babylon and wept. But now by an amazing work of God they were suddenly back in Jerusalem. And so their joy came from their heart. The wait was over, the journey was complete. “We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.” The journey is the hard bit though isn’t it? I was reminded of this, this week. An Officer couple I was speaking to, said that their teenager said some very hurtful things to them. Stuff like, ‘you make my life worse’. As they spoke to me, I did very little but listen and pray with them. They do have other supports in their life as well, already seeing a psychologist. But what I was thinking in my head as they were speaking was ‘oh the teenage years, I’d forgotten them’. Though we have 2 wonderful young adults in P and K, they were times when it was more than tense. K wears her heart on her sleeve, and to this day apologises for some of the things she said to me. And P, you wouldn’t know what he was thinking, and then all of a sudden all his thoughts and feelings for the last 3 years would come out like molten lava everywhere. A few days later I checked in to see how the couple and their teenager were going. I mentioned in passing about teenage years and very briefly about our experiences. I didn’t want to make it all about me. But I said teenage years can be painful and those years can really hurt everyone in the family. Teenager included. They know that we have a good relationship with P and K and they said to me, you know, this is helpful. It gives us hope. I was like, yep, this too shall pass. Because when you’re in the midst of the journey of pain and sorrow, you sometimes wonder if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. If you’ll laugh again or experience joy again. You begin to wonder, “Is this all that God has for me? Will I ever be happy again?” And here’s the promise in Psalm 126:4-6, “Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” When you are going through a time of deep sorrow, Psalm 126 is strong medicine for your soul. It carries a powerful message of hope. It tells you that times of trouble and sorrow do not last. It tells you that God will turn your sorrow to joy and your tears to laughter. If you are going through a challenging time right now, I pray that this psalm will speak to your heart this morning. Let me tell you right up front, whatever you’re going through, it will get better. God will change your tears to joy. This week I found something I wrote about 10 years ago. I had written it on a piece of paper and there was a whole reflection about my life. At the time we had my mum living with us, she had dementia, and mostly I remember the good times and the fun times with her. I was also the Corps Officer at Glebe and Bob was the manager at William Booth House. After a page of writing I had written something like this “I’m often anxious, I’m usually stressed, I have eczema on my eyelids and ulcers in my mouth. I always feel pressed.” I went out to Bob in the lounge room and I’m like, ‘oh my goodness, eczema on my eyelids and ulcers in my mouth’, often anxious, usually stressed. The thing is, my life feels a long way from that now, and I’d forgotten what that part of my journey felt like. I’m sure when I was there I couldn’t look ahead and see a time of joy…but the truth is that “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” This too shall pass. ‘Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!’ says verse 3. God is faithful – he does the healing, the restoring, he brings the streams in the desert that renews and brings fruitfulness. I don’t need to tell you – it takes time. Today, I’m praying for a work of healing in your life, a gradual restoration of joy, of laughter. Like me as a kid, sometimes we don’t like parts of this journey at all. Even though we know our destination is good. And ultimately, we have a destination like no other and that’s the promise of God. A home in heaven made possible through Jesus. May God bless you this week as you look to Him, listen to Him, find your hope in Him and find courage and healing in your journey.