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08.03.08

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

BREAD FOR THE TABLE

EXODUS 16:11-18; MATTHEW 14:13-21

• Feeding the Multitudes
• Olympic-Sized Hunger
• What does it take to satisfy an Olympic-sized appetite?
• The People’s Republic of China will soon find out
• The summer Olympic games open this Friday, and already people are flocking into Beijing in droves
• Officials estimate that the Beijing Olympics will cost more than $40 billion, and a big chunk of that revolves around logistics and food
• And that makes sense considering the sheer number of people
• Officials in Beijing will need to transport them from one venue to another, and wherever people gather, whether it’s five, 5,000, or 7 million, people are going to get hungry and want to be fed
• Over the next two weeks, Beijing will provide hospitality to more than 7 million spectators and participants in the 2008 Summer Olympics
• 7,577,000 to be a bit more exact
• Even as we worship here this morning, some 550,000 spectators from various places around the world are converging on the Chinese capital
• Add to that the 7 million tickets the Chinese government released at low cost so its own citizens can attend the games, plus more than 11,000 athletes who will be competing, and the 16,000 journalists who will be covering the events
• All that adds up to one massive appetite
• The Fellowship of the Table
• Any time people get together you have to feed them
• You can’t just let them fend for themselves
• Food is part of the experience
• One of the TV ads promoting this year’s Olympics touts that the Olympics gives us the opportunity to lay aside our differences and come together as one people
• While sporting events may help us accomplish that, there is still the sense of competition
• There are still winners and losers, and where there are winners and losers, there is the attitude that “We’re better than you.”
• Nothing brings people together better than sharing a meal around a common table
• Around the table, people have the opportunity to talk and get to know each other
• Table fellowship enables people to really connect—to share ideas, to listen and understand, to settle differences
• Around the table, we have the opportunity to get in tune with others like no other activity provides
• Nothing else knits people together better than sharing a meal together around the table
• In first-century Jewish culture, eating a meal was really more of an event than simply gobbling down fast food
• Meals were about hospitality, about sharing and bonding
• If you ate with someone, it meant you were engaging in a deeper relationship
• Jesus went around eating with lots of people, from the religious elite to the outcasts of society
• For Jesus, eating with people was a sign of things to come and was very much tied to his mission of proclaiming God’s kingdom
• Jesus was acting out the idea that God’s kingdom is a worldwide reality where everyone is welcome and gets fed only the best
• It wasn’t so much what Jesus ate, but who he ate with, so Jesus’ action challenges us to really think about who we are willing to sit at table with and share a meal together
• God’s Generous Provision
• Manna & Quail
• Of course, the government of China and the International Olympic Committee aren’t the first ones to face the dilemma of feeding people with Olympic-sized appetites
• Moses and Jesus faced similar dilemmas themselves
• Moses was the leader of the Hebrew people at the time of their exodus from Egypt
• When the Hebrews first went down to Egypt (voluntarily) while Joseph was serving as second-in-command to Pharaoh, they numbered 70 people in all (Genesis 46:26-27)
• Some time after the death of Joseph, a new Pharaoh came to power who didn’t know Joseph, and enslaved the Hebrews—and they were in slavery there in excess of 400 years
• During their time in Egypt, the Hebrew population grew, despite their hardships, and by the time Moses led them out of Egypt, the numbered 600,000 men, plus women and children, along with droves of livestock (Exodus 12:37-39)
• This was the hungry mob Moses had to deal with when they started grumbling for food in the wilderness
• Since they were in the wilderness, where would Moses find food enough to feed such a hungry mob?
• In response to their grumbling, God provided both meat and bread for the table
• In the evening, quail covered the camp, and in the morning, after the dew evaporated, there was manna for the people to gather and eat
• That provision of food continued on a daily basis for the entire forty years of their wandering until they were settled in the land God promised to give them
• There was never a lack of supply—all they had to do was follow God’s instructions
• They were only to gather what they needed for that day
• If they tried to gather more and hoard it, it would spoil
• The only exception was the day before the Sabbath when they could gather double the amount and it would keep so they would not have to work at gathering on the Sabbath
• When they followed God’s instructions, they found that each one had what they needed
• “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.” (v. 18)
• But there are always some who will test the limits and seek to have more than they need or can use
• When some of the Hebrews gathered more than the prescribed amount, by morning it was full of maggots and began to smell (v. 20)
• The provisions God supplied for the Hebrews was an exercise in trust
• As long as they trusted God and gathered only what they needed, God would provide enough for all
• God still provides bread for the table enough for all to eat, yet many are starving to death because we believe we are entitled to more than our fair share
• We would rather throw it away than share it with someone who is hungry
• Loaves and Fishes
• In the wilderness of Galilee, Jesus also faced a hungry mob
• To this wilderness Jesus came seeking solitude because he had just received word of the beheading of John the Baptist
• Instead of finding solitude, Jesus found a crowd clamoring for attention
• Moved with compassion for them, Jesus put aside his own agenda to heal their sick
• After a long and stressful day, his disciples came to him suggesting that is was time to send the crowd away so they could get something to eat
• No doubt the disciples’ stomachs were grumbling as well
• But instead of sending the crowd away, Jesus says to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.”
• Taken aback by Jesus’ words, the disciples begin to assess their resources
• “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish”—certainly not enough for a crowd of 5,000 men plus women and children
• And there was not a McDonald’s to send them to—the nearest McDonald’s was twenty centuries away!
• But there was a factor that the disciples failed to consider
• That factor was that they were in the presence of the Son of God
• The disciples were thinking addition while Jesus was thinking multiplication
• The disciples were thinking scarcity while Jesus was thinking abundance
• So Jesus instructs them to bring the loaves and fish to him
• After he directed the people to sit down, Jesus blessed the food, broke it, and began to give it to the disciples to distribute
• To everyone’s amazement, there is an abundance of bread for the table, enough for everyone to eat and be satisfied, and enough to fill twelve baskets with leftovers
• The Lessons from the Feeding
• There are a few things we can take away from this event
• The first thing is the most obvious: we must be willing to give to God whatever we have so God can use it
• No matter how small we think it is, God has the power to multiply the gift, but we must first be willing to give it
• The second thing is the combination of the divine/human factor
• This vast multitude of people were fed because Jesus and the disciples worked cooperatively
• Jesus provided bread for the table, but the disciples were responsible for giving it to the people
• Notice what happened here: the disciples came to Jesus with a problem for him to fix, but Jesus turned the responsibility for fixing the problem back on them
• Jesus gladly provided the resources, but it was up to them to do the work
• Too often, we expect God to fix everything and then complain when nothing seems to happen
• The failure to find a solution isn’t on God’s part, it’s on ours
• God provides the resources we need, but the problem still exists because we either misuse those resources or fail to do our part to resolve the problem
• The world food crisis is a prime example
• There has always been and always will be plenty of food to feed everyone on this planet
• God has provided an abundance of food resources, and there’s no reason why anyone should starve
• But the reality is people are starving, not just on the other side of the globe but on the other side of the street
• We can’t blame God for that reality; we can only blame ourselves
• We turn a blind eye to neighbors in need when our stomachs are full. Our pantries are overstocked, and our garbage cans overflow with food that we’ve wasted
• The third thing has to do with who we welcome at the table and what we do when we leave the table
• There are overtones of the Sacrament of Holy Communion in each of these passages
• The manna that came down from heaven reminds us of Jesus the Bread of Life
• Jesus’ action of blessing and breaking the bread and giving it to his disciples reminds us of the event in the Upper Room and of what we will do here this morning
• But is our table really open to everyone?
• Are there some we would rather not have table fellowship with—some who are not welcome to gather here?
• And when we leave the table, are we really any different?
• Does it change our attitudes and actions?
• It should—but it doesn’t
• The fact that we’re satisfied is all that really matters
• Bread for the table
• God’s gift to us for nourishment and refreshment
• It’s not ours to keep, it’s ours to share so that all may feast and be satisfied