July 29, 2012
Please Pass the Bread
- 2 Kings 4:42-44
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Think for a moment about your first memories of bread – making it, buying it, and eating it.
I remember riding my bike around the block to my piano lessons. I was in second grade. I hated piano lessons but I loved the fact that my teacher baked bread. Every week she took a loaf out of the oven just as I arrived. When I finished my lesson she cut me a thick slice slathered it with butter and sent me on my way. It was the first homemade bread I can remember.
I also have a vivid memory my little sister, who was a very picky eater, walking around with a loaf of white bread under her arm. When she was hungry she would plop down, open the bag, and eat a piece of bread. Some days that was all she ate.
Bread is so common, so everyday, so universal; but it is also physically essential and spiritually celebrated. Bread is a common biblical theme throughout both the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospels. Bread is a character in the history of Israel and in the life of Jesus.
Today as drought is affecting our country’s crops, we may find grain, once in abundance to be in short supply. We may become more aware of how deeply dependent we are on the land and on the rain. And that may help us understand why Jesus would choose something so precious and vulnerable and nourishing as bread as a symbol for his own self.
Bread is also a communal product. The grain has to be planted and tended. Then harvesters gather the grain. Millers grind it and produce flour. Bakers take the flour and the other ingredients from various sources, combine them, and produce the bread. For most of us there are also the steps of the factory workers, the truck drivers, the grocers, and the check-out clerk. The sun, the earth, the rain, the community all participate in the creation of bread.
The lectionary reading for today are both stories of bread and miracles of feeding.
In 2 Kings there is a war going on.
People are in a state of flux. They live in fear. There has been a shortage of food and scarcity is the rule of the day. In the midst of that great human need one un-named person offers the best of what he has.
The giver arrives without explanation. And it is the gifts that are described: "twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain." This is a generous amount! It is not hard to picture, to smell, and to savor the taste of this pile of fresh bread and grain, or to recognize the labor that went into producing them.
Then a second surprising act of generosity then takes place: Elisha decides to share these first fruits with others and instructs his servant, "Give it to the people and let them eat."
But this story of generosity and sharing is interrupted by the fear of scarcity. "How can we serve so many with so little?" And the conclusion? All ate to their fill and still there was food left over. The result is beyond all reasonable human expectations.
In John’s Gospel Jesus begins with a similar question. He has drawn quite a crowd. The crowds are coming closer and closer and they are hungry. Jesus asks Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip responds by pointing to the problem. "Six months wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little."
Andrew, however, sees the possibilities: "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish." Andrew sees the positive elements. John notes that "there was a great deal of grass in the place" (6:10). That makes it more comfortable to sit down and have a picnic. There are five barley loaves and two fish. There are 12 baskets that appear out of nowhere to hold the leftover food. There is grass to sit on. For one bright moment, we can all get caught up in Andrew's optimism. But after pausing for a second, Philip's negativity rubs off on Andrew. And he asks, "But what are 5 loaves and 2 fish among so many people?"
But Jesus receives the boy’s offering, gives thanks and begins to distribute the food. Miraculously, all have plenty to eat. The miracle asks us the question, "Do we believe God will provide what we need
to do the ministry God wants done?" Note the essential qualifiers – what we need, not want, and the ministry God wants, not necessarily the ministry we would choose. Another way to ask the question: Do we operate according to a mind-set of abundance or of scarcity? The former engenders generosity and hope; the latter brings anxiety and competition.
Scarcity is all about our fears. Abundance is all about God’s generosity and grace.
On September 9th we will have an all church picnic in the parking lot. The Congregational Life Team is busy preparing and doing what we expect good Teams to do. They are budgeting their time and their resources. They are attentive to the limitations and they’ll be prudent with the budget.
But let’s say that at about 11:30 that Sunday some wacko goes out and puts up a sign- "free hot dogs at noon – join us."
So when we get out of worship at noon there are 800 people gathered in the parking lot for the picnic.
We only have 300 hot dogs and buns.
Someone suggests we send them all away.
Someone is worried they will start parking on the grass or run over the flower beds.
Someone rushes to hide the mustard and ketchup and relish so we don’t run out.
Members rush to the front of the line to be sure to get served first.
Others just pack up and head home- this is not their job, no need to stay and help.
Level heads reason that we simply don’t have the resources to deal with this.
Ministry is not simply what good people decide is reasonable to undertake. Ministry is about multiplying resources so our meager efforts become revelations of God’s amazing grace.
Willa Cather said- Where there is great love there are always great miracles.
Edward Farrell wrote -- The Gift and the Giver
We ask for a piece of sand
and he gives us a beach.
We ask for a drop of water
and he gives us an ocean.
We ask for time
and he gives us life eternal.
And it is so easy for us
to fall in love with the gift
and forget the giver.
Prayer Is a Hunger, In the Stillness Is the Dancing by Mark Link SJ
If we bring our first fruits before the Lord,
recognize the needs of the people,
and keep a close watch on God’s movement in our midst,
who knows what will happen?
God’s abundant blessings just might burst in on us,
bringing more before us than we ever previously imagined possible.
(p.271, Feasting on the Word B Vol 3., Douglas King)
It is not about what we have or what we think we can do.
It is about what God wants and what God can do.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.