Sermon 08/03/08 (Matthew 14:13-21)

“A Miracle of Sharing”
Matthew 14:13-21
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 3 August, 2008
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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 Somebody is always hungry somewhere. For years we would see the distended bellies and sunken eyes of Ethiopian children all over the news. Now Ethiopia is back on the famine list. In 2005 there was a great deal of coverage on the famine in Niger. Haiti, which has suffered from extreme poverty for decades, is unable to feed its children. When the cyclone hit Myanmar, and the earthquake hit China, food aid was a long time coming and hunger was the result. In our own country, the recession is forcing more people to decide between shelter and food.

Periodically news outlets will broadcast stories on hunger. For a few days or even a few months there will be a great deal of coverage on one hunger crisis or another. This past spring, when it became clear that America was heading toward a recession, I saw several stories on American food banks and the fact that their supplies were being depleted. A few months ago I saw a couple of articles and maybe a TV program on the return of famine to Ethiopia. I’ve seen a few things about how rising food prices and drought in several places are increasing the hunger problem.

When these stories pop up, we see the pictures, read the articles, pray for a while, vow to give more and waste less. ...Then the news goes back to its usual variety of stories on politics, the war, the economy (i.e., the fact that fewer people are buying SUVs and the house market isn’t great). Meanwhile, people go on starving to death. In 2005 it was estimated that one in four children in Niger died before the age of five. I don’t know if statistics there have improved (Niger hasn’t been in the news a whole lot lately), but there are other places in the world with at least that atrocious a mortality rate.

...So many people starving in a world that produces more than enough food for everyone...

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish, [Jesus] 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.”

This morning’s miracle story from the Gospel of Matthew seems like an answer to the prayers of our hungry world. If only Jesus could arrive at the food lines in Ethiopia and multiply the scant supplies, creating enough for everyone! If only Jesus could show up in India and feed the deathly poor there! If only Jesus could go to the school lunch lines in the United States and make enough to provide three square meals for hungry school children! ...All he would need would be a few pieces of whatever food was available, and everyone would be comfortably fed! In the miracle of Christ’s grace the dying children of Niger, who otherwise will almost surely die even if food does arrive soon, would be restored to healthy life. The struggling schoolchildren would regain concentration and go on to get good educations and escape the cycle of poverty. Life would be restored to a wounded world! ...If only Jesus were here.

Granted, in his telling of the feeding of the five thousand, the author of Matthew never indicates that the crowds were dying of starvation. Still, we are told in Matthew’s version that Jesus had just been among the people curing their sick, and from what we know of Jesus’ ministry and the culture in which he lived, the people in the crowd were most likely living at some level of poverty. Their bellies may not have been swollen from acute starvation, and they may not have been near death, but they were likely hungry. So, Jesus had compassion on them and shared a meal with them. Why can’t he be here to have compassion on us? To reach out to the billions of hungry people of the modern day?!

It does seem, at times, that humankind was, in some ways, better off during “biblical times.” When we are facing family illness, we wish that Jesus were here to make our loved one live. When we are watching people starve across the world and in our own communities, we wish Jesus was here to feed the five million. However, I wonder if these longings are really an appropriate answer to the suffering of our world. Are our gospels really about quick fixes by a miraculous Jesus Christ? The miracles of Jesus are part of the story, yes. But I believe the good news of our gospels moves beyond the quick fix of a Jesus who can simply “zap” things better.

I have already noted that there is more than enough food on this planet to feed everyone...yet people remain hungry. Why is that? Is it because Jesus is not here to multiply a few loaves and fishes...or is it because we have not learned to share what we have?! Is the miracle of this morning’s gospel that Jesus said “Abra cadabra!” and suddenly multitudes of food appeared... or is the miracle that the people shared with one another?

When I see newscasts of famines in far off lands, or even starvation in my own city, I feel helpless. I wonder how I can help. I send in my donations to church organizations and I write letters to politicians begging for them to do something, and I donate a few cans to the food pantry, but I feel like anything I do will be little more than a drop in the bucket. Yet, here I am, living in a two-story house with air conditioning and a solid roof over my head. I can have three meals a day -- or more -- if I want them. I don’t have a lot of money (at least not in American capitalist terms), but I can basically afford my health care, my rent, food, and even the books I devour. I am alive. I say that I give what I can, but I could always give more. I live well, while others starve. I even sometimes waste food, while others starve. I live the American life.

So, what would happen if I, and everyone else who is surviving well, began to share what we had? What would happen if corporations and restaurants stopped wasteful practices; what would happen if nations began truly giving what they had, erasing debts, feeding the five thousand...or five million...or five billion...before worrying about their own profits? We would have a miracle greater than Jesus feeding a few thousand people in a crowd. We would have a holy miracle, a miracle of humanity. We would have loved one another as Jesus taught us so many times to do.

I doubt that one sermon will get you -- or me -- to suddenly give up the life that you live. I realize that we are in a recession. I realize that gas is expensive and milk is expensive, and prices are going up as income is going down. You might not be living quite as well as you were last year. It is possible that you really can’t give any more than you are already giving. You may, indeed, be receiving aid rather than giving it right now. But think long and hard about where your finances actually are. Many of us are living better than we are willing to admit. If you possibly, possibly can, I implore you to donate a few more cans to the food pantry. Give a few extra dollars in your morning offering (a portion of your offerings goes to the wider UCC, which works on hunger relief, among other things). Reach out to your fellow human beings, not just because you want to get rid of some old food or heavy change, but because you love humanity as Christ loves us. Give of yourself, lovingly, prayerfully. This is communion. Now let us pray.