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Reflections
on the Feeding of God's People
It was difficult to write a sermon yesterday. You might think it was difficult because I got emotional, that’s not true. It was difficult to write a sermon yesterday because the Red Birds were playing their first game in a brand new stadium, and I wasn’t there. (They say that stadium is as good as most major league stadiums. Isn’t that great?) Then I found out that the Red Birds were in the lead, and there I was trying to concentrate on Theology. Which reminds me, for the past two years I’ve had visions of doing what the grown-up men used to do when I was a kid in New York City. They’d sling their jackets over their arms and leave the office early on a summer day to go to the ballpark. In my visions, I’m walking up Second Street heading for the ball game. But, on the day when my vision could have come true, instead of walking up Second Street to go to a ball game, I’m driving to Midtown to write a sermon. What can I tell you?. . .But honestly, it was difficult to write my last sermon as a priest at Calvary. I tried to write about both the Gospel and my time with you, hopefully I succeeded. This Sunday’s readings are very much about bread and about being fed. What I hear being said in the Gospel is that through community God feeds us and changes our lives. In the Collect I hear that we need the regular feeding of God’s bread for life as surely as we need three meals a day for the feeding of our body. Hold those thoughts in the back of your mind as I make some general comments and observations this morning. Before I start, I want to tell a little story on me. One of my favorite memories of Calvary will always be the evening I assisted Huey Gardner in a wedding. I knew the groom from work in ministry we’d done together, but I really didn’t know the bride. Huey told me that the couple had asked that I assist and I said, "Of course." I don’t even remember if I went to the rehearsal, but I was at the wedding. Standing near me up front was an acolyte named Sherry Coulter. Just as Huey said, "I now pronounce you husband and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," Sherry Coulter fell over in a dead faint. I’d never seen anyone faint like that. Fortunately, she hit her head on the wedding cushion and not the rail. I looked at her and I thought this is serious and I don’t know what to do. So I looked up and said, "Is there a doctor in the house?" And everybody laughed. Little did I know the new bride was a doctor and so was half the congregation. Many years ago in seminary I said to the dean, "Why in our middle year, when we’re taking on all these new activities and we’re going out to do field work in the parish, are you also adding this colloquy to talk about our field work once a week? Why so many different things, so fast, all at once?" He said, "Because you’re going into parish ministry." Indeed, the life cycle is what we clergy are privileged to share with other people, it’s the privilege to share their lives with them. So, the contrast with the wedding scene is the afternoon that Ruth Gray died. Ruth Gray was an older member of the parish. Many of you will remember her, a dear lady. I had the privilege of sitting by her bedside, holding her hand and reading the Psalms to her the afternoon she died. It was a rich privilege. Let me share some thoughts about the reading today. Meals and feeding and nurture are what we’re into in this Gospel reading. This Gospel reading is the only miracle of Jesus that appears in all four Gospels, which is very significant. It means most likely it actually happened. It points up the fact that in two of the great faith traditions, Judaism and Christianity, the faith story is sent forward from the beginning of the faith in the package of a meal. In that package it is hoped the story will go from generation to generation with accuracy. In Judaism it’s the Seder Passover Meal. For those of you who have never been to a Seder, it’s very much like our Eucharist, because it tells the story while the people eat. It tells the story of the ancient nation of Israel, the Hebrews-- how they were slaves in Egypt, how they passed through the Red Sea, and how they eventually entered the Promised Land. The Holy Eucharist contains the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday we hear it, and it’s packaged in a meal. So meals are very central. Jerome H. Neyrey in his book, The Social Sciences and New Testament Interpretation, says, "How can readers understand the particular ceremony of meals and table fellowship? Why are meals so important as symbols of broader social relationships? How can we peer below the surface and grasp the social dynamics encoded in meals and commensality, what anthropologists call the language of meals?" Why the Last Supper as the repository of the faith story? Why the Seder as repository? Well, a meal is a meeting place. A meal is a place where we gather and share and bond more deeply and talk about the day and talk about how we feel. The meal is a place of community, and community is where God is able to change our lives. A meal is where we are fed, not just by food, but by each other. Never underestimate the power, the effectiveness, and the importance of a working kitchen in your parish. It may be the center of controversy if people don’t like the food; it’s always a subject of satisfaction if they do. But the important thing is it’s a gathering place. It gathers us together, and we share our days and we enjoy the richness of each other’s fellowship. Meals are very important. Meals also show our common vulnerability and dependence on something other than ourselves. Try stopping the trucks that bring the food for six months and see what happens. We all must have food in order to live. In the same way our spirit must have the bread of God in order to grow, in order to be alive. So that’s about meals, and there’s so much more that we could say. The other quote I want to share with you is from a book called, The Testing of Faith, by Ray Stedman. In it he talks about the little boy in the crowd who had five loaves and two fish, and how the boy offered them when there wasn’t any food for 5,000 people. Stedman uses this as a lesson for us all to never be afraid to offer what we have, because we can never tell what God is going to do with it. He says that Jesus never asks us to start accumulating more before we begin to minister. When I get to here, I’ll start ministering; when I graduate from college; when I have all my finances secured—then I’ll give some time to somebody else. All God wants is what we have right now. As soon as Jesus found out what was available in the crowd, that was all he needed. Just one lad’s lunch was all it took. As someone was leaving the 7:30 service this morning, they told me how this Gospel reading had made a difference in their life when they first heard it 50 years ago at a Middle Tennessee camp. It made a difference because they got the message that it’s okay to offer what you want to do or what you have, no matter how small. And you don’t have to be afraid they’re going to laugh at you. (This is what caught me, remember what it’s like to be a kiddo?) You don’t have to be afraid that it’s too little to offer. What happens is that whatever we’re willing to offer is used by God and multiplied. In this parish I’ve seen so many acts of graciousness and selflessness. So many acts of people reaching out and embracing those who are scared, those whose houses have burned down, those who have been put in the hospital or have lost a loved one. This parish just surrounds those people with their love so that it becomes an amazing experience for everyone involved. Remember Lou Gehrig’s goodbye to his fans at his last ballgame? "I consider myself the luckiest man in the world," he said. The fact is, when something tragic happens to someone and the community allows God to use them to reach out and help, the richness of the positive help far outweighs the negative of the tragic experience. At least for part of the time that you’re going through it, a dimension of God’s kingdom is experienced. It’s a miracle. And I’ve seen it happen here at Calvary again and again. It comes in waves and it multiplies. My own personal experience of this has been when Sunny has been ill. It’s hard for me to ask for help, but I never had to. We were surrounded and lifted up; it was amazing. Finally, this parish is a great example of how, when we give ourselves away, we’re richer for it. This church automatically assumes that a significant part of its resources should be given away. You automatically assume that, but not every parish does. It apparently has become second nature to you, and it makes you something other than what you would have been without it. It empowers you, and it’s wonderful to behold. In the past eight years I have been fed and made more whole by your capacity and willingness to love and express it. God has been in this place for me, among you and through you. I have been nurtured and I have been healed of some of my wounds. I will never be the same, and I will take the richness of this time into further ministry. Thank you, and thank God. Copyright 2000 Calvary Episcopal Church. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. NRSV |
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