Do you give your all to Jesus? I know I don’t, well not all the time. There are areas of my life which definitely belong on the agenda of an ‘improvement plan’ and writing this sermon has prompted me to consider giving more than ‘five loaves and two small fish!’
Jesus and His disciples had just heard the devastating news of the death of John the Baptist at the hands of the despotic tetrarch Herod Antipas. They needed to get away to come to terms with this and to get some rest, but this was not to be. Hearing of their presence in the region a vast crowd well in excess of 5000 people massed together and pursued them, relentlessly seeking Jesus. Despite fatigue and grief, Jesus provided for those who were in need, meeting not only their spiritual hunger, but their physical hunger too. He is to the crowd a new and greater Moses, who fed the crowds with supernatural bread in the wilderness (cf. Ex 16), and as a new and greater Elisha, who fed a hundred people with 20 hand-size loaves of bread and still had leftovers (2 Kgs 4:42-44).
The feeding of the 5000 is so significant that all four gospel writers record this amazing miracle. They differ in their detail and only. Matthew explains that the 5000 did not include women and children. Out of the four gospels only John mentions that the fish and loaves were in the possession of a small boy. Why the enormous crowd had so little food resources is a matter of speculation? Had the crowd been in such haste to follow Jesus and bring their sick to him that they brought nothing with them by way of provisions? Was this small boy with his packed lunch the only one with food or had the boy just managed to scrape together 5 loaves and 2 small fish from among such a massive crowd and taken it upon himself to do the collection? We don’t know, but whatever the truth, five loaves and two small fish amongst such a vast crowd was a pitiful offering.
The truth of the miracle is also varyingly discussed by commentators. Some suggest that it was some kind of idyllic divinely arranged picnic where because the little boy was willing to give up his precious packed lunch and hand it over to Jesus, the crowds were so overcome with admiration that they all shared out what they had like some vast ‘bring and share’ party. This explanation, however, does away with the event as a real miracle, and it is not what we read in the gospels. We can believe that Jesus supernaturally provided for those who were in need and this is why!
Have you heard about the Lord’s Ranch? Father Richard Thomas, a Jesuit priest originally from Florida, came to El Paso, Texas, in 1964 to take over as director of Our Lady’s Youth Center which was founded in 1953 to serve then needs of a poor section of downtown El Paso known as Segundo Barrio. The programs of the Youth Center included an employment office, a credit union, sports teams for youth, English classes, and providing hot meals for hungry children of the neighborhood. As executive director, Father Thomas added to the work, but he felt that he was not making much of an impact in the spiritual lives of those coming for help.
Between 1969-1970, the Centre staff experienced a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit and they joined together in regular prayer meetings twice a week and Bible studies in the morning five days a week. During one prayer meeting in 1972 they read the passage in Luke 14:12-14:
“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid atthe resurrection of the righteous.”
The prayer meeting decided that on Christmas day that year they would provide a Christmas lunch to the poor who lived and worked in a rubbish dump across the Rio Grand River in a place in Mexico called Juárez. Food was prepared for just 120 people, but in excess of 300 arrived to be fed. During the meal which followed, the food multiplied and all who came were able to eat their fill, in fact there was so much food leftover that the group took the extras to two orphanages on the way home to use it up.
This multiplication of food really got the attention of those who witnessed it. From this miracle developed a garbage dump ministry which grew to include a business cooperative to sell bottles and cardboard, a school, a medical and dental clinic, and a daycare center. According to Father Richard, he and those who were there have encountered the inexplicable multiplication of food on dozens of occasions thereafter. On another occasion 350 cans of milk were brought to the poor, but 500 came an all went away with their own can. Sacks of flour produced meal as if from an endless supply. They have even taken measurements of what was removed and the results did not add up. Isn’t God good?
Three years later in 1975, Father Thomas purchased 160 acres of land near Vado, New Mexico, about 30 miles from Our Lady’s Youth Center in El Paso, and he called it The Lord’s Ranch. Here is a link if you want to know more
I feel that the Lord is presenting us with a challenge. He looks around at the harassed, tired and needy world and says the same thing as He said to the disciples by the Lake to us too “You give them something to eat.”
The staff at Our Lady’s Youth Centre clearly felt a huge burden to meet the needs of the poor community in Juárez, but what is He calling us to do? Let us learn from the principles of the community in Texas:
Firstly: Consciously and willingly opening ourselves to the power of God’s renewing Holy Spirit.
Secondly: Faithful and regular prayer and bible study. Some of us meet each week for bible study and everyone is welcome, including our English Language Christian Mission friends. Can we do better than ‘5 loaves and 2 fish?’
Thirdly: Prayerful discernment.
I want to finish with a wonderful folk tale from India which I love to tell of a street beggar who went out one day with his wooden begging bowl to squat on a street corner awaiting the charity of passers by. Many ignored him, but some took pity by reaching into their purchases from the market and tossing a handful of rice into his bowl.
While he was snoozing under the shade of a Banyan tree, a magnificent golden coach drew up alongside where he was sitting on his mat. The sight was breathtaking and he was even more astounded when the door of the coach opened to reveal the figure inside, a man adorned with jewels and wearing robes of the finest cloth. “This can be none other than the King of Kings” the beggar thought to himself.
Just then the figure motioned the beggar to come forward, but instead of offering a generous gift of charity the figure said “What will you give me?” The beggar was speechless, but managed to overcome his inner rage and disappointment. He reached into his wooden bowl and between his filthy finger and thumb pulled out a single grain of rice and handed it to the majestic figure who simply smiled a warm, rich and deep smile and said “Thank you.” The figure then withdrew back into the coach and then motioned the driver to move on.
At the end of the day the beggar shuffled off to his lean-to shack to make himself a simple meal from what he had collected that day. Just as he was about to cast the rice he had collected into a boiling pot of water, he caught a glint of something shiny in his bowl. He sifted through the dull white grains and found a single tiny nugget of pure gold the size of a grain of rice.
His heart sank for it was then that he realized where the golden rice grain had come from and thought of what he might have had if he had only given the King of Kings more.
“In the hands of the Lord a little can go a long way, but think what He could do with a little bit more?”
We can do better than 5 loaves and 2 small fish. Don’t just be scraping up what we can spare, but lovingly and deliberately supporting the work of the Lord in meeting the needs of thousands of people.
Amen