The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, August 2nd, was preached based on the below manuscript . The gospel text was Matthew 14.13-21.
Our gospel passage today
starts with Jesus going off by himself.
Rather, Jesus tries to go off by himself.
He’s just learned from his disciples
that his cousin John the baptizer,
forerunner to Jesus’ mission,
has been killed by the empire.
Jesus seeks to go into a deserted place,
a wilderness, a desert,
and yet even there the crowds follow him.
Even in the midst of his grief,
Jesus doesn’t give up.
He has compassion on the crowds
and heals their sick.
Evening comes and the people are hungry.
The disciples,
practical,
if not as compassionate as Jesus,
want to send the crowds away.
As we pivot from John’s death
and start preparing for Jesus’ death in Matthew’s narrative,
Jesus starts getting the disciples ready for their own ministry.
Jesus said to them,
“They need not go away;
you give them something to eat.”
This week has been a lot.
The economy shrunk by roughly a third
if made annualized.
Republicans in congress
can’t decide how to help people
as the COVID19 pandemic shows no signs of slowing.
Rent freezes are ending
and eviction proceedings
are beginning to get started again.
With no work,
no opportunities for work,
no money coming in,
people are about to be even more homeless
and even more hungry.
This doesn’t take into account
how reopened schools
or enhanced reopened public places
may continue contributing to
death from COVID19.
With over 150,000 Americans dead from this disease,
those who survive
experience long-lasting physical impacts.
This is happening as access to healthcare
whether tied to employment or not
while hospitals reach capacity
dries up.
This bad news stirs my grief.
Even in the midst of his grief,
Jesus doesn’t give up.
He has compassion on the crowds
and heals their sick.
When evening comes,
the crowds are hungry,
and the disciples would send them away,
Jesus tells the disciples to give the crowds something to eat.
A little boy offers
five loaves of bread and two fish.
Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and shares the crowds.
There’s more than enough.
Regardless of how this miracle happens,
5,000 men as Matthew puts it,
so around 20,000 people overall,
are fed.
There’s more than enough,
but not much.
Everyone eats and is filled —
this isn’t scraps of a meal —
and by a slim margin there are leftovers.
Only twelve baskets
after feeding 20,000 people,
really isn’t a lot leftover!
Yet everyone had enough.
In God’s reign,
everyone has enough,
and God hears the prayer to
“Give us today our daily bread.”
From the midst of his grief,
Jesus makes sure the crowds
whose cheers will soon enough turn to jeers
have enough.
In his compassion
Jesus directs his true followers
to care for those around him.
Sending them away is practical.
Feeding them is God’s reign made manifest.
Anna Case-Winter writes,
“Jesus manifests a freedom from self-concern
that exposes our bondage to self-protection
and the many forms of servitude to which self-regard holds us captive.
Jesus’ compassion unmasks our selfishness.
It is becoming clear to the disciples in this chapter,
and hopefully clear to readers of this Gospel,
that it is not possible to follow Jesus
and our own self-interest at the same time.”
Even in the midst of his grief,
Jesus doesn’t give up.
He has compassion on the crowds
and heals their sick.
He wants to be alone,
but lets the crowd follow him
and doesn’t care only about himself.
When we see Jesus’ acts of generosity
our own hoarding and self-concern
are thrown in sharp relief.
While the disciples want to send the crowds away,
Jesus tells them
tells us
to give them something to eat.
I’ve seen the feeding of the multitudes happen,
before COVID times
when crowds could amass
along the banks of the Seinne.
Groups of friends gather in the evening, hungry,
and someone has always forgotten something!
Not to worry because a friend has it.
Or maybe not,
but a stranger in the next group over has it.
A group of three
becomes a group of eight
becomes a potluck of twenty.
And there are leftovers
but with pretty slim margins.
There is so much happening in our immediate future,
and we can only guess what any of it will be.
Elections don’t solve all the worlds problems.
Our saviors don’t occupy government residences.
As we find ourselves moved with compassion
or find ourselves stuck because of others’ decisions
Jesus is moved by compassion too.
Jesus both tells us to pray,
“Give us today our daily bread”
and tells us, his disciples now,
“You give them something to eat.”
God’s reign is at hand.
It’s breaking in
when one of you brings masks for us to give away
and another emails about giving away clothes
that you’ve sorted during your newfound downtime.
God’s reign is present,
Jesus is having compassion and healing sick,
when you give to the discretionary fund
and I help bail out demonstrators
and when we give months at a time
to Neighbors in Need.
“Jesus manifests a freedom from self-concern
that exposes our bondage to self-protection
and the many forms of servitude
to which self-regard holds us captive.
Jesus’ compassion unmasks our selfishness.
…it is not possible to follow Jesus
and our own self-interest at the same time.”
So as we follow Jesus,
as he’s started working his way to the cross,
we lay aside our self-interests,
our heavy burdens of self-concern
and self-interest.
Even in the midst of his grief,
Jesus doesn’t give up.
He has compassion on the crowds
and heals their sick.
He tells the disciples
“You give them something to eat”
then makes sure that there is more than enough. Amen.