Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | August 6, 2023

Matthew 14:13-21

When I first moved to Glasgow, the associate minister at St. James’ was a woman named Miss Ann Merilees. She was working as a Deacon, or in her case Deaconess, which is a professional ministry position in the Church of Scotland. She was a great help in teaching me about the norms and nuances of Glasgow culture; and especially the ways of our “Urban Priority” Parish. She is known to this day, far and wide, for her kindness, generosity and service. Her only streak of ruthlessness is when she plays Scrabble with us.

One day we were visiting on the primary schools in the parish. Part of our role was to serve as school chaplains. Miss Merilees was telling the children about a clean water project in Africa that she was working with. Some weeks after our visit to the school a girl came up to me on the street – she was around ten years old – and she gave me a 50 pence coin and said, “Can you give this to Miss Merilees for her clean water charity?”

I was impressed by the girl’s thoughtfulness and made sure to pass it along. What I learned along the way is that giving to charity is what folks in that country learn to do from a young age. Giving to worthy causes is taught in school and raising funds for charity is a big part of creating school spirit.

The high school in our parish was involved in different charity projects. Every spring the students would present the work they had done with charities and a panel of judges would award grant money to various ones.

You can teach people to share, but you cannot legislate generosity.

One time I was sorting donations for the community food pantry in Clarion, Iowa. People in that community liked the idea that no one should go hungry. They were generous in supporting the food pantry. Most of the time. One time I was unpacking some boxes that were brought in and I came across a bottle of pancake syrup. Not unusual, that; everyone likes a bit of syrup on their pancakes. Only this bottle was half-empty. It’s hard to know what someone was thinking.

The charitable view would be to think that it was like the widow’s mite; some poor old soul down to her last half bottle of maple syrup, all she had to live on, and she gives it away. The reality was probably closer to someone trying that syrup and not liking it, but not wanting to waste it. Or maybe just clearing out a cupboard and not noticing.

Do poor folks need only half a bottle of pancake syrup? I tossed it in the bin. What was I supposed to do, give it to someone and say, “This is good enough for the likes of you?”

How we learn to share and how we actually share is an illustration of the true nature of our common bonds – family systems, friendships, community and religious groups. Like most areas of life, actions speak louder than words.

It seems that if we are of a mind to share, then we will always have something to share; we will always have a reason to share; we will always have people to share with.

Likewise, if sharing is not part of our mind-set, then we will never have enough; we will never have good reasons to share; no one will ever be worthy of our giving.

Sometimes we ask, “What would Jesus do?” and we come up with likely answers. I tend not to worry about what Jesus might or might not do. There are stories about what he did. More important than what he might do is the question, “What would Jesus want me to do?”

A story in Matthew’s portrait of Jesus reveals one answer. It happened this way –

Everywhere they went people were talking about what happened to John the Baptist. Jesus was shocked at the news. John had been arrested and was being held in Herod’s jail. He had publicly criticized the king’s moral values.

Herod put on a dinner party one time and part of the entertainment was provided by Herod’s niece Salome who performed a suggestive strip tease. In front of the guests Herod told her she could have whatever she wanted in payment. He was probably thinking she would want a new pony or some such gift.

Her mother had told her what to ask for – the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. So Herod couldn’t go back on his promise. He had some guards go down to the cells and cut lop off John’s head and bring it up for show and tell.

It was the sort of thing that made people wonder, “What kind of a world are we living in?” Jesus needed to get away and be alone and think about it. He was traveling around the Sea of Galilee, a lake actually and he got in a boat rowed over to a more deserted part of the shore.

A deserted place – a place like the wilderness where he was tested – a place where he could have some peace and quiet and try to figure things out.

But he was too well known for that now. People figured out where he was going and when he got there a fairly large crowd had gathered.

What did they want from him? What does anyone want from Jesus? He gave them the only thing he had on had just then – compassion and healing. What else can you do for people when you live in a system where politics and religion conspire to keep people down; and in a world where those who try to rise up get their heads chopped off?

He would heal what he could amongst them and that would have to be enough. That’s what Jesus would do.

After a long day the disciples of Jesus said, “It’s been a long day. These people need to leave. They’re getting hungry and we don’t have any food for them. They should go into the towns around here and buy stuff from the marketplaces.”

It was a reasonable view. A fairly common world view in fact. Like many groups have a reasonable world view. It could be characterized in four simple terms.

1. This is not the right place. (It never is)

2. This is not a good time. (Likewise, never)

3. We don’t have the necessary resources. (We only have enough for ourselves)

4. They need to be responsible for themselves. (It’s their own fault – they are lazy and shiftless, etc.)

They probably hoped that Jesus would see the reason of it – that he might say to the crowds something like, “It’s been a good day, we’ve had some great healings and now it’s time to go home. God bless you one and all.”

But he didn’t say that. He said to his disciples, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

“What?! All we have are two dried fish and five loaves of bread! That’s not even enough for ourselves!”

What Jesus was about in his life and work was stepping into the gap between “what we have” and “what God has” and bridging that gap. It’s a gap mostly of perception. They said he gave sight to the blind. A big part of that miracle was helping people to see God’s possibilities. He wanted people to see that the realm of God was amongst and within them. It wasn’t some magic formula or far off forever land. It was here and now.

Jesus was trying to open their eyes – to get them to see that their view of God was based on the idea of scarcity. It follows then that if resources are scarce, God is stingy. As long as there are always poor people to siphon off resources, then measure your charity. Don’t be extravagant because in the long run it won’t do any good. Save some for yourself. Don’t dare to dream, rather, protect what you’ve got. Send them away!

This story raises questions. It presents us with the challenge of defining our outlook on life, our world view and our understanding of God.

Is our God the God of abundant resources?

Are you generous with God because you believe God is generous?

Do you live with any sense of gratitude, even gratitude that might cause you to respond to God in some extravagant way?

Jesus told them to use what they had. He blessed it, broke it and they passed it around. When they decided to risk seeing God’s possibilities, they used what resources they had. When everyone had eaten their fill, they had more leftovers than what they started with.

That’s how it’s supposed to work in the realm of God. There’s no magic formula for miracles of this sort – all it takes is the willingness to share. The act of sharing may not solve all the ills of the world, but it’s a start. Miracles often begin with simple gestures of generosity.

Then miracles happen because –

This is always the right place.

Now is always the right time.

We have all the resources we need to accomplish God’s purposes.

Everyone is welcome.

And that being the case, there are usually plenty of leftovers.

Amen.