Today's
readings give us insight about God's generous character. God's generosity signifies the relationship
God wants to have with God's people—which is everyone, according to Isaiah
(Isaiah 55: 5).
What
has been your experience with being generous or with benefitting from the
generosity of another? I want to share a
story with you from the Depression era about a young Mennonite girl's
understanding of her parents' generosity:
"A couple of times a summer, a thin man
dressed in black would politely knock on our back door about an hour before
suppertime. His face looked old and weather-beaten, and despite the heat he
always wore layers of clothing. The little cart with his belongings sat by the
front gate.
“He
would ask my mom if there was any food he could have that night. So she made
extra of whatever she was preparing for dinner, keeping me inside the house
while the man waited on the back steps. She filled a plate for him, and he sat
on the steps and ate. After finishing his dinner he knocked on the door, said
thank you, and continued on his way.
“Afterward
my dad would launch into stories of the many hobos who passed through our small
Pennsylvania town on freight trains during the Depression, looking for a meal
and sometimes sleeping in the sheds at the family feed mill. “They’re
homeless,” said my dad, “down on their luck, and it’s good for us to feed
them.”
“My
mom’s action, supported by my dad, left a deep impression on me. If she could
feed someone so strange and different in our own yard, right outside our back
door, I had some thinking to do about who belongs in our circle of interest and
concern."*
This
story came from a retired Mennonite pastor, Sue Clemmer Steiner, who has worked
with a Mennonite social services agency in Canada, which addresses food
security, supportive housing and addiction services. She has determined that the folks who should
comprise her "circle of interest and concern” are people in need.
The
people who comprise Jesus' circle of interest and concern in today's reading
from Matthew's gospel are in need as well.
Interestingly, Jesus has a need himself.
In the earlier part of the 14th chapter Matthew relates the story of the
execution of John the Baptizer, Jesus's cousin, at the hands of King Herod.
Just before the passage you heard today his disciples bought this sad and
distressing news to him, so he sought to be alone.
Yet
when the deserted place where he went filled with people who came to be healed,
he acted with compassion and healed them.
His generous spirit continued to meet their needs when he took, blessed,
broke, and gave the five loaves and two fish to all who were hungry. His relationship with the crowd was just the
same as God's relationship with the hungry Israelites in the desert. Then God
provided quails and manna. Now Jesus
provided an abundance of food from very little.
Today
we will experience God's providing food for us--in our case spiritual food for
our journey as followers of Jesus. We
are usually most comfortable when we can give to another, but become much less
comfortable in being the recipient of generosity. Being the recipient of generosity--I'm not
talking birthday, friendship, or Christmas presents now--implies that we have
not been able to provide for our own needs, which makes us deficient in some
way.
We
come to God's table with our hands outstretched--some us are kneeling as
well. Isn't this a gesture of
supplication? Please give me a morsel of bread and a sip of wine! Our relationship to God is being in need, and
in our tradition God supplies our need for spiritual food through ministry of
others: an ordained person who blesses them with the words, "Send your
Holy Spirit . . ." and people from this assembly who have felt called to
assist in the distribution.
God's
circle of interest and concern at this moment and in this place is us! We are bringing from memory into reality the
Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples. We are also bringing what we believe will be
God's feeding us in the future into present reality as well. We have faith that God will provide whatever
spiritual sustenance we need whenever we need it.
As
we claim this faith, we can now become generous as God-in-Jesus was generous that
day with the crowd. Whatever we have to
offer God will be sufficient. God will
take it and bless it. God will transform it as broken bread is transformed, so
it can be given to all who need it. Our
task then will be to give generously from whatever God has blessed in us.
And,
yes, Jesus did eventually retreat to be by himself. The next two verses in Matthew say:
"Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to
the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the
crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray." He needed the comfort of the divine
relationship in solitude. Relationship
in solitude also can be God's generous gift to us and provide another sort of
spiritual sustenance. So let us take and
eat the food of spiritual sustenance we will receive at Holy Communion today,
and then allow ourselves the space and time to experience God's presence as
well.
* Sue
Clemmer Steiner, “Reflections on the lectionary - Matthew 14: 13-21,” Christian Century (July 23,
2014) p. 21.
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