Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
There is a hunger
in the world that only Jesus can satisfy.
It has little to do with how much is in our bellies, and much to do with
the yearning deep within our souls.
“Give them
something to eat.” Jesus says. “Give them something to eat.”
“But there are so
many, and we have so little”, the disciples respond.
One can hardly
blame the disciples for stating the obvious.
There were only twelve of them, and the crowds numbered over 5,000 men,
plus the women and children. The task
would have been enormous. They simply
did not have the resources to do it.
We are a small
congregation.
And there is so
much to do.
When we consider
all that we SHOULD be doing as a congregation it is easy to become overwhelmed
with the task and then think only about the scarcity of our resources.
I mean really,
let’s be honest here, it’s a challenge to just keep the church clean and the
doors open.
There is so much
more that we could be doing.
Yes, we collect a
little food each month for the food bank.
We give offerings as we are able.
But the truth is that it seems very much like it must have seemed for
the disciples that day.
There were thousands
of people with nothing to eat and only a dozen disciples to do anything about
it.
And Jesus has the
audacity to say “Feed them.”
Given the
circumstances, how can we help but say anything other than “How?”
“How can we who
are so few, feed the crowds who are so many, when we ourselves have so little?”
Let’s step back
here for a moment and ask the question: “Why
should we feed the hungry in the first place?”
I read an
interesting article this last week from the Washington Post on poverty.
A recent poll
revealed that Christians in this country are more likely than any other group
to blame poverty on a lack of effort by the poor.
Not every
Christian believes this, but over half of the Christians polled did. The poor are poor because of their own lack
of effort. It has nothing to do with the
circumstances that surround their life.
If they would simply work harder and make better choices they wouldn’t
be poor. They wouldn’t be hungry.
In contrast to
Christians, by a margin of 2 to 1, atheists, agnostics, and those with no
affiliation believe that poverty is caused by circumstances and cannot be
blamed on the poor. The poor are victims
of circumstances beyond their control.
Is hunger a
religious issue, or a political issue?
Do we have a moral
obligation to feed the hungry?
Are programs of
our government beneficial and necessary or do they contribute to the
problem? Should there be food stamps, or
the Women, Infants, and Children program.
What about Aid to Families with Dependent Children? What about food banks and the distribution of
commodities to the poor?
Are such efforts
of our government a moral response to the needs of the poor in our country?
Or do they simply
reward the lack of effort on the part of the poor with a free meal?
One of the
hardest questions I’ve ever been asked was asked when I visited a Lutheran
congregation in Russia that we were partnering with.
“Is it true that
there are poor people in America?”
“How can there be
poor people in a country that is so rich?”
The answer is
complicated.
I had to admit
that there were indeed poor people in our country. But, I also shared with them that the poor in
our country in fact often had far more than they did.
When it comes to
issues of poverty and hungry, what do we do?
Is this a
political issue?
Is this a
religious issue?
And in the end,
does it matter?
“They need not go away, you give them
something to eat.”
On that day,
Jesus answer was straight forward.
It didn’t matter
if the crowds were to blame for not bringing food with them to eat.
It didn’t matter
if it was merely a lack of planning, or deep poverty that caused the hunger.
In fact there is
no indication whatsoever that the crowds were even poor.
All we know is
that evening had come, and there was nothing in that place for the crowds to
eat, and that the disciples suggested that Jesus dismiss the crowds and send
them into the nearby towns where they might buy something to eat.
“No, you give
them something to eat.”
From the prophets
in the Old Testament, to Jesus in the New Testament, there is one reason and
only one reason to feed the hungry.
We feed the
hungry because they are hungry. Period.
We can debate
forever how to best deal with the question of poverty in our land. Jesus makes it much simpler.
They are hungry.
You feed them.
But we can’t, was
the disciples response. All we have is
five loaves of bread and two fish.
Scarcity. We’d love to do what Jesus says, but we have
so little.
Imagine if Jesus
told us, Peace Lutheran, to feed the hungry in Spokane. Thousands of hungry and we are so few. Impossible would be our response. Impossible.
How can we who
have so little offer enough to care for so many?
It’s simply not
possible.
But with God, all
things are possible.
“Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he
looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the
disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled;
and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.”
Perhaps the only
thing that is scarce is the faith to believe that God can do what we cannot.
They are hungry.
Feed them.
But there is more
to it than that.
In the Gospel of
John, when Jesus feeds the five thousand, the crowds continue to follow him
even after he went away.
When they find
him, Jesus says:
"Very truly, I tell you, you are
looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the
loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures
for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God
the Father has set his seal."
There is a hunger
in the world that only Jesus can satisfy.
It has little to do with how much is in our bellies, and much to do with
the yearning deep within our souls.
Our human
tendency is to concern ourselves primarily with the hunger in our bellies, and
we devote a tremendous amount of effort to insuring that we are always well
satisfied.
But there is a
deeper hunger that no amount of food will satisfy.
And when Jesus
feeds the hungry, it serves as a sign of something far more important.
There is a hunger
in our souls that only Jesus can satisfy.
Are you loved?
Are you forgiven?
Is there a meaning
and purpose to this life?
Is death the end?
Does anything
really matter?
Or should we just
eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die?
What is
truth? (That was Pilate’s question for
Jesus.) Is there any way to really speak
about ‘truth’, or is everything simply a matter of personal opinion?
These questions
and many more like them, are the hunger of our souls.
“I am the way,
the truth, and the life.” Jesus said.
The people are
hungry. Feed them.
Feed them with
the food that endures for eternal life.
One of the
problems with feeding the hungry is that tomorrow, they will hunger again.
There is nothing
that can satisfy us completely.
Except for Jesus
and the grace of God we find in him.
Can we look
beyond the physical hunger that we all experience, to the spiritual hunger that
lies deep within?
One of the things
I shared with the council last week is that as Lutherans we have tended to be
more willing to share the tangible things that we have with the poor, things
like food and clothing and shelter – than we are to share our faith.
But this is the
thing.
There is more to
life than three square meals a day.
And the greatest
treasure of all that we have to share is our faith in Christ Jesus.
You are loved by
God.
You are forgiven
for Jesus sake.
God has a purpose
for your life.
And even death
has been conquered.
Yes, how we live
our lives matters.
And Jesus is the
way, the truth, and the life.
This is the food
that truly satisfies.
This is the way
of eternal life.
Amen
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