St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 13A
31 July 2005
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Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. 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. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13-21)
Losers Win
A sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” [1]Those are the words of Red Auerbach who coached the Boston Celtics during the late 1950’s. To a winning coach – indeed to many of us – anything less than being the winner, top dog, perfect, is worthless. When we fall short of our potential or come in second, we feel substandard. We feel worthless.[2]
Our language is full of phrases that show our attitudes about falling short. “Useless as a chocolate teapot,” “as a camera without film,” “as a hairbrush for a bald guy,” “as a screen door on a submarine,” “a milk bucket under a bull.” Worthless. Useless.
Attitudes toward success – winning and losing – preoccupy much of our work and leisure time. It is rare to find a partner to play tennis or golf with who doesn’t keep score. Vince Lombardi, the NFL’s most winning coach, once said, “If you can accept losing, you can’t win.” The Nike Company echoed this theme during the 1996 summer Olympics as it proclaimed, “You don’t win silver; you lose gold.”
From our point of view, it would seem that it is always about winning; getting the brass ring; obtaining the prize. Take Jacob and Esau, whose stories we have been hearing from the Book of Genesis these past few weeks. Even though they were twins, one was considered the winner. Esau, the hairy one, who managed to emerge from his mother’s womb first, was expected to inherit their father Abraham’s position as head of household. But the loser, Jacob, tricked his father into giving him that birthright. Loser becomes winner.
The winner goes to a land to the east (Gen 29:1) and meets Rachel, whom he wants to marry. He is tricked by Laban, Rachel’s father, into marrying Rachel’s sister Leah. Winner becomes loser.
As Jacob leaves the land to the east to return to his homeland, he hears that his brother, from whom he swindled the right of the first born, is coming to meet him. “Oh, oh,” thinks Jacob, “I may become a loser once again.”
As he slept the night before he meets his brother, Jacob found himself in an all-night wrestling match. The text says that Jacob wrestled with “a man,” but the next day Jacob says of the encounter that he had “seen God face to face.”
In a wrestling match with God, I think we would all agree that God is favored to win. But there is no indication that God plans to wipe the mat with Jacob. It seems that whenever God walks among us humans, God behaves as one of us. And against this God-man, Jacob holds his own. He doesn’t whip God – his hip is permanently out of joint as a result – but he doesn’t embarrass himself either. There doesn’t appear to be a winner or a loser.
As morning dawns, the God-man knocks Jacob’s hip out of joint and insists that Jacob release him. But Jacob refuses to let go unless the God-man blesses him. And so, the God-man gives him a new name: “ Israel,” or “He [who] strives with God.”[3]
Winner or a loser? Hard to say. Once God enters the picture, the story is less about winning and losing and more about blessing. Although clearly sore and limping from his struggle with the God-man, Jacob doesn’t consider himself a loser. Rather he considers himself blessed. Indeed, later in the story, Jacob will return to that place and “make an altar there to the God who answered [him] in the day of [his] distress (over meeting his brother Esau) and [had] been with [him] wherever [he went].” (Gen 35:3).
Whenever God enters the story, the unexpected happens. Roles are reversed. The second born inherits, and the first born is not angry about it (Gen 33:4-17). The low are elevated. The wealthy are poor, and the poor become rich. Losers become winners.
I imagine it to be a nearly windless, hot day when Jesus got the news about how King Herod had beheaded his cousin, John the Baptist. To Jesus, news that the forces of the world killed a man, who, like himself, preached about the Kingdom of God, must have been horrifying. And like Jacob on the eve of his fearful meeting with his brother Esau, Jesus withdrew to contemplate and evaluate, and to pray.
We don’t know what transpired when Jesus was alone with his thoughts. Perhaps he too wrestled with God over his own fate. What we do know is that when the crowd found Jesus, he acted toward them with compassion (Mt. 14:14). The crowd numbered at least 10,000 (only 5000 men are counted in the text, besides women and children [Mt. 14:21]). The disciples, probably acting out of fear of such a large crowd, asked Jesus to send the people away to buy food for their supper.
Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat” (Mt. 14:16). At that moment, the disciples must have thought themselves losers! 'Me?!? Feed these people? With what? The five little loaves of pita and two dried fish my wife packed for my lunch this morning? I’m hungry myself. I could eat three times what I brought and still be hungry. And you’re saying I should take the lunch that isn’t even enough for me and give it away? Are you nuts, Jesus?'
Jesus didn’t ask his followers to share from their abundance – he asked them to share from their scarcity. They didn’t have enough for themselves, and he asked them to give it up. And we know how it ended, of course – there was no scarcity. There was in fact more than enough for everyone. But the first person who laid his lunch down didn’t know that. He was looking hunger right in the eye. And he did it anyway. Talk about going out on a limb. Most of the time when we give, we do so from a place of safety. But that first disciple who gave up his food risked it all. ”[4]
Why would the disciples do that? What would have prompted them to move from a place of security behind Jesus, to a place of risk in front of him? They took on the task he assigned them when he said “You feed my people.” Jesus’ people became their people. Jesus’ ministry became their ministry. Why would they do that? I believe that it was because of the relationship that had developed between themselves and Jesus. That relationship is what inspired them and gave them purpose.
Homer Hickam was a high school student on October 4, 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnick.[5] Homer, who lived in a small West Virginia coal mining town, was immediately drawn to rocketry as a result. Rockets provided Homer with a dream of something so very much larger than the socially stratified, provincial world of Coalwood.
The principal of Big Creek High School saw the task of teachers to keep boys in school until they were able to go into the mines, while Miss Riley, the math teacher, saw education as a key to escaping the gravitational pull of that dying town. Something in Homer that piqued her interest as a teacher, and she pushed at Homer to reach beyond himself and the town that incubated him, and to imagine a totally different future. He was her favorite. And through the personal wrestling matches with his father, his friends, and even Miss Riley, Homer began to discover important truths about himself and about life. Miss Riley believed in him, and as their relationship grew, he began to trust and to believe her.
Jacob was a flawed man. Yet despite his flaws, God saw something in him that was important. And like the orbiting Sputnik that tugged at Homer’s imagination, something mysterious grabbed Jacob’s attention that night. And it was so powerful that it led him to become a faithful follower of the God of his father Abraham.
When Jesus said to the disciples, “Feed my people,” they didn’t know the particulars of how it would work, just that it would work. They relied on their teacher and friend who had shown them a different way of life. They handed over their fish and bread because they truly believed that somehow Jesus would make the improbable possible. They believed in his faith in them.
An encounter with the divine can come in so many forms; it might be hard to recognize. But it is known by the change it produces in our perspective. When we encounter God, we change; we undergo an attitude adjustment, if you will. Jacob could have said after his encounter, “I got whupped.” But what he said instead was, “I got a new name and a new purpose.” When the disciples responded to God in Jesus, they purposefully went into the crowd carrying their baskets, not feeling like losers who would be embarrassed when they ran out of fish, but like winners who would have food left over.
When we encounter God, we will see the world differently; we will want to give abundantly of our time, talent, and treasure all the time. We might not always get what we want out of these encounters, but we will get what God wants for us. It may be a struggle. Our pride may be wounded. We may become tired. We may feel like losers. Our minds may be abuzz with new possibilities. But above all we will be a people who strive with God to bring in the Realm of God, right here, right now.
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Genesis 32:22-31
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
Psalm 17:1-7, 15
1 Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
2 From you let my vindication come;
let your eyes see the right.
3 If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,
if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;
4 As for what others do, by the word of your lips
I have avoided the ways of the violent.
5 My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.
6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me, hear my words.
7 Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.
Romans 9:1-5
I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit-- I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
The Collect of the Day
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[1] Red Auerbach as quoted in “Sore Losers.” Homiletics.17(4):36-38, 2005.
[2] The discussion about winners and losers was adapted from “Sore Losers.” Homiletics. Op. Cit.
[3] http://www.answers.com/topic/hebrew-tribe.
[4] Barbara Crafton. “Betting the Farm.” The Almost Daily eMo’s from http://www.geraniumfarm.org, July 27, 2005.
[5]October Sky. Universal Pictures. A Charles Gordon Production. Directed by Joe Johnston. 1995.
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Copyright © 2005, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
27 July 2005
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