Stroop Sermon, Year A, Proper 13

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Arkansas

Lectionary Year A, Proper 13, August 1, 1999

Neh 9:16-29

Romans 8:35-39

Matthew 14:13-21

Perceptions are so important aren't they? Have you ever watched a small child - old enough to shop, but too young to fully comprehend the concept of money - go up to the cashier at the toy store? The parent hands the child a single bill of currency, and he anxiously waits his turn. Finally, he plops the treasured toy onto the counter and hands the cashier the single bill their parent has given them - often handing the cashier the money before knowing the cost of the purchase. The child looks expectantly at the cashier, seeing the toy being placed into a bag, the bag being lowered to his waiting grasp. But wait! There's more. All of a sudden, the cashier hands the child something unexpected - change. Wow! With total surprise, the child looks at the cashier and then the parent, and thinks, "The cashier hands me my new toy in this neat plastic bag, and now gives me a big pile of silver and copper coins plus more bills than I gave to her. Cool!"

Perceptions are important. The child, being given this collection of coins and bills feels like he's just won the lottery! He gave the cashier one paper bill and got back a whole handful of more money. And as parents, we smile at his naive wonderment, and thank the cashier for adding this little bit of magic to our child's life.

In today's Gospel, we heard Matthew's account of the feeding of the five thousand. This story was regarded as especially important in early Christianity, and it is the only one recorded in all four Gospels. In fact, if we include the additional stories about the feeding of the four-thousand that appear in Mark and Matthew,[1] there are six versions of the feeding of the multitudes in the canonical New Testament. At the conclusion of each of the stories about the five thousand, there are twelve baskets of food left over. Wow! From five loaves and two fishes, we feed five thousand guests, and get 12 baskets full of leftovers. From one bill the child gets the toy and all that change too. The modern day adult sees the change as just that: the difference between the cost of the object and the bill tendered. The child sees it as a kind of miracle.

How do you see it?

How do you perceive God? How do you encounter him in your life? Does He speak to you? Can you feel Him at work within you?

In today's old testament reading, we hear Ezra, the high ranking Israelite priest and scribe sent from Babylon to Judah to restore the Israelite religious practices, giving us his perception of God: "But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."[2] Ezra is of course referring to the exodus. Led by Moses and preceded by God as a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night, the people repeatedly challenged God despite the fact that He had "brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers."[3] They "willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved."[4] And when God provided to them meat and manna, the bread of heaven, how did they perceive God? In the words of the Psalmist, they would then "remember that God was their rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer."[5] But later their perception changed, they rebelled, and they once again put God to the test.

It is probably not unintentional that today's Gospel begins with Jesus withdrawing to a deserted place by himself upon hearing the news of the beheading of his cousin, John the Baptist, by King Herod. Upon hearing bad news, all of us withdraw physically or emotionally. In the Greek, the text reads eremos (er'-ay-mos) topos (top'-os) kata (kat-ah') idios (id'-ee-os) meaning "desert a place apart." Although the records aren't clear, it is likely that Jesus was in Galilee when he heard of John's death. Galilee was a small country, only 50 miles from north to south, and 25 miles wide. The great Jewish historian of the time, Josephus, tells us that there were 204 towns in this area, none with a population of less than 15,000 people.[6] It's no surprise that Jesus would have taken advantage of his disciples sailing skills in order to be alone. Some scholars believe that he sailed to the east side of the lake, and others believe he went to Bethsaida, which is north of the Sea of Galilee. Whichever, Jesus withdrew emotionally to deal with the tragic news, and also put himself out of Herod's jurisdiction. Keeping out of Herod's sights right now was important. After all, it was pretty clear that with John's execution, Jesus' life was in danger, and since it was not yet his time, it made sense to withdraw.

But Jesus was not to be alone seeking solace for long. It was probably easy to see which direction the boat sailed; the boat that the people knew carried the great rabbi and healer. The people anticipated where Jesus would land, and went by foot around the top of the lake, waited for Jesus in the deserted place , or eremos. Some versions of the Bible translate eremos literally as the desert, which brings up images of the exiles in the desert of Sinai. This plus the fact that Jesus and his disciples find themselves surrounded by five thousand hungry followers further conjures up imagery of the hungry Hebrews in the desert. But what did Jesus do? Instead of rebuking them for invading his privacy, he healed them. He was moved to compassion, and he treated them with kindness. There's an important lesson here and it deals with how we perceive God and honor that which is of God in one other. When we deal with each other in our daily lives, do we really take the time needed, or do we deal with people with one eye on the clock as if we are anxious to be rid of them just as soon as we decently can?

Jesus ministered to the people and as daylight turned to darkness, He must have been astounded to hear the disciples say to him "the hour is now very late; send the [people] away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat." After all, they had to have been there watching him treat the masses with compassion. How could the disciples now ask him to just send them away? So Jesus told them, "YOU give them something to eat." In the version of this story in Mark the disciples then hopelessly ask Jesus "Do you expect us to go into town and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?!"[7] I mention this here because it gives some idea of the magnitude of the problem as they saw it. Since a denarius was the wage for a day's work, they were saying to Jesus that even if they worked for six months, they wouldn't earn enough to feed the crowd. Jesus asked them what they had and they showed him five loaves and two fishes. John tells us that these were barley loaves[8], the bread of the poorest of the poor;[9] the fish were probably salted fish the size of sardines from Tarichaea, a town on the lake famous for its salted fish. Jesus looked at the fare, looked to heaven and said grace. The Jewish blessing before meals was very simple: "Blessed art thou, Jehovah our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth."[10] Jesus then had the disciples feed the masses. All were fed, and there was much food left over, showing us that God's provision for us is abundant beyond our comprehension. Whether it be manna and quail from the skies, or bread and fish, God provides for his people.

I am sure we have all felt that sense of hopeless pessimism that the disciples had. We may think that we have nothing to offer Jesus. But in the hands of God, a little goes a long way. In what we see as shortcomings, we should also look for the abundance of Gods' grace. It is absolutely clear from this Gospel story that we, you and me, are agents of God's will. It is a serious mistake to think that the problem is so big there is nothing we can do, because it is we He expects to help Him perform miracles. We are charged, as the were the original disciples, with caring for each other, and especially invisible ones in our society such as the poor, the downtrodden, the aged, the sick, and the dying. All we need to do is to mindfully put ourselves in the hands of God, because "by him and with him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit," God will do wonderful things. After all, look at the 10,000 percent return on the investment of the loaves and fishes!

So, how do you perceive God? Do you hear His call to you?

Does God answer every prayer as YOU expect? When the Israelites were given manna it was a food source that they didn't expect. Manna was so fragile that it had to be gathered in the morning after the dew had dried, and it had to be consumed that very day or it would become foul. But God told them how to use this new resource. He provided what they needed and manna was sufficient for their survival.

The grace of God touches us in so many unexpected ways. But are we capable of perceiving them? Many of you know that I am a fully engaged, card-carrying member of the computer and electronic age. A friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail that suggests that God can touch our lives in many unexpected ways, if we are only attuned to His will:

The man whispered, "God, speak to me." And a meadowlark sang, but the man did not hear.

So the man yelled, "God, speak to me!" And the thunder rolled across the sky, but the man did not listen.

The man looked around and said, "God let me see you." And a star shone brightly, but the man did not notice.

And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle!" And a life was born, but the man did not know.

So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there!" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man, but the man brushed the butterfly away, and walked away unknowingly.

Learning to understand God, hear his voice, feel his touch, and experience his miracles is a learned thing - like riding a bicycle. And like that endeavor, it takes practice to get it right. But if we fail, have we lost God? No, God's love for us is unconditional. St. Paul tells us with eloquence and conviction that nothing will separate us from the love that God has for us through Jesus Christ: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."[11]

For many years I was deaf to God. I, like the man in the little story, saw miraculous things all around me, but didn't always comprehend. But God did not give up on me. I am a consummate planner. I like to know what's going to happen, when it will happen, what the consequences will be, and what the back up plans are. About ten years ago I began to look at my life plan and found it lacking. I wasn't exactly dissatisfied, but complete contentment was not evident on the horizon. I am quite sure that when God saw my questioning, he turned up his volume, and called upon the heavenly host to start shooting up flares to get my attention. His yelling finally got my attention.

As many of you know, I have been doing some minor pastoral volunteer work with terminally ill cancer patients. The opportunity to engage in this activity was placed before me at exactly the right time along my recent spiritual journey. Like the disciples with their meager barley loaves, I don't have much to offer but I do know that I have discovered something that brings with it rewards that are impossible to describe. With that joy comes the absolute certainty that more of God's abundance - more of the leftover loaves and fishes - are yet to come. And I know that for all of us who come to his table to feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving will learn to hear and respond to His call giving ourselves completely to Him.

[6] Barclay, W. The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 2, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1975. p. 98.

[9] Barklay, W. The Gospel of Mark. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1975. p. 159.

[10] Barklay, W. The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 2. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1975. p. 100.

[11] Romans 8:38-39 (OAB)

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