In this morning's Gospel, Jesus looked and saw a great crowd gathered around him, and he had compassion for them. Compassion is seen as not simply an emotion, but a catalyst to action. Jesus heals the sick. Mark's Gospel tells us that he teaches as well.
When evening came, we hear of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples , so that everyone could eat.
We feel the same compassion towards those we meet who are hurting. Hopefully, we also find compassion compelling us into action. There are a few things we can learn about being compassionate from this story.
First, no one has to earn God's compassion. The people gathered together on that day didn't do anything to make themselves deserving of Jesus miraculous gifts. All they had to do was show up.
No one needs to earn our compassion, either. We offer God's healing and God’s spiritual and physical nourishment to everyone whether they deserve it or not.
We feed the hungry because we have compassion for them. Not because they deserve it. Not because they are good people. Not because they meet an income guideline. We feed them because they are hungry.
I would imagine that some of us here this morning have had to go hungry for long periods of time. After a couple of weeks, I'm told that the craving for food goes away. My experience in this rich nation is that you can always find a little food once in a while, so you never get to the point where you lose the craving for food. I remember times in my life when the only thing I was aware of was my empty stomach. I would agree to all kinds of strange ideas if it would help me get a meal. Would I “accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior” for a meal? You bet. (This is known as “making rice Christians” in mission work.)
We don't feed the hungry with the hope of making converts. We feed them because they are hungry—period. We feed them because this is what Jesus told us to do. In the 25th chapter of Matthew, Jesus commends those who have fed the hungry, clothed the poor and visited the sick. He tells us that ”when you have done this for the least of those who are of my family, you have done it for me.”
I acknowledge the idea behind "if you feed them a fish, you feed them for a day, but if you teach them to fish, you feed them for a lifetime." There is wisdom in that. And I understand the idea of tough love—that sometimes we have to use drastic measures to stop enabling the dysfunctional behavior at the root of some people's poverty. But sometimes, I see those responses as simply excuses not to help those in need.
The United Nations estimates that today 852 million people are suffering malnutrition to the point where their health, productivity and life expectancy are impaired. Each day, 20,000 people die of hunger-related causes.
No one should go hungry. There is enough food. I think we need to reconsider treating the poor like trained seals. We don't reward them for right behavior. We feed them because of the compassion of God we have experienced in our lives.
Sometimes, feeding the hungry seems like an overwhelming task. It is, if we try to do it alone. At the beginning of this story, Jesus told the disciples to feed the people. They gathered what they could find: five loaves and two fish. They presented these meager provisions to Jesus. And it was enough. We do what we can do first, and then we trust God for the rest.
I think we miss that point sometimes.
There’s a story about a man who was visiting a local church. He arrived at the church early, so he sat on the front steps waiting for the church to open. The first person he saw was an elderly man slowly limping up to the front door of the church. The visitor introduced himself, learned that the elderly man’s name was Joe, and that he had been opening up this church every Sunday for 35 years.
Joe turned on the lights, got the furnace going, and prepared the church for the service.
Afterward the service, as people were filing out of the church, the visitor noticed that a number of people spoke to Joe, asking about his bad knee, and promising to remember him in their prayers. When they were all gone, the visitor mentioned to Joe that it must make him feel good to know all those folks would be praying for him.
“Yes, the prayers are nice,” said Joe. “But today, what I really could have used was a ride home!” We do what we can do first, and then trust God for the rest.
At the other extreme, we also have to be careful we don’t start thinking that we can solve the world’s problems all by ourselves. I find that when I try to show compassion on my own, I am often thwarted because of the fear that there might not be enough. I want to help, but my glass is already half empty. When I remember to take the situation to God in prayer, I am instilled with hope, because the glass is now half full.
There is enough food to feed all the hungry. There is enough grace to feed all the faithful. There will always be enough, if we put our trust in God’s abundance, and not in the ways of this world, driven by a fear of scarcity.
We have the compassion of God to offer to a hurting world. Let us work together to alleviate the suffering all around us. Let us do all we can do, and then trust God for the miracle.
July 31st, 2005
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2 comments:
I very much enjoyed this particular sermon re. the story of Jesus feeding thousands with only just a few loaves of bread and some fish. Rev. Martin did a super job of expanding on it with his focus on what compassion really is and is not, in addition to many other important ideas such as keeping an "abundance mindset" in mind as we go about thinking about whether there's enough around to give or not.
I'd like to provide some speculation on the possible technology that Jesus and his disciples used, to actually do the miracle. While yes it's a good thing to just have faith that the miracle did happen and not worry about the details, sometimes it's fun to think about a set of details that might have actually enabled the miracle. The idea came to me while searching the web for something else... but instead some strange google force, (maybe God driven?), led me to "The Story of Stone Soup", (ref. http://stonesoup.esd.ornl.gov/stonesoup.html).
The essence of this story is that a soldier walks into town one day during times of severe famine and starts asking questions re. food and lodging availability. A villagers says forget it, there's nothing here, not a bit to eat, etc. He replies that oh, no problem, he's got everything he needs and is even going to make some stone soup to share with all of them. He builds a fire for a big iron cauldron to sit on, and then takes out his magic stone and drops it in. Many had gathered around by then, and he mentioned that stone soup with cabbage would be even better tasting. Soon, a villager came along hesitantly, offering a cabbage that he retrieved from his hiding place. It went into the pot. Then, the soldier said that stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef would be even better tasting..... and sure enough, somebody ran off and got some of that. And on and on it went, until for sure there was a delicious meal for all to share.
Of course, the moral of the story is that when everyone works together, indeed very real down to earth miracles can happen.
This stone soup story on the web apparently is part of the thinking of those software developers out there who engage in what's known as "open software" development... where the source code is free and open and available to anyone who might like to add to it for increased software functionality. All kinds of very very powerful "open" software has cropped up in recent decades to compete with and in some cases far surpass anything that one company itself can develop and bring to the marketplace. It's all about creating enormous amounts of value, bit by bit, thru contributions by lots and lots of people.
So, I think that Jesus and his disciples could have easily deployed this "stone soup" paradigm with the crowd of 5 thousand, to feed them a great meal. Perhaps some of the 5 thousand already had packed with them some food, and they shared it with others who had none... while the initial starting bit of bread and fish was being passed around. Very much like the well known miracle of our usual pot luck dinners and such, where people just bring something and there's always so much for everyone, more often then not much left over.
So, anyway, that's my guess on the technology and operations that Jesus and his disciples used back then, to implement that particular miracle. God can definitely do whatever he wants, but we're all made in his image and represent his workers down here on planet solid earth... so... in a sense we collectively are part God actually, so when we get together with our compassion... as in lining it up and organizing it well... well.... I think that's when the rubber really hits the road and the mega-compassion miracles actually happen.
Seems like miracles of all sorts can happen--we just have to know how to look. ;-)
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