Abundance
I spent some time this week with friend who is recently bereaved and also dealing with serious health issues. Our plan was to have afternoon tea at the Abkhazi gardens and when I picked her up, I was delighted to see that she was wearing a lovely outfit in a joyful pink and purple pattern. When I commented on it, she said “well it is so important not to lose sight of our capacity for joy isn’t it? We must look for opportunities for joy even when life is hard”.
My friend’s words are echoed in today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the water, and you who have no money, come buy and eat”.
I love how the passage begins with “Ho!” which kind of sounds like “hey you there” I can imagine a merchant in a crowded Middle Eastern bazaar, hawking his wars and calling out “ho” to get the attention of the passing crowds. A contemporary version might be “attention Shoppers” in a busy mall.
Underpinning the message of a God who seeks us out, who wants to get our attention; who beseeches us to come and receive what he is offering us so abundantly”. And unlike the Middle Eastern Bazaar, or the contemporary shopping mall, the normal rules of commerce don’t apply. What God is offering can’t be bought or earned; it is freely and abundantly given. What is asked for in return is commitment to the living God and our willingness to trust the promise and the journey. The sales pitch is made not to the wealthy, the successful, the qualified, or those with religious credentials, but to all those who hunger and thirst for that which only God can provide.
Like the Sower we heard about in the parable a couple of weeks ago, the seeds of our generous God are scattered wildly and indiscriminately. The concept of abundance is also central to today’s gospel. It is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels which highlights the importance of this concept.
To put it in context, the story of the feeding of the five thousand follows the beheading of John the Baptist. Jesus was grieving his cousin and as we know from last week’s Gospel, his intention was to have some time away with his disciples for some rest and prayer. The crowd followed him, however, and Jesus had compassion for them and began to teach them and to minister to them.
As evening drew near, the disciples wanted to send the people away so that they could go and buy food, but Jesus said, “you feed them". Now this would have seemed like an impossible task, but Andrew asks the crowd “who has food to share?” and he brings to Jesus a small boy who is willing to share his lunch. This is important because Jesus always calls for a community response, a response that is marked by generosity and a willingness to trust that all things are possible with God and God’s people working in collaboration. True hospitality is also marked by joy. If we lose sight of that, we may provide food for the body, but neglect to feed the spirit.
Andrew only has a central place in the Gospels three times, and the interesting thing is that on each of those three occasions, he brings someone to Jesus. In this story, it is a young boy who is willing to share his lunch. On another occasion, some Greeks wanted to meet Jesus and he made the introduction. It was also Andrew who introduced his brother, Simon Peter to Jesus. Based on what we know, it would seem that his particular vocation was to introduce people to Jesus.
The feeding of the five thousand is even more miraculous when we view it through the lens of our own experience and see it as a collective response of the human spirit. I recall the community of Gander, Newfoundland, who famously embraced the world when they hosted over 6000 stranded American passengers from 38 grounded planes on September 11, 2001, and offered them abundant hospitality for several days.
In this challenging time, we continue to see examples of community-driven generosity towards those in need. Mexico just sent 200 firefighters to help fight our forest fires here in Canada, and I believe they provided the same help in the United States of America. Our parishioner, John, has inspired support for the community he has fostered in Rhwanda with results that testify to God’s abundance working through the generosity of his people working together for the well-being of those far away. Locally we have the privilege of providing and serving lunch several times a year to the patrons of Our Place.
It can be hard to know how to feed the multitudes. In our own time, it seems even more complex. Currently we are struggling to know how best to offer hospitality to the homeless in Victoria: a situation that seems to be getting out of hand with no clear path forward. It is hard to understand the pain, the anger, the addiction, and yes, the hopelessness that so many of the homeless experience. All God asks of us is to do what we can, however small our efforts seem.
We may need to change our thinking; we may need to change our course, and we may need to live with a seemingly impossible situation before we see how to offer hospitality in this situation. All God asks of us is to do what we can, however small our efforts seem. We can all do something, and that “something” may be different for each one of us.
Where are our loaves and fishes? Do we sometimes feel inadequate because we feel we don’t have anything to offer? It seems to me that Jesus is more interested in our openness, our willingness to share what we have, our sense of hospitality. Our own loaves and fishes may be the political will to effect change, it may be fundraising to provide food for the needy, it may be rolling up our sleeves to serve food, it may be prayer, and it may be listening to a lonely person. Above all, our response is most effective when it is a community response to the situation. Our efforts may feel small and inadequate, but Jesus is saying to us “bring me your loaves and fishes and see what we can do together. “ Amen.