Last week we heard Jesus tell of how those who are teachers of the Kingdom of God are like the scribes who bring old and new things out of their treasury. Well, today’s gospel reading is an oldie, but goldie; it is the story of the feeding of the 5000, and that title comes from just counting the guys who follow Jesus in the wilds; there are a lot of women and children present. It could easily be more than the population of Augusta that showed up; exact numbers don’t matter. The point is it’s a really, really big crowd who won't leave Jesus alone. Not even the disciples had been invited on this trip, yet they all showed up anyway. Jesus has pity on them as they gathered around. He heals and teaches, and they are happy to be present, so they will not go away. The time comes for them to eat, and the inevitable happens: every event manager's worst nightmare: the catering doesn’t show up. The disciples, who remember where not invited along, ask Jesus to send the crowd away. I like to think Jesus is a little short with the disciples, refuses to reject the crowds, and commands them to feed the multitude.
Jesus, who has fed them with hope, wants the people to have a good meal, maybe so they will come back next Sunday. The disciples are not prepared for this task. As someone who has worked in the hospitality industry in a very remote location, I can tell you, feeding people in the middle of nowhere takes a lot of planning, so it's no surprise the disciples, who, and I cannot stress this enough, did not have to be there, aren’t ready. They do not know what it is going to take to feed so many, but Jesus asked them anyway. When we show up for God, God asks us to do the seemingly impossible. The disciples scrabble among themselves, and some brave idiot produces his lunch: a few loaves and some fish. I like to think this disciple also had a change of socks and his toothbrush.
It is a small lunch, not even enough for the disciples and Jesus alone. But Jesus, seeing it, is satisfied. Here is enough food. So he has his disciples sit everyone down in groups, small enough that they can get to know each other. He then takes the food and, when he has blessed it, breaks it up and tells his disciples to go and share it with everyone who is present. Much to their surprise, there was enough food for everyone. So much that in the end, there are leftovers equivalent to getting the seafood basket at Red Barn.
How is this possible, so much food from so little? This is one of Jesus' greatest miracles, all have what they need with leftovers to share. The first and most obvious interpretation is that Jesus performs a supernatural miracle because Jesus is God, and God can make something out of nothing. God’s ability to provide for those who need it is truly infinite. And certainly if Jesus wanted to make a small lunch into a banquet, Jesus can do that! All good blessings flow from God, and God is willing to do more than we can ask or imagine. Jesus performed clear miracles that are signs that Jesus is God. But there is another kind of miracle happening here. It’s not just healing people's illnesses or feeding people physically, but healing them socially and bringing them together.
A crowd this big undoubtedly contains people from every walk of life. There weren’t enough people in Galilee for a crowd this big not to include everyone. All social classes: the rich and poor, the slaves and the free, farmers, fishermen, loggers, builders and bankers, intellectuals and the unemployed poor. Jesus gathers everyone around, and then he sets them into small groups, into community. He has them connect with one another, to eat and talk with people they would not otherwise meet. The town I live in has about 5000 people, and there is no way I’m gonna get to know all of them, but sitting together over a meal I’ll get to know a lot more of them than I would otherwise.
Jesus intentionally sets out to bring people into connection with one another, to bring people into community, which he calls the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus has them connect, and they open up sharing conversation, and then maybe they share their food they’d all been hiding from one another. Perhaps the miracle that happens is not that Jesus turns a small amount of fish and bread into many baskets of food. But rather that people are able to connect with one another, deeply enough and lovingly enough, that they open up their lunchboxes and discover that they already have more than enough for everyone. Jesus' joy at discovering that one of his disciples had brought lunch might have been the knowledge that if one had done so, others would have to. And if one disciple was willing to be foolish enough, to be vulnerable enough to share what he had, others would do the same.
We’ve been learning about inviting people to church, welcoming them in when they get here. The next step in building the church together into the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus preached is to connect. To find different ways to join with each other and make what could easily be a Sunday crowd into a weeklong community. In some ways, this is the most natural yet also the hardest of all the steps we have considered. You can throw out invites online like you're advertising for a start-up. Standing on a street with a Jesus loves you sign is not that hard. Nor is welcoming strangers into a place we already feel safe. You can smile and say hello to folks, but to really connect with them, to share your time and interests, that takes vulnerability. It is the same vulnerability God shows in the incarnation. Coming into the lives of others for them. That's hard to do, and it’s also the most natural thing in the world. It just takes being curious about others and finding things to do together. First and foremost, Jesus encourages us to eat, talk, and be merry. It’s what the 5000 plus in the wilderness did. Then they worked on the call of the gospel together; that’s what the disciples did. They gave food out and gathered gifts to share. The church does not have wealth for itself, but gifts for grace, and in gathering, blessing, and sharing them we make the Kingdom present.
It is why our gifts to the church are on the altar with the bread and the wine. All we give is taken in blessing and shared. We as a church can gather people together to eat, talk, and have fun. We will do so next Sunday at our summer picnic. Have courage, shy folks; you too can find a circle like yourselves who don’t want to talk and can feel comfortable in each other's silence. At Emmanuel, we give out food, like many of you did yesterday at the community supper, and we gather in gifts to give out; we gather clothes, essentials, and cash to give out at Bridging the Gap. And I hope we gather at other times in the week, finding ways to be together. In our era of online connection, it can be hard to find opportunities to connect face to face, so you may want to sign up for our weekly enewsletter. It’s a good way to find out about some of the different opportunities for connection with each other that are coming up. You also have things you enjoy doing. So find out about each other's interests and spend some time doing them together. In doing so, we are building the kingdom of heaven in our daily lives. Amen.