Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Miracle of the the Loaves & Fishes
The famous story of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. In the moment of the great crowd’s deepest need, great hunger, through Jesus, God provided what the people needed, with leftovers. God not only provided enough. God provided abundantly. Although the people and even the disciples doubted, Jesus had faith that God would provide. And God came through, as God always does, when we believe.
One way to interpret this story is simply an impressive magic trick. From five loaves and two fish, presto, more than enough to feed probably 10 or 15 thousand people. Certainly, Jesus’ abilities caught people’s attention. But Jesus had more than just flashy marketing and impressive magic tricks. Jesus had much more substance than that.
Marie and I were recently watching the movie “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carrey as Bruce, Jennifer Anniston as Grace, Steve Carrell as Evan and Morgan Freeman as God. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. It is both highly entertaining and makes a good point. Bruce starts as an egocentric wanna-be news anchor in Buffalo, NY who is relegated to just doing entertaining local news stories. When everything starts going wrong in his life, Evan gets his anchor job, and he goes ballistic on live TV and gets fired from his job, he starts blaming God. So, God invites him for a visit. He tells Bruce, fine, if you think you can do a better job then me, go ahead and try. And he tells Bruce, when you leave this building, you will be endowed with all my powers. Bruce, incredulous, gradually realizes this is true. The moment he decides to put his powers to the test, after receiving a bowl of soup that he wanted and received but didn’t order, decides to “part the waters,” parting his bowl of soup. Needless to say, things don’t go well and the world of “Bruce Almighty” quickly falls into apocalyptic chaos. Later in the movie, once God has restored order, God points out to Bruce,
"Parting your soup is not a miracle, Bruce. It's a magic trick. A single mom who's working two jobs and still finds time to take her kid to soccer practice, that's a miracle. A teenager who says 'no' to drugs and 'yes' to an education, that's a miracle.”
I think that distinction applies to Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand as well. The point is not that this is an impressive magic trick. The point is, even when everyone else doubted, Jesus trusted that, in the great crowd’s moment of need, God would provide enough, and even with leftovers. God would provide abundantly. Or, as the Catholic Worker Movement calls it, Jesus had faith in God’s divine providence.
Perhaps you all are familiar with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. Day writes about the concept of believing in God’s providence as central to that movement in her book “Loaves and Fishes.” The book title refers to this particular gospel passage that we read today. The point is not that God was going to magically make all the hungry people in New York City full, or magically house the homeless, or magically clothe the naked, or magically heal the sick. The point is that, when you are serving the poor, in your moment of need, you should trust that God will provide. Because, when we serve and believe, God always comes through.
The best example of this is her famous “money in the mail” story. The community was entirely broke, the pantry was empty, and a massive stack of past-due bills for the hospitality house sat on Day's desk. They owed money to the butcher, the baker, and the landlord. Instead of turning people away or panicking, Day went to the chapel to pray, reminding God that they were doing His work feeding His children. She famously instructed her staff never to worry about the future, stating that "God provides for our needs." Later that exact afternoon, the mail carrier arrived. Inside one of the envelopes was a check from an anonymous donor. When Day looked at the total amount written on the check, it matched the exact sum of all their overdue bills combined, down to the very last penny. In their moment of need, Day trusted. And God provided.
I have had the experience of God providing in my life as well. When I was looking for a first call, an exciting opportunity came up with El Camino Lutheran in the Skagit Valley in Washington. But, at least initially, it looked like it was only going to be a part-time call. I had been hoping for full-time work, especially because we would be moving from Portland for the call and needed full-time work to support ourselves. But Marie and I talked and prayed about it, and decided we needed a change, and why don’t we at least start trying to make it work and see what happens. And, shortly after we made that commitment, a very affordable housing opportunity opened up in the area. Then, Marie had a work opportunity emerge, which would make it feasible. We then moved up for the call, and I started working there. Then, an opportunity to move to ¾ time came up, and then another opportunity to move to full time came about. We prayed, we trusted, and God provided. Similar things happened with my calls at Santa Cruz and St. Aidan’s Episcopal churches.
When we take a step forward in faith, God provides the next step of the staircase. May we have faith that God provides what we need, when we need it. In our moment of need, may we trust God and God’s divine providence, that your kin-dom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Amen.
