living in cornavirusworld 123: We have enough

7/27

House of Prayer for all people

Tonight our Bible Study group study group takes on the feeding of the 5000, Matthew version. (Matthew 14: 13-21). It’s one of the few stories to be found in all four gospels. And Matthew is the only one with  twin feeding stories, in 15: 32-39, feeding 4000. When the story opens, Jesus is emotionally exhausted. He has just received word that John the Baptist has been executed. He just wants to get way.  But they find where he is and follow anyways.  Seeing them he is filled with compassion, (or as Andew McCutchen called it, empathy) that turns him back to the people with healing. And it is compassion that will push him to respond to the matter of actual physical hunger. We will find here echoes of prophet’s healing stories like Elijah (1 Kings 17: 8-16) and Elisha (2 Kings 4: 42-44). And in his bruchas, thanksgivings, foreshadowings of the last supper. 

The disciples want him to send the people away. But he says NO, you give them something to eat. And therein begins the story of how five loaves and two fish feed 5000 men and...more... women and children. There is no intention here for Jesus of an attention gaining miracle. It is simply to see hungry people fed. As Leila said, food is real. And there is enough. And leftovers. Enough for 12 baskets. (Hmmm….one for each tribe!  In the 4000 story, there are 7, perhaps a reference to gentiles.) The miracle here is not of production but distribution. Nothing is said about the how…you can pick your theory form the divine miracle, etc. to the hidden food argument. The point is …they were fed. There was enough. 

We have enough, There is bounty enough in the world to feed the world. We pay farmers to destroy food and not grow food to artificially boost price supports. That’s crazy. The disciples start with a needs assessment, Jesu responds with a capacities assessment. 

Refugee camps are filled with turned away people.

Prisons are teeming with Covid 19

Far too many of us are alone

Where do we find compassion?

When have  we been desperate for food, healing, love, compassion?  

When do we long to escape, just get in the boat and row away?

Jesus moves towards that which is most daunting. What do we have that can feed? Heal? 

ready for home opener

As someone says, you have to use what you’ve got to get what you need. We like Jesus, when it is as daunting as it is now, must move towards. Faced with an overwhelming situation, all we can do is do what  we can. But that means having to realize what we do have and use it. With wisdom and compassion.

I’m sorry Jesus never got that rest he was looking for. Marsha was struck by the phrase a lonely place. We know that place. 

When Bible study is over. I check in on my Pirates’ home opener. I dress for the  occasion.  So weird to see an empty stadium with piped in crowd noises. That’s all I will say of that.