Let the Master Teach You How to Multiply

Matthew 14:13-23

I am preaching this sermon on July 31, 2011, the day that the descendents of Charles and Annie Mae Wilson Dotson converge upon Asheville for an afternoon of sharing memories, breaking bread together, playing music together and just plain enjoying each other. That’s right; this is the weekend of the annual Dotson family reunion. Anyone who knows my family knows that there are two weekends that are sacred. Our companions and friends know not to ask us to do anything other than be with the cousins the weekend of Thanksgiving and the last weekend in July. Our first cousins Damien and Jessica are extensions of our sibling group and we don’t dare miss a second of our available time with them. The weekend is generally spent up on our family mountain just being together. We eat, we sit on the deck, we talk, we laugh, and sometimes we might even cry. We play games, we play music. On Saturday we play golf and on Sunday morning we enjoy a church service together and a meal with the whole extended family. So, the people of Cruso UMC and Longs UMC must know how dearly they are loved and have been missed for when their pastor called and told me he needed me on July 31st, I didn’t hesitate one moment to say yes. Fitting that today’s story has to do with Jesus’ love for his first cousin and with eating. Let’s delve in…..

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto you Oh God. Empty me of all of me, fill me with all of you as I share your word for these great people this morning.

Sermon:

As the scripture was read to you today, it was a familiar one, Jesus using a lad’s lunch to feed 5000 people. I put the word out on facebook to get people’s reaction to the story, looking for where people connect with the story. Many went with the obvious: Jesus can do the impossible. Some connected with the crowd in the story, some connected with the boy, some connected with disciples, some even connected with the boys mother imagining her reaction when her son comes home and tells her his lunch provided food for 5,000 people. It was so much fun to have this discussion with my uncle, a distant cousin, an old high school class mate, an old church friend/mentor, and a current church member. It was fun to watch the conversation between persons who didn’t know each other and to see them learn from each other as they wrestled with this scripture. My friend Kay Free summed it up well when she said “Isn't it awesome how God's word is relevant for each person and touches each one in a different way depending where they are in life? Some relate to the crowd, some the feedings, some the disciples or the child. It is truly the Living Word!” As we go through this familiar story may you see some things with fresh eyes today. May the living word touch you in the place where it is needed today.

The story today begins with the news to Jesus from the disciples that John the Baptist has been murdered. Jesus’s response was to get away. He got in a boat and begin leaving the shore. However, the crowd followed on foot having heard of and experienced the previous miracles/healings Jesus had performed they were all bringing their sick and ailing loved ones to him. This is the first stop on our journey through the story today. John the Baptist was Jesus’s first cousin. He was the one who leaped in the womb when Mary came to tell his mother she was with child. He was the one who prepared the way for Jesus to come. He was the one who was there for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry by baptizing him. Jesus is certainly grieved at the news of his murder. Matthew records this story as Jesus getting in the boat and going to a solitary place. John records Jesus taking the disciples with him. Nonetheless, as Jesus does many times throughout the stories of scripture-----he retreats. He needs time to commune with the Father and with his closest friends. Jesus rows through the waters probably discussing his grief with his friends, anxious to get to a solitary place, only to find that it is not so solitary at all because the crowd has followed. He looks up and there on the shore are thousands of people expecting something from him. I’m trying to imagine that. I remember last year when my nephew was born only to die the first call I made was to my boss telling her I would not be at work. Work was the last place I wanted to be. I wanted to soak up my family, stay close to them and receive the love of my friends and I wanted to sleep. Then again, I think of a preaching engagement I had on April 9th and 10th at a retirement village in Arden. On April 8th my grandfather went into a coma. The person responsible for scheduling the preachers for those services texted me and called me several times letting me know that I could cancel, they would understand. I couldn’t though, God had given me a word and I needed to do it. I knew my grandfather would want me to and I did. In a way it was healing to me.

Jesus looked out at that crowd in the midst of his grief and compassion came over him. Compassion: Accoriding to wikkipedia it means to suffer together with. It is also listed as more than empathy, it is an active desire to alleviate ones suffering. So, Jesus while even in his on suffering had an active desire to alleviate the suffering of that multitude of people. That is who Jesus is. Are you suffering in any part of your life right now. Suffering with grief, sickness, worry, pain, addiction…….Jesus enters into your suffering with you and desires greatly to alleviate it. Do you, like Jesus in this story, have your own grief and suffering that consumes you…..perhaps compassion for others is just the healing you need right now.

Moving forward, Jesus spends all day healing the sick and speaking with the multitude. The disciples, likely hungry themselves, come to him and tell him that he needs to wind it up, the people need time to get back to the villages and eat. When Jesus was ministering there was no clock on the back wall, or outside the sound booth to signal him that time was up. There was no wife or husband pointing to a watch or giving a cut signal. So, the disciples play timekeeper and approach. Jesus’s response, nonsense, we will feed them. Not only does Jesus care about the crowds’ spiritual needs, their needs of healing. He cares about there basic need of food. He supplies that too. Everytime I hear this story I’m reminded of one of my favorite childhood memories. It was participating in a children’s musical written by Dottie Rambo: Down by the Creek Bank. The sanctuary of Gashes Creek Baptist church was transformed into a creek bank with fishing poles, lunch buckets. One of my favorite lines in the whole musical, I got to say. “When Jesus fed those 5000 people it must have been with Tuna fish cause Tuna goes a loooooooong way.” Then the song that went along with it. “Little barefoot boy walking through the land, what you got in that basket in your hand. There’s 5,000 people waiting to be fed, what you gonna do with that fish and bread. You’ve got to give it away, pass it around, turn your baskets upside down. I can tell by the smile and the twinkle in your eye, the master has taught you how to multiply, Let the master teach you how to multiply.

That is exactly what happened. The disciples doubt. Really Jesus, all we have is 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. We can’t feed all those people with that. Let me make it just a little more amazing. We’re not talking about some great big Whale fish or 5 big loaves of bread like we think of today. It was small enough that a boy was carrying it for lunch. The loaves are thought to be barley loaves and were more like little cakes. It is thought the fish were probably like sardines. Really Jesus? How often do we do just what the disciples did. You want me to do what Jesus? But…….I can’t, what about, I don’t have. Take the I out of it folks. With Jesus all things are possible. Jesus told the disciples. Tell the crowd to sit down in the grass, you will serve them. Then Jesus took all the boy had and he held it up, he blessed it and the disciples began to distribute it. There is a lot packed into those few words. #1. Jesus used a little boy to provide a meal to the crowd. Again God is using the unsuspected to accomplish a great thing. #2. The little boy gave all that he had without question. Oh that we all had the faith of a child. While the disciples question Jesus the little boy hands all he has over to God and lets it be used to further God’s kingdom. Reminds you somewhat of the story of the widows mite doesn’t it? Do we trust God with all that we’ve got. Do we have the faith of this little boy? I was interested in finding out what kind of difference kids are making in our own world. I found Oprah’s Angel Network where there were several stories of young children having compassion and acting on it with what they have. Here is just one of those stories:

"My name is Zach and I started walking to help homeless youth two years ago. November 2007 was the first ever National Homeless Youth Awareness month and I wanted to do something huge that would bring a lot of awareness to the 1.3 million homeless kids living in this country. I decided to walk from my hometown in Florida 280 miles to the capitol of Florida (Tallahassee). It was a huge success and I raised $25,000 in cash and supplies that I was able to use to help the Katrina victims.
In November 2008 I decided to continue my journey and walk from state capitol to state capitol, until I made it to Washington, D.C. So, I walked from Tallahassee to Atlanta. I raised around $17,000. Of that, $7,000 stays in Florida to help homeless kids and $10,000 will go to Habitat for Humanity in Macon, Ga., to help a family get their own house.
In May 2009 I plan on going all the way, 680 miles, from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., stopping in two more state capitols along the way. I hope that I can get 1,000 people to walk my last mile in Washington, D.C., from the White House to the steps of the capitol. I hope I can continue to talk to school groups, clubs and churches along the way to raise awareness. I hope to be a positive role model to kids who are interested in doing community service. I hope kids see me and see that they can do anything they put their mind to." Borrowed from Oprah Angel Network website

Is that not amazing?

I wonder what you have in your pocket right now. I am not going to really do this exercise but I did ponder it. Imagine it in your head. What if I got the offering plate and sent it around with the instruction of taking whatever money you have in your wallet right now and putting it in the offering plate. I wonder how many people God could feed with that. Then I wonder if we added that to what the folks at Longs would have. How many people could we feed. I passed xx churches or signs to churches from my house to this church this morning . I wonder how many people we could feed if everyone in all of those churches did that? Then I pondered more: forget everything you have in your wallet. What if everyone sitting in a pew in Haywood County today gave everything in their wallet/pocket up to 1.00. How many people would that feed. The Open Door in Waynesville serves 20,000 meals a year to hungry persons. They operate on a budget of 100,000. We have the community kitchen in Canton as well. 38.00 a month will provide for 1 child through compassion international. What if when spiral hams go on sale instead of just buying one, you buy two and take one to one of these kitchens. Folks we don’t have to be Millionaires to make a difference. We can be the holder of 2 little sardines. We can be the holder of just one mite. If we give what we have to God he will multiply it. Let the Master teach you how to multiply! In fact God takes the little we give him and he multiplies it in excess. There were 12 basketfuls leftover.

After this was done Jesus dismissed the disciples and told them to go on ahead. He dismissed the crowd and then he went on the mountainside to pray. This is the final lesson of todays story. Jesus earlier prayer time, retreat time, time of solitude was interrupted by the needs of the crowd. Jesus does not forget his need for communication with God, alone time, a time of retreat. Immediately afterwards he does just that. How often do we sit down and commune with god in a solitary place. For Jesus it’s almost always a mountainside where he finds retreat. Where do you find retreat? Is it in a garden outside your house, is it in a sacred space, it is reclining on your couch, is it in your car on your commute to work. The place is irrelevant. What iw relavant though is the need to find time to self and create consistent time with God. It will make a difference, I promise.

In closing Out of this story we are called to:

Come out of ourselves and have Compassion for those who crowd us, to have a deep desire to alleviate the suffering of those around us.

Speak our doubts and frustrations to God but to still obey with the faith of a child.

To give what we have to God and let God multiply it.

Have solitary, meditative time with God to heal our own broken spirits.

What action do you need to take this week to live out the lessons of this story. Do you know this God of compassion who enters into your suffering world? As we sing this final hymn think about how you are to respond to this word today. You may want to use the prayer rail to meditate on this for a while. I open it up to you.