Proper 12 B
July
29, 2012
My
daughter is a baker. All bakers know
that one of the important steps in baking is to test your creations. You test
cakes to see if they’re done. You test
yeast to assure it will rise. And of
course you test the frosting or the dough, just to make sure it tastes just
right.
Testing is part of the
process. It’s a
part of baking, part of our readings today, and part of life.
In the
Old Testament, we hear about David and Bathseba. David is tested, as sees Bathseba out his
window. His subsequent activities with Bathseba, and her husband Uriah should
be considered an epic fail. And yet, David
goes on to do great things, to be the mighty King David, writer of psalms,
ancestor of Christ.
There is
an apparent moral of this story, and a not-so-apparent lesson. First the obvious. Please.
Don’t sleep with your neighbor, and then to fix things, kill their
spouse. It’s not going to end well. And just because David became a mighty King, I wouldn’t assume the
same outcome for you.
Now the
other lesson, which really is good news.
Despite having behaved in a reprehensible way and failing the test,
David went on to become a great and mighty king. So even when we fail pretty basic tests - epically fail -
there is hope.
The
Gospel contains a well known story, the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. And another great test story.
First,
imagine the scene.
5000
people. These are people
who are rugged because of the harsh conditions in which they live.
And 5000 people come to see and hear Jesus. They hungered for God, for Jesus. Driven by that hunger, they came. And came.
And they finally arrived in the vast nothingness to hear
Jesus.
Jesus
knows how he’s going to handle this, and yet he tests the disciples. He asks them, innocently enough, “where are
we going to buy bread for this many people”?
He led them to a response dependent on money, on that stuff which is
rendered to Caesar. The whole time, he
knew the answer had nothing to do with money.
Not the answer to the problem of the food. And more importantly, not the answer to the
crowds’ spiritual hunger.
But by
framing the question that way, he led the disciples to offer a response that
was doomed the moment it left their mouth.
“Six months wages would not buy enough bread”.
I see
this as the first test Jesus placed before the disciples.
Jesus framed
the problem and offered a possible
solution within a context the disciples knew. Money and scarcity. There’s not enough money. Resources are scarce. “Where
are we going to get enough money to buy bread? And their response? Six month wages aren’t
enough. . Going back to the baking analogy, after putting the toothpick in the
center of the cake to test its doneness, the cake is not ready yet. It needs more time to become the cake it was
intended to be.
For as
much as the disciples were loyal followers and believers of Jesus, they still
hadn’t wrapped their heads around the idea that God is a God of abundance. Not abundance, as in excess, but abundance as
in enough, with some left over. The
disciples respond from a concept of scarcity, and respond with fear.
When a
resource is truly scarce and limited, people behave in unpredictable and
dangerous ways. Oil is a great
example. There is only a finite amount
of oil in this world. Protection and
acquisition of this truly scarce resource causes people and nations to fight
wars. True scarcity creates havoc.
More
disturbing are the problems and havoc caused by nothing more than a perception
of scarcity. Food is a great
example. This country, this world,
produces enough food so that no one, no senior citizen, no families, no child,
ever needs to be hungry. And yet, we
are number one. Oregon is the number one
state for the prevalence of hunger. We
are second only to the district of Columbia for the percentage of children who
are “food insecure”. This means the
caretakers of these kids are consistently unable to access enough food to meet
their daily food needs. 32% of our
state’s children. Imagine the grief and
fear for all of their parents and guardians who cannot routinely provide
sufficient food for their children. And
yet, there is absolutely enough food produced in Oregon to feed Oregon.
Hungry
people here are not caused by scarce resources.
But by a perception of scarcity, and the stockpiling of food and
resources that creates obesity and wasted food while others go hungry.
In the
Gospel story, the initial action and fear shown by the disciples reveal their
belief in a God of Scarcity. Luckily, some
in the crowd did believe, or were trying to believe in a God of abundance - the
boy who had 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, and Andrew who brought him
forward. They offered their paltry
resources up, with a slight disclaimer - , “but what can this meager offering
provide with this big crowd”? Yes, they
doubted, but more importantly, they acted.
Every
week, we pray, in the words the Lord taught us, “Give us this day our daily
bread”. We pray for what we need. Today.
Weekly, we pray words that reinforce that God give us what we need,
perhaps no more, but what we need. Abundance. Enough.
Jesus
offers a second test, with equally disappointing results in the Gospel
story. He asks the disciples, where are “we” going to get enough money. He invites them to include him in the
solution. But their first response is “they”
don’t have enough money. They forget to
include Jesus in the solution.
The
solutions begin to materialize when Andrew and the boy offer to Jesus their
meager 5 loaves and 2 fish. And Jesus does the rest.
I think
we are posed the exact same tests today, and often with the same disappointing
results. We see challenges, and we
quickly frame the resolution firmly rooted
in concepts of scarcity. There isn’t enough money. There isn’t enough
time. We let society, and history, and culture frame
the question for us, leading us down paths that are limited and myopic. This leads us to equally limited and myopic
solutions, just as occurred with the disciples.
“Where do we get enough
money?”
Practicing
a belief in a God of Abundance doesn’t necessarily make the resolution quicker
or easier. But I’m certain that without a
belief and practice of abundance, we need to be exceedingly careful about any
question or problem or impossible or constrained solutions we perceive. The problem or resolutions may be constrained
by scarcity, and without questioning it, we are limited by that implicit
scarcity.
Believe
in a God of Abundance. Take steps and
actions based on that belief. And then
turn over the hard work to Christ. When
posed with a difficult problem or solution, stop and think about the words we
heard from the Epistle today from Paul, that Christ can accomplish “abundantly
more than we can ask or imagine.”
Abundantly more. Than we can even
imagine.
The
disciples didn’t feed the 5000 all by themselves. Christ didn’t feed the 5000 all by himself . But
together, miracles happened.
Believe
in abundance. From that belief of
abundance, offer your five loaves.
Invite
Christ to do the rest.
With
Christ, working together, we too can feed the multitudes.
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