All sermons are too short.

That is to say, no sermon can say all that could be said about a particular passage of scripture.

There are always more nuances, points of views, ways of regarding it.

Life experiences also color our reading and understanding, and what else is going on in life around us.

It also makes a difference how aware and connected we are with Christians of times past.

What they were thinking and experiencing can help to shape us as well.

After all, we are not the first or the only persons to read and hear the text; there is a long tradition which we can hear with profit.

 

So with all of that in mind, we hear the Gospel lesson for today.

It is the one Jesus-story that is related in all four Gospels, actually 6 times in the four Gospels.

Therefore it must have been regarded by the earliest leaders of the church as very important indeed.

 

Jesus takes the paltry bit of food the disciples are able to rustle up – 5 loaves and 2 fish – and turn it into enough for 5,000 men  plus women and children.

That was wonder enough, but there is more.

There are leftovers, 12 baskets full.

The number is not chosen haphazardly.

Twelve is a complete number, the number of the tribes of Israel, of the months of the year, of the disciples whom Jesus first calls, etc..

There is food enough and more than enough, a super- abundance.

 

This should get us thinking.

Let's try this as a topic sentence: “God gives us all that we need.”

That statement is in stark contrast with the attitude of our society, where whatever we have is never enough.

The car we have depreciates the minute we drive it off the dealer's lot, with the idea that we will soon need to get a newer model-year.

The entire fashion industry is built upon the idea that what we have is never enough.

One never can have too much money laid away for retirement.... and so on.

We can see place after place in our society and in our thinking where the statement that “God has given us all that we need” does not fit with our attitude.

 

Let's think of other Jesus-stories and discover that they too are stories of divine abundance.

--The seed, even though some seems to be wasted, still produces 100-fold.

--The tiny mustard seed that grew into a large shrub.

--At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus doesn't make a little wine, but 120 gallons, far more than enough for one small village's wedding feast.

 

And  Jesus gives us more than enough to do, as well.

--”Keep the commandments perfectly, and you will live,” says Jesus to one questioner.

--”Who is my neighbor?” someone asks Jesus, and he replies with the story of the Good Samaritan, where it is the one who shows mercy is the true neighbor.

--”Could you not watch with me even one hour?” he asks the sleepy disciples in the garden.

We never complete all that Jesus has given us to accomplish, do we?

Jesus has given us more commands, more wonderful promises, a more expansive vision than we will ever be able to fully comprehend and do.

It is a super-abundance of resources and opportunities.

 

The modern world is trying very hard to convince us that we are writing our own stories;

that we are in charge of our own destinies,

that we are making things happen all by ourselves,

that we don't need God,

that the very idea is outmoded, etc.

But as we read the scriptures again and again, we discern that we are a living part of a story which we did not begin,

In this story, we are more of an actor than a writer, and the chief author of the story has given us the outcome but not all the twists and turns of the plot before that outcome is finally reached.

There is more for us to say and to do than we can ever imagine.

 

In this church, God promises that he will give us all that we need to be faithful to his commands.

We do have an abundance of gifts,  persons, and resources.

So often, we fall into the woe-are-we, poor-us, we-can't-do-anything syndrome.

Let's try that topic sentence again:

God has given us all that we need.”

Sometimes we make poor decisions, like the person I met awhile back who didn't have a roof over his head, but who had $700 or more tied up in X-box games.

Sometimes we are so self-centered that we don't want to see what is happening to our neighbor.

It is easy for folks in Muncy to claim (as some have) that homelessness is only a Williamsport problem.

It is easy for folks to claim  (as I have heard many times over the years) that “I don't know enough or have experience enough to be a Sunday School teacher.”

“I don't have time or gifts to serve on a committee, task force, council, choir, Bible-study group, or service group.”

“It is impossible for me to talk with a friend or neighbor about things that ultimately matter.”

 

When Bernadette first accepted the position here as Youth and Family Ministry Coordinator, I warned her that she would be spending much time on the telephone, very often hearing why something was impossible and why we have no resources to accomplish this or that project.

It took very little time until she came to me and told me that I was underestimating the difficulty of the job.

Yet, God has given us what we need.

 

I need to tell you today about Isha and Isham Bibi, girls age 12 and 8, who have not been with their mother for more than two years, because she faces a death sentence in Pakistan for confessing her faith in Jesus.

Her husband and children have had to move 5 times in the past 17 months because of death threats to them.

In some ways of measuring, they have almost nothing.

And yet I have a photo of the girls smiling expansively as they pray with a representative of an organization which is helping them called “The Voice of the Martyrs.”

 

And I have another photo of seven Pakistani teenage Christians who went far from a village to a rocky mountainside in order to pray for their country.

 

I read about Lucio, a new Christian in Chiapas, Mexico, who together with the other 30 members of their little congregation, were burned out of their homes last January by a mob that demanded that they participate in the local folk-religion which is based on drunken behavior and animal sacrifices.

They escaped with only the clothes on their backs.

They have nothing, and yet have everything.

They are preparing now to return to that village to witness to Christ, no matter what it costs them.

 

The least wealthy of us here in this congregation still have so much.

But Isha, Isham, Lucio, and so many, many more like them know that they have enough of what really counts, and they share what they have bravely and joyfully.

 

Each of us as individuals and the congregation's council leaders as a group needs to be examining ourselves and discerning what gifts God has entrusted to us, and how best to use them and share them.

Instead of focusing on what we think we can't do and don't have,

let's enumerate what God has given us, and discern what he must be expecting from us.

 

Mary Ann Bird is a woman who started out life having to face what she didn't have.

She had multiple problems from birth: cleft palate, deafness in one ear, disfigured face, lopsided feet.

Kids can be so cruel to one another in school when someone is different., and we know the unkind things that are often said.

It can be very depressing for the person who is “different” in some way.

This was the time before the fancy auditory testing machines.

The teacher would call each student to her desk and whisper a sentence that the student would need to repeat., something like: “The sky is blue”, or “You are wearing brown shoes.”

When her turn came, Mary Ann cheated a bit, not quite covering her good ear so that she could hear enough to pass the test with her bad ear.

From her teacher she heard these whispered words that changed  her life: “I wish that you were my little girl.”

Those few words gave her a completely new perspective on life.

Instead of focusing on what she did not have, henceforth  Mary Ann was invited to celebrate her worth and to use what she did have.

And she followed through, herself becoming a teacher of great inner beauty and kindness.

 

It is an extravagant abundance that God has entrusted to us.

So  let us acknowledge:

 

You satisfy the hungry heart

with gift of finest wheat.

You give yourself to us, O Lord;

then selfless let us be,

to serve each other in your name

in truth and charity.    [HS-98#855]

 

Amen