On Sunday - Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "More Than Enough"
Date: July 31, 2005
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Matthew 14:13-21

Today’s gospel lesson begins abruptly, almost mid-story.  “When Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat…”  When Jesus heard what?  He had just been informed by his disciples that his cousin John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod.  In his grief, Jesus retreats.

“When the crowds heard it, they followed him…”  Heard what?  That Jesus’ was grieving his cousin’s death, or that he was off somewhere?  We don’t know which.  All we know is that when they found him, he had compassion on them. 

In Matthew’s gospel, compassion compels us to action, in that we feel the pain of the other and respond.  Compassion leads Jesus to send out disciples in mission (9:35–38) and to heal two blind people (20:34).  In today’s scripture, Jesus’ compassion leads first to healing and then to feeding.  Compassion is not mere attitude – compassion engages faith in action.  Compassion trusts that God will provide for the need of the other and for the need generated by one’s own compassion.

Last Monday, I experienced two illustrations of compassion that, had it not been for studying this lesson in preparation for preaching, they probably would have gone unnoticed by me, and you wouldn’t be hearing about them now.  In the first, I was in a card shop looking for a sympathy card for one of our church members.  There were many to choose from, although fewer had the section heading “religious” over them.  But as my sight encompassed the whole selection before me, I was struck by this thought:  all these cards will be chosen by caring family and friends and sent to someone.  And God will have more than enough compassion to share with all of them in their grief.  God does not dole it out sparingly to only one or two mourners at a time.  All can call upon God at once and will be showered with abundant love and care and compassion.

The second instance occurred at my mother’s bedside out at Quaker Gardens.  A resident there had formerly been on the staff of the Crystal Cathedral, and his wife provided all the residents with a little ceramic statue that Robert Schuller used to promote funding for the Hour of Power.  As I sat next to my mother’s bed, I picked up this statue from her nightstand.  It portrayed a smiling Jesus holding a small child in his arms, while two other children looked up at him.  The scripture passage was Matthew 19:14, the same one the deaconess reads here every time she presents a baptismal cross to a child.  The disciples thought the little children being brought to Jesus were an interruption to his important ministry, and spoke sternly to the parents.  “But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’”

It is the same situation we encounter again in Matthew today.  The disciples want to send people away from Jesus.  The avowed reason is for the crowd’s own good.  But where the disciples would close off community and leave others to fend for themselves, Jesus summons community to be opened in ministry to others.  The disciples see only the scarcity of their own resources.  They find themselves called to trust God’s abundance – abundance that is not quite in view.

We are told Jesus saw the great crowd; “and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.”  A few hours later, evening falls and once again the super-efficient disciples want to send the crowds away.  ‘Let them go to the fast-food places in the village and eat for themselves.  Let’s us just sit down for dinner here with you.  We’ve got five loaves and two fish.’

Yet again, Jesus’ ways are not the disciples’ ways.  Instead of listening to their advice, Jesus instructs them to bring the food to him—and in actions very reminiscent of what we will experience next Sunday as we share the sacrament of communion—Jesus “looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.”  And there was more than enough to feed the crowd; twelve baskets were left over after feeding 5000 men, plus women and children. 

How did Jesus do this miracle?  You don’t ask for explanations of miracles.  As Albert Einstein said, you can live your life two ways:  “the one as if no miracles exist and the other as though everything is a miracle.”

Did the miracle occur, as renown Episcopal preacher Barbara Brown Taylor suggests, when the meager basket of bread and fish was passed among the people and they dug into their pockets to add the secret bit of bread they had brought along for the journey?  By the time the baskets had been passed around, had people taken enough to eat but also put a little back in to share with others because that seemed like the only right thing to do?  Such generosity on their part would have been a miracle.

We don’t know how miracles occur, but the gospel tells us that when the faithful begin to act with faith, sharing our resources with others, miraculous things begin to happen.  Trusting in God, and acting with compassion, scarcity is transformed into abundance.

Jesus told about sowing seed into various types of soil.  Sometimes when the soil is bad, you need to overdo it a bit.  The seed that did germinate and took root provided an abundant harvest.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus attends a wedding reception where the wine gave out.  Did the host not order enough?  Guests drinking too much?  Don’t know.  What does Jesus do?  He turns water into wine.  Not just a few carafes, but according to John’s estimate, about 180 gallons of the best-tasting wine they had ever had.  By my calculation, that’s more than enough, I should hope, for any wedding reception!

The father of the wayward prodigal son didn’t just welcome his returning son.  We would have done that.  No, he ran out to meet him, dressed him in a new cloak with a new ring, and lighted the barbecue.  The father threw a huge, expensive, wildly extravagant party.  More than enough.

The good Samaritan didn’t just stop and help the wounded man in the ditch.  Anybody  would’ve/could’ve/should’ve done that.  It was the way he stopped.  He lifted the wounded man up into his air conditioned SUV.  He took the man to the hospital.  He told the doctors, “Here’s all my credit cards, my checkbook.  I’ll be back in a week, and if that’s not enough money to treat his wounds, I’ll give you even more.”

When the hungry come looking for food, when the sorrowing come looking for comfort, when the confused come looking for direction, when the bitter come looking for reconciliation, when the powerless come looking for strength, when the addicted come looking for deliverance, when the fearful come looking for courage, when the hopeless come looking for hope, let us remember the words of Jesus:  “They need not go.”  And for each of them was more than enough.

What does this miracle story say to Bay Shore Church on this last Sunday of July in the summer of 2005?  Jesus had more than enough love, concern, care and compassion for all who came to him.  I hope and pray that as we begin to openly discuss challenging issues together, each one of us have more than enough of Christ’s love, concern, care and compassion to go around, even for those whose views on some moral, political, theological issue might be different from our own.  Jesus had more than enough; so may we.