Pastor Andrew Hilla August 3, 2014 Matthew 14:13-21 “Loves and Dishes” Now before we begin, I just want to re-affirm that the message title for this morning is NOT a typo… it’s “Loves and Dishes” rather than “Loaves and Fishes.” That message title will make a little more sense after you hear this story that I came across recently… and I would just say that it doesn’t end the way we expect it to end. So here we go… A certain person walked into a church one day in the inner city, it could have been any large city here in the United States. This particular church serves breakfast every morning of the week to people who are homeless. There they are, serving breakfast to around 150 of the homeless every day. Other churches pitch in to help them in this task. This certain person was surprised when they walked in one morning and glanced in the kitchen to see a man they had met elsewhere. This particular person relates their story… “I recognized him as a member of one of our city’s most affluent congregations. I spoke to him and he, looking up from the dishwater, spoke to me. I thought it was rather remarkable having a man like him, from a church like his, there, washing the dirty dishes of homeless people. So I attempted to engage him in conversation. “I think it’s great that you’re here, doing this” I said. “I’m glad that you think it is great,” he mumbled as he continued in his work. “I’m curious though, have you always enjoyed ministry to the homeless?” I asked? “Who said that I enjoyed this?” he replied. “Frankly, I mostly can’t stand the homeless people that I’ve met here.” “Really?” I said. “Have you sat down and talked with our guests here? A lot of them are homeless for a reason. And then again, lots of them are half crazy,” he continued. “Well I guess that makes it all the more remarkable that you’re here, washing dishes for the homeless,” I said. If you don’t mind me asking, “Then why ARE you here?” He looked up from his work at the sink, and said to me, with a tone of exasperation in his voice, “Because Jesus called me here. That’s why.” Then he continued in his work. It’s a heck of a way to get the job done, but it’s uniquely the way of Jesus… the way of God. If you think about it… this story is really no more surprising than the resistance of God’s call for Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. It’s no more surprising than Jonah’s call to take God’s message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. Gideon was reluctant to answer God’s call… he needed not one but two signs from God (the fleece) before he would fight the Midianites. And surely Abraham had some second thoughts about obeying God’s command to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac, upon Mount Moriah! When I received my call to enter into the ministry about 15 years ago… I didn’t especially want to answer that call either… because I knew it would involve giving up a lot - in order to follow that call… but I soon learned that God’s call is persistent and purposeful… God has work for us to do, and even when we make mistakes in doing His work, or even if we don’t seem to have our whole heart in it… as faulty, sinful, human beings… He’s still using us to accomplish His purposes. Jesus’ Feeding of the 5000 is the one and only miracle Jesus performed (other than his resurrection from the dead) that is recalled in all 4 Gospels. It’s a miracle that we can’t totally wrap our minds around because we don’t understand how this could possibly take place… there’s just no scientific explanation for it… that’s why it’s called a miracle! But rather than deal with the logistics, and with the knowledge of the fact that with God, all things are possible… I’d like to turn to one particular aspect of this miracle for our consideration here this morning. The details of this account differ slightly in each of the Gospels, but the essentials remain. Jesus had a long day of teaching and healing the crowds of people who came out of the towns to see him with their very own eyes. The disciples and the people had a long day as well. Everyone was hungry and tired. So Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked Him to send the people away, so that they would go back to where they came from, so that they could feed themselves. But we’re also told that Jesus had compassion on the crowds. He loved them, each and every one of them, just as He loves each and every one of us. The disciples, on the other hand, showed little compassion, they just wanted to send them away so that they wouldn’t have to deal with the situation. And it’s in that very moment that Jesus commands these 12 disciples, when He said, “You give them something to eat” (Vs. 16). Think of how confused those disciples must have felt in that moment. They must have turned to each other and said amongst themselves, “He wants us to feed them? With what?” So they turn back to Jesus and said, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish” (Vs. 17). And Jesus, who sees these people as sheep without a shepherd, turns to the ones who want to send hungry, tired, hurting people away, and Jesus commands them to minister to the multitudes. I think the Gospel writers recall this account in order to encourage us to marvel at the wonder-working power and compassion and love that Jesus had for people… as compared with the lack of wanting to get involved… the rather calloused and uncaring attitudes of these disciples of Christ. And if we were to extrapolate this account and apply it to the church and our lives as followers of Christ today… then perhaps we would see this account as an invitation to marvel at the propensity of Jesus to commission ordinary people (like each of us) to work with Him in his wonder-working, compassionate mission to the world. If you look at this reading in your Bible, it’s probably entitled, “Jesus feeds the 5000” as it does in my Bible. But after reading the account, I wonder if it would be more correctly entitled, “Jesus Commissions HIS DISCIPLES to Feed the 5000.” YOU SEE… THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE. Those disciples would not be able to feed those 5000 without the miracle working hands of Jesus. Jesus is the One who takes 5 loaves and 2 fish and multiplies them into MORE THAN ENOUGH to fill the stomachs of 5000 people… with enough left over to fill 12 baskets to overflowing! Jesus is the One who takes what we gather and offer back to God, he multiplies it, and He gives it back to us so that we can distribute it to those in need just as we are doing here this morning through our food donations for the United Food Bank, water for the Mesa hydration program, and through our weekly tithes and offerings. Jesus takes what we offer to Him and He COMMISSIONS US with the very same words He spoke to those 12 disciples, “You give them something to eat” (Vs. 16). Back in 1973 there was a science fiction writer by the name of Ursula K. LeGuin who wrote “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” It won the best science fiction story of the year. The story was about the magical city of Omelas, where everyone lived very richly blessed and charmed lives, safe from danger, no worries of any sort, and free from want… they had everything they ever needed or wanted. But there was a price for this security; a child was held in isolation and imprisoned, poorly fed/ malnourished, and poorly clothed. Moreover, the residents of Omelas were required to walk by the cell where the child was kept at least once a year and witness this cruelty for themselves. How ludicrous! Who could live with themselves, and remain happy, if their prosperity depended upon the suffering of others, especially the suffering of children? Which is, strangely enough, exactly what we, in the more prosperous countries do, at the expense of those in poorer countries. But of course, we don’t think of it in that manner. We treat our blessings as if we “earned” them, we “deserve” what we have, we’re “entitled” to our prosperity… after all, we’ve worked hard to be as successful as we have become, it’s the way of Capitalism. Ultimately, we take credit for things that are actually gifts from God. Perhaps we should realize that being born into this country is one of those gifts… because if you or I were born into a third world country… no matter how hard we worked… no matter how hard we tried… we wouldn’t have had the opportunities that we have had throughout our lives as citizens of these United States of America. We are very blessed by God. And what’s even more amazing is what Jesus continues to do for us today. Just as when he shared the bread and drink with His disciples at the Last Supper, His last meal before being given up to death on a cross… Jesus shares bread and drink with us here today and He multiplies what we receive through His love and His Spirit. We are all sinners, the Apostle Paul reminds us of this fact. We all (myself included) have a sinful nature… which unfortunately tends to raise its ugly head whenever we are backed into a corner, NONE OF US ARE PERFECT. That’s why we need Jesus every hour of every day… just as the words of that old hymn proclaim. Because if we rely upon our own power and reasoning and resources to solve our problems… without asking Jesus to help us and guide us… we are surely doomed to fail. But when we approach the foot of the cross in humbleness and in humility, surrendering our lives to the One who gives us life, THEN AND ONLY THEN ARE WE EMPOWERED TO DO MIRACULOUS THINGS. As we see in today’s secular world, once we remove God from the equation, we start to lose all sense of purpose for mankind. But, IF GOD EXISTS, then we really do have a transcendent purpose and meaning for our lives. Not only do we find day-to-day significance in our lives, but we find an ultimate significance through our hope in eternal life. AND IF WE TRULY BELIEVE THAT GOD EXISTS, then we must remove the “political correctness” that infuses today’s society, and we must replace it with the moral standards of absolute right and wrong residing in the character of God Himself as revealed to us in His Word. God gave us the ability to choose whether we live by His moral laws or to live by whatever arbitrary values we assign to ourselves through our own reasoning. As we find, we’re not mere robots placed on this earth by God, but rather, we have absolute free will to follow what God commands of us… or not. We can either recognize God as the Creator of the world, or we can deny that He exists. We can choose to live meaningless lives or we can choose to live lives with absolute and eternal purpose. The choice is ours, but choose we must, for in not choosing, we bring condemnation upon ourselves. I love what Joshua said about making that choice, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Jesus said, “I have not come to be served, but to serve”… He also said, “the one who wishes to be great must become the servant of all.” May it be so for each of us, rather than sending them away or turning our backs on them, Jesus commissions us to feed His sheep. So for those of us who have ears to hear… may God lead us, each of us, even if it means washing the dishes of the homeless… may God lead us to deeper and deeper levels of commitment and love and faith, through Christ Jesus our Lord… Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 18:16:35 +0000
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