“The Good News - Together, the Impossible is Possible!”
Mark 6:32-44; Ephesians 3:20-21
This morning’s gospel lesson from Mark appears in all four gospels, with small variations.
There are at least three themes in the story for us to ponder. All of them bring Good News.
First, many commentators see this miracle as anticipating the messianic banquet. Several elements of the banquet in this miraculous feeding make it likely that Mark intended this event to be seen as anticipating the heavenly banquet served by the Risen Messiah. Everyone is fed and satisfied. The food is abundant and blessed. No one is excluded from receiving food, etc.
The Good News for us is that this is not all there is to life. We have eternity waiting for us, where an all-inclusive banquet awaits. I’ve sent out a few sympathy cards in the last couple of weeks, and despite the sorrow I have expressed to those who have lost a dear one, I’ve also sent good news about life in heaven. I was reminded about one of my favorite passages, John 16:22, “So now you are sad. But I will see you again, and you will rejoice, and your joy, no one will take from you.” Whenever I think of the family and loved ones who have died before me, I think of that great reunion one day, and that is really good news!
Second, this story contains echoes of the Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness, yet given provisions from God. The event occurs in the wilderness or a "lonely place." The people are being fed bread in the wilderness, evoking the manna from God in the wilderness. Theologian Philip J Long notes other allusions to wilderness tradition here. "When Jesus sees the great crowd, he is moved with compassion and observes that they are 'like sheep without a shepherd." This is an allusion to Num 27:15-23. Just before Moses' death, he asks the Lord to appoint a leader over the people, so that they will not be like sheep without a shepherd. They are seated in συμπόσιον, or "eating parties." The groupings are fifty and a hundred, which also evoke the wilderness tradition. In Exodus 18:21, 25, Moses divides the people up into groups of " thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens" (Num 31:14)."
The second bit of Good News in this morning’s passage is that God provides for us. Jesus says in this passage, “You give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37) That request by Jesus is carried out here. I see concrete examples of God’s provision for others every day at our Little Free Pantry or in our office when someone needs a food card, help with gas, a bus token, or assistance with utilities. I see God’s provision when someone comes into our safe parking program, looking for a safe place to park at night and get their lives back in order. God provides in our moments of wilderness.
At my last call, one of the more difficult wilderness moments facing the congregation of approximately 70 people in Fort Bragg was finding housing for a pastor. Housing costs were ridiculously high in this small coastal community in Northern California. We spent a couple of years trying to figure out how to pay for housing, including selling the old manse, which was falling apart. The sale of that property would provide enough to pay for housing or a pastor and family for about 20 years before running out. That was a short-term solution to a long-term problem, and we needed some divine intervention.
About 2 years after the sale of the manse, we received a phone call out of the blue from the daughter of older parents who had been part of the church back in the 1980’s. Both parents died, and she wanted to let us know that they had left a donation to our congregation. I was thankful to hear the news, expecting it was a gracious donation of $1,000 or so. She then told me, as she was about to hang up, that we would be hearing from an attorney on transferring funds and to expect a phone call. That gave me pause. About a month later, we received a letter from the attorney, who let us know that the donation to the church was for close to $1 million! As far as I know, that congregation in Fort Bragg will be able to help pay a pastor’s housing and even a portion of their salary from the interest of that gift until Jesus comes back! (Which may, of course, be any day) The good news is that God provides even in the wilderness!
There is yet a third piece of Good News that comes in this morning’s passage from Mark. Together, the Impossible Becomes Possible!
As Jesus and the disciples head to a deserted place to rest after a long and grueling day of helping people in need, some in the crowds they had helped saw them leave in a boat and followed. The “Deserted place” they went to was not deserted for long. Instead of turning the crowds away or getting back into the boat and looking for another place to escape, Jesus had compassion and began to teach them. The disciples are spent. They see the crowds and urge Jesus to send them into the nearby small towns so they can feed themselves.
I recall many decades ago, taking a youth group to a newspaper recycling station. (Remember those?!?) (Remember when we HAD newspapers? Sigh…) Our goal was to work the entire day, from 9-4 p.m., to raise money for a mission trip. It was hot that day, and hard work as folks drove their cars into the station and dropped off their stacks of newspapers. We would grab the stacks of newsprint, weigh them, and transport them to a paper bin for eventual recycling.
By 3:45, the entire group of kids and I were out of energy. We were getting ready to close the gates when, at 3:58 p.m., a car pulled up with an older woman driving. She was also quite short, as we could only see her hands on the wheel and the top of her head. The kids all groaned, and one of them joked, “Close the gate! Hurry!” But I rallied them and said, “Come on, just one more. Remember, this is to help us raise funds for our mission trip!” As the woman pulled in, her car was riding a bit like a low rider- the back of the vehicle was lower than the front end. It turned out that it was because she had been saving papers for a long time, and the trunk was absolutely stuffed with newspapers!
We all began grabbing the papers out of her trunk and stacking them on the scale. By the time we finished, there was a stack of newsprint a good 6 feet high. The good news was that this huge amount of paper almost doubled our intake for the day. The bad news was that just as we were weighing it and got the total, before anyone could write the number down, the entire stack fell over. That was the first time I said a curse word in front of my youth group.
I share that story because I think that is how the disciples felt. It was the end of the day, and they had been at it since morning. Now, instead of a car of newspapers to deal with, there was a crowd in need. Send them away, Jesus! Close the gate!
Instead, Jesus tells them, “You give them something to eat.” The task is an impossible one, to say the least. Their provisions are meager at best, and the crowd around them is substantial, possibly 15,000 or more. Last Sunday, I mentioned that a Denarius was a day’s wage, or $180.82 in America today. Did Jesus want the disciples to come up with $36,164.00=approximately 9000 loaves of bread, to feed this huge crowd? ( Not that they actually HAD that much money in the first place!)
Jesus invites them to pool their small resources: 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Somehow, their meager provisions multiply so that the huge crowd is fed. Jesus models a way to be in community by coming together and sharing what we have, dispelling perceived impossibilities. Miracles can become possible through the power of community. This story can teach us a lot about the power of community. Compassion for others is the energy source of care. The good news is that when the disciples come together, they have enough. The good news is that the disciples' limited vision of what is possible does not limit what God does through Jesus. The impossible becomes possible, there is enough, and all are fed.
When I was in seminary, I was introduced to the theologian Walter Brueggeman, who discussed the “Myth of Scarcity.” He said the myth that we never have enough began when Pharaoh told the Hebrew people to make bricks without straw. He said we humans have been seeing the world as a place of scarcity ever since. There just isn’t enough to go around.
Brueggemann writes, “The feeding of the multitudes, recorded in Mark's Gospel, is an example of the new world coming into being through God. . . . [Jesus] demonstrated that the world is filled with abundance and freighted with generosity. If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all. Jesus is engaged in the sacramental, subversive reordering of public reality. . . . Our world absolutely requires this news. It has nothing to do with being Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, socialists or capitalists. It is much more elemental: the creation is infused with the Creator's generosity, and we can find practices, procedures, and institutions that allow that generosity to work. Like the rich young man in Mark 10, we all have many possessions. Sharing our abundance may, as Jesus says, be impossible for mortals, but nothing is impossible for God.”
We hear that voice of scarcity, loud and clear, now. The cost of groceries continues to rise. The Dow is tanking due to the war. The cost of construction is skyrocketing due to tariffs. SNAP recipients are receiving less for the purchase of food after the approval of the president’s recent budget, passed by Congress. There just isn’t enough. There isn’t enough straw to go around! Better grab what we can, while we can, before someone else takes it!
In October of last year, when those SNAP benefits were about to be cut, Heretic Coffee Co. in Portland, Oregon, in the face of cuts to government-funded food subsidies, came together and rallied their surrounding community to help feed people who depended on SNAP to get by. Their non-profit coffee company states the following: “The word 'heretic' means 'to disrupt the established institution of something.” We exist to disrupt consumer coffee culture by advocating for community instead of a caffeine fix - and at the same time, bringing awareness to how consuming coffee can positively or negatively affect our world. The coffee industry is among the most exploited in the world. We exist to change that. We work with two coffee farms in Colombia and Ethiopia to ensure they are paid as well as possible for their labor.” But they do more than address the coffee growers who are exploited by the coffee industry.”
The cafe owner, Josh White, offered a “SNAP breakfast” to anyone in need, consisting of a breakfast burrito and a hot drink, despite realizing after posting the offer on his Instagram account that they didn’t have many burritos to begin with. (scarcity!) He describes their decision: “It was a very simple thing. We have food. And we can give away that food to hungry people.” When told that their generosity could cause the cafe to go bankrupt, White responded: “That's fine. If we literally have to shut our doors, if we go broke making sure children have food for breakfast, I'm really OK if that's the reason why we lose our business.” Instead, when the community around them heard what they were doing, someone established a fundraiser for them, raising $184,000 in just a couple of weeks to keep the free breakfasts going! When we come together, the impossible is possible! And yes, if you want to know, they continue to serve free SNAP breakfasts to anyone in need. (Abundance!)
Rev. Lizzie Mc Manus- Dail writes, “God starts with what God has- which is everything, held in her hands. And God also starts with what God has given us: five loaves, two fish. With God, all things are possible because God knows that God is always…God. It’s us who break faith, it’s us who listen to scarcity, it’s us who fear our own hunger. Our God is a God of abundance. However the scarcity of the world cries out, God delights in feeding the hungry, in accomplishing what we dare not imagine.”
When we first began considering a capital campaign to help renovate, restore, and renew this campus, I heard from many in the congregation that we were just too small to repair or renovate much, if anything. We don’t have enough people or financial resources available to make it happen. (Only five loaves and two fish to fix the roof) I admit I wondered the same thing as we went through the process of interviewing folks and sending out emails to the congregation for their input. That scarcity model Brueggemann was making some noise in my soul as I prayed continuously and asked for God’s help.
However, many of you, through your faith and generosity, will allow us to accomplish what we dare not imagine. Thanks to so many in our congregation pooling our meager resources together, we will be able to fund and launch a capital campaign without taking out any loans. This campaign, which will allow us to renovate, restore, and renew most, if not all, of our campus, should begin in May. Stay tuned for more information coming your way over the next month or so.
The Good news is threefold for us this morning!
- Heaven and a great reunion await!
- God provides in our wilderness moments!
- Together in community, with God’s help, that which seems impossible is possible!
We give thanks to God for so much good news this morning! Ephesians 3:20-21
20 Now to the Lord who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen!
