The reported feeding of the 5000, not counting women and children is one of the most familiar gospels stories.  It is told in similar form in all four of the gospels.  Like all the Jesus stories, it is about what it seems to be about and also about something else.

It seems to be about the problem of a lot of people gathered at meal time far enough out in the country that there is no McDonald’s in their immediate vicinity.  In other words, it is about how Jesus responds to the practical problem of daily hunger.  But it’s also about motivation; about perception; and, like all the gospel stories – about discipleship.

What causes Jesus to withdraw into the wilderness in Matthew’s setting of this story is apparently his emotional exhaustion upon hearing of the death of John the Baptist.  John was the prophet to whom Jesus responded, the one who had baptized him and invited him into ministry.  Of course the death of John was an occasion for grief for Jesus.

But this construction of the story by Matthew’s editor sets up an interesting contrast.  Herod has a well planned, elegantly appointed, generously supplied, festive dinner party.  After a series of deceptions and actions motivated by fear, the party ends with the gruesome presentation of John’s head on a platter.

Jesus has a picnic on the lawn, with no elaborate preparations, but with life-sustaining bread in abundance.

Hunger has three definitions in the Oxford Dictionary.

1. The uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite.  Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food.
2. The want or scarcity of food in a country
3. A strong desire or craving

-Third kind of hunger that took Jesus to the deserted place: a strong desire or craving for rest, for renewal, for prayer.   Exhausted from the work of healing, preaching, teaching, with nothing left to give – he goes to be alone and find rest.

But people come with a strong need and desire for healing.

Jesus response:
not sending them away until his vacation is over – he has compassion on them.  The beginning of this miracle, however we understand it – is compassion.

His motivation is compassion.
Herod, motivated by fear has a horrible dinner party.  Jesus, motivated by compassion, not only heals those who have come for healing, but provides dinner for them from nothing. When it’s time for a meal and people are hungry, the disciples, to their credit, notice.  They suggest that Jesus should now send the people away so they can get some food.

But Jesus says: you give them something to eat.

We have nothing here – nothing but five loaves and two fish.

The disciples were not, perhaps, suffering from a scarcity problem so much as they were suffering from a perception problem.  Five loaves and two fish may seem like too little – but it is not nothing.

The first kind of hunger: the exhausted condition caused by want of food is experienced right now by about 840 million people in the world (CARE).

The second kind of hunger; the scarcity of food in a country is being experienced by at least 30 and perhaps as many as 50 nations; 22 of them in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Those who study such things tell us that there is no global food shortage.  There is a global food crisis.  In the July 2008 issue of “Sojourners” Magazine, Frances Moore Lappe examine the forces that are busy generating scarcity from abundance and creating hunger in the midst of plenty.   There is enough food on the planet to feed everybody.  Hunger is not about bread.  Hunger is about economics and politics.

The perception of scarcity in the midst of abundance is the fruit of the politics of fear.  We have grown so accustomed to abundance that we perceive scarcity in the midst of it.  In fact, our lives seem to be driven to a large extent by a fear of scarcity.  The perpetuation of this myth serves economic interests.

Dan Matthews, for many years the Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church on Wall Street in New York City exposes the power of this myth in this first person recollection about a trip to Wal-Mart.  There are no Wal-Mart’s in NYC – so on a visit to North Carolina, he encountered the Wal-Mart experience and its temptations, when he went shopping for one small camera battery.

“When I walked into Wal-Mart, I headed straight to the camera department, which is in the back of the store.  On the way back there, I stopped and spotted cases of Coca Cola stacked up for a price that was utterly unbelievable for my New York mentality.  So I got one of those big carts, and on that bottom rack I put three or four cases of Coca Cola at a price so low I felt they were being given away.
Well, I had not gotten very far before I discovered paper towels, and compared with New York City, they were also at a ridiculously low price, so I piled them into the cart as well.  After getting my battery, I headed out and saw some more bargains and by the time I checked out I had enough stuff to practically fill my wife's small Subaru station wagon.  When I got home she came out to greet me.  She saw the car filled up.  Then slowly she wandered around it without saying a word.  After looking into all the windows she remarked, “And we don't need any of it.” Ever done that? For those of us old enough to remember the depression era, the abundance of goods in our present world is staggering.” (from a sermon on “30 Good Minutes” website)

The abundance of goods is staggering, and still, we are hungry for more. In the midst of this abundance, many of us are deeply concerned about the real hunger that is all around us.  It’s not just sub Saharan Africa – it’s southeastern Ohio
Food pantries closing,
Someone e-mailed this week – what can we do? I don’t have an easy answer to that question, either.  As those of us reading Caught in the Middle can attest – the economic problems of our geographic region are complex.

But I can affirm that it’s the right question.

Notice what doesn’t happen in this story.  The disciples don’t just sit down and wait for Jesus to do a miracle and lament and complain and worry.  They don’t get bitter and walk away from Jesus because he doesn’t perform on their command.   Of course, that’s not what disciples do.

But isn’t it how we often respond? Don’t we have a tendency to subscribe to a theology that is waiting for God to come and rescue us? Aren’t we waiting for a miracle to bring more people to our church, to shore up our sagging budget, to save our schools, to make our community safer? Aren’t we always waiting for the next brilliant CEO or politician or strategist or school superintendent or pastor to be the miracle bringer that will fix all our problems?

Well, in this miracle story – Jesus said to the disciples: “you give them something to eat.” Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that it’s time to stop waiting for a miracle and participate in one instead.

The disciples have nothing to bring to this miracle.  According to them. “We have nothing.” Only five loaves and two fish.

Jesus took what they had, and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.  And all of them were fed – even the women and children.  And there were leftovers!

Stop waiting for a miracle and participate in one.  You don’t have to have a lot to participate – bring your nothing.

Jerome, 4th century bishop writes what Jesus does:
“By the breaking of the bread, he makes it into a seedbed of food--for if the bread had been left intact and not pulled apart and broken into pieces, they would have been unable to feed the great crowds of men, women, and children....Mysteries are made manifest, so that what did not feed the multitude of people in its original whole and unbroken state now feeds them in its divided state.”

Jesus miracle is not about glory and majesty and power.  It’s about exhaustion, emptiness.  It’s about the realization that we must die to our own power to fix our problems and join Jesus in this miracle.   Jesus’ miracles are about dying and rising.  When we die to the myth of scarcity; we are born into abundance; when we die to the power of fear, compassion is born in us.

When we stop expecting a miracle, and start participating, we do it by offering ourselves to be blessed, and broken and given to the world.

What we bring to the table as our offering, what we bring, when we come hands open, hungry, to receive bread – is ourselves.  And Jesus takes it, and blesses it – and gives it to the world.

That’s the great drama of God’s life in the world – and we are the bread.

We are manna; we are God’s offering to the hungry, God’s compassion to the hurting.

To be that in the world – wow! That’s truly satisfying.

Thanks be to a generous God.