Kingdom Adding and Multiplying vs. Subtracting and Dividing

August 2, 2020 Pentecost 9, Year A The Rev. Mark Pendleton Christ Church, Exeter Kingdom Adding and Multiplying vs. Subtracting and Dividing Matthew 14:13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16 Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." 17 They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." 18 And he said, "Bring them here to me." 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Preachers and hearers of sermons should sit up straight when we come to stories that find their way into all four gospel accounts. The feeding of the 5,000 is such a story. It is a both a story and way of living that invites us to see how God finds ways to feed, draw close, and heal bodies and souls. With eyes to see and ears to listen we can discover our role in this daily miracle of turning something small into something much more - enough so that no one goes away hungry. Many of you know by now that I return often to my childhood and youth for places to enter into Scripture. With the telling of the feeding of the five thousand, my mind returns as if were yesterday, to my elementary school classroom. Many of us have been thinking a lot lately -- with concern -- about teachers and their students as the new school year fast approaches. There are many hard decisions that lay ahead. May we pray for wise decisions from our leaders and educators. In my elementary school, we had one teacher for each classroom who taught all the subjects. We spent a lot of time on penmanship if my memory serves me well. Writing out cursive letters into sentences over and over again. We had a whole subject called phonics - which must have been a thing back in the day to de-code the mystery of English pronunciation and spelling. And then there was math. Math in those early years was based largely on the learning and memorization of tables. First the easiest. Addition. "1+1=2" is still used to express what is obvious - as in the easiest of any one thing to understand. Subtraction came next. And then onto multiplication and division. They were the building blocks of early math learning that still used today test one's cognitive function. To move into continuing care retirement community, you better know how to count backwards from 100 by sevens. 100, 93, then, well..you fill in the rest. Unlike the other forms of math, I would learn later on, these four calculations are used throughout our lifetimes. Addition: when I shop for groceries I try to add in my head the big items so I'm not shocked at the checkout counter. Subtraction: when our once full family house is an empty nest as the grown children have moved out on their own. Multiplication: as I inventory the worries and events I cannot control during this extended time of uncertainty and fear. Division gets played out writ large in this moment of unrest and decision in our public life. To quote Abraham Lincoln who borrowed from Jesus: "a house divided cannot stand." Our very familiar Bible story for today invites many questions as any good Bible story does. What moves us to act when we encounter need? Are we moved at all? How does abundance come about? -- giving us more than enough when we start with very little. Mustard seed math is what I would call that. What was the greatest and true miracle that day beside that shoreline? Lastly, how can see Jesus actions of taking, blessing, breaking and then giving as hints of the Eucharist he would institute at the Last Supper that sustains Christians on our journey - when we are hungry for a good word and want to be fed by something holy and not just the sugar-high of the fleeting moment of what makes us feel good but does not last. How do we stay fed spiritually during a pandemic living with so many restrictions on our lives and how we gather to do church? In the gospels, there were few times and places when Jesus could outrun or hideaway from the needs of the people he encountered. At this point in Matthew's gospel he had just learned of the beheading of his cousin and mentor John the Baptist. Filled with grief, we can only imagine, he withdrew to be alone. Anyone who has experienced loss knows the need to find space apart from the concern of the crowds. After the visitors have gone, family members and friends return home and with casseroles piled high in the fridge, the greatest solace is often quiet. Jesus knew what Psalmist promised: Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10) On that day, and many of his days, his humanity led him into the heart of people's lives. Jesus could not turn away. Jesus saw the need of healing, the brokenness, and did what was in his power to do. To repair. To lift up. To care. I recall what a bishop of mine used to say about the prophet Micah's refrain of what was demanded of us by God: Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? This is a verse to learn and know and have at our ready. My bishop would turn the statement around to challenge the listeners who had grown too accepting of that ways of the world and failed to activate their ability to bring about change. She would say that far too often, you and I love justice and we do kindness - often at arms-length and with not a whole at stake. It is easier to risk little than risk it all. Risk being wrong. Risk being rejected. This week our nation mourned a giant of the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis, Congressman from Georgia. And the phrase of his that many were repeating this week is also the title of the current documentary of his life -- "Good trouble." John Lewis offers us words that can sustain and challenge us today for the challenges we face: "Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." He repeated these words again when he commemorated the tragic events of Bloody Sunday of March 7, 1965 as peaceful protesters were beaten by law enforcement officers in Selma. I had the opportunity of a lifetime back in 2002 to take my youth group from Maryland to Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham. We walked over the Edmund Pettus Bridge as an act of pilgrimage. His memoir Walking with the Wind was my first education of his amazing life and witness. I recommend it highly. Jesus was always moved by compassion. When and if we lose compassion for those without voice, the abused, forgotten, the refugee, the undocumented, the caregiver, the struggling parent, the front-line worker, the bus driver having to tell an angry passenger that they have a wear a mask or get off the bus, the anxious and confused teen and the lonely and forgotten child, that is when we lose our moral compass and the heart to love and serve. Going back to my division tables of my schooling: there is a great deal of public money being divided up in this moment in our history to get people through the disastrous economic and emotional impact of Covid-19. We are probably only at the beginning of the suffering that will touch most of the world in some way. Even as we are saturated by the news, my prayer is that we do not lose sight and grow numb to need. It is so easy and natural to want to turn off. May we care about those who have lost work, those who fear being evicted from their apartments or losing their home, those uncertain about what the school year will bring for their children. The disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." When the disciples said: "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish," Jesus responds: "Bring them here to me." Then Jesus ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Jesus invites them to stay. Sit down on the grass. We hear Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. Jesus invites us to stay. To sit down on the grass and learn. Miracles can happen when we look around and see that each of us have more to give and offer than we might think. Many have wondered if the real miracle that day that brought about the feeding of so many people was that, after sitting down, learning that they were being cared for by this teacher/prophet/healer Jesus, that their fear of going hungry that day left them and they began to share what they had brought with them. Bread and fish quickly appeared. And they all had enough. V. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. A heavenly banquet with leftovers to take home to boot. Not a bad story and a way to live and believe. These past weeks we've heard many parables and examples of what the Kingdom of God looks and feels like. Sowers, wheat, weeds, pearls, buried treasure, mustard seeds and yeast. These are ancient stories that continue to keep us thinking and imagining of what God is up to in our lives and in the world. Small actions do seem to get God's attention. Lastly, we return to the actions of the feeding of the 5,000: Jesus taking, blessing, breaking and then giving. As a parish, we considered many things before we began to offer an in-person Eucharist at our outside altar at 8:00 a.m. on Sundays. We limit the numbers, wear masks and stay a safe distance apart from one another. We do not sing or stay for fellowship. And we know and understand that many of you cannot or chosen not to attend at this point. Each time we take the bread, bless, break and share it, we think and pray for our entire community, knowing that it may be a while yet before many gather again inside in our sacred space. Other churches and denominations are finding their own ways to be faithful during these times. However we worship, God continues to make miracles by opening our eyes and our hearts, and feed us with the true food that sustains us. 2