April 2, 2000
You've heard the story before. You've heard it because it is in all four of the Gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke take special care to record the feeding of the five thousand and so does John. But, John has a special purpose in telling the story, and again it is a story meant to be poetry, not prose. If you just look at the surface, the meaning is going to be lost.
Presumably, we have encountered Jesus on a day after he has been teaching, preaching and healing. Jesus has a wonderful problem — the people won't leave! This is every preachers dream. Of all of the people who were there, only three do we know anything about.
There is Philip. Philip is somebody you always want to have on your team because he asks the hard questions. How are we going to feed all of these people? Six month's wages couldn't do the job! There is the boy who brought his lunch, the one who came prepared and is also an important person to have on your team. Then there was Andrew who's a unique disciple. He's a unique apostle because he never stays by himself when Jesus addresses him. Andrew is the one who always goes to find somebody else. In today's parlance, Andrew is the classic networker. Remember what he was doing when Jesus called him? He was tending his nets. As soon as Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of people," Andrew replied, "Wait a minute, don't go away. I will get my brother, you need to talk to him." And so, he goes and gets Peter. It is Andrew who goes and finds the boy, the one who goes out and says, "We have few resources, but here they are."
The end of the story is not the feeding. It is an important component of the story, but it is not the end. The end of the story, the pieces that make this puzzle come together, is in the end when they want to make Jesus the king and he refuses the acclamation. He always does.
Do you remember the temptations he had to undergo; what he was tempted to do with those stones? Remember? Turn them into bread; provide for all the physical immediate needs of all the people at that moment. Anything wrong with that? No. But Jesus has a little problem here. The fact is that people still called him a great prophet — they didn't call him the messiah. He can't meet the needs of people who can't recognize him for who he is, at least not just yet. The whole reason he drew all those people to him was because of his teaching, his professional insight about God, not to mention his great character. The Gospel records that people came out to see him because they were sick and he was healing them. What will Jesus do for me? I heard that Jesus is a great therapeutic device and he will enable me to get what I want.
The feeding story records as a eucharistic moment, as a moment when we encounter Christ and he gives us what we need — not necessarily what we want, and he refuses to be defined according to our definition. But, we also know that whatever we have, however meager it may seem, he will bless it and give it back, not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. God can't appeal to selfish needs by offering an unselfish Gospel, so he gives us signs.
The people who stayed with Jesus that day followed him knowing that to do so wouldn't necessarily meet their immediate needs. They faced physical dangers; they faced persecution, poverty and eventually martyrdom. It flies in the face of the culture in which we live. The real question is what loaves and fishes do we have that we can offer to God?
I want to tell you about two men, both named Brad. The first Brad I knew very well. He was the night shift supervisor in a shop where they repaired airplanes. If you have ever worked the nightshift, you know that probably it is not the most productive group of people in the world. The day shuts down and so do our bodies.
It so happened that a 747 was brought into the shop needing to be completely stripped down, all its parts reworked and put back together and then put back in the air. Oh, by the way, this is our major customer and, Oh, by the way, they need the plane back by 8 a.m.Wednesday morning. Oh, and look it's Tuesday night and we are not quite as far along as we would like to be. Needless to say, all we have left is the night shift! Their supervisor is Brad. He is all right, but he is very young. Even though he trained in the military and I heard he is organized, I don't think we are going to make it. Everyone left Tuesday night to go home and write their resumes; Brad and the night crew took over.
Brad assembled his crew of 30 men to work on the 747 and he assigned each man according to their talents. He knew one man to be especially proficient with engines so he sent him off to work on them. He knew another man to be excellent on wings — and off he went. He gave them all strict orders, "You will not leave your post for anything unless to go to the restroom and only when I tell you. If you want to take lunch, you will go one at a time, eat right there and only for ten minutes. In the meantime, I will bring you everything you need.
Brad had shopping bags of parts, all the items the crews requested, and he spent the entire night running from one side of the plane to the other, throwing these men the bags or parts that they needed. He refused to give up until six in the morning when the day crew arrived. The plane was almost back together when the day shift walked in, resumes in hand. The day shift supervisor looked at the plane and said, "We can finish this if nobody leaves." So, one by one, the crews switched out. Brad was the last to leave. At 7:59 a.m., the 747 lifted off and Brad Cox, my older brother watched it go.
The other Brad I never knew, but you did, a man who came to the desert in 1984, looked around and said, "What more can we do to feed these people here in this valley?" Some said to him, "What do we have but a meager little church, a small building and an office? What do we have to feed these people?" — Together, you fed them.
You went out and identified the resources that would be necessary to feed the people in the Coachella Valley, and, indeed, people from all over the world. The evidence is all around us as the story of this place continues.
What do we have, however meager it may be for each of us that God can take and bless and make use of for the Kingdom. The eucharistic moment is when the giver encounters the receiver and delights in the meal and delights in the gift because whatever is given, is given back. Will you share that moment with God? AMEN
The The Rev. Sean Cox
seancox@stmargarets.org
2 April 2000