Lent 2006 Series: “Yours Are the Hands of Christ”

March 22, 2006  “Feeding Hands”

Pastor Gary E. Benson

Zumbro Lutheran Congregation

 

It has not happened often; it just doesn’t happen in a “Lutheran Church.” I mean in the Lutheran Church we are seldom short on food, are we?  I mean I couldn’t tell you how many times I have been in the fellowship hall and heard the comment, not bragging, but just a matter of fact, “Aren’t Lutheran pot lucks the best?”  I just have to agree. We always have plenty of food, and if it looks like we are going to run short, there may not be a miracle, but a quick trip to the nearest grocery store/deli takes care of business.  In that regards, years ago since moving to Rochester, a big town with delis, I just love how you can buy something at the deli, stop home and put it in our own container, and wow, it looks like you worked really hard.  (And now I have learned that deli containers are even fine, no problem, better yet, if needed.)

 

In our brief text for this night from the Gospel of John, it was no pot luck meal. In fact, as Jesus was surrounded by the multitudes on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, no meal had been planned. There is no fellowship committee to get something organized. And, yes, it is meal time and the folks are hungry.   Jesus, being no stranger to crowds, was also very aware of their physical hunger. Again, he didn’t have a committee, but he has Phillip, and he called on him to check out the crowd. Were there resources available?  The report was not too encouraging -- a couple fish and a few loaves of bread.  Reminds me of when I would invite people over for supper and forget to tell Sara until last minute --- how to become unpopular in a microsecond!  What are we going to do must have been on the mind of the disciples. No grocery store, no bakery, no way around the facts. We have a hungry crowd, we have a few loaves of bread, and a couple of fish. So now what?

 

Our text says Jesus asked Phillip regarding resources just to test him, as if to say, Jesus already had in mind what he was going to do. He just wanted to see how, in his humanness, Phillip might respond. Would he trust that Jesus could overcome the obstacles and provide the feeding hands, the food needed?  Will you help me, Phillip, to help these people even if you don’t know how it is going to get done?

 

I say Jesus was placing Phillip outside his comfort zone and challenging him.  And for most of us, we don’t like it outside of our comfort zone, but that is where we often can grow, become, and overcome our own personal stereotypes the best.  Truth told I think the normal is to simply want to put one’s life on cruise control, keep things as predictable as possible. Reality is, however, life is constantly changing, and it will keep coming at us wave after wave. No one’s life is without a strong appetite to overcome some hunger.  Like Phillip, we confront our Lord and God.  “Lord, how are you going to get me through this?”

 

On the one hand we know the words of Jesus, “I will not leave you nor forsake you.” So we plead, “Lord, “fill me in,” “curb my appetite,”” when I am restless and have a hunger for answer, directions, insight, and hope.  Many a time I have awoken in the middle of the night restless, seeking direction and answers. One might even say “worried.”  There may not have been 5,000 mouths to feed; but there were personal, family, or professional reasons that caused a hunger for answers, and an appetite seeking God to “fill my plate” with all that is needed to make me full with certainty or hope.

 

Fill me in, Lord, take the pressure off. We want answers NOW! Feed me now, fix the problem now.  And what does Jesus say to Phillip? Simply “trust me!”

 

Such simple words, but they are the essence of faith, “trust me.”  With the resources you present my grace will be sufficient, there will be enough.  Trust me, such easy words to speak, such difficult words to live in.  Truth told, however, we have the resources. Oftentimes we don’t have the will power, the faith to risk what we have in order that it can become more.

 

Think of the congregation. We have been following Jesus through its ministry for 140 years. Do we have the resources to take care of the world? Probably not. Do we have the capacity to “feed the multitudes” with greater levels of our personal and congregational gifts and resources? Certainly. 

 

Oh, personally and in our humanness, we may say we are limited, we have only a few fish and a couple loaves of bread, but given over to our Lord and our God, we know through faith God can bless and multiply the resources, as we live and act in faith.   (This was the end of the sermon as of Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. I had reached a mental block, and then the phone rang.)

 

The caller was a person who had been in the congregation I served in the ‘70’s.  She identified herself, “Pastor Gary, this is Sonja Mortenson.” (She and her brother were in my high school youth group. I had not heard from her since leaving the congregation in 1980.)  She said,  “I wanted to tell you that Greg’s book, Three Cups of Tea, is on the New York best seller list.”  “Tell me about it,” I responded.  Briefly, she said, “Shortly after our sister died in 1993, Greg wanted to do something to honor Krista’s life. He decided he would climb the second highest mountain in the world, K2 in Pakistan and leave a necklace of hers on the summit.  The attempt failed, and Greg, emaciated and exhausted, was taken in by villagers below and nursed back to health.”  As Sonja told me, “While recuperating, Greg noticed that the children didn’t have anything to write with; they would use sticks to write in the mud.  He vowed to build a school in exchange for their kindness. Starting with no resources in ’93 (and at times living in his car), he has since built not one, but 55 schools reaching 20,000 students through the organization he began.”  Again, his book is entitled, Three Cups of Tea.

 

The manner in which we become the hands of Christ to feed the world often begin when the Holy Spirit stirs within us, and we hear the words of Christ, “trust me,” and then together (working and serving in Jesus’ name), miracles of grace bless the multitudes – with food, with friendship, with learning, with a future of hope.