“Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we could ask or imagine.”[1] In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Good Morning to our Zoom, YouTube and Facebook Live Audience and our live studio audience! Today we are using a format for receiving communion that is different than we are used to. Although, we are all doing things differently than we are used too! However today, we are being communicated from the reserve sacrament, which each of you has in hand that came by the church. At the appropriate time, those who picked up the reserve sacrament will consume it ---those who do not have the physical sacrament will receive the spiritual sacrament. So, this is very different then what we are used to and BELIEVE IT OR NOT - it is called “communion under special circumstances in our prayer book!” Who would have thought it would be this special?
I think that is where we are right now with everything happening – we are under very special circumstances. Because many vacations have had to be changed dramatically, the Youth have coined a new phase when asking “what did you do for your Coronacation?” Sheltering place can be difficult. However, many times under special circumstances is where we are touched by Christ. AND the touch of Christ has a way of changing a selfish people into a generous people. Our lives must be an Epistle of Christ to others.[2]
You might be asking your self what could he possibly tell be about the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes that I don’t already know? Well sit back in your seat a minute. Yes, this miracle is in all Four Gospels, we all know that. There here are three things I want to point out. First, Jesus has been working very hard preaching, teaching, and healing, he is exhausted and drained. Then he hears the horrific news that his cousin, John the Baptist, has been executed by Harrod. Jesus withdraws in a boat to a deserted place to be alone. Many times, when Jesus goes off in scripture to be alone it is to be with God, perhaps in prayer. But this crowd is relentless, they follow him on foot from the towns to catch up to him. Because of the small geographical size and huge population, Galilee must have been a very difficult place to be alone. As Jesus is getting out of the boat the crowd has ALREADY caught up with him.
And “You know how they (Jesus and the Disciples) felt when the crowd showed up... RIGHT? The two of you have not had a night out without the kids in weeks. You finally get away. The waiter has just brought your appetizer when the baby-sitter calls and tells you the youngest has a high fever and has started throwing up all over the place. You have been planning this vacation for six months. Your reservations are all made and three days before you are scheduled to go your mother calls and says your Dad is going to have a quadruple bypass as soon as the doctors can get his sugar stabilized. You have not had a day off in three weeks. Friday morning your sister calls, says her father-in-law has died and wonders if you could take her kids for the weekend. It has been a very long day. You woke up before dawn because your arthritis hurt so much. You had to go to the grocery store and take your dog to the vet and on the way home your car started to act up and you had to leave it at the garage and get a taxi to take you home. All you want to do is go to bed when the phone rings and it's your friend who lost her husband last month and she just needs somebody to talk to.”[3] That’s the kind of tired that Jesus was!
“…When he had disembarked, he saw a great crowd, and he was moved with compassion for them to the depts of his being and healed their sick.” The crowd was demanding WHAT Jesus could do for them. And then when evening came, he even fed them. Jesus was seeking rest for his soul, but he was not going to get it.
Very few of the miracles of Jesus are so revealing as this one. We are shown here the compassion of Jesus. Jesus could have very easily resented the crowd, what right did they have to invade his privacy with their continued demands? Was he to have no rest and quiet, no time to himself at all? But Jesus was not like that, he was moved to compassion for them. We must never be too busy for people. While it is hard sometimes, we must never even seem to find them a nuisance or a trouble.[4] This week I sent out a message to specific people who had volunteered to help in any way and said that one of our parishioners was in need, struggling greatly under these special circumstances and I needed people to send uplifting notes or cards to this person. All readily agreed to help! And asked what else they could do! I am constantly surprised by the generosity and compassion of this congregation! Our lives must be an Epistle of Christ to others.[5]
Secondly, in this story Jesus demonstrates that all gifts are from God. Jesus takes the five loaves and two fishes, blesses, breaks, then gives! That is exactly what we emulate at every Holy Eucharist – takes, breaks, blesses, and gives.
But notice that he gives it to the disciples. And his disciples give it to the hungry crowd. Here we can clearly see the place of the disciple in the work of Christ. We constantly see this truth which is at the heart of the church. “It is true that the disciple is helpless without his Lord, but it is also true that the Lord is helpless without the disciple.”[6] If Jesus wants something done, a person fed, a child taught, he has to get a person to do it! You and I must be that disciple. Our lives must be an Epistle of Christ to others.[7] An Epistle is a dispatch, a communication, a message. The work of Jesus Christ gets done through his disciples. His love gets expressed through his disciples. His compassion gets expressed through his disciples. Our lives must be an Epistle of Christ to others!
As many of you may know, the Flanagan’s house across the street from the church caught fire a week or so ago and fortunately no one was killed. The Flanagan’s are recovering. The house, however, is damaged completely. I received a few calls suggesting that we offer them our rectory until they can get back into their house! The Rev. Erwin Veale and the team of Chaplains down at University Hospital make compassionate decisions every day! Just by showing up and offering a prayer and comfort to the Covid patients. The Rev. Erwin has already recovered once from the COVID-19 and he is back on the front line. His compassion gets expressed through his disciples. Our lives must be an Epistle of Christ to others.[8]
Thirdly, there are people who always need to understand the miracles of Jesus as they are reading the stories, then there are others who just accept them as a matter of their faith. In either case, it is ok but rather than think of this miracle as one that happened once ----- think of it as one that happens – over and over. These are not isolated events in history but rather the on-going demonstratable, effective power of Jesus Christ. Many people will see this miracle as the loaves and fish being multiplied. That would be something that happened one time and then not again. But let me suggest something else.
Picture the crowd of people, it is late, and everyone is hungry. Would anyone in your family make a long trip around the lake without taking any provisions at all? Surely, they would have brought some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, granola bars, maybe some fruit, and of course, Gatorade -the thirst quencher (so they say). Now it is evening, and everyone is hungry, but they are selfish. Nobody wants to show what food they have. Because then they would have to share it and maybe not have enough left for themselves.
William Barclay, a Scottish Theologian suggests that Jesus takes the lead. He demonstrates the behavior, showing what the disciples have. He shares it with a blessing, bidding, and a beam of a smile. And before they realized what was happening everyone began to share, and there was enough for everyone. More than enough for everyone! If this is what really happened, then it was not the multiplication of the loaves and fish miracle, but rather the changing of selfish people into generous people by the very touch of Christ miracle. “It was the miracle of the birth of love in grudging hearts. It was the miracle of changed men and women with something of Christ in them to banish their selfishness. Perhaps Christ fed them himself and sent his spirit to dwell in their hearts.”[9] May we who are fed by Jesus – may we also have his spirit dwell in our hearts so that our lives will be an Epistle of Christ to others. AMEN.
Communion Under Special Circumstances, St. Augustine of Canterbury
Matthew 14:13-21
The Rev. James T. Said
August 08, 2020
[1] Ephesians 3:20. [2] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 101. [3] https://sermons.com/sermon/prayer-and-compassion-fatigue/1333637 Accessed July 31, 2020. [4] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 99. [5] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 101. [6] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 101. [7] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 101. [8] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 101. [9] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 2, p. 103.