Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Will Malambri - "Feast in the Desert"
Transcript
- Belin Memorial UMC: See how sweet it is to trust in you, Jesus. ⁓ how sweet, how sweet it is to trust in you, Jesus. ⁓ how sweet, how sweet it is to trust in you, Jesus. How sweet it is to trust in our Jesus, amen. Love it when y'all preach the sermon before I even start talking. Thank you, that was great. And so true. You know, one of the things we like to do is honor. ⁓ we honor all the scriptures, but the gospel's reveal to us in the most d direct way about Jesus and his life and his calling on our lives and the miraculous works that he has done and continues to do. So we like to honor that by standing for the reading of the gospel. I invite you to do so now. And when Jesus heard that his cousin John the Baptizer had been beheaded, 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. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 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. Jesus said to them, They need not go away. You give them something to eat. They replied, We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish. And he said, Bring them here to me. 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, and all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. So let's start with the obvious when around five thousand men, plus perhaps the same number of women, because who else would have gotten the men there? And let's be conservative, two children per family. When about twenty thousand people eat until they're full of what began as five loaves and two fish, and then there are twelve baskets of remainders left over after all of that. It's a miracle. This cannot be explained by twenty thousand people so desperate for healing that they follow Jesus out into a desert, they spend the day listening to him, spend the day watching him heal, and then suddenly discover at the end of the day that their packs happen to have bread for enough to share. Th this miracle can't be explained by a few people having more bread than multiple bakeries at the ready, just waiting for Jesus to give a little command to the disciples. The only explanation is God performing another miracle in a desert. Another. It's not the first time God entered the wilderness, the desert, and did something miraculous. I'll remind you of two previous times. The most familiar is when the people of Israel were escaping the Pharaoh in Egyptian slavery. God brought them through the sea of reeds, entered into the desert, wandering there as they went around. Had they not left what was better, after all? They had been in terrible oppression back in Egypt, horrible conditions, but they had not starved there. In the desert, they feared they would. So much so that they began to wonder if they were not better off in slavery. They would even, according to Psalm 78's retelling of the story, say things like, Can God spread a table? Can God spread a table? you mean the God who gave Baron 90-year-old Sarah and her hundred-year-old Abraham a child because is anything too wonderful for the Lord? ⁓ you talking about the God who took Joseph from nearly being killed, then sold into slavery by his brothers and used that meanness to save Israel from famine because you meant it for harm, but God used it for good? Can the God who used Moses Aaron and plagues to liberate the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery, giving them dry land in the middle of a sea to walk across, saving them from the Pharaoh's pursuit, and providing drinking water in the middle of a desert. Spread a table? How about in the form of some flaky substance that no one ever had seen before? Showing up, giving them all that they needed to eat. All those people, giving us what we now use as an expression, manna from heaven. There's not an expression for the other example. I think I know why. The story comes from 2 Kings chapter 4, and if we had to say manna from the man from Beul Shalesha, we wouldn't say it. Here's the story. There was a famine in Israel, and a man came from Beul Shaleshah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God. Twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elijah, the man of God, said, Give it to the people and let them eat. But his servant said, How can I set this before a hundred people? So Elisha repeated, Give it to the people and let them eat. For thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left. He set it before them, they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. God spoke. And what seemed like an impossibly small amount for such a large number of people ended up being more than enough. I've never experienced anything close to a famine. Even as a child, when I was starving, because it had been a few hours since my last meal, all I had to do was figure out which snack I'd be allowed to eat that wouldn't ruin my supper. That's the closest I've ever been. I know that's not the case for many people in this world and even in our own community. The Grace Outdoors Sunday School class serves a meal for one Monday each month to people of the New Directions shelter. And recently the pantry at New Directions became so bare that the Grace Outdoors class is is taking up collections so that they can go and help restock it, just to give them the basics so they can enjoy some meals there. Help them get through the summer lull. But it may not just be for the summer. Food pantries across our country are Recognizing that need is outpacing supply. The Low Country Food Bank using Feeding America's 2024 map the meal gap report tells us that 13.4% of Georgetown County residents and 20.7 percent of children in Georgetown County are food insecure. In Ory County, it's 14.5% of the residents and 17.5% of the children. It's why our backpack mission is such an important ministry in our community. Why we're so grateful for you who support it. We we hear from Jesus that the poor will always be with you. And he's right about that. When we also hear from Jesus the command that you give them something to eat. And he's right about that. We we want him to turn rocks into bread. We want him to send the hungry away to go get some food on their own and he comes back with you. You give them something to eat. And while we may be tempted to say, You have no idea, Jesus, what my housing payments are. And all that insurance and taxes and streaming services and those car payments and gas bills. And have you seen the price of food lately, Jesus? And Jesus, who sent his disciples out without a thing, who did not have a place to lay his own head, who realizes the percent of someone's money going towards food gets higher the less money she has, resists the urge to guilt us because he knows that his father provides. Often through his disciples. So your peats. You give them something to eat. And we do. Because we know that everyone has to eat. We understand the comment attributed to Pope Francis, you pray for the hungry, then you feed them. This is how prayer works. I wonder though, if we'd do it a little more eagerly, if the result wasn't just a bunch of food, but a feast. As Sakahachee campers who have been to the Wednesday night fish fry that's hosted by one of our neighbors, these families, some of whom who have received the help of Saqqachee, their houses have been repaired in the past. They come together and they pour out food upon the Socatachee fam, workers, teams, participants. All kinds of things, the things you pay big money for down in the inlet. They bless those people with. But those who've been there will tell you it's not just a lot of food. It's a feast. They're sharing and caring and listening. It i it brings people together in a way that just having a load of food cannot. The delight is in the laughter and the stories and the hugs and the care. more than bellies get full on a night like that. And what a reminder of how God works when it happens in a place that would feel like a desert. had God not gotten involved. My brother in law and I were sitting on the beach recently together and we recognized the the gift of being able to be with extended family in a beautiful place like one of our beaches down here. And we were talking and we were we're both in kind of in the same place in life. ⁓ And we recognize that that we have More means than we've had. And he made the comment, you know, you get to a certain level where your needs are cared for and you've got a little comfort, a little space there. And you start to realize that happiness growth has plateaued and even can drop off. That more doesn't necessarily mean more happiness. He said, You know, what really matters at this point is a table with good food and good people around it. Table with good food. Good people around it. That kind of recognition can ensure that wherever you are In a desert? In a gym? You can have a feast. The castle. Or living room. You can have a feast. After Jesus took the loaves and the fish, he praised the God from whom our daily bread comes. And then he broke the bread, and he gave it to his disciples, and he told them to give it to others, and all those gathered in the desert ate, and they were filled. And whatever caused that miracle of five loaves and two fish to be turned into such an abundance that there were leftovers, the joy was in the sharing of the grace. Can you imagine? The laughter at the end of the day, a day when Jesus had healed however many people. A day that was drawing to a close and the people's stomachs were starting to grow and they were wondering how with all those crowds they could possibly get enough for themselves to eat. And they started to look around and thought, you know, the more he gets, the less I'll get. And there was some sense of rivalry and competition. But then as they looked more closely, they realized there was more than enough food for everyone. Everyone was being satisfied. And so they let go of that envy and they let go of that rivalry. And they reveled in the peace and joy of full bellies, but even fuller spirits. Can you imagine the laughter at the end of that day when Jesus took and blessed and broke and gave the disciples what they were supposed to give to others? least likely of places. Desert? A gym? The Lord shows up and meets our needs with a feast that is full of joy. And how pleased is he when his people share bread. Laughter. And love. Or Jesus. You enter desolate places and bring in abundance. Sometimes it's through a miracle that we cannot explain where healings happen and a few loves loaves and fish more than satisfy. More often it at least it seems these days You bless us with an abundance and then tell us to share that with others. So we ask you to help us to do so without reluctance. With the spirit of a feast where whatever lacks we bring to it, too little to eat, or too little faith, or or too little joy, or too little love, that whatever our lacks are, you meet them with your grace and with the grace of others, and that laughter can lead to joy and and love can deepen faith and communion draw us nearer to you and to each other. We seek your nearness, Lord. For ourselves and for people in times of grief. Like the families of Frankie O'Donnell and Angelo Rabano. those dealing with storm damage and and life threatening heat. For those sorting through disasters like the ones recently in Japan and Venezuela. Those in places of war. For anywhere as a place of famine. We, your hungry, turned joyful disciples, seek your nearness, and give thanks for your mercy and the mercy of those who respond. Praying as you taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom. And power and the glory forever. Amen.