Last week. . . I was talking about “Fully Relying On God” and about Grace that abounds all around us even when we are not asking or looking for it. Grace is one of the many blessings given to us from God. But this blessing. . . this grace. . . we are to share with those around us.
In Matthew 14:13-21. . . we hear about another blessing. . . a miracle. . . that Jesus performed. Jesus had gone away by Himself to a deserted place in a boat. But the crowds followed Him there when they heard where He was. When He came ashore and saw the crowd he had compassion for them and cured their sick (Blessing number 1). But as night came, the disciples said to them that it was a deserted place and it was getting late. They told Jesus to send the crowds away so that they can go and get something to eat for themselves. Well Jesus, being who He was . . . told the disciples to feed them, not to send them away. The disciples . . . being human as they were. . . . told Jesus they didn’t have enough to feed them. . . . they only had 5 loaves and two small fish for food. Now this is when it gets interesting for me. . . Jesus told them to bring the food to Him and He blessed the food, broke it, and gave it to the disciples to feed the multitude. Everyone ate until they were filled and when the disciples collected what was left and there were twelve baskets of food left over (Blessing number 2). Now there were around 5,000 men not including the women and children.
But there was something else happening here. I was reading in the Upper Room on July 19th and there was a story from a Linda Linn that day and it made me think. She noticed that “only when the disciples began distributing the bread that they received were their meager resources multiplied; only then did a miracle happen.” What was blessed became a blessing.. . . a miracle.. . . when it was shared. We are blessed to be a blessing to those around us causing a miracle to happen.
In the Genesis reading from this morning, we hear about another blessing that happened in an unexpected way. We heard the story of Jacob and how he wrestled with a stranger. . . an angel. . . with God at Penuel, (Now I don’t know about you but I have had my share of Jacob moments struggling with God. But. . . that’s another sermon). Jacob wrestled all night with this stranger and would not let go until this stranger blessed him. Even though the stranger put Jacob’s hip out of joint, he kept fighting for that blessing. We too, at times, need to fight for our blessing. . . we need to hang in there until the end to receive a blessing. We need to see it through and trust in the blessing at the end of the struggle. Jacob was blessed in the end because he persevered through the battle. Jacob had a daily reminder of the battle. Each step he took after that night, he walked with a limp. We too have reminders of our battles and the blessings at the end. It is the stories of our lives and how God has brought us through. It is these reminders. . . these stories. . . that we need to share to help others through their night at Penuel.
The disciples talked about “only” having five loaves and two fish. Only. . . that word only can be so restrictive to us. Travis Tamerius of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Columbia, Missouri, wrote a week of devotionals in the Upper Room Disciplines called “Meeting God in the Meager”. These devotionals really made me think about seeing God in the most unexpected places. Well. . . he talks about this word “Only”. He states (and I am paraphrasing) that this word puts boundaries on the limitless possibility. It will fence in our vision to what is practical and reasonable. It pays attention to the obvious. Moses was only a simple man who couldn’t speak well, not a mighty liberator of his people. David was only a shepherd boy, not a future king of Israel. The woman washing Jesus’ feet was just a sinner, not a model for how we should worship and to love. And to the stunned imagination of the disciples, the bread and fish could only go so far.
We are blessed to be a blessing. When we share with others how we have been blessed in our lives. . . it is in that sharing we may give others hope for their own lives. We give them the blessing of hope. When we share our talents we give others the blessing of being able to share in our talents with us. When we share the blessing of the Gospel of Christ and the story of our lives with Christ with others, we just may be blessing in ways we aren’t expecting and they may just decide they want that same blessing for their lives. It is only in the sharing that the blessing is passed on and the miracle can happen.
God can do abundantly more than we can ask or think of according to His power at work through us. We need to recognize that God is able to feed multitudes with all that seems meager and insufficient in our lives. . . even if it is just our stories that we share. They are not to meager. . . they’re just right.
Amen.
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
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Suncook United Methodist ChurchSuncook, NH
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1 comment:
Very good! I enjoyed reading this sermon. Thanks for posting it.
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