JULY 31, 2005 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
IS 55:1-5; PS 145:8-9, 15-22; ROMANS 9:1-5; MATT 14:13-21
Empty but Full
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we believe and in believing we obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Come, buy wine and milk without money…(Is. 55:1).
Yeah, right. Try that this afternoon down at the grocery store!...And I have some lake front property in Arizona that I’ll sell you, too! Don’t we learn at a very early age that you don’t get sum thin’ for nuthin’?!?! So how is it that we are called to cast aside this world-worn weary wisdom of ours and trade it in on some wide-eyed Pollyanna claptrap?
Yet, this is exactly what we are being asked to do. It is the very challenge of believing the gospel of God: daring to hope that the news really is good, that God really is good, that God’s news really is good for me, for you, for us all. For in the backs of our minds, or in the front, depending on: our mood, our day, our pain, the question lurks, “What’s the catch?”
Because we all know that nowhere in this world can you or I march into a store and walk out again with milk and wine without even so much as a buck chucked at the checker. That’s just too good to be true. And as “they” say, If it’s too good to be true…it probably is. We know that lesson, and we know it well. Especially with the events of these last two weeks, we know that there is no free lunch, that the news is not always good, that even God can sometimes seem absent at best, uncaring at worst…
And yet…that’s why today’s Gospel lesson is such a comfort in so many ways and is so appropriate for our family of faith. The text starts with v. 13 in the chapter. Does anyone know what has happened in the preceding verses? (I didn’t either!). An ordinary day in Jesus’ life quickly falls apart with the advent of some very bad news, painful news, frustrating, sad and unhappy news.
Friends have just delivered the terrible word that his cousin, his compatriot, his peculiar prophetic partner, John the Baptist, has died at the hands of King Herod. Jesus’ reaction, I’m sure, is just like ours: denial, anger, grief. In short, Jesus is hurting and empty and wants to be alone.
So he withdraws: to pray, to shut out the world, to open up his heart to the flood of emotions that tosses us to and fro on wave upon wave of powerful feelings: thankfulness for a life well lived, sadness for one that ended so abruptly, laughter at stories that bring a smile to the face, tears over a broken heart that feels as if it will never mend.
He seeks out a silent site…but soon, that wilderness becomes a sort of circus…and quickly he is thrust back into the role of healer. Henri Nouen captured this conundrum so beautifully in the title of one of his books. In so many ways, Jesus is The Wounded Healer.
The people who meet him are hurting with all their ailments and aches, their problems and pains, their wounds and worries and woes. And Jesus, with pain in his own heart and tears in his eyes, has compassion for them; heals them; and as if that’s not enough, he makes sure to feed them as well...
Actually, that’s not quite true. Who is it that ends up feeding all those people? Jesus and the disciples together. In fact, in the evening, Jesus seems to do to his followers what the needy crowd did to him that morning.
It really is an amazing parallel to think about. When the disciples see the sun starting to set in the west, they say to the Lord, Let’s send these folks into town for a bite to eat before it gets dark.
What do you think was the motivation behind their suggestion?
-Concern for Jesus and his pain.
-Concern for their own grief and loss.
-Concern that the people really were hungry.
-Maybe they were just empty and had had enough of helping for one day.
-All of the above.
For whatever reason, the disciples advise the Lord to get rid of the people - which would let them be alone to mourn and rest and pray. But Jesus turns to them and says: If they’re hungry, you give them something to eat.
They respond, Yeah, right, with five loaves of bread and two fish – supplies that would hardly feed their little group. But, Jesus takes the food anyway, blesses it, breaks it…and then what does he do? He puts the disciples to work feeding those 10-15 thousand people that they’d just tried to get rid of. They’ve been working all day. Their bodies are weary. Their spirits are heavy. Their hearts are empty…so Jesus puts them to work.
Just this week I talked with someone who complained, I’m tired of how optimistic God is about my abilities to cope with problems. What did they mean? It’s like military personnel in boot camp, doctors in residency, students in graduate school, workers in the middle of a project, the rest of us in the midst of tragedy and pain: we’re pushed to and then beyond what we ever thought were our abilities to cope. And God says, You can handle it…
Now in those situations, the truth is that we can’t. On our own, left to our own supplies of strength, coping by ourselves with stress or grief or pain, we can’t go on. When our tanks are empty, we come to a stop.
But here is the beauty in this incredible story. Sure it’s a miracle that thousands of people are fed by a few loaves and a couple of fish. But what’s most amazing is that those worn and weary disciples are able to feed all those people whom they thought they had to send away…both for the sake of those who were hungry and for the sake of their own empty hearts.
How did it work? Jesus was the provider…and continues to do the same for you and for me. When we are: at the end of our ropes, sure that we cannot go on, certain that our tanks are empty, Jesus says, Show me what you have. Then grudgingly or with grief, with frustration or fear, we place in his hands our little loaves and fish…and what happens? It becomes not only enough, but enough with leftovers for a long time to come!
The Holy Spirit revealed this truth to the Apostle Paul, who in turn has offered it to us. At the end of 2 Corinthians 4:7 he writes, when I am weak, then I am strong. (repeat). If we rely on ourselves, on our own reserves of: strength and spirit, fortitude and faith, persistence and peace, we will find ourselves holding only crumbs when a crowd comes looking for food.
But when we turn to God and offer up whatever we have, Jesus takes our gift, blesses it and divides it and says, Ring the bell for dinner! Everyone who thirsts and is hungry, you who have no money, Come, buy wine and milk without price (Isaiah 55:1). And then…he puts us to work…but oh, what work it is: stomachs are fed, hearts are filled, aches are cured, tears are dried, confessions are heard, spirits are healed…
When I am weak, then I am strong…when I am empty, then I am filled. Thanks be to God. Amen.