Table of Plenty
2 August 2020
Proper 13A
Said Mass on the Labyrinth 8:00 a.m. Said Mass live-streamed from the Chancel with antiphons 10:00
a.m.
Parish Church of Trinity Ashland
(Oregon)
God, take away our hearts of stone, and give us hearts of
flesh. Amen
Today’s Gospel is the
Feeding of the 5,000. The story is told
in all four Gospels, with minor differences.
All agree that Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with five small pita
breads and two small roast or dried fish.
Rationalists have questioned whether such a thing happened
historically. While all serious
historical Jesus scholars agree that the historical Jesus was a gifted faith
healer (even his enemies admitted as much when they accused him of working
wonders by the power of the devil), many scholars question the so-called nature
miracles as legend-spinning efforts to explain the importance of Jesus in the
life of the believer. Classic liberal
protestant treatments of the story reduce its outward marvelous deed of power
to a more interior miracle: convincing the various members of the crowd to
share their food with each other, and so they find that they have more than
enough for all.
But such re-readings,
I think, miss the point of the story.
One of the things we know about the historical Jesus is that he was what
John Dominic Crossan called a “party animal.”
He constantly was dining and drinking with the wrong kind of
people. “He associates with drunkards,
traitors, and whores” was the common accusation leveled against him. Again, nearly all historical Jesus scholars
agree that Jesus practiced open table fellowship, sharing his table with all
and sundry, regardless of religious or purity law observance, morals, or
background. For him, sharing bread with
someone is a sign of compassion, respect, and honor, and helps us approach the
compassionate and beneficent God who gives the blessing of rain and sunshine
upon the righteous and the wicked alike.
Open table fellowship, along with his “cleansing of the temple,” was
part of his criticism of the corrupt religious leadership of his nation, with
its power centered in the oppressive system of Temple taxes and assembly-line
rites, and its support of the Roman Imperium.
It was ultimately what got him killed.
Open table fellowship
is what this story describes. The
religious system of the day said you are what you eat, and so you must be very,
very scrupulous about what you put in your mouth, and very, very picky about who
you share your table with. The mass of
people following Jesus here are hungry and are not all that picky. But by eating with everyone else, and eating
whatever they are given, God knows where it came from, they are trusting and
making a companion of the host and every other person at the meal.
While Matthew, Mark,
and Luke in this story simply have the disciples scrounging up the scant food,
John says the bread and fish were originally given to Jesus by a young boy who
had brought a sack lunch along with him.
When the boy offers his food, he offers what he has, and doesn’t wonder
“is it acceptable by Jesus’ standards?
Does it meet the dietary or religious demands of all those people?” No, he simply offers what he has brought for
himself to stave off hunger and gives it to Jesus when Jesus asks. Picky
tastes, either in foods or in people, or even in table manners, are not what we
need when it comes to dining with Jesus or helping others dine with Jesus.
John, alone among the
Gospels, uses special language of the Eucharist in this story: Jesus blesses
(eucharisto) the food, makes the people sit on grass in small groups, and then distributes the food (using the word
that Christians used to describe giving the Eucharistic elements to
believers). This is important, because
in the last supper as told by John, there is no Eucharist; for John, Jesus
teaches in his ministry that he is the bread of life, and that his flesh and
blood are food indeed.
The
Eucharist was intended by Jesus as a sign of openness and inclusion to
all. It is clear that he practiced open
table fellowship in his ministry as a sign of God’s love. I wonder how Jesus feels when he sees his
people putting up fences around partaking of the Eucharist. Some, stressing his words “this is my body,
this is my blood,” take the elements as holy and divine, and have sought to
protect them from “blasphemy” or “misuse” by the “wicked” or “unworthy.” They say that only those who have confessed
their sins and been absolved can commune.
Or only those who properly understand what the Eucharistic elements
are. Or only baptized Christians. Again,
I wonder how such things feel in the heart of our Savior, who meant the
sacrament as a sign of universal inclusion, not exclusion or division. Of the two sacraments the Gospels say Jesus
instituted, baptism is about us coming to God.
Eucharist is about God’s loving welcome and regular sustenance for those
welcomed. I don’t think the current
canon of the Episcopal Church to offer the Eucharist to only the baptized is
warranted by what we learn of these two sacraments in scripture. Let us welcome all, as Christ does for all
those people in that field!
This story is about
God’s abundance. I have seen again and
again in my life that God provides what we need, even when—or especially
when—we are in most fear of not having enough.
What matters is the
companionship of sharing bread, and how this reflects God’s love. What matters is that we hold our lives in
common. What matters is that we keep
ourselves open. What matters is that we
be inclusive, and not exclusive. What
matters is that we thankfully recognize Gods gifts when they come.
In
the name of God,
Amen.
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