STORIES OF HOSPITALITY, PART 3: FEEDING THE 5000

Matthew 14:13-21

October 2, 2011 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

I am not a fan of crowds. Some people love to go to concerts with wall to wall people, bodies pressed against each other, swaying to the music. They just love the energy of the crowd. At least one person has described the feeling of being in a crowd of over 100,000 fans rooting for U of M as a deeply spiritual experience. I like to go to see fireworks on the fourth, to browse around art fairs and various other festivals, but I don’t go for the crowd.

That’s why I’m so surprised that Jesus is patient with the crowd. He just learns of the death of his cousin John the Baptist and wants some time to himself. So he casts off in his boat and looks for a deserted place, only to find that the crowd has followed. Compassion would not be the first thing that occurred to me. Something between a heavy sigh and a round of curses seems more appropriate.

But Jesus is clearly a better man than me, so he spends the day tending to the sick until it becomes clear that the people should retreat to the towns for food. This is precisely what his management team, the disciples, tells him.

Jesus responds with a two-part lesson in hospitality. First he tells them: “They need not go away.” There is in this short sentence what I will call the presumption of abundance. It is a quality in short supply these days and understandably so. High unemployment, declining wages, rising homelessness suggests that there is in fact a scarcity of resources to meet the needs of people in this community. Those of you with investments have either moved them into a more conservative portfolio or watched your net worth decline slowly in some cases, more quickly in others. Everyone seems worried about the economy. It must feel to many of us like we have but five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand families.

But it is precisely in such a “deserted” place that the opportunity to practice hospitality arises. Hospitality rejects the very idea of scarcity. “Abundance” is its watchword. Hospitality believes. It claims in the deserted place: There is enough to feed these five thousand families.

Jesus never accepted the “no room at the inn” theology. He never allowed excuses to be made for unmet needs. Always he gave… and gave… and then gave some more. Even when death claimed his body, he continued to give and continues to give. And he was able to do this because he understood the depth of God’s grace and generosity. No one need ever go away: part one of this demonstration of hospitality.

Part two: “you give them something to eat.” Bring out what you have and let’s just see what happens. The text doesn’t actually say how it happened that five loaves and two fish fed all these people. Suggestions range from the notion that the bread and fish miraculously multiplied to produce this abundance of food to the idea that this act of generosity stirred like acts of generosity among the people so that they all brought forth what they had stowed away for themselves. Did Jesus multiply the loaves or did one act of generosity beget multiple acts of generosity? Such a question may go a long way toward sorting out liberals and conservatives, biblical literalists and those who prefer to read everything in the Bible as a metaphor, but it has no bearing on the challenge of the text to Jesus’ followers to exercise hospitality. “You give them food.” This instruction surely comes from the same source that urged Jesus to set aside his desire for privacy and move immediately to healing those who had come out to him. That source is clearly the deep well of compassion.

It’s a pretty straightforward lesson, but certainly not easy. The desire to extend hospitality rises up out of a deep sense of compassion and a profound understanding of abundance in circumstances of great need. This is not the hospitality of the entertainment industry that promises you a great meal or a luxurious room if you have the ability to pay. It is not even the hospitality extended by the hosts of wedding receptions and graduation parties. Hospitality is not fundamentally about celebration, but about welcome. It is not limited by the size of one’s pocketbook, but by the openness of one’s heart. It is led by compassion and reaches for abundance. To practice it one almost needs to believe in miracles. There is nothing our world needs more. Amen.