Proper 13 A
August 3, 2008
Isaiah 55:1-5
Psalm 145:8-9, 15-22
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
For many years our family spent a lot of time at the Saline County Boys and Girls Club. I walked in the gym one day to pick up our son from basketball practice. I was early so I sat down on the bleachers next to a boy who was the younger brother of one of the boys on our son’s team. My husband and I really liked the boys and their parents. We hung out with them some. The father was a Native American from
The youngest one, was sitting there in the bleachers eating from a bag of Nacho cheese flavored Doritos. As soon as I sat down beside him he offered me one. I said, "No thank you."
He said, "Please let me share with you. I already ate a snickers bar and if I eat this whole bag of chips I might not eat my supper. That would make my Mom really mad. And I sure don’t want to make her mad again."
I took note of what he said about making his Mom mad again but I didn’t respond to it. He put a few chips in my hand, which I ate. Then I asked him where his brother was. He was not on the court with the rest of the team. The boy handed me a few more chips and then he said, "My brother’s grounded. Oh, my Mom is so-o-o mad at him."
I asked what happened. He stopped chewing for a minute and with a look in his eyes that told me he was surprised by what his brother had done, he said, "He ran over grandma."
I said, "What d’ya mean he ran over grandma?"
He finished chewing, took a swig of Dr. Pepper and said "Well, I think it was 2 or 3 nights ago, we were eating supper and the phone rang." He gave me another chip, ate one himself and kept talking.
"Grandma got up to answer the phone but my brother said he’d get it. He jumped up from the table, knocked his chair over backwards and he ran right into grandma. She fell on the floor. He didn’t even try to help her or say, I’m sorry, he just stepped over grandma to get to the phone."
"My goodness." I said, "Is grandma okay?"
"We had to take her to the hospital. I think we were there all night. But we were so lucky, it is only her arm that got broke."
I told him I was sorry to hear all that. He kept feeding me chips and talking. He said, "Grandma wasn’t even mad about it. Not one bit. She said she lost her balance. It was her fault she fell down and her arm broke because she’s so old. But Mom was mad. I never ever saw her that mad before. I think my brother is grounded for the rest of his life."
I said, "Oh, surely not."
He reached his little hand in the bag and took out the last chip. He asked me if I wanted it, I said, "No thank you. I’ve had enough."
He popped it in his mouth, crumbled the bag, jumped down off the bleachers and hollered bye to me as he darted off.
That little boy had a lot to say as long as he had chips to share. As long as I let him feed me he had a story to tell. But when the food was gone he was finished talking to me and went on to something else.
Before we teach our children what NOT to say they tell what they know. And I suppose they learn through family meals that when people eat together they talk. You can tell a lot about a family by what they talk about, the stories they tell, when they share a meal together. The words spoken at the table are just as important if not moreso than the food setting on it.
Remember when Jesus was in the wilderness and he was hungry? The devil tempted him saying "If you are the Son of God make these stones become loaves of bread" but Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
I don’t want to discount the miracle of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes to reveal his divinity because that was obviously important to Matthew, but I’m much more interested in the ways this story, that all four evangelists saw fit to include in their Gospels, points to our weekly celebration of Holy Eucharist. Sharing meals was the main social event in biblical times. It was the reward for the hard work of tilling the soil which you remember was the consequence God imposed on Adam because of his sin in the garden.
In today’s Gospel reading when the scripture says that they all ate and were satisfied it doesn’t mean that five thousand men and their families walked away feeling like they just stuffed themselves at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I imagine it this way: As they all sat together on the cool green grass, refreshed by a gentle breeze that moved across the water, the people started talking. They got to know each other. The children played together while they waited to be fed. And when the disciples passed out a little piece of bread and a bite of fish to each person they said "Listen to Jesus. He is the one the prophet Isaiah told us was to come. He is the anointed one. The one God promised to send. He is the one John the Baptist spoke of in the wilderness. He is the one who is our hope and our future. The long wait is over. The day of salvation is near. Thanks be to God who loves us and has kept his promise to us! The promise he made to our fathers." And the people said, "Thanks be to God!" Then they took those tiny pieces of bread and fish that didn’t even fill the palm of one hand, into their mouths and they were filled not so much by the food they ate, but by a life-giving hope, a future for their children and their children’s children.
Food is only one of the things people are hungry for. Good health for ourselves and for our children is another. A purpose that makes the days of our lives meaningful. Companions to walk through this life with and the hope of the resurrection of the faithful when this life is over. Always we hunger for peace, in our homes and our communities, in the world, and in our hearts. This hunger cannot be satisfied by food alone no matter how much or how often we eat.
The story the boy told while he fed chips to me was a story of forgiveness offered by the one who suffered from the wrongdoing of a child of God. Now isn’t that a familiar story! The meal that is offered from the Lord’s table is the church’s most important social event. The stories we share and the words we speak are just as important to us as that little bit of bread and sip of wine. The whole event feeds our hunger to be near to our God because in that nearness we know we are loved with an everlasting love. We are forgiven for our wrongdoings and that fills us with hope and peace we cannot get any other way.
