How easy is it for you to say: I have enough? Or in your worldview, is there ever enough?
My grandparents on my mom’s side of the family nearly lost their house during the depression. You see, grandpa was a carpenter, and because people didn’t do much building when money was tight, there was not much work and no regular paycheck to help them get by. So my mom grew up in a house where food was scarce, where rent was always a struggle, and where they were just one missed payment away from disaster. Then, she had to raise six kids of her own on dad’s blue collar salary – and that cemented that viewpoint: there was always never enough. Like many people of her generation, mom shared a world view that has been around since Jesus’ time and probably dating back to Cain and Abel – that there is not ENOUGH for everyone.
On that hillside in Galilee, our Lord was faced with a multitude of hungry people and a small band of disciples who shared a common misperception of the universe. They operated from the assumption that there was NOT enough to go around, that their lives were defined by SCARCITY and not abundance. You could hear it in their response to Jesus’ question: “Two hundred days wages would not be enough” and “we have five loaves and two fishes, but what good is that for so many?” There was never enough
Yet, in the face of that thinking, you hear Jesus’ presumption: there is always ENOUGH, always an abundance of blessings to be shared. God has provided enough for every legitimate need in creation. And what Jesus knew is that the only thing needed is for everyone to thrive and prosper is to share abundance rather than hoard it. Even in our days, it is still true. This world produces enough food to keep every man, woman and child well fed. Hunger is not a result of overpopulation, but poor distribution. There is enough food to satisfy any sized multitude.
Yet the fear of scarcity does strange things in the human psyche – you tend to hoard, to pile up more than you need, then to protect what you do have. Though there are less people at the door here than at St. Ann, I find I am becoming more protective when they do come, or in many cases, like you, the many letters from different non-profit groups asking for help – because I have told my self there is only a limited supply of money and if I give it away, I won’t have enough for me and them. (Never has that been the case – but that is how the fear goes…) I have so much, yet it doesn’t seem enough.
What Jesus taught that crowd on the hillside is what I need to learn again and again in my life. Trust God to take what looks meager and make it enough. Trust so much that you learn the open palm of the small boy who offered his small lunch to Christ rather than hoard it for himself. And here is what is interesting about that little boy and the bread that he offered to the disciples. John tells us TWICE that it was barley loaves that were offered. Not just any bread but barley loaves. Those were the poor person’s bread. Not wheat flour. Not the good bread on fine tables, but the simple sustenance bread of the poor. YET, this kid, this poor kid, opens up his hands and opens up his heart, and it is enough! Jesus took the boy’s bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it. And there was not only enough, there was enough left over for each stunned disciple to labor under the weight of a basket full of leftovers.
So, what would it be like for us to approach this world with that kind of mindset? In my first assignment, when my first pastor died suddenly, a new, first time pastor was assigned – Fr. Bernie. He told me a simple rule that has stayed with me since. “Pastoring is easy. Say yes when you can and no when you have to.” That guided me well when I first started being a pastor, some 16 years ago. Yet, if I am ever to learn of abundance, and the goodness of God, what would it be like to change that rule to simply say: “Say yes when I can.” To any invitation, any beggar, any person who needs my time and energy, To anyone who has an idea or dream – what can we do to make this happen? How can I help you?…
Say yes when you can…
All that brings us to this table of the Lord – where once again a meager amount of bread is taken, blessed, broken and given. It never looks like much food, but if we have learned that Jesus himself is all the daily bread our souls really need to be satisfied, this table will again be enough for us all. Come to the Lord’s table, you who long to be satisfied. There is enough. Abundantly enough…