A Community of 5,000
Luke 9.10-17
Rev. Matthew M. Fry

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Grant unto us now, almighty God, the ability to go beyond our limits, so that we might experience you more fully, in this time and into our future. May this time of preaching and hearing the Word Proclaimed infect our lives, and alter our ways of seeing the world, and of being in it, so that we might live in your grace and love, and spread your mercy and care to the whole world. In the name of Jesus the Son we pray, Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the Gospel of Luke. Listen for God’s Word for you today. Luke 9.10-17.

On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. He took them with him and withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.

The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish--unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

We live in a world that creates isolationism instead of community, legal action instead of neighborliness, and every person for themselves instead of living together for the greater good. Don’t believe me, sell your house and buy someone else’s. Or, don’t move at all, but think about these three letters. H. O. A. Home Owners Association. You know that neighborhoods used to be places where you met and made friends, and took care of each other, and when walking around would stop in just for a visit. Now neighborhoods are places in which people are so worried about the value of their property, and making sure resale gets as high as it can, that they send out letters saying things like “Our policy is that grass can get as long as 2 inches, and by our measurement, yours is clearly at 2 and ¼ inches. You have 2 days until we start to levy a fine against you.” Think that’s an exaggeration? I’ve known a friend who got that letter. Obviously not all HOA’s are like that, but the purpose of neighborhood has changed from living near people to whom you become friends to living near people who need to keep their houses in a good state so that our collective and individual property value can go higher and higher.

The pain of the reality that society has moved to such a state of isolationism instead of community is very subtle, but very deep and very real. It’s hard to give words to it. And the consequence of this isolationism is that, instead of leaning on our neighborhoods or our communities to find happiness, there is a culture of consumerism that tries to keep us this way so that we can cure the subtle yet deep pain of isolationism with purchases and acquisitions. This works great for the economy, but horribly for the soul. We are held captive by the economy that replaces relationship with the obtaining of goods.

This is not a new thing. The well being of the economy has always pulled people away from each other, away from the common good and toward individual interest. In Luke’s rendering of the feeding of the 5,000, we see that even the disciples have a hard time imagining a life outside of being captive to this economy. It becomes late, the disciples notice and so suggest that Jesus send everyone home. The disciples speak to Jesus about the economy of isolationism and impossibility. “We can’t feed them all, we only have 5 loaves and 2 fish.” The disciples understand that to feed 5,000 is no small or inexpensive task, and they do what has been culturally engrained, what the world teaches; Every person for themselves. This has been going on since the dawn of time.

Recently one of the favored movies at our house has become “The Ant Bully,” an animated movie about a colony of ants who manage to shrink and capture the boy that they call “The Destroyer,” for, among other things, kicking and damaging the colony’s hill, and bringing the dreaded yellow rain. His sentence is to learn the ant way, and to become like an ant. About mid way through the movie, he has to camp out on a pebble, that in his ant sized body feels like a rock. He camps there with one of the ants. That is where we are going to pick it up for a short look.

In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus understands that the welfare of the whole is important, and that the goal of the individual is to help other individuals and become a community where all are lifted up, and where the whole is worth more than the sum of the parts. In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus displays the Kingdom of God, where community is exalted, and where Jesus brings bread (read life). There is enough that all eat and were filled, and there were twelve baskets of broken pieces left over. Jesus and his view of community is held up against the disciples and their view of scarcity and individualism. Jesus has no problem imagining an economy of God, where community living is enabled, where hospitality of neighborliness is embodied, and where the greater good is sought and therefore everyone is taken care of. And that is what happens.

There have been preachers, really really good looking, snappy dressing preachers, who have interpreted this text as a miracle of people moving into that economy, and bringing out their lunchboxes and sharing, thus finding out that community economy does work. I recall a wonderful children’s sermon with jelly beans when there weren’t enough, but then Tanya had some to share, and Bill had some to share, and Bob had some, until the whole congregation got jelly beans, 3 for each person. I mean, the sharp-wittedness of such pastors is hard to imagine. The problem is, the text does not say this is the way it happened. It is a valid interpretation, but the text mentions nothing like this. I may believe that to be the miracle, but maybe that isn’t the only point. We also see that Jesus imagines a different reality than the one that is so ingrained in the culture, and makes it happen because life / bread springs from him.

Perhaps the real question for us here, for us today is this; Can we imagine a different economic and community-based-reality through relying on Jesus, the giver and emitter of life?