First Lutheran Church
August 6, 2023 - Pentecost 10A
Isaiah 55:1-5 1Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Matthew 14:13-21 13Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” 18And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
“Two Very Different Feasts”
Pastor Greg Ronning
The appointed Gospel reading for this Sunday, which you have just heard read, begins with this phrase, “Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.” This phrase begs the question that sets up the context for what happens in this “deserted place,” the feeding of the five thousand with two fish and five loaves. So, we begin this morning by asking, what did Jesus hear? What “news” sent Jesus into the wilderness in search of a deserted place? Why did he suddenly need to be alone?
The preceding verses in the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, verses 1-12, provide the answer to our question. They tell us the story of King Herod’s birthday party. The infamous story of how the daughter of Herodias so pleased Herod with her dancing “that he promised on oath to grant her whatever she might ask.” “Prompted by her mother, she said, ‘Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.’” Herod had earlier arrested John because he had proclaimed that Herod could not “be” with Herodias because she was his brother’s wife. And he was keeping him alive in prison because he feared that if he killed the man the people regarded as a prophet, he might have an uprising. Yet now, in a moment fueled by “decadent overindulgence” - he had no choice. And so, it was done, on the spot Herod had John the Baptist beheaded, and the severed head was served up to the girl on a “silver platter.” The disciples of John the Baptist took the body, buried it, and then went to tell Jesus what had happened. And that’s where today’s gospel reading begins; “Now when Jesus heard ‘this’, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.”
Jesus is heading out into the wilderness to be with God, to be in a safe place - away from Herod’s reach, to be with God in a place with no distractions, to be in a place of spiritual intensity, to be in a place where he might clearly hear the voice of God as he considers his calling, as he imagines and plans for what might come next. Jesus probably prayed that same prayer that we have all said at one time or another in our life, “Help!” Or more likely, “God what do you want me to do?”
While Jesus is in prayer, suddenly the crowds show up, unbeknownst to him they have followed him out into that deserted place! I wonder, perhaps the crowd of people was the answer to Jesus’ prayer? Because when he sees them. he knows what he needs to do, “He had compassion for them and cured their sick.” And then as the hour grew late, against all odds, with very little resources, he fed them abundantly. In all this, the mission of Jesus is once again put back into focus.
So it is that in the Fourteenth Chapter of Matthew we have the story of two different meals, two different feasts, two very different celebrations: One rooted in the scarcity of this world, and the other rooted in the abundance of the Kingdom of God.
Herod’s birthday feast is held in a comfortable and luxurious palace while Jesus and his followers find themselves in a barren and deserted place.
Herod is surrounded by the excesses of wealth and power, in a place where wine flows, where food piles up and over the edges of serving dishes, and the entertainment is perhaps “a little over the top.” Jesus and his followers are in a place marked by its stark emptiness, a severe lack of resources, and with people who are faced with the essential questions of survival.
I imagine that Herod and his group, accustomed to fine dining, ranged from being healthy to being unhealthy, - unhealthy from having consumed “too much.” Those who followed Jesus into the deserted place were in need of his compassion and healing, they were most likely suffering from a lack of good food, living around, at, or below subsistence level with inadequate caloric and nutritional intake. They were ill because they did not have “enough.”
And yet when it comes to “satisfaction,” Herod’s birthday feast, despite all its excess, its overabundance, its wantonness; in the end is just not enough. Somehow it needs and demands more, and so in its greed, its delusion, its abuse of power, its bloodthirstiness; Herod in a moment of desperation and fear, must serve up the head of the prophet John the Baptist. On the other hand, in the deserted place, in an act of humility and service, somehow five loaves of bread and two fish, blessed by Jesus, inspire a meal that feeds five thousand, - “besides the woman and children.” The scriptures tell us, “And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.” In the feast that took place in the deserted place it seems that all were satisfied, they did not need more, they even had leftovers!
So it is that the over-the-top meal in the palace is a meal of scarcity, a meal that leaves everyone very full but very empty, unsatisfied; while the simple meal that happens in the deserted place is a meal of abundance, truly filled to overflowing. Theologian Warren Carter writes, “Jesus hosts - not a death-bringing meal contextualized by tyranny, - but a life-giving feast embodying the gracious abundance of God.”
So, what does all this have to do with us? How does the story of a decadent abusive birthday party and the feeding of over five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, relate to us and the decisions we have to make in our daily life? What’s the connection? I give you two connections to consider.
One; choices. Each and every day we have to make a foundational choice, a choice to live out of fear or to live out of love. Those who sat, and those who sit, around Herod’s table have been seized by fear. They overindulge out of fear, they “posture” with one another out of fear, and out of fear they lash out violently at others. It’s a hierarchal table full of power struggles where you must constantly watch your back. Yet those of us who gather around the table of our Lord feast upon grace and love, and thus are set free to both, - be and receive blessings, - from and to - each other. And in that kind of sharing, inspired by unconditional love, there is always room at the table for more. There is no power struggle only power to share for the good of all, even for those who have not yet found their way to the table. Every day we must decide which table we will choose to dine from, we must decide whether to live out of fear or to live out of love. And hear the good news, - each day and especially this day, God, without condition invites us to gather around the table of our Lord. Because that’s what God does, that’s what God is, God loves.
And a second connection to consider and remember; the Kingdom of God. In the biblical tradition, the coming and the very presence of God’s kingdom is always depicted as a feast marked by an abundance of food for all. The appointed Old Testament lesson for today from Isaiah proclaims, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” “Come into the Kingdom!” If you are a seeker, if you are looking for a purpose and a reason that satisfies the heart, if you are tired of the broken agenda, the unending conversation that blabbers on at Herod’s table consuming the soul; remember that God is feeding the poor, present in the least of these, that the kingdom is found, and engaged in using our gifts, our talents, and our resources in those deserted places with people in need of food, medicine, compassion, hope, and love. If you are seeking God, the kingdom of God, - seek no further than “those in need.” There are so many ways you can serve those in need, including our Caring Hands Ministry on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! When you reach out to serve those in need, you place yourself in the heart of the Kingdom of God!
May God inspire each of us to choose love, and to seek first the kingdom of God. And may God inspire us as a faith community to find new ways that this place might continue to grow as a place of love for those in need, a holy place rooted firmly in the abundance of the kingdom of God. Amen.