John 6: 1-21

The Terror of Abundance

Rev. Elizabeth Macaulay

July 30, 2006

Ok, I’m going to begin this sermon about abundance and the power of belief with this bear story. It was sent to me months ago by a church member, but after our dance with bears in the boundary waters a few weeks ago, and knowing that I am headed into Grizzly bear country because Cooper and I are headed for Glacier National Park ten minutes after worship ends, this story seemed just right. Or maybe, it’s a shameless sharing of delight on a very hot day. Anyway…

An atheist was walking through the woods. He said to himself: “What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!”

As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charging towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer.

He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out, “Oh my God!”

Time stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky.

“You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don’t exist, and even credit creation to cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”

The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps You could make the BEAR a Christian?”

“Very well,” said the voice.

The light went out.

The sounds of the forest resumed.

And the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head and spoke:

“Lord , bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

A young boy came to hear this man Jesus.

He brought with him five barley loaves and two fishes.

Why? Five loaves for a young boy seems excessive. But he had them.

And when asked, he shared them.

And because he shared them, and because of the power of Jesus’ presence and blessing, those five loaves and two fishes were transformed into life sustaining food for more people than he could have ever imagined.

Five loaves. Two fishes. Holy blessing. Bread for all.

I’m reading a book that my daughter Leah left behind when she left for Portland this summer. She’s doing an internship there with an organization called “Politicorps”. She is learning how hard it is to get people engaged enough in the world around them to vote, to pay attention, to be engaged with the public policy decisions that are being made on their behalf every day.

The book I’m reading is called “The Tipping Point”. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, explores what it is that takes a fad, something like Hush Puppies, for instance, in the mid nineties, take off as a hot sales commodity.

He says that things that take off in a big way - ideas and products, both - mimic the movement of epidemics. There are three crucial things that they share.

First, they are clear examples of contagious behavior. People begin behaving differently, and other people get “infected” by the behavior.

Second, little changes have big effects. It happens in little things, in a cumulative sort of way.

And third, there is one dramatic moment in which the change happens. That moment Gladwell calls the Tipping Point. It’s the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.

What has this to do with a long ago day when there was the threat of great physical hunger as people came to Jesus to feed their spiritual hunger?

What today’s texts teach us is that through the power of being a people of Jesus, we have the means to take what we have and be bread for the world. We have the means to still the storms of poverty and fear and violence that have the power to sink the boat of our world. We can get out and walk across that evil into the promise of a better world.

We have that power. As the people of Jesus the Christ, we have that power.

But we haven’t reached the Tipping Point. We don’t believe in that power. We are cowering in the boat yet. How do I make a statement like that?

Read the papers. You cannot make it through an issue without being reminded that poverty, violence, fear and evil prevail yet.

We haven’t reached the Tipping Point, the time when the message and teachings and vision of Jesus are so wildly embraced that the world is forever more changed.

What it takes is not a world full of Martin Luther King Juniors or Sojourner Truths.

What it takes is for each person who is hungry for the lived vision of Jesus to share what they have; their bread, their compassion, their sweat, their hope, their prayers, their resources. You don’t have to be a Bill Gates to make a difference. You just have to decide that you will. Make a difference. Every day you are given to live.

I have been so thrilled by seeing the big and small ways that people are living their discipleship through this church. We are investigating being a part of a monthly program where those hungry for bread - in our own neighborhood - are given groceries through our church.

My husband Cooper’s church, Minnehaha UMC, has been doing this sharing of loaves and fishes for nine years now. One Saturday a month, around forty volunteers, most from the church and some from the neighborhood, gather for four hours. In those four hours they unload a truck, sort through produce, display the food, provide hospitality for those getting the food, and facilitating the pick-up process.

Each person - 200 in all - is allowed two full bags of groceries. Free. No questions asked. And if there is more left over, they can go through the line again.

The food costs the church anywhere from 800-900 dollars per load. Each month. And they undertake that ministry because private donors who are members of the church know that by giving a little, they can give a lot. They know that by giving a little, people who maybe cannot afford fresh produce or bread, go home knowing that a house of worship is aware of what it feels like to go hungry in a world so stuffed with abundance.

I would give fifty dollars a month to let our neighbors know that we believe in the miracle of the loaves and fishes here at Richfield. Wouldn’t you? If you are interested in learning how we can be people who bless our abundance by sharing it, talk to Don Bodger or Ralph Tarvin, or any of the other of you who would raise your hands now so you know who you are.

It’s such a little thing. Sharing our loaves and fishes. And it can be the catalyst that changes our church forever. God’s Hand’s thrift store has led the way. Giving food as well as clothing is our call as followers of Jesus.

We would be a part of unleashing an epidemic of grace.

It’s the little things.

Loving our neighbor as ourselves by sharing what we have.

Bread for the journey for a world too long hungry.

Amen