Not Enough - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
July 28, 2024
Do you realize the power each of us has over complete strangers to make them feel frightened and weak, or cared for and safe? It is difficult to explain the enormous power that human words have, but we create and sure are fed a steady diet of them. Now, think about the total number of words in the Word of God compared to centuries and millenia of our words. We sure can put a lot of weight upon our words. In today’s gospel, Jesus and the disciples are followed by thousands hungering for Jesus. But when Jesus asks how people will be fed, there are two words from the disciples that stand out, “NOT ENOUGH.”
Someone once said, “don’t count the words, count their weight.”1 Those two words “NOT ENOUGH” weigh a lot, don’t they? “We don’t have enough, we won’t have enough, we are not enough” are all variations of the same heavy theme that we humans have wrestled with across time.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elisha receives an offering of first fruits. This is the first part of the harvest, that was not kept, but instead given in thanks to God. Even before they know how the rest of the harvest will turn out when there may not be enough. It is an act of faith not needing words for the man to make the offering. No one would fault Elisha for just keeping it- it was within his power. But his powerful words are, “Give it out among the people.” But now the giver is nervous. It is one thing to give this to Elisha when people are not expecting anything. But as soon as there is SOME food, EVERY one will want some. The fear of NOT ENOUGH is a fear of chaos.
In our afterschool program where I served in Reading, we provided a tasty meal for upwards of 100 kids. Especially on days when the meal was a crowd favorite, they would push and shove to make sure they got their fill. It was easy to see why. Everything around them screamed “NOT ENOUGH!” They might not be worthy of enough. Or get enough and if they didn’t stand up for themselves, they wouldn’t get any. It was hard to stand with a few words of “Sit down. Everyone will eat” in the chaos of so much fear and insecurity.
Jesus looks out as people just keep coming towards him and Jesus is interested-how much his followers have learned? After all, “disciple” means “one who follows” or “one who is being taught.”
Beyond the words and signs, have they begun to truly internalize his words in trust and faith? That is the test. “How will all these people eat?”
They essentially respond like I imagine we might- “Lord, we don’t have enough, and we won’t have enough and we are not enough- WE CAN’T. It will be chaos.” When we are traumatized by the weight of the world, it can be all we see. And they are right that alone “they can’t.”
What about us? Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of our nation in the 1800’s that what unites us is materialism and a sense of individualism that we are free to take what we want, yet we often feel not quite full. And so, our capacity for blaming, hoarding, criticizing and treating people like transactions grows. This was not unique to the 1800’s. But we certainly can see it more readily and pervasively because of the ways our society’s words show up and how they become our steady diet.
What we do not so readily see or hear is the quiet persistent voice of God in our midst. Don’t words of compassion seem to get crushed by the weight of seemingly stronger forces and criticisms of impossibility and naivete? Well, when “I am all I have” is what we chew on, “not enough” will follow us.
But the question each week when we hear God’s word connect with our story is- What about God?
I’m not just talking about being religious- the disciples of Jesus and the man offering to Elisha were religious. I am talking about faith. Faith in a God of love and mercy and compassion, who is also God powerful enough to overcome the weight of the words of the world.
Are we listening?
I am not being petty on God’s behalf. I am being honest, friends. There are times when we allow God no more than a nanosecond to act in our world that is even more “on demand” than the crowds of earlier days, while giving words of loud chaos more airtime than they deserve.
Have we allowed ourselves to really be fed with God’s word, to chew on it and internalize it?
I want to suggest that when we do, we can live into that phrase of Ephesians today about the God at work within us being able to accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine.
Jesus wants you to turn off the audio clutter of all the words by grasping that Jesus is right to tell people to sit down. Be still. Dwell a bit.
So you can let God’s word cut through and remind you as Jesus and Elisha said in the face of other hungry people- there will be enough.
Let’s ask God to fill us, to feed us, to strengthen us...really. To acknowledge we often sit our selves down for a meal, but settle for a snack before we dash off. I know it is hard in a world where we want to know the 5 things, or the 3 points, or the one trick that makes everything manageable and gives us that full life. I can’t offer that and neither does God. What Jesus does offer is HOPE that becomes known when we do what Jesus says and allow God to reveal true and abundant life.
Jesus who knew it would have been so easy to just feed people superficially and grab all he could for himself. He saw how likely it was people would settle for a lot of what would leave them empty as they clamored for more. They would not easily see him for who he truly was, the God who will feed them forever. Lots of people in this world are more than happy to be the king and after a few words that entice us, to leave us stranded and just as hungry as ever, turning on each other in another battle over NOT ENOUGH.
But Jesus chose to not seek for himself, because God wants to fill you into a space of abundance, not scarcity. Since the dawn of time, we humans worry we don’t have enough of the right things, the things we think we want, or as much as another has. Sin loves to feed this in us. In the space of abundance, we start to use words of sharing, and transformation, gratitude and compliment. We forgive, we even brainstorm together. We remember that we are loved and that we need each other. God made us that way.
When we stop and see a world with all of us, we can truly see God has given us enough. I guarantee not all of the 5,000 fed agreed on everything. There will still be struggles. And it will feel like a lot of gathering, sharing, feeding, picking up and doing it again and again, but we will be fed along the way with hope. And the weight of the words is what matters. A lot of the noise of our culture is the fast food of empty promises and perpetuated chaos. Compare that to a meal where you hear “you are God’s beloved, you are forgiven, and this is for you.”
That’s what we are here for and that’s what we are sent to share with others. What Christ can still do through the Holy Spirit is to show us more of a different story than all the words of chaos might say. It’s the good news story. If we take time to share and digest this together, imagine what real satisfaction we might all know. Amen.
1 Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 237, The Works of Augustine- A translation for the 21st century, John E. Rotelle, editor, Edumund Hill, translator, 1993.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Texts:
2 Kings 4:42-44
42A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to?[Elisha,]?the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.”?43But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the?Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ”?44He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the?Lord.
Gospel: John 6:1-16
1Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.?2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.?3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.?4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.?5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”?6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.?7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”?8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,?9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”?10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all.?11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.?12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”?13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.?14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
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