Broken is Good

Sermon: (Gen 32:22-31, Rom 9:1-5, Matt 14:13-21)
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Pent. 7, 7-31-11

This Loaves and Fishes story is perhaps the most well-known of Jesus’ miracles. It is found in all four Gospels, a rarity, and there are two other multiplication accounts in Matt and Mark in which Jesus feeds 4000. In these accounts he feeds 5000. He probably multiplied loaves and fishes twice.

There are good reasons why it is so well-known and often repeated. It is full of symbolism and had great meaning in the early church, a ragtag church which was persecuted. For one thing, the parallel between these accounts and the story of the Last Supper is obvious. In both cases, the ritual is similar. Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and handed it out for food. That’s what He did at the Last Supper and that is what I do when I celebrate the Eucharist here. That’s what thousands of Christian priests and ministers do throughout the world when they celebrate the Eucharist, or serve Holy Communion or say Mass, whatever the terminology may be. As nearly as we can tell the early Christians did exactly the same thing in their little gatherings in homes and the catacombs. They told the stories about Jesus, especially this one about the loaves and fishes, and they would tell the story of the last Supper on their little tables which then became an altar. They broke the bread and distributed it and passed the cup. These became the Body and Blood of Christ, just as they do for us today.

That symbolism of the loaves and fishes, especially the fish, was used as a sign that the Eucharist was being celebrated in some hidden place. The Greek word for fish, IKTHYS stood for Jesus Christ, God’S Son,Savior. The simple outline of a fish can still be seen today on the walls of the catacombs in Rome.

Some doubting scholars over the years have tried to explain the miracles of Jesus as natural occurrences. The healings, for instance, were the result of the peoples’ faith that they would be healed. When He came walking on water He was simply stepping on stones, and when he supposedly feed 5000 or 4000 he encouraged people who had brought along a lunch to share it with the others. That doesn’t quite explain the 12 baskets left over, does it?

Obviously, I don’t agree with the total argument of those people, should we call them the rationalists. But I got to thinking about this multiplication miracle and realized there was an element of self-help involved. In every version Jesus first asks, when told the people were hungry, do we have some food? In today’s version the Apostles come forward with two 5 barley loaves and two fish. In another version they find a boy with some of the same. Jesus then takes what they have and somehow makes it into an abundance. In the Eucharist He takes our gifts and transforms them into spiritual food. This is so different from God’s miracles in the Old Testament. He fed the Hebrew people in the desert for like forty years, with manna and quails asking nothing by way of food from them as starter. Jesus, however, didn’t usually help unless he got participation. He did not heal wholesale. He wanted people to ask, to believe and to repent. This is participatory religion, not magic from on high.

Here’s a modern day story that was told to me as true. A couple of guys named Reb and Jackay had been working hard to open a restaurant in this little North Carolina town. They were waiting for their permit from the health department to open when Hurricane Hugo came 200 miles inland and just about destroyed the town, leaving only three buildings with power. Their restaurant, aptly named "Our Place," was one. They had 300 lbs of bacon and beef in their freezer, plus crates of lettuce tomatoes and bread ready to go, but the Health Inspector couldn’t get into his office and wouldn’t issue the permit to open. So the guys did the obvious thing. They gave it away, especially when they heard another restaurant was scalping people for food. Up went the sign, Free BLT’s and coffee for everyone. People flocked. The radio station picked it up and spread the word even further. Volunteers started helping the guys, waiting tables, doing dishes, cleaning the floor. People started bringing in the food from their freezers. Gonna spoil otherwise. A neighboring town that had not been hit so badly sent over supplies from their restaurants. The guys limited supplies increased to include 500 loaves of bread, cases of mayonnaise, 350 pots of coffee and bushels of produce. Before the day was over 16,000 meals were served. Miracles never cease to happen. And 12 baskets of leftover food were collected. (I just threw that last line in)

By the way, the Daisy Food Pantry at St. Paul’s, which serves the poor and whom we are pledged to support, needs 5 lb bags of flour, and sugar, jelly and spices.

I am going to close with the following prayer: As this broken bread once dispersed over the hills, was brought together and made into one loaf, so may your Church be brought together from the ends of the earth. May we, like this bread, like the Christ, be broken and shared with the world that all may be fed.