Mark 6:30-44
Recently, I came across this list of the top ten things you never hear in church.
- Hey – it’s my turn to sit in the front row!
- Pastor, I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon ran 25 minutes over.
- Personally, I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
- How long is the waiting list to serve on session?
- I’ll be the permanent nursery volunteer.
- Isn’t it great to have the children running around the church making a joyful noise?
- I LOVE it when we sing songs I’ve never heard before!
- No, don’t ask someone else. Let me do it.
- Pastor, we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in Hawaii.
- Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship drive![1]
We always hear a few groans when stewardship time comes around. It seems, to many folks, like a necessary evil. We wish we didn’t have to sully ourselves with this distasteful topic of money, but, alas, we do. If we want to pay the bills, we do.
If we want to do any ministry, we do. If we want to do any mission, we do.
If we want to be the church, we do. So, let’s talk about it.
A pastor stood before her congregation and said, “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the church has all the money it needs.” Everyone cheered in great relief. Then the pastor said, “The bad news is that it’s still in your wallets.” Stewardship Sunday is one of those days when the church has the opportunity to really see clearly that the church does not consist of buildings, denominational logos or anything else, as much as the church is all of us. Look around you, the folks sitting beside you, in front of you and behind you; when you think of church, this is what it is.
The story we read today is a familiar favorite – the feeding of the 5,000. This is a story that appears in all four of the gospels, something that is noteworthy. The notion of the abundance of God’s provision is so central to the gospel message, so crucial to our faith, each one of the gospel writers made sure to include it. In fact, Mark included it twice. Really.
Jesus and his disciples have been traveling and teaching and their following has been growing. Shortly before this, Jesus has sent out his disciples to travel the countryside in pairs, without him, to spread the message far and wide. They return to him, feeling high on their success. But Jesus sees that they need to be brought back to their center of gravity, so he leads them to a boat, to go and have some quiet time to themselves.
But the quiet doesn’t last for long. The hungry crowds, hungry for the message, follow them, they will not leave them alone. So, the time they had in the boat will have to be enough to refresh them, as they went ashore and continued teaching these sheep in need of a shepherd.
The time grows late and the disciples remind Jesus that he will need to let the people go so they can find something to eat. I suspect the disciples are as thoughtful as they are because they, themselves, want to get something to eat. But Jesus says to them something shocking: You give them something to eat.
These people don’t need to go away. You feed them. Well, his disciples balk, as you would expect. There are thousands and thousands of people here. The text says there were 5,000 men, so this would almost certainly mean that there were also thousands of women and children. I’ve been to some large banquets, but never anything like this.
These disciples haven’t a clue as to how they are supposed to take care of thousands of people. They have never been asked to do something like this before and they don’t know how to begin. So Jesus helps them out. He says, “How much do you have? Go and see.”
Go and see. Take stock of your resources. Look in every corner and find out how much there is to work with. Go and see; you will probably be surprised.
Initially they found five loaves of bread and two fish. But as they went about the process of feeding the crowd, it is quite clear that much more food became available. The story doesn’t tell us exactly where it came from and how it happened, but we know that much, much more was “found,” because many thousands of people were fed and satisfied, and there were 12 baskets of crumbs left over.
Let’s consider this miracle for a moment. We generally assume that Jesus created this abundance of food out of thin air, because … well, because he’s Jesus. But look at what else was going on.
We shouldn’t ignore the fact that Jesus put this task in the hands of his disciples. If he was intending to produce tons of bread out of thin air, why not just do it? Why enlist the disciples to take over the job? If, on the other hand, he wanted to create a different kind of miracle, a miracle of generosity and compassion and trust, this was a way to do it.
Jesus said to his disciples you are responsible for this. Go and see what you have to work with.
Go and see.
A story has been told about Tony Campolo, a very well-known and highly regarded Baptist pastor, writer, speaker. He was invited to speak to a Christian women’s organization. There were about 300 women there. The president of the organization got up to make some opening remarks, during which time she read aloud a letter from a missionary. The missionary wrote about an emergency situation, and said they needed about $4000 to address this problem. Everyone was very moved by the letter. The president turned to Tony and said, “We need to pray that God will provide the resources to meet this need. Brother Campolo, will you please pray for us?
Tony said, no, he would not. Now, Tony Campolo is known for being blunt even to the point of being offensive (as all good preachers should be, at times!); even knowing that, these women were shocked. The president said, “I beg your pardon?” He said, “I won’t pray for that. I believe that God has already provided the resources and that all we need to do is give. Here’s what I will do. I’m going to step up to this table and give every bit of cash I have in my pockets. And if you all do the same thing, well, I think we will see that God has already provided the resources.”
The president laughed lightly and said, “Okay, I think we get the point. You want to teach us that we should give sacrificially.” But Tony said, “No, I’m trying to teach you that God has already provided for this missionary. All we need to do is give it.” He had $15 dollars on him, so he put that down on the table and deliberately looked at the president. Hesitantly, she opened her purse and took out the $40 she had inside and placed it on the table. Then, one by one, the women in the room all came up and put their money on the table. When the money was all counted, there was more than $4000.
Tony said, “God, who always supplies our needs, had already provided for the needs of this missionary. The only problem was we were keeping it for ourselves. Now, we’ll pray; let’s say a prayer of thanks to God for his provision.”
Go and see what you have. Go and see what God has already provided. Go and see and give.
Today we will present our pledges for next year; we will thank God for God’s faithful provision and we will ask God to bless these pledges and all the gifts we bring. Your Stewardship Team has asked you to consider increasing your pledge by 10% over last year. Why? Because we can never rest on our good deeds, but always ask ourselves, “What has God provided? What do I have to share?”
Some of us will increase our pledge this year by 10%; some will increase it by a greater amount, some a little less. Others will not change the amount of their pledge, and some may decrease their pledge. Each of us is simply asked to go and see what we are able to give. There is no shame in doing what you are able to do, whatever that is.
For many years now, at stewardship time, Kim and I have searched ourselves and asked what we can give. Knowing each year that it would be impossible for us to outdo God in our generosity, we have increased our pledge – some years by less than10%, some years by more. This is what we have been able to do. Some are not able to do that, but some are able to do more than that. It is for each one of us to go and see what God has provided for us to give.
You have all heard about that beloved church member, Someone Else? Someone Else has been relied upon for many, many years to step up and do what is necessary when others of us don’t want to do it – to speak up when others were afraid to, to fill the need when others didn’t care to. Dear, dear Someone Else. But Someone Else will not be with us forever, and we must learn to step up in place of Someone Else.
The disciples out there in the wilderness with Jesus and thousands of hungry people were hoping that Someone Else would take care of things. But Jesus said to them, “You do it.” And then, “Go and see what you have.”
Let us be thankful today for the generous way God has provided for us. And let us, each one of us, give in accordance with the blessings we have received.
