With Plenty Left Over — June 23, 2024
June 23, 2024
Matthew 14:13-21
With Plenty Left Over
If you have visited Bethlehem for very long, or even if you are member, you might have wondered why we are so far from Hillsboro Pike.
The Baptist church just down the hill? – right on Hillsboro Pike.
The Church of Christ down on Berry’s Chapel – right on Hillsboro Pike.
Christ Community Church out near Mack Hatcher? – right on Hillsboro Pike.
Here we are ….up in the woods. It is beautiful, but you would almost think we are trying to make it hard for people to find us; and even when they do find us they are not always sure what door to come in.
What is going on with our location, exactly?
We have been around a long time, and as you may know, if you have read Stan Tyson’s book on the history of our church, up until the 1950’s, we were on Hillsboro Pike, but the city or county planners decided to redirect Hillsboro Pike and here we are.
They did let us name the little street out in front after the church, which is kind of cool, but we are definitely not in an ideal location. We are off the beaten path. Personally, I think one of the biggest benefits of the Fish Fry is it lets people know where we are. That’s huge.
We are off the beaten path so to speak and we are definitely not the big church in town. When I was projected to serve as pastor here at Bethlehem, one of the first things I noticed is that we are right between the two biggest United Methodist churches in this area. There is Brentwood United Methodist Church, there is Franklin First United Methodist Church, and we are right in the middle.
Actually, I love it. It allows us to be a little more laid back and less formal in our worship and programs, but it also means we don’t have the resources of Franklin First or Brentwood UMC. Of course, the reality is, that can be a good thing too, if we allow it to recognize our true resource is God and not our own wealth or talent or abilities or wisdom.
In our text today, Jesus and the disciples were off the beaten path. They were way off the beaten path. They were in the desert.
The disciples certainly didn’t feel like they had a lot of resources; but, they were surrounded by overwhelming urgent and pressing human need. A multitude of people had been with them a long time without food and water and they were getting hungry. So, what to do, what to do, what to do?
The disciples thought they knew what to do…. They tell Jesus to send all those clingy, hungry people away, to just get rid of them.
But that is not what happened and this story of the miraculous feeding of the multitude in the desert is the only story of a miracle of Jesus found in all four Gospels. It is a pretty important memory for the early church. All the early Christians were talking about this story.
The disciples are out in this out of the way place, (just turn left on Bethlehem Loop and keep going), they seem to have few resources and they are focused on the scarcity of what they have.
But Jesus wasn’t, Jesus was focused on what God can do and what God has done.
This isn’t the first time God’s people have faced hunger out in the desert. Remember the story of the exodus? The children of Israel have made their narrow escape from the Egyptian army, but it doesn’t take long out there in the desert before they begin to experience the first deep pangs of hunger.
They look ahead of them and all they see is scarcity and plenty of it. All they see is a vast wasteland with not much in the way of delicious food to eat or even water to drink. So they start looking back, they start saying things like, “slavery was awful, but there was always a big pot of stew and lots of fresh warm bread to eat.”
They begin to complain to Moses and Aaron, who probably also didn’t know what to do, but God fed them all, just like God fed the multitude that day in the desert with Jesus.
In the Book of 2 Kings, there is another story of God feeding hungry people during a famine.
Here is 2 Kings 4:42-44:
Sound familiar? Jesus is doing what God has done before, and so this story looks back at the history and heritage of Israel and the faithfulness of God, but it also looks forward.
Notice what Jesus does as he feeds this hungry multitude.
He takes the bread, he blesses the bread, he breaks the bread, and the gives the bread to the people. Where else do you see Jesus doing that?
Maybe in the Upper Room at the last supper and in all subsequent Christian Eucharistic liturgies?
You see, whether you are on Bethlehem Loop or downtown Franklin or Hillsboro Pike, the church is always in the “desert.”
The church itself has incredible, sometimes overwhelming needs and we are surrounded by a world of deep cravings and hunger, by people who are disoriented and lonely and poor in so many ways.
And just as we are tempted to throw up our hands and say “Lord send these people away, we can’t do anything to meet this need.”
We hear Jesus say, “That is not how it works.” They need not go away. You give them something to eat and I will be with you to make sure they have enough and there is even some left over.
Don’t focus on what you can and can’t do. Focus on what God can do, has done and will surely do again. You will have enough with plenty left over.