This is a sermon I delivered a couple weeks ago (7/26) in Spanish. No longer July but I think (especially with my current financial situation!) it is still quite timely. I’m excited about the GC energy toward Hispanic/Latino ministry and am looking forward to what the National Strategic Vision Plan holds for Oregon!
Potluck Faith
Proper 12, Year B
Readings:
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine. She is a very spiritual woman and dedicates much of her life to her faith. Her husband has been out of work for several months. They have two young boys, and this family of four has been living on her meager single income. She looked at me with a smile. “But you know what?” she said, “In our 15 years together, we have never been happier than we are right now. We have always spent our lives thinking about money, and our family was falling apart. Then last year we decided to forget about the money and start concentrating on the things that matter: our faith and our kids. Now the money situation is worse than ever but we are the happiest that we have ever been.”
When we have less, we have more.
“Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little,” laments Phillip in today’s Gospel. With the current economic recession and high unemployment, I think many of us can agree that now more than ever 6 months wages are a lot. It is also often the case that the more money we earn, the less we seem to have. Now more than ever families are lining up to apply for food stamps and cash assistance because there is simply not enough. Food pantries are being squeezed because the supply is tight and the demand is great.
From where, then, could we possible receive nourishment? When have absolutely nothing left, what is it that we couldn’t possibly lose?
With God, we shall not go hungry. In Matthew 6:28-34, Jesus tells the people:
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
In times like these, our natural instinct tells us isolate and hoard, pulling away into our own selves. It is easy under these circumstances to feel quite anxious and deprived! Jesus, however, invites us to just the opposite. “Sit down,” He says. He invites all of us to partake in a huge picnic; a potluck feast. Just as it is in our own Episcopal tradition and the 8th sacrament of Coffee Hour, there is always enough to eat. When we have picnics and celebrations, everyone prepares a dish to share. One dish on its own would scarcely feed a family, but if each of us (or at least many of us) brings a dish, we find ourselves swimming in leftovers.
That’s the miracle of faith. Jesus never leaves us hungry.
And what if – just as a thought – the terrifying storm in today’s Gospel is actually the dark, raging storm that we feel deep inside our souls in these times of angst? When the sky is black and we see Christ walking calmly over our violent, crashing waves, it’s easy to pull back in shock and anger. But Jesus tells us, “Do not be afriad.” Once we invite Christ to climb into our rocky boat, we will find ourselves safely banked on the calm seashore.
Remember, then, that today as we break bread together, we share in the faith and in the hope of Christ, and he will not allow us to go hungry. As St. Paul reminds us, may “we may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.”
Amen
