HANDLING PLENTY IN A WORLD OF WANTING
A Sermon On:
Matthew 25: 31-46
Luke 9: 10-17
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
At first glance it seemed ridiculous. A rhetorical, almost snide, sort of bad joke. Until the disciples looked again at the face of their Master and realized that he was serious. No sneer. No rhetoric. He wasn't laughing. His body language gave no indication that Jesus considered his request to be ridiculous. On the contrary -- 5000 men, plus their dependents who may have tagged along -- don't bother going to Loblaws. Don't call the caterer. Just feed them.
And the boys look at their collective lunch box, with its five bagels and two smoked fish,
and look......
and look.....
and look.
They're paralysed. Unable to do anything.
You know the feeling, right? Where a project seems so big, so overwhelming, that you don't even know where to begin. Like when mom tells you to clean up your room. Too much! And so you end up just sitting there in the mess.
Till Christ breaks the logjam -"Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each."
They do, and our Lord works the only miracle, besides the Resurrection, that is reported in all four Gospels. He takes those obviously limited resources, multiplying them indefinitely until they are able to meet the needs of every single person there.
With leftovers besides!
This is not the first, nor the only, example of this sort of thing happening -- divine multiplication of limited resources to meet human need. One other example is in the Old Testament, 1 Kings 17, where the prophet Elijah is used by God to provide oil and flour for a widow woman -- a jar and a bucket that never emptied out, providing enough so that the widow and her son had enough to eat during three years of famine.
The disciples knew that story. They'd learned it from childhood, and heard it in the Synagogues. They'd heard the Rabbi preach it in sermon after sermon, "God provides when human resources run dry."
Many of you know the story, too.
Funny though, isn't it, that while we have no trouble accepting something like this happening way back when, it's virtually impossible to believe that it could happen again --
Here and now.
Just doesn't happen.
Won't happen.
Can't.
We think.
That's certainly what the disciples thought, until after the whole affair was over and they were left scratching their heads, wondering what to do with all the left-overs.
It's what the disciples thought.....
And I guess I sort of wonder what we would think.
What do we think?
This morning our focus is on the problem of world hunger - something that's been around since time immemorial. Something our Lord saw, and commented on when He said, "The poor you will always have with you." It's a huge problem, almost paralyzing in size. To the point where we may go through the liturgy of this morning, see and hear the Lord's command to feed the poor and care for those that He in love called "the least of these" and view it in the same vein as the disciples would have the command of Jesus to feed the 5000 -- this has to be some kind of bad joke. Look how many of them there are. Look how little the few of us have got. There's no way.
So - what do we think?
If you look at the cover of your bulletin you'll see the title - A Bold Hope.
Boldly hoping that the Lord who worked miracles for the prophet Elijah,
and who as God-among-us in Jesus Christ fed 5000 empty-handed men that this God still works miracles still takes small amounts of resources and uses them to bring enormous change in the lives of hungry people.
The back cover of your bulletin gives a wonderful illustration of Bold Hope made real as it tells us of Ngosha, who because of a small amount invested in her life through the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, is now able to feed, clothe and educate her children; is now able to walk through life with her head held high -- a mother with new hope and dignity.
One miracle.
Thanks be to God!
If you are so fortunate as to be able to get hold of a copy of the Agenda For Synod '97 and turn to page 169 you'll be able to read, buried amidst staff reports and number crunching, tales of similar miracles worked in various communities around the globe -- where small amounts were invested by Christians in obedience to the call of the Lord to care, and the Lord blessed these investments so that lives have achieved sustainable change. They can eat -- for today, and tomorrow, and in the future.
Miracle.
Want to know what a miracle looks like when the Lord extends His divine hand of blessing over limited human resources in the 1990's? It is a small bunch of believers, some 350,000 believers in Jesus gathered across North America in an outfit called the Christian Reformed Church, believing that the Lord calls us to respond to needs of hunger and injustice and suffering; digging deep into our pockets to find what we can; mandating, ordaining and commissioning women and men to go into the world in the name of Christ and to use what we have found to work towards sustainable change for the good in the lives of people in need, people loved by the Lord, people just like you and I made in the image of God, people for whom Jesus died.
Praying for them as we send them out, that the Lord of miracles would work miracles through their labours, blessing them, making them fruitful.
Here's the picture.
This past year, we at Calvin dug deep and found five bagels and two smoked fish which came out in the form of $17,888 for Christian Reformed World Relief.
I think that is marvellous! That is about 5% of total funds generated by this congregation, and serves as an inspirational target for us in our individual lives and for our nation.
On behalf of the deacons here at Calvin -- THANK YOU!!
Thank you for your generosity.Thank you for trusting that these dollars you give WILL make a difference against an enormous mountain of misery and need around this world. Thank you for NOT saying, "We need to keep that money here at home to do our own thing better." In the name of Jesus -- Thank you for sharing!
You gave your money, and it was joined together with the loaves and fishes that other Christian Reformed disciples of Jesus found in their lunch buckets across North America.
The result?
112,000 households in various corners of the globe have seen sustainable change in their lives this past year. Sustainable change means that they didn't just get a fish to serve as today's meal. They were better equipped to go fishing for themselves so they could continue to eat. Ngosha is the head of one such household.For some it was learning to read and write. For others it meant achieving a measure of economic self-sufficiency. Or better health for their children.
Christian Reformed people in Canada contributed $207,000. This was multiplied by matching grants from the Canadian Government and other funds in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and turned into $1.7million dollars worth of food aid overseas.
Over the past 11 years the Lord has blessed efforts of CRWRC-Canada in its relationships with the Canadian Government and CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) so that $27million was generated for foreign aid!
Total loaves and fishes collected from congregations like ours across North America came to $9.5million this year.
THAT is the stuff of miracles!
Loaves and fishes multiplied in the 1990's by the grace of God.
Today is a day to acknowledge that BOLD HOPE and the enormous blessings that our Lord has provided.
Today is also a day to rededicate ourselves to being people of hope as we look to the future.
Parents of hope who train our children to be sensitive to the needs of those who struggle with basic issues of life and self-sufficiency around the globe. Teaching them even through little exercises like the Peter Fish thing that I trust many of you have shared with your children these past few weeks.
Individuals of hope who handle their own finances with care -- seeing what we've been given as a trust handed to us by the Lord, a trust to be used wisely and carefully ---- not our own STUFF to be hoarded.In that regard, perhaps, going home and considering what percentage of our income is directed towards relief and aid work such as that which CRWRC carries out in its remarkably efficient and effective manner.
Considering -- I wonder -- if a 2% target of family income would be attainable for aid/relief donations.
Bold Hope --
Can we be citizens of hope?
As a church community we've done well at being able to donate 5% of income towards aid programs. More, if you include our local deaconate donations. But how are we doing as a nation of Canada?
I was hunting for the figures and couldn't nail them down this week, but I believe that Canada had once set a 5% of GDP figure for foreign aid. We're coming in far short of that. In fact, in our era of government downsizing and budget slashing, foreign aid is one of the first things to be squeezed. Can we as citizens of bold hope, citizens of Canada, and citizens of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ raise these issues in the public forum?
Those of you that were privileged enough to take in the excellent panel discussion here at Calvin a week ago may remember one of our panelists describe to us how government policy is very directly influenced by something termed "Social Space."
That means - how much room the public is willing to give towards a specific issue, and what are their attitudes towards that issue.
Anne McLellan, our justice minister, exemplified this on public TV Thursday night in relation to the present debate on euthanasia -- "Government cannot act on their own. This is a matter to be decided in the arena of public thought and town square
dialogue." Meaning the government wants to know what public opinion on the matter is, and they will run with that.
Now, we've been told that matters of Foreign Aid consistently show up at the bottom of the heap when surveys and public opinion polls make their way into the offices of policy analysts on Parliament Hill.
And so, in a day and age of every increasing pressure for every last nickel of public money, stuff that the public seems to care about least will be the first to undergo the bean-counter's hatchet.
Meaning -- the challenge for Christian Citizens of Bold Hope is to go into the office space and talk about world aid over coffee; talk about it over the back fence with your neighbour; talk about it with your family; talk about it here as church members;
talk about it in your bowling league.Represent the call of Christ to share with those in need, to share in a way that builds life and enhances dignity.
Be a citizen of hope in contacting your elected representatives. Contact them with phone calls and letters of encouragement.
Let them know how grateful you are of Government initiatives through agencies like CIDA, and encouragement to keep it up and strengthen it.
And don't cave in to the paralyzing fear that your voice is only one, and how could that ever make a difference in the face of such an enormous challenge.
Don't give in to that.
Remember the Lord of miracles.
Remember the loaves and fishes.
Give thanks.
Stand firm in hope.
Look forward.
And take action.
For as much as you do it to one of the least of these my brethren, you do it unto me.