Month: October 2021

Isaiah 55, Matthew 14.13-21

 The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, 17 October 2021

Clapham Harvest Festival, Eldroth, Austwick School Harvest Festival

You know the story well. But have you ever wondered exactly what happened that day – precisely how Jesus actually turned five small loaves and two little fish into enough food to feed five thousand people? 

Various scenarios present themselves. Maybe, having prayed to his Father: ‘Father, turn this small offering into a gigantic feast’, suddenly a great mountain of bread and fish appeared before Jesus, and gesturing towards this food mountain he told the people, ‘Here, come and help yourselves.’….?

Or maybe Jesus stood at the front simply pulling more and more loaves out of his hands, giving each away in turn – people queuing to receive for half-an-hour, an hour, two hours or more, one at a time, which has the feel of some below-par Britain’s Got Talent conjuring act.

I’m quite drawn to the idea that Jesus gave each disciple a piece of food and each disciple gave that piece to a person in the crowd, telling them to ‘Take what you need and pass it on’. And so the first people who got a piece of food tore off a bit for themselves, and then turned to the person next to them and shared the food with them, saying, ‘Take what you need and pass it on’. And the second person to the third, and so on… and somehow miraculously each time the food was shared, there was plenty enough for the next person to take for themselves and pass more on again.

I like that scenario because it teaches us that the miracle was in the sharing. Imagine what would have happened if the first people to receive the food from the disciples didn’t pass it on, just kept it for themselves, sat there eating in front of everyone else until there was none left for anybody else. If they had done that, would everybody have been fed; would there have been a miracle? (No)

Imagine you were the second person, sitting there waiting for the first person to pass on the food, and how you would feel when they didn’t.

Or imagine what would have happened if the first people to receive the food from the disciples looked at their neighbour, but because they didn’t know that person, because they came from a different village or another tribe, they didn’t share the food with them; but instead they went looking for their friends and family in the crowd, gathered them together in small huddles and shared the food just with them, in their own little exclusive party.

That would have fed a few more people – maybe thirty, maybe fifty altogether. But if they had done that, would there have been a miracle? 

Imagine you didn’t belong to the village or the tribe or the family of any of the people who were first given food, and how you would feel when they ignored you and shared only with the people they knew.

For the miracle was in the sharing. It was only because the people shared with their neighbours, whoever they were, that five thousand people got fed.

There’s another scenario in which the miracle was in the sharing. It’s less magical than the others, but it’s maybe closer to reality. It’s the idea that many people in the crowd had a bite to eat hidden away in the folds of their clothes or their carry bags, but didn’t cough up when the disciples first asked them. They held back for themselves. It was only when the little boy made his offering and the disciples started to hand chunks of it out that people were moved to follow suit, to reach inside for their provisions, and share it around the people standing nearby. I like that because it’s a version of the miracle which replaces a holy conjuring trick with human agency. And I believe that God works best when we humans act out to recreate his generous ways.

For the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand teaches how God will provide enough food for everyone to eat: that is the wonder of Harvest, that’s what we celebrate today.

And it teaches us that everyone will eat when everyone takes just what they need and shares the rest with others.

Now the United Nations tell us that there is ‘more than enough’ food in the world for everyone to have enough to eat. [1] And yet we know that there are some families whose fridges and food cupboards are full to overflowing with food, so much that a lot of it just gets thrown away, while other families struggle every day to find food to put on the table. Where is the miracle in that?

And we know that there are some countries in other parts of the world which produce enormous amounts of food – but who have to send all of it overseas to the rich countries like ours, because trade rules mean they can’t afford to keep any of it for themselves. Where is the miracle in that?

The UN say that despite there being enough for everyone, ‘up to 811 million people remain chronically undernourished’, and their campaign to reach ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030 – when nobody is hungry anywhere in the world – is reportedly way ‘off-track’. [2]

Which provokes me to say again, one last time, that the miracle is in the sharing. It is only when people share with their neighbours, whoever they are, that everyone gets fed.

This is not religious magical thinking: it’s an achievable scenario which the World Food Programme has broken down into five steps which world leaders can take, which are in brief, ‘Increasing protection for the most vulnerable; Improving infrastructure; Reducing food waste; Growing a wider variety of crops; and Focussing on child nutrition’. [3]

The UN admit that ‘There is no silver bullet to solving hunger’. But if we press our leaders to follow these steps towards Zero Hunger then who knows what miracle might be achieved? [4]

I leave you with one last thought: can you imagine a world where everybody takes just what they need, and shares the rest of what they have with others? 

If you can imagine our world being like this, then you can help to bring this world about. 

If you can imagine yourself doing this, then you’re ready to help create a miracle. 

PRAYER

Father God, we thank you for giving us all we need to eat; and we are amazed by the wonderful miracle which happens when we decide to take only what we need and share the rest with others. Help us to imagine a world where this happens all the time, and to do all we can to help to bring this world about. Amen

Note

[1] United Nations, Can we feed the world and ensure no one goes hungry? UN News, 3 October 2019.

[2] United Nations, World ‘off track’ to meet most Sustainable Development Goals on hunger, food security and nutrition. UN News, 18 July 2019.

[3] United Nations, Can we feed the world and ensure no one goes hungry? UN News, 3 October 2019. Sidebar: ‘Five solutions to Zero Hunger’.

[4] United Nations, Become a Zero Hunger Challenge Participant.

Joel 2.21-27, Matthew 6.25-33

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 10 October 2021

Austwick (Harvest), Keasden

Each of us is made of stardust –

atoms built millions of years ago in hot stars, 

thrown randomly into space,

collected by all-pervading gravity

and taken in as food, drink, air,

and recycled again by nature;

spread out for reuse,

during our lifetimes and after.

 

Start with a hydrogen atom

and an oxygen atom or two,

and carbon atoms for fire and fuel;

add nitrogen atoms and the stage is set

for the finger of God to bring the chemistry to life – 

DNA molecules which can reproduce,

but only when living in community with others.

 

When you think of the simplicity of the basic building blocks of the universe, 

such as the hydrogen atom –

and the fact that its potential for change is limited

to the rise and fall of its energy levels,

and reflect that with this are made:

 the hummingbird and the whale 

the mind of an Einstein

the hands of a surgeon

the hills of North Yorkshire 

the laughter of children

the courage of people in suffering, 

then no miracle

no sign

can ever arouse more wonder

than the facts of the natural universe 

and the mystery of the human soul. 

Dust to dust

Atoms to atoms

We all share the atoms again and again.

When you eat and drink you become one with those atoms –

you receive what you already are,

you become more of what you already are.

Some of the atoms in your body may once have been part of a dinosaur.

 

When you breathe in, you breathe life-giving oxygen atoms – 

do you breathe in some of the atoms that Jesus breathed? [1]

 

This week in the church’s calendar is the feast of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and birds, whose life and character seem to suit so well our Harvest-time celebrations and these reflections on the wonder of creation and the intricate connections woven within it, atom-deep.

Francis went out into the Venetian marshes to hear the birds singing among the reeds, and said to his companion, ‘Our sisters the birds are praising their Creator. Let us go in among them and sing God’s praise, chanting the divine office.’ And when Francis found the birds were making so much noise that the friars couldn’t hear themselves saying the office, he turned to them and said, ‘My sisters, stop singing until we have given God the praise to which he has a right.’ The birds went silent immediately and stayed that way until the friars had finished their prayers, and Francis invited them to sing again. Then the birds returned to their joyful songs. [2] 

One remarkable thing about Francis is his intimacy in nature. He talked to the birds, and the birds took notice of him. They stayed calm near this human being: an unusual thing for wild birds to do. They allowed Francis to come close, so close that his clothes touched them. They trusted this human being more than any other. 

Jesus said we should look at and learn from the birds of the air, for they can teach us how to trust our heavenly Father to provide for us just as he feeds them.

And Jesus said that we should take time among the the lilies of the field, to consider their beauty, how they are dressed even more gloriously than a great king, for they can teach us how to trust  our heavenly Father to clothe us as he clothes them.

Harvest-time offers us a humbler way of being in this world, breaking apart from the way of domination, exploitation and control. 

Harvest-time permits us to be wowed by the atoms, to seek oneness with the birds, to take time to look attentively at the least of the flowers in the fields. 

The way of Harvest can be the way of every day.

Living in this way we may find our truer place in nature, 

• learning to accept that everything we have we are given; 
• learning to walk with an attitude of thanksgiving and praise to the creator; 
• watching and listening and learning how we can play our part, alongside all the non-human creatures, in God’s wonderful work of creation and re-creation in this world.

 

Notes

[1] David Hawkey, The Wow of Creation in Kathy Galloway and Katharine M Preston, Living Faithfully in the Time of Creation. p.112-113. Slightly altered.

[2] St Bonaventure quoted in Maximilian Mizzi, ed, The Message of St. Francis and quoted in my earlier sermon I talk to the trees (A Franciscan conversation), Croxteth, October 2004.