(Mark 6.32-44)

A sermon preached by Dave Shull

Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ

Sammamish, Washington

All Saints Day: November 1, 2009

Christians around the world celebrate today as All Saints Day. A person who is a saint for me is Grandma Shull. She and my grandfather were missionaries for 40 years. So they had no money. But everything about her was rich. She knew God had given her so much. And she said thank you to God by giving back. It was like she knew there was more than enough of everything to go around. Until I was well into my 20s, every year for my birthday, Grandma sent me a check for $2. It wasn't the amount that mattered. It was being remembered and loved so richly by her. Around her, I always knew there was more than enough.

Two weeks ago I shared a quote that continues to haunt me. It's by Shane Claiborne, who wrote the book Jesus for President that we're going to start studying together in a week. He said, "If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you....But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; [we] just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way" (Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution, Zondervan, 2006, p. 117). Over the next four weeks, I'd like to talk about four ways that I think we Christians can show the world another way of doing life.

Today, I want us to imagine living like we know there is more than enough.

Even though the Bible is filled with stories about the abundance and extravagance of God, most of the time I don't live like there's more than enough. I don't often live like there's enough time, money, kindness, patience, space, power, imagination, community, or hope. Our economy and our world live the lie that there is not enough. When we believe this lie, we can never have enough. We can never be enough. The gospel of our culture and economy makes us violent, depressed, fearful, anxious, greedy, and willing to destroy the very earth that sustains our life.

If we want a different kind of world, we Christians need to live by God's economy. We need to show the world that there is more than enough.

Our Gospel reading this morning sets up the contrast between our economy and God's economy. The disciples are students of modern economic theory. They take an inventory of the situation. Five thousand hungry people are in the middle of nowhere. There are fives loaves of bread and two fish. It's not a pretty picture. They tell Jesus to send them all back home so they can feed themselves. Jesus, who lives God's economy, sees a totally different picture. He doesn't see the scarcity that the disciples do. And since what we see shapes how we respond, Jesus responds in an utterly outrageous way. He shows everyone around him that with God's power and love, there is more than enough. Much more.

Listen for a word from God.

Jesus and his disciples got in a boat and went off to a remote place by themselves. Someone saw them going and the word got around. From the surrounding town people went on foot, running, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke - like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them.

When his disciples thought this had gone on long enough - it was quite late in the day - they interrupted: "We are a long way out in the country, and it's very late. Pronounce a benediction and send these folks off so they can get some supper."

Jesus said, "You do it. Fix supper for them."

They replied, "Are you serious? You want us to go spend a fortune on food for their supper?"

But he was quite serious. "How many loaves of bread to you have? Take an inventory."

That didn't take long. "Five," they said, "plus two fish."

Jesus got them all to sit down in groups of fifty or a hundred - they looked like a patchwork quilt of wildflowers spread out on the green grass! He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. And the disciples in turn gave it to the people. He did the same with the fish. They all ate their fill. The disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. More than five thousand were at the supper.

The story says that when Jesus sees this crowd, his heart broke. He falls in love with these people. He combines this deep love with the power of God. And the 5000 are filled. With more than enough to go around. The key is what Jesus does with the bread and the fish. He takes it, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it. Do you remember any other time in the Gospels when Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it? At the last supper. This is a story about communion and Eucharist. It's not a story about some supernatural multiplication of a tiny bit of food. And I don't believe it's a story about all these people sharing what they brought so everyone would have enough. Jesus came to announce that God's kingdom of joy and justice was present here and now in him, and tell us that that this kingdom can come alive through us as well. So we need the faith and the imagination, we need to believe in God's power and love so much, that we can look at a situation our culture would call hopeless. And instead see more than enough to go around.

Three stories about not enough and more than enough.

Princeton seminary wanted to find out what makes people most likely to help a stranger in need. So they did a study looking at three variables. One was why the person went to seminary. Were they more interested in the work of a pastor, or in finding ways to live their faith in their day-to-day lives? Second was what they'd been studying most recently. Half the group was put in a class where they had to prepare a presentation on issues around ordination to the ministry. The other half was preparing presentations on the story of the Good Samaritan - the story where the only person who stops to help someone in need is the arch-enemy of the needy one. The third variable had to do with time. In the class before their presentations on ordination or the Good Samaritan parable, half the group was told by the teacher, "Oh, I've kept you too long. You need to get to the next building for your presentations as quickly as you can." The other half of the sample was told before they had to go to the next building for their presentations, "We've finished a little early today. So you've got plenty of time to get there."

Both sets of students were sent off to the other building. Along the way, each student came across a man slumped in an alley, head down, eyes closed, coughing and groaning.

The researchers wanted to know which students were most likely to stop and help the man in need.

People familiar with the study predicted the same thing. They said the students who would stop to help the hurting man would be the ones who had entered seminary because they wanted to live out their faith by helping people, and the ones who had been studying the Good Samaritan parable.

They were wrong. The only thing that determined whether students stopped to help was whether they felt like they had enough time Some of the students who were on their way to do a presentation on the Good Samaritan stepped over the man slumped across their path. Of the students who were told they were late to their presentations, only ten percent stopped to help. Ninety percent of them didn't think there was enough time to help this person. Of the students who felt they had enough time, 63% stopped to help. Feeling like there wasn't enough time led people normally compassionate people to withhold love from someone in need (summary from Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, p. 165).

A second story.

Shane Claiborne is part of a community called The Simple Way. This group of adults and children live in an area of Philadelphia which most of us wouldn't walk through in broad daylight, let alone move into. Here is what Claiborne says he has learned from his neighbors about how to move from not enough to more than enough.

"One of our neighbors owns a pizza parlor around the corner. The owner and his family are from Afghanistan, and during the war his loved ones became refugees. He heard about our efforts for peace, bringing attention to the desperate situation in Afghanistan. He made our pizzas with love and joy, sincerely thanking us for what we do. And he always told us to name our own price, for money was irrelevant.

"A family very dear to our hearts own the Josefina minimart across the street from us. Over the years we have become inseparable. The kids come over for homework, participate in our theater camp, and beat us at Skip-Bo (though they cheat sometimes). We helped rehab their house; they helped teach us Spanish. Oftentimes they need transportation to restock the store or pick up the kids. We found that we could insure them (actually at no extra cost) under our policy. So we share cars and resources, and they never take our money for groceries. We are not good Samaritans, nor are we an efficient non-profit provider. We are family with them, and money has lost its relevance" (Shane Claiborne, "Mark 2: Sharing Economic Resources with Fellow community Members and the Needy Among Us," The Rutba House, School(s) for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism, Cascade Books, 2005, p. 36).

The gospel of our culture and economy would look at this block in Philadelphia and see blighted, hopeless, not enough. But the people who live on this block see something else. Because they have fallen in love with each other. They listen to the gospel of God's economy. Filled with the love and power of God, they live like there is always more than enough.

The third story is about a guy at the Recovery Caf� I'll call Gregory.

At the Recovery Caf�, I facilitate a weekly support group. Last Friday during the check-in time, Gregory said, "I can't imagine being happier than I am right now. I passed my tests to become a volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium. On my third test, I needed an 80 to pass, and I got an 81. And seeing all the kids at the aquarium, I've realized what I want to do with my life. I want to be an elementary school teacher. I think I'd love to do that." The week before, one of the members of the Recovery Circle had talked about the Lupus fundraising walk he'd been organizing. And the next day, Gregory was at the walk. Soaking wet from that morning's downpour. Without any sponsors. But ready to do the walk. To show his friend he had enough time and love to share.

By any measure, Gregory has had a very hard life. He lives in a shelter. He lives with mental illness. He lives with cocaine and alcohol abuse. And.Gregory seems to be living by God's economy. Because where most of us would look at a life and see depressing, bleak, hopeless, Gregory looks at his life, and sees, "I can't imagine being happier than I am right now." He sees so much more than enough, he has to share it.

Standing in the middle of nowhere before 5000 hungry, tired people, Jesus took next-to-no amount of food. He lifted it to God, he broke it, he gave it to them. And there ended up being so much more than enough. That is God's economy. Where we live by the assurance that when God's power and love fill us, we always know there is more than enough. Some Princeton students show us that we are more loving when we live knowing there's more than enough time. The community of The Simple Way, some Afghani pizza makers, and the Mexican owners of a minimart have fallen in love with each other. So they are rich with more than enough.though they have no money. Because he isn't used to having very much, Gregory can look at a life many of us would see as lacking so much, and say, "I can't imagine being happier than I am right now."

May these living saints teach us how to live knowing there is more than enough. There is much more than enough. Amen.