July 29, 2012
“Food and Faith”
Rev. Mark R. Miller
2 Kings 4:42-44; John 6:1-21
Things are bad right now. In fact, things are so bad right now we have
to take a moment to talk about it…The real unemployment is closer to 17%. We only say 9% but after a while we simply
kick people off the rolls so as not to depress people. The jobs that are created are mostly service
jobs that don’t pay a living wage. That
is one reason why all new hires at Wal-Mart get a food stamp application. Then there is the environment… heat waves and
fires across the country. And we still
want to argue about how it happened instead of working together to address the
problems we face. And then there is
hunger… real hunger in the richest nation in the world. The richest nation in the world has lost
interest in dealing with hunger and poverty.
The war on poverty has been over for a generation and, in case you
haven’t noticed, we lost that war.
Children throughout this land go to bed hungry every night – upwards to
15,000 in the city of Saint Louis. And
in the county it’s closer to 40,000 children.
And this is all in the shadow of one of the largest seed companies in
the world. But the trouble does not end
there. In the shadow of two of the greatest
universities in the world, we tolerate an education system that is, for lack of
a better word, apartheid-like. Nestled
right in the midst of some of the finest hospitals in the world, we have the
highest infant mortality rate in the country. It rivals the numbers that we
would expect from the economically deprived nations of the world. It all points to one conclusion… something is
not right. So we either need to get mad
and get to work or better yet… we need a grand distraction to make sure no one realizes
that this is not the way it is supposed to be.
Speaking of that, has anyone heard how the medal count is stacking up? Things are bad right now and we know it. The problem is that those who are running
things and those who hope to run things know they better not talk about these
things. People don’t want to talk about
the bad news, the real news. The sad
truth is that we, the people, do NOT want to face the troubled times. It is just so much easier to talk about the
Queen and her parachute antics, or whether or not Michael Phelps will win
medals… or whether Usain Bolt will jump the starter’s pistol and be
disqualified.
I am left wondering why is it that we
will not, no cannot, talk about such things?
Well, the simple truth is that it is all too overwhelming. For those of us who care about the concerns
of our neighbors it is even more so.
What I hear from folks is that we are beginning to feel like those first
disciples. Overwhelmed… there is so much
need, so many problems, so much trouble that we finally stand back and ask, “Where
are we going to buy food for ALL these people?”
It is a question that comes because our collective memory and our
collective imagination have been stunted.
That is why John starts this story by jarring our memory. Did you catch it? “Now the Passover… was near.” It was a reminder of another time when things
were bad. The celebration of the
Passover was a celebration of God taking sides.
It was a time when God said no to those who think that the exploitation
of those who break their backs in work is job creation. It was a time when God said no to the
powerful who leisure on couches while others dust their furniture. It was a time when God said no to the
exploitation of another person’s labor without giving them a fair share of the
profit. No more bricks without
straw. And it was a reminder that those
in power are often as hard headed as they are hard hearted. Only death, devastation, and destruction of
the nation would bring the Pharaohs of this world to their senses.
It was also another time when a
follower of God believed there was not enough to go around. Moses did not trust that God had big
plans. Moses did not trust that God
could overcome his personal limitations and the distrust of his own people. Just like Philip… Philip was so trapped by
the consumer economy he never thought that God might work beyond the bounds of
Economics 101. There is not enough to go
around. We love the Lord and we believe,
but seriously look around. We are too old,
we are too young, we don’t have enough money, and have you seen the roof? And Jesus said, start with what you have and
work from there. The need is never going
away. The problems are huge and you are
small, but start with what you have. And
if you don’t think you have enough faith, or don’t think you are the one to do
it… remember. Remember the faith you
inherited. Remember that God takes
sides. Remember the Exodus. Remember Philip. Remember the little boy with
some bread and fish. Remember.
We aren’t the first people to face
troubled times. The people of Jesus’ day
were abused economically, manipulated politically, and ignored when it was convenient. And
Jesus does not just feed; he teaches those excluded how to create a new
economy. This new way of living will not
be based on what you can buy, but how willing you are to share. A little child will lead them to finally
understand that God does not like it when we do not share what we have… even if
what we have is very little. That is
why we have to practice this all the time.
We have to go back to our story, the story of our faith. Because when we walk out that door we will
hear something very different.
When we walk out that door we will hear
that the poor do not matter. We will
hear that we should grab everything we can for ourselves and ignore our
neighbor. We will hear that we are
nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold and so are other people. We will hear that self-interest is the way we
should build our society. So what will
you do in the face of all this? What
will you do when faced with these messages?
What are you going to do when despair comes knocking on your door? What are you going to do when faced with our
own bad news times? How are you going to
respond?
At the heart of the Passover
celebration is food. The food is not
tasty but it is meant to help people remember.
At the heart of this passage is the Passover. And at the heart of communion, in the Gospel
of John, is the Passover as well. Bread! It is about bread. The sharing of bread in here, around this
table, is about the sharing of bread with our neighbors, and with our community
and with all the hungry people inside and outside this congregation. But I know what you are going to say… we
don’t have enough to take care of it all.
What is a measly basket of food we are going to collect each week going
to matter when face with hundreds of hungry people. I do not pretend to know how we will feed
them all. But I also know that not to do
what we are able with what we have means that we have failed our responsibility
as disciples.
The most basic symbol of our faith is
bread. And while it is indeed about
spiritual bread, if we do not connect the
spiritual feeding to the real feeding, God will not be pleased. Now, know this, we have been feeding and
supporting the pantry for almost a year.
Our support has been steady and has not dropped off. So this is not to say, you haven’t done
enough. I am sharing this right now to
remind you that what you have been doing matters. Each time you have brought food it means that
someone, a family, a child, won’t have to go hungry that night, and maybe for a
few days. And we need to be encouraged
because times are tough. But there is
something more that we can do and now I am about to get political – as if I
haven’t already.
The
U.S. House and Senate have been debating something called the Farm Bill. In this bill we give large subsidies to
companies and agribusinesses. This
enables companies like McDonalds and Coca-Cola to provide garbage food at rock
bottom prices. But it also includes the
food stamp program and the free and reduced lunch program. And our leaders could not come to an
agreement so they extended the program for one year. In some of the conversations around the
current economic crisis the language of, everyone has to sacrifice, has come to
the forefront. But the reality of this
is that the poor, the widows and the orphans will struggle the most. And I want you to consider this… the food
stamp program did not cause the deficit and making more people hungry will not
solve the deficit either. Let me say it
again in case you missed that… the food stamp program did not cause the deficit
and making more people hungry will not solve the deficit either. As people whose central ritual is the sharing
of bread we simply cannot stand for this.
Call your representatives, call your senators, call anyone for whom you
have voted or who represents you and say, as a person of faith, I want to know
how you stand on issues of poverty and hunger.
We have to raise the banner of hunger because no one else is doing
it. If we do not do this, those whose
central ritual is sharing bread, who is going to do this?
Notice that I did not tell you how to
vote, or for whom you should vote. Because
after Jesus fed the crowd they decided they had found a new king. They saw Jesus’ power and just knew he had
the same political vision they did. But
Jesus would have none of it. Jesus came
to feed, and redeem, and to teach about a new kingdom that would not, and could
not be inserted in the current systems of the world. But all the same we must speak out. We must raise the banner high on issues of
justice, but never forget that Jesus is no partisan hack. The times are tough. Open your eyes and open your hands. Never lose hope. We are not the first, we are not the last, and
we do not walk this road alone!
Amen? Amen!
