Matthew 14:31-21

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. ¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷ They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

I have been mowing grass for as long as I can remember. I started mowing maybe around the age of 8.

My yard felt so big and it took forever to mow it. Yet as I grew bigger, I got faster, and the yard felt like it got smaller. Now when I visit my mom’s house, the yard feels very small. It is a good reminder that I haven’t always been 6’4”. Yet it’s small for another reason. My mom’s vegetable garden has expanded.

We’ve always had a garden. One year, we had a huge garden at one of  my grandpa’s properties. He owned this field that was over an acre, and one year we grew corn, horseradish, green beans, and tomatoes. My sister and I thought this was so cool until when upon returning from vacation, we didn’t go home. We went straight to the garden and picked green beans for two hours. That ruined me for gardening, but my mom has kept going strong. She has revised her growing habits and expanded her knowledge. Every area around her house has something edible growing in it. The asparagus around the front porch. The garlic and chives around the back garage. And the little garden where our tree house once stood is teeming with all sorts of vegetables.

My mom is especially magical with tomatoes. She has a certain heirloom variety. But she has too many. They proliferate and she has shared these tomatoes over the years. She shares this wonderful salsa she makes. It has gotten to the point where she had developed her own tomato-based economic system.

Her neighbor Joy also had a garden, but I don’t remember really sharing with her all that much when I was growing up. Maybe an occasional zucchini bread loaf. But now, my mom and Joy trade all sorts of veggies. Not only that, they have a weekly dinner together. Joy mows my mom’s grass with her riding mower, and mom helps Joy with various projects. They have become wonderful neighbors way beyond what I remember growing up.

There are others in the tomato economy. My mom is a rural mail carrier. She brings the tomatoes to her work, others are inspired and share their own vegetables. There are people on her route that share with her because they know she is a skilled gardener.

Last month, I went on the route with my mom. Her car was having some trouble, so I drove while she directed and delivered the mail. At each stop, she gave me the whole run down. Who lived at each house, what they did for a living, or who used to live there, what their interests are. Mail carriers know so much about us just through osmosis. They soak up our stories even if we have never met them. So be kind to your mail carrier. Give them Christmas cookies, shovel a path for them through the snow, and such because… they know a ton about you.

The tomato economy extends to my buddy JJ. We grew up together, we lived across the alley from one another and played flashlight tag in summer nights like these. I went to college and he started a heating and air conditioning company. He’ll fix things for my mom, all sorts, in exchange for produce. The tomato economy is no joke!

I am floored by today’s scripture. Jesus heals and teaches the great crowd that has gathered. The hour grows late, and the disciples say, “There’s nothing here as this place is deserted, let the crowd do a taco run in the local villages.” Jesus says, “They need not go away, you give them something to eat.”

The disciples reply, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”

We have nothing… but five loaves and two fish. That’s something, not nothing. Jesus knows us. Jesus must have been a mail carrier. He knows us and what we’re like. He knows that we’re selfish and we keep things to ourselves. Or if we’re not selfish, then maybe we don’t think our little bit can make a difference. He takes the loaves blesses breaks the loaves and sends the disciples out into the crowd. And all eat and are filled. Is this because Jesus is magic and multiplied the fish and loaves by some divine power? Maybe.

I like to think the true miracle is how Jesus inspired others to share. The first thing to note is that Jesus responds out of compassion. He’s operating out of love for the crowd. And this crowd is in a deserted place. I find it hard to believe that the crowd would come out without first packing a snack. I can’t even make the trip from Medina to my mom’s house in Dennison, just over an hour away, without having a snack on the way. The true miracle, in my mind, is not that Jesus magically multiplied the 7 loaves. The true miracle is that Jesus moved the crowd from selfishness to generosity. He moved them from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of abundance. That’s what operating out of love does!

I see that in my mom’s tomato economy. She has knit a tight community with her neighbor, her co-workers, and those on her mail route. I see that same thing here.

In our Circle of Caring, you are visiting one another. You talk to one another on the phone. On my first visit to Western Reserve, I hit the button on the elevator and out steps Rita Rennels. Rita was a member of my church in Sylvania for a year before moving to some town around Cleveland. Rita and I looked at one another and ask, “What are you doing here?!” at the same time. Then Pete Benson walks up. And within three minutes we are joined by Mary Ziegler. This seems to happen all the time. I visit someone and they are on the phone with one of you. You are always checking in with one another.

This is community! This is a move from selfishness to generosity! We make this move in our 4 feeding initiatives! You learned about food insecurity here in Medina County, and you responded out of love and are sharing. You have taken on The Garfield Six and are making sure these families are fed and loved by their community. You learned about the plight of the refugee in this country and have taken on the Congolese family. You are doing so much! This is the true miracle of today’s feeding story.

In his new book, Money and Possessions, the preeminent scholar Walter Brueggemann makes it unmistakably clear that the Bible is concerned with economics. The whole book can be summed up “The Bible is for an economy of neighborliness and against an economy that exploits the poor.” Brueggemann goes book by book through the Bible and sums up the economics of each book. He states that the Bible is about an economics of neighborliness. The Old Testament and the New, and Jesus extends our neighbors to even the Samaritan and our enemies. Neighbors are an undeniable social fact that will not go away, so we must treat them in love, as much as we can muster. Our neighbor cannot be left in a vulnerable state but are entitled to protection and a viable life in the community. The Bible knows that if the needy are kept in debt, the hungry without food, the naked without clothes, then they cannot be viable neighbors.

In short, the Biblical economy teaches that we should love people and use commodities whereas we often do the opposite when we use people and love commodities.[1]

Jesus isn’t playing that game. And thus we as Christians can’t play that game. We stand for the love of neighbor. That our neighbors are not things to be used but people to be loved. We acknowledge that each of us bring something to the table. Maybe it is a scrap of food to share. Maybe it’s something we can teach someone else. Maybe it’s time spent visiting one another, for we give of our time to listen.

There is a great debate around healthcare in this country. I don’t have any answers other than this: sick people are our neighbors and not commodities. How can we be neighbors? Many don’t want to. “Healthy people shouldn’t have to pay for sick people!” they complain. Yes, but that’s how insurance works. It’s like the definition of insurance. It’s the same reason why people’s whose home is not on fire have to pay for firefighters to go to people’s homes that are on fire. That’s how our fire department system works. Yet the question of “how can we be neighbors?” still remains. It will take all of us to answer it. Each of us bring something to the table. Each of us has an opinion on the matter. Maybe we start by listening to one another, especially those who have been seriously ill, or are terminally ill. For these are our neighbors; not a burden or a profit source. The question is not whether, it’s how. Maybe even by being neighborly in our listening and conversation, especially when we disagree is a good step in the right direction.

Speaking of steps, maybe I’ve overstepped in my wonderings, but it is something that is on my mind. How can we multiply the fish and loaves and move people from selfishness to generosity? That’s the question. I don’t know how exactly we shall answer it, even though I have a lot of opinions on the matter, as I’m sure you do. What I do know is that I love the smell of mowed grass. That’s the smell of summer for me. I love my mom’s tomato economy and the way you check in on one another. That’s the Beloved Community of God. That’s the way you are living out the true miracle of today’s text. You are moving from selfishness to generosity.

The message of the fish and loaves is that you are enough. We have enough. And when we each share, there will be baskets and baskets left over. We don’t know what we are capable of but Christ does and has faith in us. Let’s trust in Christ and be good neighbors to one another. Amen.

Works Cited

Brueggemann, Walter. Money and Possessions. Interpretation. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016.

[1] Paraphrased page 25, where Augustine teaches the first, and the pharaoh of the Exodus narrative represents the latter.