Food and Faith—II Kings 4:42-44; John 6: 1-14
Today’s topic is a favorite of many of us…food. Down in the South, there is a saying when it comes to mealtime and whether or not one is hungry. People will say, “Oh I know how to eat now.” This week, however, I experienced a moment when I didn’t know how to eat. While at Jekyll Island for my conference, I was invited by a coworker to “crab night” where we eat crabs and low country boil type of food. Now, let me preface this with…this Appalachian boy grew up far enough away from the ocean that “Fresh Seafood” was listed in the freezer section of the grocery store. I am quite the novice at eating crabs and peeling shrimp.
As everyone else set in eating away with their nutcracker and little gadget utensils I’d never seen, I’m sitting there utterly confounded. I’m hoping my friend who grew up in Miami whose family is of Bahamian descent will take pity on me and help me, but no help cometh my way. So, I begin without any care or caution cracking, opening, and pulling apart these sea creatures. Honestly, I looked like a hot mess with crab bits flying everywhere, and ate more shell than crab, so after one, I focused on anything else on the dinner table. I was incredibly grateful for the fellowship even if I became the featured entertainment at dinner.
Jesus often uses food as a way of teaching or making a point in the Gospels. That is because food is one of the few areas of life where we have to have it to survive, and we actually enjoy it. We’re appreciate air, but in the end, it is air and we simply breathe it. We need other bodily processes, movements, baths, and so on to survive, but they done come with the same creativity, passion, and craving that food has in our lives. Three things stick out from our lessons today: gathering, generosity, and greatness.
First, we read that “a huge crowd kept following [Jesus] wherever he went because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick.” John tells us that wherever Jesus went, the crowds were there. They were his entourage or his groupies coming to see the miracles that Jesus would perform. And when they gathered here, the first question Jesus asks is what are we going to feed them? If you go into any southerner’s house, the first thing you will probably be offered is some kind of food and drink. It’s to restore, nourish, and provide hospitality.
The church is the same. We come here to be fed—literally in the Lord’s Supper, and figuratively in prayer, praise, and Word. Jesus’s words have a double meaning—literally he was asking how they planned to feed those gathered, and underneath it, he knew that in addition to the bread and fish, they were going to get their faith fed as well that day. Rule of thumb for the church—when you gather people together, feed them physically and spiritually.
Here we do that both in the parlor snacks and in nourishing the soul. And truthfully, we should feed the physical hunger first, because no one who is hungry or hangry will listen to a nourishing word, nor should we hold them hostage to a sermon before we offer food. When Jesus gathered people, he almost always fed them—here in the miracle story, at the Passover before the crucifixion, at the wedding in Cana providing the wine more so than food. He gave examples of wedding banquets, went to dine with Zacchaeus, told of fig trees, fields of grain, and grapes. Jesus connected gathering with feeing those who gathered both with actual food and with faith examples.
But a bigger point in this gospel story is the generosity at work. There was no way Jesus and his disciples could afford to feed over 5,000 people. But there was a young boy who had some bread and fish. And from that small bit of food, thousands were fed. Some scholars say that this was a true magical miracle where a small bit of food was miraculously replenished every single distribution. Other scholars say the miracle was in Jesus convincing a greedy people to share what they had with one another until all were filled. It’s another point that where it’s less important how Jesus did the miracle. Focus on the lesson—the generosity.
In 2020 in Georgia, 562,000 children ages 18 and below faced food insecurity and hunger. And 426,000 children in Georgia live in poverty. At some point in the scriptures, Jesus advises that the poor will always be with you. But here, here in the Gospel of John, the first question Jesus asks is, “How do we feed these people?” And it is the generosity of a likely rather poor boy who had some small fish and barley loaves. How do we know the boy was poor? Barley was the bread of the impoverished. Wheat was the bread of the wealthy.
In a world focused on wealth and power, Jesus calls us to practice generosity. There’s a bit of a tradition in Appalachia, where I grew up, and the South where I now live. If someone invites you to dinner, you bring something with you. That practice held true at crab night. I brough some specialty honey, another brought a key lime pie, a third person brought some local cheese and fruit, and the final one cooked the food. If we want to live in a world of kindness and Christ-like ways, then generosity must be our common practice, and we must no longer tolerate things like hunger and poverty where resources are abundant.
And finally, we read of greatness. Jesus gathered the people, showed them generosity, and in response, they saw his greatness. John’s Gospel tells us, “When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, ‘Surely he is the Prophet we have been expecting!’” John leans heavily into the miracle side of this story. We’re told that Jesus already knows what he’s going to do here. We’re told that the bread is distributed first, and five loaves feed over 5,000 people as well as two fish following. It’s described as a “miraculous sign” which is often attributed to the most unexplainable things Jesus does.
We’re also told that the scraps of bread are gathered because there should be no waste. Interestingly they don’t gather the fish in John, do you know why? You ever smelled leftover fish in the Middle Eastern heat? Not even Jesus can do a miracle on that mess. Part of Jesus’s ministry is that there is generosity, greatness, authority, and nothing wasted. No one and nothing go unnoticed or ignored by Jesus. Instead of throwing out the leftover bread, Jesus gathers it so that more may soon be bed.
Faith is the same—we practice generosity, and no one goes ignored or unnoticed. Living our faith means everyone gets a seat at the table and the opportunity to know and experience Christ for themselves. II Peter 3:9 reminds us that God does not want any to suffer or perish physically or spiritually, but calls on us to offer a word of hope that might nourish every soul. Lest you wonder about it, the Great Commission itself says that we are to teach and share to the ends of the earth, setting a table, preparing a meal, and generously practicing the love and welcome of Christ with all whom we encounter.
There’s a saying at my friend’s church: “We meet to eat, and we eat to meet.” Dinner with my coworkers was an amazing experience of fun and fellowship and conversation. I may still have no idea how to eat a crab without being miserably awkward. But I can guarantee you I felt welcomed at the table. Who do we invite to gather at our table? Who receives the generosity of our food and our faith? Who comes to be nourished from our faith and experience and learns of the greatness of God to love, heal, and save? Jesus has set the table for you. Now go and share the goodness of God with others.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/7814083108688639