Good Morning! I am excited
to be here with you and to worship with you. This week’s scripture seems to be
highly appropriate for this the beginning of our ministry together. It is so
good because Jesus tells the disciples what they are supposed to do while they
are with this crowd of 5000 + people.
Before I get to that, I would like
to tell you a little about this disciple. I was born and raised in Hagerstown,
Maryland. I joined the Md. Army National Guard while I was a junior in High
School; went to boot camp at the end of Junior year and returned for my senior
year of high school. Couldn’t find a job after high school so I moved to New
York and lived with my sister; worked in a warehouse and decided that wasn’t
what I wanted to do so I joined the Navy. I spent 8 years in the Navy and felt
this urge to continue to serve people. While in the Navy, I went back to
school. I wanted to be a lawyer so I began studies in law and became a
paralegal. I worked at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office for 13 years.
During that 13 years, I was
attending church and my pastor and I began chatting. Then it turned into
meeting for coffee once a week. He started talking to me about ministry. As
time continued, he would tell me that he and I were doing the same job. You
see, I worked with a lot of witnesses, victims of crimes, law enforcement
officers, and lawyers. I loved what I was doing. This job had its ups and
downs. There were days when you could help people and there were days when I
just wasn’t feeling that I helped anyone.
This scripture reading from Matthew
is one that I can relate with quite easily. First off, the disciples want to
send the crowd away. It sounds like that 5:00 whistle is about to blow. “its
late and these people need to go into town and get some food. The disciples
have had enough of the crowd and now they want some Jesus time. At least, that
is how it sounds. Now they want to be left alone with Jesus to eat some dinner
and let the teaching resume tomorrow. I think we can all relate to that.
. Jesus says something a little out of
character. “Don’t send them away,” he says. He then tells the disciples “you
feed them.” Could you imagine the look on their faces when Jesus said that?
Stunned might be an understatement. Here is this crowd and now Jesus says, “You
feed them.” That would be like going to a concert with your picnic basket and
all the sudden the people on the stage say “well, I hope you brought enough for
everyone!”
There is something more than what
you see here. This is the first time in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus tells the
disciples to do something. Not just anything but you feed these people who have
been following us for days; feed this crowd of people…these 5000+ people…you
feed them. They all have left the boats and now they are in the wilderness.
They did not drop the nets from the boat to catch as much fish and then hold a
party. They left the boat and now are in a “deserted place” All they have is
the five loaves of bread and two fish; now they have to feed all these people.
The something bigger here is what we
are called to do as disciple’s of Christ. We acknowledge that Jesus is the Son
of God; so the Son of God is telling the disciples to do God’s work of feeding
this huge crowd of people. Sure they are scared, nervous, worried, that they
won’t have enough to feed them all. But Jesus doesn’t want to hear it. HE
blesses the food and gives it back to them; AND they don’t resist. They go
about what Jesus called them to do and feed. Isn’t that amazing?! AND it is a
miracle that there was enough for everyone to eat and there was even some left
over. What a miracle that is and what a blessing!
Just like the disciples were called
we, too, are called by Jesus. We are called by Jesus to do God’s work that has
been taught to us by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. One of what I would call the
“funny things” is that we think we have our lives all planned out. For me, I
thought I would be content to be the Navy for 20 years. Well, that did not
happen. I thought I was going to be a lawyer and that did not happen. Becoming
a pastor was not even on my radar. If someone would have told me that I was
going to be a pastor 10-15 years ago, I would have laughed and I do remember
laughing.
Through all that laughing, God
continued to call me to do God’s work in different ways. I do believe that in
each of those jobs that God was the one who called me to do them. I am not the
only one that God calls to do God’s work. God calls us all to do God’s work. In
this story of feeding, Jesus is telling us to feed this crowd and there are
many ways to feed. There is actual feeding, feed through sharing the Word of
God, through our words, actions, and through our jobs and connections with one
another.
That is why I am so excited to be
here and in this place. There are wonderful ministries that are going on here
of teaching about God’s word and caring for one another and reaching out
through the Carroll Lutheran School to some of the youngest of Jesus’
disciples. I am excited about hearing your stories of discipleship and being in
conversation with you about what it means for us to be disciples of Christ and
the journey that we will be taking together.
In a few moments, we will be fed
with the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We will be fed with God’s
gift and God’s miracle of salvation for you and for me. We will receive the gift
of forgiveness through the sacrifice and crucifixion of God’s only Son on the
cross; and we will witness the miracle of resurrection and new life. We are the
recipients of God’s work through Jesus words, hands and feet.
We have heard the words “God’s Work,
our hands” haven’t we? That is why this is an exciting time because God is
calling us together on this new journey, God promises to be with us every step
of the way and Jesus taught us that God keeps God’s promises and that is
something to be excited about.
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