Nov 16th: Generosity, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Generosity with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Love Takes Flight A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 14.13-21.
Curious about stories that inspire compassion and generosity? Join us this Sunday, online or in-person, to explore a message of hope, abundance, and community. All are welcome, whether you’re seeking, questioning, or just curious. We’d love to see you!
Transcript:
There’s a remarkable story where Jesus and his disciples fed 1000s of hungry people with just five loaves of bread and two fish, and there were leftovers. Here’s the story from Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus withdrew by boat, privately to a solitary place. The crowds followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, This is a remote place. It’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. Jesus replied, they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. We have here only five loaves of bread and and two fish. They answered. Bring them to me, Jesus said, Jesus directed the people to sit down on the grass, taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves, then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was was about 5000 men, besides women and children. Love that story. Parker. Palmer told a modern version of the same story. Now, Palmer’s story takes place in that remember that time, long ago, when there were no security lines at the airport, no electronic screening, and remember the time you could actually carry pretty much whatever you wanted onto the airplane. Seems like a distant memory, right? But Palmer was on a flight from O’Hare in Chicago to Denver that pulled away from the gate taxied. Taxied and taxied a long time. You know the feeling, right? You look out the window and you’re not near the runway ready for takeoff, but you some remote corner of the airport looking at a chain link fence. Your heart sinks as the engine winds down. The pilot came on the intercom, I have some bad news. There’s a storm, a storm front in the West, exactly where we’re headed. Denver is socked in and shut down. Looks like we’ll be staying right here for a few hours. That’s bad news, but the really bad news is that we have no food on board. This story is from that blessed time long ago where there was actually real food on board and you were you were served lunch. Well, everybody on the airplane groaned. Some passengers actually got, got pretty angry, but then one of the flight attendants stood in the aisle with the microphone. We’re really sorry, folks, we didn’t plan it this way. We can’t do anything about it. We but we know that for some of you, this is a big deal. You’re hungry. Some of you have a medical condition and and you really need to eat. Some of you may not care. So I have an idea. We have a couple of empty bread baskets up here, and we’re going to pass them around. I want everybody to put something in the basket. Now, I know some of you have brought a little snack along, just in case. You know, peanut butter crackers, candy bars, some of you might have Rolaids, lifesavers, chewing gum. And if you don’t have something edible, I’m guessing you have a business card or a picture of your kids or a bookmark. The thing is, I hope everybody puts something in the basket, because I’m sure that that you have something to give. And then once we do that, we’ll we’ll reverse the process, we’ll pick up the baskets, and we’ll pass them around again, and then everybody can take out what he or she needs. Well, what happened next was nothing short of amazing. First, the complaining and the griping stopped. People actually started to reach deep into their pockets, their handbags, their their briefcases. Some stood up. Retrieved carry on luggage from overhead bins and got out boxes of candy, a salami, Italian sausage, cheese crackers. A couple of people actually had a couple bottles of wine, and now people, they were laughing, they were talking to each other the flight. Attendant had transformed a group of anxious, even angry people focused on their need and deprivation and scarcity into a generous community sharing and in the process, creating an abundance of sorts. Well, that flight eventually, eventually took off and and landed. And as he disembarked, Parker, Palmer found that flight attendant and said, you know, you know, there’s a story in the Bible about what you did. She smiled and said, Yeah, I know the story. That’s why I did it. The story of five loaves and two fish feeding 1000s is actually the only miracle story told in all four Gospels. And there’s evidence that when the earliest followers of Jesus, you know, when they gathered together after Jesus was killed, they would gather in fear, under the cover of darkness. Now there’s evidence that when they gathered, they would break bread and drink wine and remember Jesus, and they would read this story about five loaves and two fish feeding 1000s, and it would give them the courage they needed to live and to love like Jesus in difficult times. So in the story, a huge crowd, a huge, huge crowd, had been following Jesus, listening to him teach, hoping to be to be healed, bringing their children to be blessed. It was late in the day. Everyone was hungry. The disciples. They disciples tell Jesus, send the people away, because they knew, they knew there was, there wasn’t enough food. Here’s where the first miracle happens. Jesus filled, filled with compassion. Jesus doesn’t send them away. You know, so often our first response, our first response, so often, comes from a place of scarcity and fear, where we focus on what we don’t have. We focus on on how big the problem is, how we don’t have enough. How we don’t have enough? Have enough time, we don’t have enough energy, we don’t have enough talent, we don’t, we don’t have enough resources. We can’t, we can’t possibly make a difference. The first miracle of the story is that Jesus doesn’t send them away. We live in a culture today where people are expendable. We live in a culture today that that sends people away fearing there won’t be enough if we share Jesus says they don’t need to go away. And then do you notice Jesus says, You give them something to eat? I wish I was there to see the disciples faces when he said that. Wait, wait a minute, Jesus, what do you mean? We should give him something to eat. You might not have noticed Jesus, but all we have between us is five loaves of bread and two salted fish, which is hardly even a snack for 12 hungry men. Never mind 1000s. There are over 5000 people here. Jesus, no disrespect, but are you out of your mind? Now? The disciples were operating out of a sense of scarcity. They looked at the crowd, assessed the need and their own meager resources, and came to the very sensible conclusion, there’s not enough. Did you notice in the story, Jesus didn’t feed the multitudes? The disciples? Did? Jesus? Just said, what? Just give me what you have. Give me what you have now, and you give them something to eat. You know, I wonder what did happen that day. How were 1000s fed with with leftovers from five loaves and two fish. Now, of course, we don’t really know, so let’s just simply go with what the text says. The disciples gave what they had, and it was enough. It became in abundance. You know, maybe, maybe it was something like what happened on that airplane. Maybe Jesus’s compassion and the disciples, trust and generosity were so humbling and inspiring that that maybe people began to dig in their pockets and share scraps of bread that they had brought along. Maybe they, maybe they put in money and and the disciples took, took the money and took turns running into town to buy bread. Maybe what happened is a mystery and can’t be explained. However it happened. What we do know is that they gave the meager amount they had, and there was enough for all with leftovers. What we do know is that their first response, their initial response, came from a place of fear and scarcity and self preservation to send them away and Jesus, filled with compassion, said, No, you give them something to eat. You know, our culture believes the antidote to fear is security. You know, the antidote to fear is just trying to acquire more and more and to hold on tightly to what we have. The Bible makes it clear, the only antidote to fear is love. It says in First John, love casts out fear. And Lamont wrote, I know that if I feel any any fear or or deprivation, the solution is to give and to give more than I’m comfortable giving. The solution, she says, is to find some mothers on the streets of San Rafael and give them 10s and 20s and mail a check to Doctors Without Borders, because I know that giving, giving is the only way to feel abundant. Giving is the way to fill ourselves up. This is a difficult and a painful moment in our life, our common life together. I mean the very, very air we breathe right now is saturated with fear and anxiety. There’s so much need, it’s tempting. It’s tempting to want to hold on tight to what we have. It’s tempting to go into survival mode and be overcome by a sense of scarcity and fear. I want to leave you with an image of another story about bread, Viktor Frankl survived the concentration camps of of Nazi Germany. He observed that those who somehow managed to survive, managed to survive, and those who didn’t survive, they each shared something in common, surviving the harshest, harshest circumstances you could imagine, it turns out, had nothing to do with with age, how old you were, or male or Female, or how healthy or strong you happen to be Frankel noticed that those those who didn’t survive, they took the little bread that they were rationed each day, the small pieces of bread that they were given as a ration, and they clutched it tightly, hoarding it. Were for themselves, fearing there wouldn’t be enough. And Franco was shocked to know, to notice that those who somehow overcame the worst conditions you can imagine, they took the little bread they were given, they opened their hearts and their and their hands, and they shared their bread with with children and and the sick and the elderly. That kind of generosity, that kind of love cast out fear and proved to be stronger than the worst kind of evil. And friends were called to bring that kind of love into the world, especially now. Jesus said back then, and he keeps saying, Now, bring me what you have. Just, just bring, bring me what you have. You feed them. I don’t know what your five loaves and two fish are right now, given the enormity of the need in the world which what you what you have, might feel small and insignificant and not worth mentioning. Your gifts are not small. They’re not insignificant. You are not small or insignificant. Something miraculous happens when we come together and generously share what we have for the sake of others. God turns our meager gifts into abundance. The story says Everyone ate and were filled and they were leftovers. That’s the God we serve, one who wants to make sure that there’s enough for everyone, want to offer you this prayer, gracious God, Thank you for reminding us that that in your hands, even the little we have is enough. Forgive us. Forgive us for the times our first response is fear. Forgive us for the times when, when we see scarcity instead of your abundance, when we focus on what we lack, instead of what you call us to give, when we clutch tightly to what we have, fearing there won’t be enough. Teach us to trust you more deeply, to bring what we have, however small, entrusting it to the work of love in the world. Remind us that when we when we feel fear and and deprivation, that generous giving is the way to feel abundant, that giving is the way to fill ourselves up, increase our faith, our compassion, our willingness to serve, so that All might be fed by your love and your grace. May it be so.
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