BREAKING OPEN THE WORD

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Matthew 14:13-21

When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already late;
dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages
and buy food for themselves.”
Jesus said to them, “There is no need for them to go away;
give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.”
Then he said, “Bring them here to me,”
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples,
who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied,
and they picked up the fragments left over—
twelve wicker baskets full.
Those who ate were about five thousand men,
not counting women and children.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, brothers and sisters, Father Ron. Here, gospel is in the show notes. You know it by heart. It's the feeding of the 5,000 people on the hillside. Jesus takes five barley loaves, two fish, and miraculously produces food for them to be filled. It's a great miracle. Great story. But it made me think of this. One of the universal gestures of welcome and love in every society, in most every society, is a hug. Right? I mean, we shake hands all the time to say hello and to greet someone, but a hug communicates something much deeper. When it's appropriate, it says, you matter to me. I'm glad you're here. I love you. Right? I mean, of course, not all hugs are created equal. Some people give what I call the polite church hug, where you know they barely make contact and they're kind of holding you away rather than pulling you in. You know, they grab your shoulders high there and then they pull back right away. It's awkward. But on the other side of that, there's my grandma hug. Oh boy, grandma hug. For her, it wasn't a real hug unless it lasted at least five seconds. Five seconds. One, Mississippi, two, Mississippi. I mean, that's a long time. You know, she would pull you, this is as kids, she would pull you in, wrap both arms around you, squeeze as though she never wanted to let go. And then she'd just gently rock back and forth. Five seconds. And as a little boy, I thought it was completely gross and suffocating. But it was okay because after the hug, she would always give us a Reese's peanut butter cup as a reward for standing there. But looking back, I realized something. There was never any doubt how much grandma loved me. I mean, yeah, a quick two-second hug might have communicated affection, but grandma's hug, it was extravagant, excessive, ridiculous even. And that was precisely the point. I sometimes imagine that if Jesus were physically standing before us each morning, that's exactly how he would greet you with a grandma hug, an audacious, abundant embrace that leaves us with only one thought. I am so loved and cherished by God. Do I reuse the image for today's prayer? That I used it last week as well, but I really enjoy it because you never see that, the image of Jesus hugging someone and loving us into his embrace. Well, that image came back to me, that whole idea of grandma's hug and everything else, as I prayed with today's gospel. Because the miracle isn't simply that Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. That's amazing. I'm not discounting that. But what captured my heart was the little detail that almost seems like an afterthought in the gospel. It says they all ate and were satisfied, and then they gathered up twelve baskets of food left over from those who were fed with five barley loaves. That's the line. Leftovers. Twelve baskets of food. God doesn't simply meet our needs, he overflows them. The generosity of God, right? Jesus never stops at good enough. He blows past that into more than enough and abundance. And really, that's the way love behaves. That's why grandma couldn't give a two-second hug. Because she loved us more than that. Real love is expansive. Generosity always spills over. And you see that same pattern of God's love for us throughout the Gospels. You know, the woman at the well, right? She didn't leave that encounter with Jesus merely with a new idea or perspective of life. She ran home with a completely new heart. It says she was filled with living water. Bartimaeus, the blind guy. You know, his encounter with Jesus, he didn't just teach Bartimaeus to accept his blindness. Jesus flooded it with light. At Cana, his first miracle. They didn't just receive one more pitcher of wine for everyone. They received an abundance of the very best wine. Pictures and pictures and pictures of it, and the party continued. Oh God, again and again. Jesus refuses to stop at good enough. It's like he delights in giving more. That's why. In John 10 10, a different gospel, it says, Jesus says, I came that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Not just life, but abundant life, leftover life. Right? I wonder if sometimes we approach God expecting only a handshake or a one-second hug when Jesus wants the full five to embrace us and pull us in, if only we settle ourselves enough to receive it. We settle, I think, sometimes for checking prayer off our list while God longs for communion. We ask for enough strength to get through the day while God wants to fill us with his very presence. Leftover, abundance beyond our imagining. So, friends, this week, inspired by this gospel, let's not wait until we're desperate, lonely, or exhausted or whatever before coming before God. Come simply because you want to receive that hug, that embrace and belonging from God, who wants to give it as much as hopefully you want to receive it. So here's our little homework this week. What I'm doing, I invite you to join me. To spend ten quiet minutes before bed each day this week. Not in bed, before bed. Maybe light a candle if it helps, I do. And then just sit quietly before the Lord who is with you. Don't worry about reading or writing. Just be there. Let him feed you, let him hold you and love you. If it helps, we've created a 10-minute little meditation of quiet music to lure you into that quiet place with him before bed. It's on the Discover tab on the app, and it's just 10 minutes quiet music to kind of gently hold you there with him. When the music ends, go to bed. All right, because friends, our God has never been satisfied with giving quick hugs. His love is always abundant, always extravagant, always more than enough. I mean, no peanut butter cup afterwards. Okay, but that's all right. What I get in return is something so much better. Thank you for being with me today, friends. And hey, a quick invite. If you think someone you know might enjoy and appreciate listening or watching this message today, or any day we pray, really, you can share the link with them and they can receive it. You just go to the app and go to the top right corner. There's three little dots there. Tap them, and then there's a menu that says share. And then you can email it or text it or whatever you want. But it's what disciples do. They share good news. So if you know someone who might appreciate it, share it. And thank you for being with me today. May God hold you and bless you abundantly, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Have a beautiful day, friends, and we'll see you tomorrow.