“Anybody Hungry?”
Matthew 14:13-21
It was raining heavily on September 9, 2015 when half of the former extended stay hotel on N. Mack Smith Road—called the Superior Creek Lodge—was condemned and immediately shut down by the city of East Ridge.
Approximately 800 people were out on the street, with all their belongings, in the dark and rain.
The next day, counselors from Spring Creek Elementary School were over here at the church speaking with me.
We were the only ones in the building at the time.
Many of the approximately 150 children who lived at the Superior Creek Lodge were students at Spring Creek.
The counselors were worried because so many kids from the Lodge had not made it to school that day.
They were wondering if we knew where they were, since we had been running a mentoring, tutoring and feeding program for the kids—East Ridge Cares 4 Kids for the past several years.
As we were talking, Marcy Hall called me and said: “They have closed the rest of the Lodge.”
I looked at the panicked counselors.
And then, I made a decision that I really had no real authority to make, but I made it on faith.
I said, “East Ridge United Methodist Church will be a shelter for the people of Superior Creek Lodge—active immediately.”
When I say I made this decision on faith, I mean, I made it on the faith that a big God would use just a few people in a small church to try and take care of the needs of 1,700 desperate homeless persons.
Before I knew it, many of you in this room were here working the phones and getting things set up.
We were the only church in this city and town to take the initiative—even though there are many, many churches that are much bigger and have many more resources to work with.
But you guys took care of the situation.
This building and the people of this church became the epicenter of a humanitarian crisis, a virtual media storm, and a major miracle center—where God used just a handful of folks to feed and house nearly 2,000.
And before we knew it, financial help and physical help from people all over the city, from different United Methodist Churches and individuals all over town came flooding in.
We took in $65,000 dollars in donations in an incredibly short period of time, and through your efforts—72 families were placed in permanent housing.
So if anyone thinks that the miracle the feeding of the 5,000 was not an actual event—well, I can understand where they are coming from…
…but we’ve seen this kind of stuff happen right in our midst.
So, it’s good to remember these miracle stories.
And that’s really what it is.
As I tell it, I find it almost too hard to believe.
There is no way we could have done all that on our own.
There is no way.
Many of us were just working on auto-pilot.
It really was God’s miracle—not ours.
Which, I think, kind of brings out a kind of false narrative in my thinking and the thinking of…perhaps…most of us when we think of ministry.
And that false narrative is: “We can’t do that!!!”
“We don’t have enough people.”
“We don’t have enough resources.”
“We don’t have enough time.”
“We don’t have enough money.”
Or…
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish—that’s barely enough to feed 1 person let alone 5,000.”
Not too long ago, I was speaking with someone—I can’t remember who—about some of the ministries that currently take place in this church.
I told them about the Monday evening feeding program where we make more than 100 sack meals a week and take them directly to people living in dire straits within a mile or two of our church building.
Then I told them about the Food Pantry which feeds, on average, 50-60 people a week.
I told them about how much food is purchased, stocked, distributed and so forth.
Their first question was: “How many members do you have in your church? It must be huge.”
You should have seen the expressions on their faces when I told them.
I’m not saying all this stuff, for us to get big heads.
I’m saying this stuff so that when we start feeling overwhelmed by the needs…
…when we start feeling powerless in the face of such humongous problems…
…when we start questioning whether we can go on…
…when we begin to doubt what God can do with little old me or little old you or this little church—we will remember and be confident in knowing that we have everything we need in order to do what Jesus Christ is calling us to do!!!
It’s right here.
It is you.
It is me.
It is the people we don’t even know yet!
This story is an amazing miracle of Jesus.
That’s the reason that all four Gospel writers recorded it—this same event is in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!!!
It obviously made a huge impression on the disciples and on the people who were fed, as well.
But Jesus doesn’t keep His miracles to Himself.
Could Jesus have just snapped His fingers and created a filet ‘O fish sandwich for everyone in the crowd?
Sure.
But He didn’t do it that way.
Jesus gave the disciples the privilege of being in on the action, of being a part of the miracle.
The anxious disciples were worried, as it was getting late.
“Send the crowds away, so they can go to the village and buy themselves some food,” they begged Jesus.
And in saying this they weren’t necessarily being cold hearted.
They were being realistic!!!
They just didn’t see how it could be possible to feed so many people with so little food.
It’s totally understandable.
It’s totally human.
And without God it is impossible.
But with God nothing is impossible.
So, all the disciples could come up with were five loaves of bread and two fish.
“Bring them here to me,” Jesus said.
You know.
How many times do we look at what little we’ve got, and just hang our heads and cry?
How many times do the horrors of life hit us right between the eyes and we decide that there is nothing that can be done?
How many times do we feel powerless, unprepared?
How many times do you feel like you aren’t good enough?
How many times do you think you aren’t smart enough?
How many times do we look around and all we see is scarcity?
Scarcity in ourselves, scarcity in our church?
I do it a lot.
How about you?
When this happens, Jesus is saying to us:
“It’s alright. There is more than enough.
Bring what you have to me.
With it, we will help change the world.”
What dreams for ministry is God laying on your heart and mind?
What needs do you see in this community, in this world that you feel God calling this church to help meet?
Do you ever have these kinds of thoughts and then blow them off because, well, because we don’t have much money, we don’t have many people, we don’t have this, we don’t have that?
I’m sure I do this more often than I can count.
But why?
There is no reason for it.
When we offer all that we have to God, He can break it and bless it and use it in ways we never thought possible.
When we give our whole selves to Jesus—there is no telling what can and what will happen.
It’s so worth it!!!
Notice what Jesus does after He asks for the bread and the fish.
He blesses it, He breaks it…and then…and then He gives it back to the disciples, and the disciples give it to the people.
We—the Church of Jesus Christ—are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
We are called to give all we have to God, and then share what He has blessed with the world.
May we do this according to His will.
Amen.
