Our society has a strong tendency to disregard, if not look down on, things and people who seem small and lack power. If there’s no use, there’s no meaning of its existence, our consumerist culture implicitly proclaims. This principle applies to people. If one is with disabilities, or one is too young or too old, one’s worth becomes less valuable than those in power or those who are more productive and useful. We say we are human beings, but the consumerist culture, which is always too anxious of scarcity, redefines us as human doings or human producing or human consumings. But Elisha the prophet in the first lesson tells otherwise. Jesus in the gospel lesson proclaims the abundance of God, not in the way of productivity or usefulness, but in the way of offering or oblation.
I would like to read you a different version of today’s gospel story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. It is Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s version, his storybook Bible for children. The title is “God provides enough for everyone: Jesus feeds the crowd.” All day in the hot sun, thousands of people sat and listened to Jesus talk about God’s dream. They were so hungry to know God, they forgot to eat lunch! When the sun started to go down, Philip said, “Master, it’s late and the people are hungry. You should send them home.” “Why send them home?” Said Jesus. “Just feed them.” “Feed them?!” Philip said. “We don’t have any food.” “Someone has something to share.” Jesus answered. A little boy offered to share his five small loaves of bread and two tiny fish. Philip threw his arms in the air. “That’s not enough for all of these people!” “Ask the people to sit down,” Jesus said. He took the bread in his hands, looked up to heaven, and blessed it. He did the same with the fish. Then he told the disciples to hand out the food. They were amazed! There was more than enough for everyone. When all the people had finished eating, the disciples filled twelve baskets with the food that was left! With God’s love, five loaves and two small fish fed more than five thousand people. (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Children of God: Storybook Bible, pp. 88-89) As you can see, Archbishop Tutu’s version is edited. Which means as he retells the gospel story, he interprets it in some way. For example, he doesn’t include Andrew. There’s no mention of Andrew in his version. Through Archbishop’s imagination, we get to hear the crowd’s response to this miracle by which they were amazed. Philip comes across as someone who is realistic enough to know the crowd should be sent home and the little boy’s five barley loaves and two fish aren’t enough for them all. Out of all his redactions, I appreciate how Archbishop Tutu makes the little boy’s presence much more active and visible. In the original text, the little boy is presented through Andrew. Andrew says to Jesus, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” We don’t know how Andrew found out about the boy. Did the boy get caught by a bunch of adults or did he volunteer? If it was voluntary, how did he know that Jesus wanted to feed the crowd? These are some questions whose answers we can only imagine. But in Tutu’s retelling of the story, the boy takes up a different role. And Jesus also takes up a different role. He actually expects someone to share. In Tutu’s version, Jesus says, “Someone has something to share.” That someone Jesus has in mind is the little boy. He offers to share his five small loaves of bread and two tiny fish. The little boy doesn’t hide his food from others. He doesn’t keep them to himself. He actively offers to share what he has for the sake of others, for the sake of the five thousand. This whole scene reminds us of Jesus’ saying, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:3-4) The little boy not only enters the kingdom of God but also shows how to enter. And what is this how? Offer what you have. Offer what you are. Offer yourself for others. This actually is a unusual behavior for us when our consumerist culture fears people of scarcity. We are told that we lack something and there’s never enough for myself, destroying any room to share with others. Interestingly, Jesus seems to go against our consumerist culture that preaches to us to produce. He doesn’t produce anything even when he sees the crowd who haven’t had anything to eat. Instead, he receives the five barley bread and two fish from the little boy. The bread and fish are offered to Jesus the Great High Priest. Jesus takes what’s offered to him, blesses it, breaks it, and distributes it to the crowd. This four patterned act brings all of us to the altar. Jesus not only offers what’s offered, but he offers himself, becoming the offering to God to feed the world. This morning, let’s be attentive to what Jesus calls into. Looking around our society and our world, there’s never enough for everyone even though we are very much aware of what’s being wasted. We might also think very less of what we have or less of what we are, telling ourselves there’s nothing much we small people, particularly our small parish, can do much for others. We wouldn’t say such things explicitly or out loud, but deep down in our hearts, we might consider ourselves not so useful or too small to be productive. Perhaps Andrew’s question might linger in our hearts, “There’s a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” What are we small parish among so many people? We want to go beyond this saying of Andrew so that we can listen to the voice of Jesus, “Make the people sit down.” Which means, “Let’s prepare ourselves to serve.” My friends, let us remind ourselves that it is not up to us how to make ourselves abundant. That’s not what Jesus asks us to do. That task of God’s abundance is God’s work, never ours. Jesus never commands us to be useful or productive. Jesus simply looks for someone who desires to share what one has. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. All Jesus wants is someone to offer, someone to be offered for the sake of others just as he himself did on the cross, as he offered himself to the Father. Offering of myself in believing that God will make me abundant is how one enters the kingdom of God. This is how one experiences the reign of God here and now. “Walk in love as Christ loved us and offered himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.” And this offering is made possible because we are the body of Christ. St Augustine once said, “When you eat this food and drink this wine, they will be transformed into your substance. Equally you will be transformed into the body of Christ, if you live in obedience and faithfulness. The Apostle reminds us of the prediction in scripture: ‘Two will become one flesh.’ And elsewhere in reference to the eucharist itself, he asserts, ‘Because there is one bread,we who are many are one body.’ You, therefore, begin to receive what you already begin to be.” (Sermon 227) So my friends, let us not be afraid to offer ourselves. Let’s not shy away from being oblates to Jesus who will make us abundant. He will take us, bless us in thanksgiving to God and transforming us who we really are, breaks us, and shares us with those in need of God’s mercy and grace. Let’s open up our fists, open up our hearts to this Eucharistic miracle of Jesus Christ in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
|