Luke 9:10-17; 1 Kings 17:8-16
Many years before this story takes place, the people of Israel spent forty years in the desert. They had been miraculously released from Pharaoh’s control. Miracle after miracle spared them, while it devastated their oppressors. Even at the last minute, when Pharaoh changed his mind and tried to run them into the sea to their death, yet another miracle saved their lives and they walked out of Egypt on dry ground.
In their second month of desert life, they began to grumble. Actually, their grumbling finally reached a fevered pitch – “If we had only died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt,” they complained, “we wouldn’t be starving now!” So, God sent them a mysterious substance that looked like dew on the ground, which they could make into anything they had formerly done with flour. They didn’t know what it was, so they called it “manna,” which means, “what is it?” It came every morning for the next forty years. And only enough for that day. That was all they would need. Of course, some didn’t trust the supply of manna, so they hoarded more than they needed and tried to keep it overnight. But it rotted and attracted maggots! Eeew!
Still, every day, manna appeared. They were fed by the dew of God. And each day was just enough for that day, no more, no less.
It must be hard to live that way, don’t you think?
During the days of Ahab the king, Elijah was called to be God’s voice of judgment. This is not a job God gets a lot of applicants for! It is a dangerous job. And the news was not good. Because Ahab had led the people to worship other gods, there would be drought in the land, until the God of Israel commanded it to stop. After the first season of drought, we humans can kind of laugh it off. There is always a variation in rainfall one year to the next. Ahab probably didn’t even notice. But Elijah knew it was serious. God sent him off to the wilderness to live in a ravine near a stream. No food there, but God had that covered too. The ravens would bring him bread and meat. Ravens know how to scavenge! It makes me smile to think that Elijah’s food may have come from the king’s court, where the ravens may have found their inexhaustible supply.
Of course, in the ways of drought, the stream dried up. So God sent Elijah to Zarephath. The text tells us that God had “directed a widow there to supply you with food.” When Elijah got there, the widow didn’t seem to know anything about these arrangements! In fact, she was out gathering sticks in order to prepare the last of her food for her son and herself. Then they would die. I suppose at that point, sharing one’s food is little risk – a few hours difference between life and death. So, she agreed to Elijah’s request that she first bring him a little bit of bread and water and then make some for herself and her son. I am not sure she believed Elijah’s proclamation that the God of Israel would provide their food until the drought was over. She was not of the people of Israel, and she did not serve the God of Israel. But something moved her to meet Elijah’s need.
And every day from then until there was a crop again, she used up the last of the flour and oil – every day. Every day was the last day’s supply. And yet, in the morning, there was enough for another day.
It must be hard to live that way, don’t you think?
Another bread story: One day Jesus was out in the hills of Galilee teaching a crowd of people. They were so engrossed in his teaching that they forgot to go home and get food. They probably even forgot that they were hungry. Their souls were being well fed. Again, as in the Sinai wilderness and the Samaritan drought, there was nothing to eat. So Jesus told the disciples to feed them. Was he expecting manna again?
Luke is a wonderful story-teller. He sets this story very carefully. It follows in the same paragraph as the glowing reports of what their eyes witnessed on their mission trip into the local villages. They saw God’s power. Could the disciples apply what they had learned to this new setting? That seems to be what Jesus wanted to know. Could they trust that power to this setting?
One small lunch was all they had. It would never be enough. But they had people sit down. Jesus broke the bread, …and then the disciples broke the bread for the groups of 50, …then the people broke the bread for their neighbors. An it was enough – more than enough for all of them.
It must be hard to live that way, don’t you think?
I don’t have any exciting experience in my life of this kind of miracle…. Or, maybe I do. I remember the year when Mom gathered us together and said that there would not be new winter coats this year. We would make last year’s work. For growing children, that is not convenient. And that year the garden was bigger, and the freezer emptier, for the half beef was missing. And I remember reaching down deeper and deeper into the freezer, but it was never empty. There was enough.
I remember last week going into Beth’s office, our bookkeeper, wondering which bills we would need to put off until next month. She looked at me and wondered the same thing. But we went to the deposit for later that day and found the rent check from the new renters, the timely payroll check for the Taborspace employees, a little of this and a little of that. And it was enough. Daily, things break, daily we fix them, and the flour and oil seem to be re-supplied.
It must be hard to live that way, don’t you think?
Big expenses loom. And then we receive a grant from the Presbytery’s Barnabas Fund to help us make some repairs. It is not enough for the next thing, but only for this thing.
It must be hard to live that way, don’t you think?
Hmmm. I wonder about that. Is it really hard to live that way, where what the day supplies is all we need? Is it hard to live this way, or the easiest thing in the world, the most natural connection with God and each other? This is the story of God’s people over and over and over again – that there is enough, but only enough. The abundance comes from God, and from sharing with each other, because we are God’s people.
If we are concerned only with meeting our own needs, storing up a supply to take care of ourselves, we miss the true abundance which is right before our eyes. The true abundance is in the presence of those God has given us to love. God is the love between us, and it is always enough. The problem may be in what we measure.
Jesus told a story about this in Luke 12:16-20: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
It doesn’t really tell us, but what might Jesus have imagined would be the way to live with this abundant crop? Most sermons I’ve heard just focus on the foolishness of tearing down perfectly good barns, before the new ones are ready. But what about sharing the abundance? How might that overflow into more than one could ask or imagine?
The Israelites in the desert had to learn that storing even enough for the next day would never do. The widow had to use up every ounce of her supply every day, to make room for the next day’s supply. The little lunch had to be given away completely, before it fed everyone.
The problem is that we have much more resource than we know. As westerners, we have been brought up in the culture of scarcity. We have been taught to look at what we don’t have, rather than what we do have. I grew up in a house where we learned to go to the refrigerator and see what was there, in order to create a dinner out of that. And it was always enough. We learned to see what we have, to be creative with food as we might be with paints or fabric. What if we changed our vision? What if we asked, “What do we have? What is there to be thankful for? What could be done with this?” What would happen if these were always our first questions? We would begin to undo the culture of scarcity and the fear it produces.
God was teaching the children of Israel this lesson by providing just enough for the day. God was teaching Elijah and the widow this lesson with the never ending supply of flour and oil. God was teaching the disciples this lesson when he fed 5,000 with a few loaves and fish.
What about us? What is God training us for? In the face of limited resources, will we draw in our reach? Will we wait until the bank account is big enough to be safe to step out into the new work God is calling us to do? Will we build a wall of fear?
Our God is enough. God created all that is. Do we have any reason to doubt that God is still in the business of creating? The ever expanding universe watched by scientists tells us no. God is still able to create and in fact, is creating constantly. Has God looked away from this little blue planet earth, distracted by the far reaches of creation. NO! God is love. And love is an always-enduring relationship. It can never be broken. God is love. God is still connected to all God has ever done.
Even this bread, sitting in our midst today, is a reminder of God’s enduring creative love. This bread is just like the body of Jesus – exactly enough to do what is needed today. It is like the manna of the desert – enough for today. Like the flour and oil of the widow – enough for today. And like the five loaves and two fish – more than enough for everyone who is hungry. God did not quit feeding our souls when Jesus left this earth. God continues to provide us enough, more than enough bread, to sustain us to do what God has planned.