Pastor's Notes
Nancy Feniuk Nelson, Pastor
Coastside Lutheran Church
August 3, 2008
preached by
Pastor Nancy Feniuk Nelson
As I began to think and work on today’s sermon – my last official sermon as your pastor – I breathed a sigh of relief… and I laughed … and then I breathed a deeper sigh of relief, and more.
My first sigh of relief was very specifically due to the fact that today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel didn’t mention either hell or gnashing of teeth.
I thanked God that I wouldn’t have to either ignore or explain some difficult piece of scripture.
Then I had to laugh
as I do again this morning.
You know, if we could just relax and read scripture the way we read the other stuff we read – you know: mysteries, sci fi … whatever …
If we could read that same way, I think we’d all get a few more giggles out of the Bible.
I mean – really …. think about it:
Jesus has gone off to a DESERTED PLACE in a BOAT.
All things point to this place being far away – even difficult to access.
Still, the crowds – the needy, sick, and apparently persistent crowds – follow him.
And He has compassion on them – talks with them, touches them, heals them –
which takes awhile.
Before they know it, it’s suppertime. Everyone’s hungry, but nobody signed up for fellowship that week and there’s next to nothing in the freezer, so to speak.
The disciples want Jesus to simply send the crowds away to eat. They want Jesus to send them to the ancient near Eastern equivalent of McDonald’s or Subway. A ridiculous idea.
Jesus wants the disciples to handle it. An even MORE ridiculous idea.
“Jesus, are you joking? There are thousands of people out there and we’ve got some bread and fish. 5 loaves and 2 fish to be exact.
We can’t feed these people.
It’s not enough.
It’s not even enough to feed ourselves. What are you thinking!!”
“Bring it here” Jesus says. And they do.
They bring him 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes.
He takes the fishes and loaves
He blesses them
He offers them up to God with thanks.
And then the disciples begin.
Even as they look around.
Even as they see masses of people – thousands of them
People who will probably get pretty darn crabby if food runs out just before it
reaches them.
The disciples take that risk and they begin to distribute the food.
And everyone eats – as a matter of fact, they eat until they’re full.
And at the end, they collected up what was not eaten.
they collected 12 basketsful of leftovers.
From 5 loaves of bread and two fishes.
Where there was not enough …. now there is more than enough.
Some people want to look at this story as a prelude to Holy Communion.
But there’s another way to understand this story.
A way that I have always preferred.
A way that I think is particularly appropriate for today
– my last Sunday as CLC’s pastor.
It has to do with scarcity and abundance.
It has to do with the perception of not enough
and the reality of MORE than enough
Obviously, the disciples represent the side of scarcity:
“Lord, Lord, what will they eat ? Send them away. We have nothing
Or next to nothing, anyway. Not enough. Not enough.
Jesus, on the far other side of the picture, takes exactly what the disciples have
and he offers it up to God and blesses it
and before you can say “Tuna Casserole”, they were all fed …. full, even
More than enough.
You know, at first glance, this is a good little story.
At second glance, especially when you find out that this is THE ONLY miracle story recorded in all four gospels, you figure this is a REALLY good story …
Even an important story.
Then, somewhere around the 3rd or 4th or 10th reading, there is that AH-HA slap in the forehead moment when the light dawns: This is a story about one way to live life.
The world – especially our modern, Western, tech-savvy, threat-level announcing, stock-market worshiping world offers a more popular option.
They like to call it being realistic – or pragmatic – even sophisticated, educated …. complex.
They understand their way as being rational, reasonable and logical, using the available data to draw some conclusions.
They call their way “Information-based”
I call it fear based.
And it is what feels most natural – even safest – for all of us.
It is what we’ve all been taught for so long now that it seems the THE TRUTH – the only option: “There may not be enough.
There probably ISN’T enough.
So first I better be sure that I’ve got me and mine covered –
and we’d better not try for any more.”
And Jesus says: “Calm down. … Bring it here ….. “
And he blesses it. Breaks it.
And then he says, “Give it away”
YIKES
Yet that’s the only way. It is in the giving away only, really …
in the risky act of giving it away that the discovery is made
can be made …
by those old disciples
and by us new ones
that, Good and Gracious God, there really is enough!!
it’s a miracle!
There’s more than enough.
********************
Over the past 5 weeks or so, I have known that I would be leaving Coastside Lutheran. As a result, I have been painfully aware of these being my last formal, preached words as your pastor – which has, needless to say, added a certain bit of weightiness to the mix.
So many things I still want to say
or say again ---- or say better
Not just for your hearing, but for mine as well.
So many of my sermons are preached to myself.
But this is where the deeper sigh comes in – the one I mentioned at the start.
What a blessed sigh of relief and gratitude I continue to feel as we wander through today’s little story: This is THE PERFECT STORY
for THIS day
at THIS place
with YOU gathered here.
Because if I had to choose one single thing I wanted you to truly believe after
“God loves you”
OK – if I had to choose TWO things …
the second thing I want Coastside Lutheran Church to really, truly
hear
and believe
and cling to
It is that there IS ENOUGH and more than enough.
You have enough
right here – right now
to be who God is calling you to be – individually and congregationally
and to do what God is calling you to do – in the congregation,
in the community
and in the world
Enough and more than enough.
God has blessed this congregation with
gifted people
beautiful land
wonderful neighbors
countless opportunities
time, talent, energy, treasure
commitment, faith, hope, love
It’s all right here.
Even on the days when it looks like 2 loaves and a fish tail.
It’s all right here.
And for the past 9 years, we’ve been working our nerve up to believe that and risk giving it away.
And it’s been working.
If you look back over these past few years, it’s been working.
The more we give away,
the more we share,
the more we reach out
the more we still have enough and more than enough.
Just look at where we’ve been and how far we’ve come
and it’s obvious.
We are a modern day fishes and loaves story.
And the good news is that you have the good news.
Which means that nothing has to stop.
Sure, it will change.
Anytime, every time a member of the community leaves,
the community changes.
But it doesn’t need to stop
And it shouldn’t stop.
Don’t listen to “them” – whoever they are.
Don’t listen to the ones who sow the seeds of fear and doubt and distress.
those who live a theology of scarcity.
Our God is a God of abundance.
Our God is a God who can take a few fish and a hunk of bread
and feed thousands.
Our God is a God who can take a gathering
of normal, busy, loving, stressed people
and empower them to offer Good News
to other normal, busy, loving stressed people who haven’t heard it yet.
Believe God’s abundance
Trust God’s steadfastness
Risk God’s audacious generosity
Be God’s presence.
You are blessed.
You have been a blessing to me and my family.
Continue to be that blessing
And watch it grow to be enough and more than enough.
Oh yeah. One more thing.
I got a final little laugh as I read today’s Gospel and saw that it was 5000 men who were fed, “not counting the women and children”.
Well, maybe they didn’t count them,
but we do
We do because God does.
Amen and Amen