Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
We're going to work through our gospel story backward this morning but I'm going to start by telling you a story.
I used to ride my bike past a tiny storefront church when I lived in Philadelphia called "the church of the broken pieces". I would ride by and wonder what they meant by that, what broken pieces? Were they referring to themselves? Did they all come with terrible traumatic stuff to the church and find some kind of healing and peace there? Was it a reflection on how they had been treated in society? I pictured a group of people all broken but uniquely fit to
eachother like origami folded together so that they were made whole. A nice picture but I never knew what exactly they meant and never asked. Then this lesson came up in the lectionary one Sunday. Saying: And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
It says that there was so much abundance after Jesus fed a hungry crowd that the disciples went out and filled 12 baskets with the broken pieces of fish and of bread likely to send out into the world to keep feeding people who needed it.
The church of the broken pieces was talking about this. They were it turns out talking about themselves when they took the name broken pieces. But they weren't just broken pieces of humanity. They were signs of God's abundance. Signs that when God seeks to feed a crowd from just a few loaves and fishes, to break bread with us, to provide for us, his love is so abundant that even the scraps are overflowing with God's abundance.
Sure the people of the church were broken. We're all broken, sometimes by pain, fear, anger, grief, addiction and loss but this lesson made them realize that there is good in the broken parts. That even the broken parts were loved by God and precious enough to be gathered together and made into something new and nourishing. And that those broken pieces bear the message of God's love.
Now going back in the story a little there was broken bread and fish to pick up, ultimately, because Jesus had himself been feeling broken.
It all started at the beginning of our lesson with Jesus heavy laden with dark thoughts
and grief. The people closest to him, those who believed the most in him were
being swayed by popular opinion and were doubting his motivations and his
calling. And most present in his mind is that fact that his cousin and dear
friend, John the Baptist, has been beheaded by King Herod. Jesus'
closest companion is dead. And so he withdraws from the crowds to be by himself.
He wants to be alone. He wants some quiet time. He wants to mourn and be sad. He
wants a break from being the one that is in charge and the one people rely on.
The people of God who are following Jesus seemed to feel called in a different direction though. Just as he is seeking to be alone, trying to escape the eyes of the crowd for a short while they come to find him. They gather together in search of him, some of them healthy and able, others of them in hard places in life and in need of healing.
So the text says that when he saw them Jesus had compassion for them. He felt their pain with them, maybe even because of the pain that he had just been experiencing. And so he went to them and he taught them and he healed them and he brought God's love to them.
There is a kind of mutual ministry going on here. Jesus
was broken, sad and seeking to be alone after his cousin's death but the
Father saw that perhaps this wasn't best and so the crowds and the
disciples show up to "minister to Him" with their own brokenness.
I had an experience a few weeks ago that is a great example of this same type of mutual ministry.
I was visiting a member of another church in the hospital because her pastor was out of town. A woman who husband had suddenly become very ill and was in intensive care. I showed up with my little communion kit ready to help but when I got there someone else was already sitting with her, holding her hand and praying. After a bit of talking I learned that the gentleman sitting with her was not a realitive. He was not a close friend, he didn't really even know her that well. He was a fellow church member who has seen her situation and had compassion on her.
He explained that having recently lost both of his parents he was keenly aware of what a long hard thing it is to do, to wait in hospitals for days with little rest, little information and little companionship. So he decided that the best way to work through the painand brokeness that he still felt from that experience was not to bear it alone but to turn it into ministry to other people. So he takes it upon himself, when a fellow church member or friend has a very sick relative and few other people to be near them, to sit with them in the hospital.
He explained that he doesn't have much to say and what he does say might not be that great so he isn't really there to talk, certianly not to do any heavy lifting on the faith or the medical side of things. He doesn't have any trianing in either. Really he is just there because he knows what it is like to have no one and he is sure that God would want someone to be there. So he said he had little to offer.
That was his side of the story anyway. The report that I got from the woman with a sick husband was much different. In her eyes she had no one, she lives very far away. She was stuck and alone. Lonely, scared and broken down when he walked in. The walking, talking, love of God right there. She was the one who had so little but God took it and blessed it and multiplied it in this other child of God.
She says now there is enough love and peace in her heart that when the whole experience is over there will still be love, ministry and support to share. Broken pieces to pick up and gather together and send out again.
In his grief, Jesus took compassion on the people who were feeling pain like his own. He taught and healed them and when they were ready to leave hungry he took five little loaves, and two little fish and he made them so abundant that there were baskets full of precious broken pieces to gather together.
So too does God comfort and care for us and then gather us together, whole and broken, hungry and satisfied and make us signs for each other of His abundant love for us. Amen
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