Feeding the 5000 is NOT a Miracle

A couple of weeks ago I made the 500-mile drive to San Diego. The shuffle mode on my iPhone surprised and delighted me with its random selections of my music collection. Good thing I was driving alone, nobody else would have tolerated a Berlin cabaret song on the tail of Witchy Woman, followed by a Celtic lullaby, Yo-Yo Ma, Calypso with Harry Belafonte, and so on. As the odometer ratcheted up, I fell in love with my iPhone all over again.

Both my octogenarian parents have cancer. My mom has been living with ovarian cancer, and the extensive damage caused by its treatment, for an amazing 39 years. Bowel blockages, the result of intestines scarred by radiation and multiple surgeries are all too frequent.

And my dad, who has historically been the uber-healthy caretaker, was diagnosed with oral cancer about 18 months ago. The large and still growing tumor on the base of his tongue makes chewing and swallowing painful, his mouth is dry and his sense of taste has been altered.

For my parents, the most dreaded part of their daily routine is mealtime. They take no pleasure whatsoever in food. Eating has been reduced to a necessary inconvenience, akin to taking over-the-counter cough syrup with its vile taste and no apparent benefit. Needless to say, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about health in relation to food, being fed and sustenance.

On the drive back to San Francisco, I put my iPhone aside to listen to the news about the Colorado shootings. Somewhere north of Ventura poor reception offered few identifiable words amidst long periods of annoying static; it was time for the iTunes. I pushed the auxiliary button, but my iPhone 4S was nonresponsive. The battery was 100% charged and the screen was black, the phone was dead.

I desperately scanned radio stations, not necessarily for news, but for anything I might enjoy. There were few choices – country music with too many commercials, Spanish music with screaming DJ’s, but what occupied the majority of the airwaves was Christian music and talk. This is no exaggeration, ultra conservative Christians appear to have monopolized the radio stations in the middle of the state. Many of you might already know this, but I had no idea.

I heard appeals like, “Give today to help stop the bible famine – the digital bible can help a world in dire need of God’s word.”  In a political food fight surrounding a successful fast food chain, Mike Huckabee encouraged Christians to “honor the godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at a Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, Aug. 1."

Eventually, I did find coverage of the Colorado rampage. The Christian talk show hosts asked listeners to pray for the victims - not because of the senseless violence, or the suffering or the grief. They asked for prayers for the poor souls who died without having a personal relationship with Jesus.

That was it - I was appalled and depressed; I turned the radio off and in silence ruminated over what I had heard: A bible famine in developing countries, and American politicians urging Christians to fill up on MSG infused, pressure-cooked-in-oil chicken to protest gay marriage.

Let me be clear, I do agree with one thing – we are in the midst of famine: this state and across the country and around the world people are being starved. There is a dearth of Good News – a dearth of the gospel message that Jesus committed his life to spreading. This famine of epidemic proportion is fueled in part by fundamentalist and televangelists who monopolize TV networks and radio stations with a very narrow band of Christianity; a self-serving theology of personal salvation without civic responsibility.

With the crowd of 5000 gathering ‘round, Jesus asks, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" Philip answers, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little."  This exchange brings us exactly where we are in the world today - too many people and not enough food to go around. Well, at least that’s what the people in power would have us believe. 

The reality is that there is plenty food to go around. Food is a political issue because profit is valued over basic human need. Today’s dominate economic structure, ensures the hungry, the sick, the homeless and uneducated – the most vulnerable among us - will continue to be oppressed.

The feeding of the 5000 is certainly one Jesus’ most well known miracles – it is included in all four Gospels. But we are mistaken to think the good news in this story is that all the hungry people were fed.

The good news here is that feeding the 5000 is not a miracle.

You can bet the CEOs of Monsanto and Safeway want us to believe it would take a miracle to feed all of society’s hungry.  It’s in their best interest for us to believe that.  But Jesus’ action shows us what can be done, without any magic at all, when we shun the values of the world. If we live out the values of heaven on earth, the fundamental needs of all of the people will be met.

Surrounded by the crowd of 5000, Jesus takes the bread and fish, gives thanks, breaks them and distributes them among the people. Jesus will repeat this action on the night before he dies. And we, with the bread and wine do the same thing every Sunday. 

Feeding the people is a sacrament and the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is political.

How many times have you heard the warning not to mix religion and politics? The truth is,

Nothing is more political than following Jesus, 

whose actions are so rooted in the politics of serving the common good, 
that when we follow his example of giving food to the hungry and water to the thirsty;
when we welcome the stranger and clothe the naked; 
when we serve those in this world with the least,we are serving Jesus.

And maybe the overlooked miracle in this story is that through serving others, we are in fact nurturing our personal relationship with Jesus.

The body of Christ can never be bought or sold, bartered or pawned. The bread that is Christ’s body will never be a limited resource in which some are fed and others remain hungry. Jesus’ invites every one of us to the feast.

Elisha said, "Give it to the people and let them eat."

Proper 12, Year B