“Feed the Hungry”
I Kings 4:42-44; Ps. 145; Eph. 4:1-16; Jn. 6:1-15
Introduction
Not long ago I was asked by a young person: “How would you describe your work?” I responded:
Preach the Gospel, Administer the Sacraments, Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the dying, visit those in prison, visit the sick.
In otherwords my job description is to feed the hungers of people. In the next six weeks we will be reading the Gospel calling us to feed those hungers. Today we are talking about feeding those who are physcially hungry.
Jesus Fed the Hungry
In today’s gospel Jesu has been teaching a large group ofpeople on the other side of the lake. It is late, people are hungry, and he tells the disicples to feed them. His action was prophetic in that it recalled the miraculous feedings in the Jewish tradition. Jesus offer of bread for the many was remicent of a similar action by Elisha in our firsteeading. Elisha’s power as a man of God and his authority to speak the truth were reaffirmed by his action to feed 100 people.
Several years a go there was a group of young people who came down to the City to “preach the gospel.” They drove up dressed up in designer jeans and began handing out tracts and telling people about Jesus. Then around dinner time they packed up and loaded the bus. One hungry kid asked one of the guys: “I am hungry, are you not going to feed me?” The guy told him that he had given him the word of God, he needed to get his own food. Their insensitivity to the physical needs of these kids turned them away from Jesus.
I was asked by a person last week when I “delivered the Word” to my guys. I responded: “I deliver the word with each bowl of soup, each candy bar, with each needle I give them. “The Word is my act of love in the name of Jesus. St. Frances said: “Preach the Gospel, using as few a words as possible”. Feeding the physical needs makes one sensitive to all the other needs of people and only until those physical needs are met will they ever be open to dealing with the other needs.
For me looking in the face of homelessness, despair, addicition, and hunger has brought me to see beyond the judgment of people.
Those same endless hungers of people are experienced by milions and by thousands here in the Bay area, and it is Jesus willingness to feed the hungry that stands out today and challenges our claim to discipleship.
Jesus took the few resources that he had and made a meal. I aget impatient with people when they tell me they are overwhelmed and do not have enough space, food, to feed people. I live in one roomn, and I feed nearly 800 plus people a week using what I have, beans, rice, vegetables–I use what I have at hand, and I do not worry, I simply do the work and complain none.
For in feeding the hungry Jesus challenges us to understand that what he has done and in what we do he is sharing of his very self–as food for humankind. Giver of bread he would also be the bread that gives life. Broken on the cross, he gave himself totally so that every human hunger could be satisfied.
Today Jesus looks at each of us in our own wounds, weariness, and says with words that are full o fhope and love and empowered by grace–”Feed My Sheep” And so his ministry continues?
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