"They Need Not Go Away"

July 31, 2008

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

On rare occasions, the gospel writers move from being objective sideline reporters to becoming intuitive mind readers, weaving both the actions of Jesus with his attitudes, and giving us a glimpse into the innermost workings of his mind and heart.  One such passage is Matthew’s version of the feeding of the miracle:

When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

The original Greek word for compassion literally means “gut-wrenching.”  Specifically, it is the word “splanchnidzomai,” and is related to the splanchnic nerve that connects to the stomach.  For Jesus, seeing the needs of the crowd was a punch to his gut.  His reaction was no mere pity; nor was it simply “feeling sorry for them.”  It was visceral and real, twisting his stomach in knots.  

It is easy to envision a Jesus who keeps his emotions in check, calmly and steadily aiding the masses with commendable efficiency.  But Matthew and Mark are the only gospels to share with us Jesus’ gut-wrenching motive, and it is to illustrate a point.  Jesus not only ministered to but also identified with the suffering of the people.  They were not anonymous victims, or numbers on a roster, or appointments on a calendar.  They were real people, with real stories, and real pain.

Your storm relief team is just hours removed from returning from three days of work in Cedar Rapids.  Collectively we put in over 100 hours of work in two residences and a church, removing debris and doing demolition, in the midst of a community shell-shocked by the catastrophic results of last month’s floods.  Cedar Rapids alone has lost 5400 homes in only a nine-mile radius, with an estimated 1 billion dollars in total damage.  We worked at St. James United Methodist Church, one of three Methodist churches severely damaged by the floods.  Of their 125 families, 67 lost their homes, including the parsonage.  Yesterday’s New York Times featured an article covering the latest news in Cedar Rapids, including a picture of the street where we were working.  ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/30cedar.html?hp)

In a word, the scene was gut-wrenching.

But Matthew’s feeding story takes a turn toward the unexpected.  His is the only gospel to record Jesus’ words to the disciples that utterly undermined their expectations and intentions.  After the disciples had tried to give Jesus a reality check, telling him that there was no food and little time to care for this massive need, and encouraging Jesus to cut the people loose to care for themselves, he offered this word:

“They need not go away.”

Perhaps the disciples were simply being pragmatic; we wouldn’t blame them.  Perhaps they subscribed to the well-worn conviction that people like this needed to help themselves rather than wait for a hand-out; that’s a popular sentiment today.  Or maybe, speaking out of  fatigue and frustration, desensitized to this suffering by one massive need after another, the disciples were simply hoping that ignoring the problem would make it go away.  Regardless of their motive, Jesus’ response was a reversal that must have caught them by surprise.

They need not go away.  You give them something to eat.

I don’t know about you, but that word brings to me equal amounts of hope and apprehension.  On the one hand, we are both empowered and entrusted with the capacity to effect positive change in the world, even against the most dire circumstances.  Being the church today means providing the greatest possibility of transformation to the lives of people living in “a deserted place,” when “the hour is late.”  

But if we’re honest, we carry doubts that we are the right ones for the job.  Might this be too heavy a burden for such weak, fallible hands?  Doubts rise:

•    “What good will it do to reach out to one person in love, when millions are in need?”
•    “What if I do my part, but it still doesn’t seem like enough?”
•    “I’m no spiritual giant.  What can I do when I have faults of my own?”
•    “If I tell my friend about Jesus, what if it falls on deaf ears, or turns him away?”
•    “The need is too great.  What can one person do?”

It’s in these moments that Matthew would remind us of the punchline at the end, because it’s a doozy.   Allow me to paraphrase:

Then, taking these seemingly insignificant efforts, he looks up to heaven, blesses them and breaks them, then gives them out to those in need.  Then, surprise!  All eat and are filled, and there is more than enough!

In the end, we are left with no excuse but to live out our calling as an agent of hope and possibility in the world.  

When we respond to disasters and help those in recovery,
When we invite someone to church and tell them about God’s love,
When we live out our faith in our homes and our work places,
When we join in united prayer for the needs of the world,
When we advocate for the voiceless and point those who are lost homeward,
And when we do so out of a compassion much deeper than pity,

Then the hurting need not go away.  We can give them something to eat.

It’s so good to be the church,

Magrey   

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA  51012
Ph:  712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org


Matthew 14:13-21

13  Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
14  When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
15  When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’
16  Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’
17  They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’
18  And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’
19  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. 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.
20  And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
21  And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.


RAY HAMPTON RETURNS
As part of our ongoing celebration of our 150th anniversary, we are grateful to have Rev. Ray Hampton, who served as my immediate predecessor from 2002-2007,  as our guest preacher this Sunday.  His wife Rhonda, who served as our choir director, will be offering the special music for the service.  On August 17, we observe our official sesquicentennial, with a worship celebration at 9:30 followed by a luncheon in the Fellowship Hall.  We invite those whose last names begin with A-M to bring desserts, and N-Z to bring salads.