“How Many Loaves?” 

October 8, 2023
Stewardship
St. Andrew Church
Rev. Anne McAnelly

First Lesson:                                                    Proverbs 3:5-10

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. ⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. ⁸ It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body. ⁹ Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Second Lesson:                                              Mark 6:35-44

³⁵ When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” ³⁷ But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And all ate and were filled; ⁴³ and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. ⁴⁴ Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

When it’s time for Stewardship each year, I ask leaders who would like to work on this.  Often heads go down and people are hesitant.  (People don’t like asking for money) Yet this year Erik Ottem said I can do that!  He chose a scriptural theme and wrote the letter you received.  Thank you, Erik! That was such a gift, like manna from heaven.  Feeding the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels.  It is reminiscent of feeding in the desert and the provision of the prophets, yet its primary focus in showing Jesus as the Shepherd able to care for and feed his sheep.  You see they were so hungry for Jesus’ teaching they make no preparation for their physical hunger.  Listen now

When I was first married as part of a young couple in Tennessee, Trey and I spoke to a financial planner.  We were earning the same amount as associate pastors and needed some financial guidance.  I don’t recall his name, but I remember his words.  He said, “Save 10% of your income. Give 10% to God. Live on 80%.”  I don’t know if we ever truly did that.  But it has been a guiding thought in my mind ever since.  I even shared it with Cooper when he was budgeting.  He did not heed the 10% to God, but he is saving 15%.

Sometimes we don’t know what to give to God.  Scripture teaches 10% which we call a tithe.  We learn from scripture, “’A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30).  10% of whatever we earn or produce belongs to God, is holy to God.  It is a simple and beautiful way of sharing what we have and reminding us of two things.  First, our giving reminds us of what God means to us.  Sharing our resources means we value our relationship with God.  We get to be generous like God is generous.  We get to be thankful for all we have and share a little bit of that with our loving God.    Secondly, it helps to keep us right sized because if we keep all our money for ourselves, we forget that all we have is a gift from God.

The miracle of feeding the 5,000 gives us some clues about what we give to God.  First it encourages us to start with what you have.  Jesus asks the disciples, “How many loaves have you?  Go and see.”  That is a good place for us to start as well.  Take stock of what you have.  Make an honest assessment of what God has blessed you with.  For some that will be a lot, for others not as much.  Yet God asks for a portion appropriate to you and your resources.  We can also give our time and talents as part of our tithe, part of what we give to God.  The “Go and see” part reminds me that I get to look at my finances every year and take stock, so that my giving isn’t on auto pilot.  God wants us to pray and reflect on what we give and what we are able to give.

Secondly, let’s be thankful that we aren’t asked to give everything.  Did you notice that when the disciples came to Jesus alerting him about the need for food, he said, “You give them something to eat.”  That would mean they would have to spend two hundred days’ worth of wages just to get each a little bread.  They would have to spend more than they had.  Fortunately, Jesus had a better plan.  Jesus knew that with the little they had, God could do much.  He had them gather the five loaves and two fish and offered them to God.  After blessing the loaves and fish, God multiplied what little they had and made it abundant, turned it into more than enough.

This is not just a one-way street.  God often surprises me when I least expect it.  Recently I set up ebill for one of my credit cards.  But it only paid the “amount due”, instead of the full statement amount.  Not good.  I pay my credit cards off in full every month.  So when the next month’s bill was due, I had two months’ worth of charges.  I had to do some financial rearranging.  I was pleasantly surprised when a tax refund check came that same week.  It was a great influx of cash right when I needed it.  It was a refund from two years back!  God has impeccable timing!  I paused and thanked God for providing funds when I needed them most!

When Jesus offered the loaves and fish to God, he did so in a way familiar to us.  Jesus broke and blessed the loaves just like he did during his last meal with his disciples and like we remember every time we share in the Last Supper.  Start with what you have and then offer then to God and see what happens.  God can take what we offer and multiply them into something miraculous.

I visited the Church of the Multiplication on my pilgrimage last year.  It is run by the Benedictines and is just up the road from the Sea of Galilee.  It marks the place that Jesus is thought to have fed the 5,000.  Here we are gathered around an ancient baptismal font. People came here to be baptized and as you can see, they could baptize four at a time.  We joked it was like the precursor to a hot tub.  We gathered inside this simple chapel, to pray and reflect.  As you draw closer to the communion table, you see the mosaic on the floor with the loaves and fish.  You might notice that there are only four loaves in the basket.  Those four loaves represent the four gospels.  Jesus is the fifth loaf, the bread broken in the sacrament for our sins.  Outside there were signs highlighting the pillars of faith, Prayer, Peace, Hospitality, Hope, Faith, Love and Stewardship.  One said, “The Church of Multiplication is like a window to heaven for our hunger and thirst- physically and spiritually for justice and peace.”  On the Love sign, it said, “(This) is the place of sharing: of bread and time, of the presence of the Lord, of His Love.”  Sharing is exactly what we are asked to do when we give to God.  We give our part and God can do amazing things with our gifts.

I recently learned about three kinds of givers all found nature: the flint, the sponge, and the honeycomb. Which kind are you? To get anything from the flint, you must hammer it. Yet, all you get are chips and sparks. The flint gives nothing away if it can help it, and even then only with a great display. To get anything from the sponge, you must squeeze it. It readily yields to pressure and the more it is pressed, the more it gives. Still, one has to squeeze it. To get anything from the honeycomb, however, one must only take what freely flows from it. It gives its sweetness generously, dripping on all without pressure, without begging or badgering. The honeycomb is a renewable resource. Unlike the flint or the sponge, the honeycomb is connected to life; it is the product of the ongoing work and creative energy of bees. If you share like a honeycomb giver your life will be continually replenished and grow as you give.

When we share we freely give and we acknowledge that all we have is on loan and others have as much right to the things of God’s creation as we do (Sermons.com, Keith Wagner).

Jesus needed to feed 5,000 people, with limited resources.  But when he brought God into the equation what they had was more than enough!  When we give to God and ask God to bless our gifts, God finds ways to make it more than enough.  As it said on the sign of Love, “(This) is the place of sharing: of bread and time, of the presence of the Lord, of His Love.”