Pentecost IX
Briefly, this week we seem to descend from cosmic metaphors for that way of Being that is within the life of God, and is for us -- the 'kingdom of heaven', and attend to the needs of the crowd. In Matthew's telling, people have been gathering by the boatload to listen to Jesus teaching, he is exhausted and has withdrawn to a quiet place, and the people follow him... he cures the sick and cares for them... and now they're hungry.
It's lunch break. Or, lunch break several days in, and supplies are a walk away to the nearest village...
The Feeding of the Five Thousand, in Matthew, (distinct from several other feeding stories elsewhere in the Gospels) has Jesus saying to the disciples: you feed them with what you already have here. A few loaves of bread and a few fish? Fine. That's enough to start it going.
As a friend put it: in a classic understanding of this story from Matthew, it isn't a supply or a production problem, it's a distribution problem. By the time they really get into working the crowd, it would seem the gathered thousands already contain more than they thought they had. Isn't that always the way? But, what is the catalyst? What changes the frame? An encounter with Jesus, who says, "Nah, no need to go to extraordinary methods or long walks; start feeding one another; start sharing -- here, disciples, you go first and model it for everyone, and just wait and see what shows up from under people's robes, and from within those baskets they carried out into the countryside to follow me, seeking me, seeking healing..."
What do you carry in your basket, seeking Jesus, seeking healing and wholeness? Jesus says: start with that. It is more than enough to start with. You have something, even if it is your need that you carry around. Trust that more shall be added to it. ("...and all these things shall be added unto you...")
The crowd, itself, has more than they thought they did, individually and collectively. It's both a psychological reflection on the individual (more than I thought I had) and a statement about redistributionist local economies in crowds... so to speak. Perhaps it is a cosmic metaphor, as well as a story about people being fed. Perhaps it is a parable of the kingdom of God, too -- "The kingdom of God is as if... thousands of people who sought healing and teaching, and thought they had nothing to share with others... suddenly had basketsful of food left over, after everyone was fed."
There is a group called 'Community Solidarity' who intervene in what would be the waste stream of food -- think 'supermarkets about to throw away food that doesn't look good' -- and gather in at least five places on Long Island, beginning in Bed-Stuy and heading out to Wyandanch, and simply box up food that volunteers bring from behind the Trader Joes of the landscape... and give it all away. Waste and excess become sustenance. It is a parable in our midst, and is both cosmic and very mundane. Alleluia.