By Maureen Wright

August 1 marked the one-year anniversary of the Presbytery’s transition. Throughout the past 12 months, I have reflected on our work to leave what we know as a Presbytery and move into the unknown. My first newsletter article reflected on the Call of Abram in Genesis 12: 1-9. I commented, “God asks that Abram go from known to unknown, to step out in faith and by so doing to be blessed and bless others.” The Leadership Team is refining a vision for the Presbytery of West Virginia. They will invite the Presbytery – the ministers of Word and Sacrament, Commissioned Pastors, churches, members of churches, and Presbytery staff – to go from known to unknown, to step out in faith and by so doing be blessed and bless others. I recently preached a sermon, Scarcity or Abundance, that invites hearers – churches and the Presbytery – to witness from abundance. I share the sermon below (with minor editorial changes). Please spend some time praying and reflecting on God’s abundance.

Matthew 14: 13-21 is a very recognizable story to many of us. Its familiarity can even prevent us from looking at the story with a fresh perspective. Let’s try something; using your bulletin, a scrap of paper from your purse or pocket, or your phone, write down three to five things that you know about this story. What things about this well-known passage jump into your mind when you hear it? Take a minute… Now set it aside, and let’s listen for what God would have us hear today.

This story is often referred to as the feeding of the five thousand. It is the only miracle story that is found in all four gospels. In the words of one scholar, “a clue that it was a very important memory for the early church.” (Matthew by Tom Long, pp. 163-164.) Many of us have memories of the story from Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, or a bible story book, but it is not just a simple story about Jesus feeding people. It is more.

The story is rooted in the history of God’s people; it reminds the reader of two Old Testament feeding stories. (Ibid, p. 164.) The first is from Exodus 16 that tells of the Israelite people who have narrowly escaped Egypt and are now wandering in the wilderness. The people are experiencing real hunger and remembering pots of meat and bountiful loaves of bread. They complain to Aaron and Moses. God hears and sends manna for the children of Israel to eat. Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 is an echo of this.

The second feeding story is from 2 Kings 4: 42-44. In this less familiar story, during a famine, a man brings “food from the first fruits” to Elisha, a “man of God” – a prophet. The offering is 20 loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain. Elisha says to the man, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” The response is, “How can I give this to a hundred people?” Elisha repeats his command to give it to the people, quoting the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left.” The food is set before the people, and when they finish eating, there is food left. The parallels to this text are clear: there is a large gathering of hungry people and a scarcity of food, yet when all are fed, there is an abundance of food left over.

With the echoes of these two Old Testament stories as a context, let’s take a second look at Matthew’s telling of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Interrupted from his personal response to the violent death of John the Baptist by a crowd of people and motivated by compassion for them, Jesus wades into the chaos to heal the sick among them. As evening falls, the disciples anticipate the hunger of the crowd and go into problem solving mode. They take a suggestion to Jesus: “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.” Jesus responds, “You give them something to eat.” Having done their research, they know their resources are scarce. The disciples seem to sputter, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish” – you can fill in their but, but, but. Jesus’ abundant, lavish, response turns things upside down: “Bring them here to me.” Looking to heaven, Jesus blesses and breaks the bread, giving it to the disciples to share with the crowds. When all are full, 12 baskets of leftovers are gathered.

Jill Duffield, preacher and teacher, describes the pivotal moment of verse 18. “Commence miracle. Blessed, broken, distributed. Enough. No, more than enough baskets left over.” (Lectionary Reflections Cycle A, p. 215.) Verse 19 clearly connects Jesus’ response to worship and communion. The pattern of this verse is the pattern we use every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper – we remember Jesus’ action to bless the bread and the cup, we break bread, and we share it with one another. The miracle of this sacrament is that the meal comes from God’s abundance.

Scholar Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on the miraculous, “When a whole crowd of people move from a sense of scarcity to a sense of plenty, ‘overcoming their fear of going hungry, giving up their need to protect themselves… refusing to play what-is-mine-is-mine-and-what-is-yours-is-yours, turning their pockets inside out for one another,’ this is truly miraculous.” (Matthew by Anna Case-Winters, p. 191.) The miracle of this feeding of the 5,000 is the witness that Jesus moves us from scarcity to abundance.

Yet we are so like the disciples. Got a problem? Form a committee. Research the problem, look at it from all the angles. Evaluate the resources available to “solve” the problem and find a solution. The church – big “C” church, the Presbyterian Church USA, and particular congregations like ours – are like the disciples. Long-time professor of preaching Tom Long connects us to the scarcity mode of the disciples with these words: “The church is always in the desert, the place where it cannot rely upon its own resources, which are few. The church is hungry itself and is surrounded by a world of deep cravings, people who are lonely, disoriented, and poor in many different ways. Against the savage realities of human need, the church sees only small numbers on the membership rolls and even smaller ones in the mission budget. It is no wonder, then, that the church joins the disciples” declaring that this is a desert, send the crowds away. Many of our problem-solving responses are grounded in models of scarcity. We lament and make decisions based on less people in the pews and less people volunteering to do the work. We lament and make decisions based on less resources – time, talent, and money. We lament and make decisions based on the diminishing of the church’s voice in today’s culture.

Jesus responds by saying, “You give them something to eat.” Jesus reminds us that God is not a God of scarcity; God is a God of abundance. God is more than able to meet the needs of God’s people. To our declarations that there is “nothing,” Jesus says your resources are sufficient. To our five loaves and two fish, God says there will be leftovers. God is the God of surplus. To all of our cries, God provides and challenges us.

This feeding of the 5,000 is the story of more. It is the story of abundance. It is Jesus teaching the disciples and us what it means to do ministry, to witness to God’s kingdom, to tell all who need to hear of this Savior, Jesus Christ. This simple story is the story of Jesus teaching a graduate seminar on living out God’s abundance. It is the lesson, again in the words of Jill Duffield, that “when we hand over to Jesus the resources that appear meager, Jesus will take, bless, break, and use them in ways that we cannot imagine.” (Duffield, p. 215.)

This simple story has a depth that frightens us. The church that we knew as children no longer exists. The church for which our leaders were trained no longer exists. The days when our culture’s peer pressure meant that folks attended church no longer exists. The days of regular budget extras and the need to erect big buildings no longer exists. The church is changing into a church that continues to ground itself through study and worship but focuses its work on the world beyond the walls of any building. The church that is emerging continues to need to be focused on God as known through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The church needs us not to look at what we do not have, but instead look to what God provides. The church needs to let go of scarcity and embrace abundance.

What does abundance look like? Abundance is present when sessions and leaders in the church take seriously their charge as the spiritual leaders of the church – when they spend time deepening their leadership and discernment skills, when they depend on the Spirit moving through their meetings and inviting God’s presence as decisions are made. Abundance is present when sessions, churches, and the Presbytery are willing to try new things – in ministry and mission. It is present when we are willing to let go of what is no longer God’s call to us, when we are willing to let go of the past. Abundance is present when those making decisions are willing to be open and nimble, willing to pivot. Abundance is present when we think about vitality rather than the number of people in the pews or classrooms. Abundance is present when sessions, churches, and the Presbytery are willing to try something new, even if it does not work. Abundance is present when the church, the Presbytery evaluates success differently – asking if the decision will enrich or transform the people in their worshipping community and if the decision will enrich or transform the people outside their building.

God challenges us to abundance. God says that as disciples, as Jesus people, we are to respond with faithful, radical, extravagant, gracious abundance. God is waiting for us to accept the challenge.

I invite you to welcome our Presbytery Moderator, Dawn Adamy, who will bring you A Word from our Moderator in the August 22 newsletter. She has graciously agreed to share her thoughts on the Presbytery as I focus on my daughter’s wedding.