August 3, 2008
Twelth Sunday after Pentecost
Pastor Harry Mueller

Grace be to you and Peace from God our Creator and Jesus the Christ.

I want to give many (or most) of you a chance to stretch a little bit before I share some thoughts about this story from Matthew’s Gospel today. How many of have heard this story before about the feeding of the 5000? This is just as I thought. Almost all of us have heard it. It is one of the most well known stories of the scriptures. Many times as I’ve had a chance to teach about it or preach on it people ask similar question. “How did Jesus do that?” Or, “Could he really have done that?” Or, “How do you suppose he did that?” Or, “ Do you believe in such miracles?” I want to ask one other question today that it raises for me. “What was required of the disciples, when God provided enough?” This question takes the focus off Jesus and God and puts it on the disciples, or people like you and me. In other words, when God provides….what is required of us?

I did some research on the internet, the other day, and I want to read a story I found, that was written 6½ years ago on the 20th anniversary of Minnesota Foodshare.

Business Editors & Lifestyle Writers

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2002

Although Minnesota FoodShare kicks off its 20th annual March Campaign to stock food shelves across the state tomorrow, FoodShare sees very little reason to celebrate the anniversary. Food shelves have seen a sudden upturn in clients this past year due to layoffs and a slumping economy: statewide, there were 1.32 million visits to Minnesota's food shelves in 2001. This is an increase of nearly 10 percent, the highest yearly increase in the past decade. Some food shelves statewide saw a 50 percent increase in clients in 2001. Due to the increased need, Minnesota FoodShare's Year 2002 goal is to raise 6 million combined pounds of food and dollars for the state's 261 food shelves.

"Although layoffs and the recession are part of why we've seen such an increase, we are still seeing an increase in seniors and working families seeking help at their local food shelves," says Sue Kainz, Minnesota FoodShare's March Campaign coordinator.

The average food shelf client makes around $8.36 cents an hour, and these low-wage workers are often the first to go when companies need to cut costs. Seniors on fixed incomes are fighting rising rent and prescription costs, and children still make up half of the hungry.

For twenty years, Minnesota FoodShare has worked hard to feed Minnesota's hungry. The first drive, in 1982, was a collaboration between the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches (GMCC) and Pillsbury to raise food for struggling laid-off workers in the Iron Range. It was successful beyond their wildest dreams: Minnesotans raised more than a million pounds of food. GMCC decided to continue the drive annually for the entire state, and Minnesota FoodShare was born. WCCO AM Radio personalities Boone & Erickson helped to kick off that first food drive, and this year they have agreed to reprise their roles as honorary chairmen of the March Campaign for 2002.

Think about this story and ask the question, where are we at today? In this economy. Let me say that any church secretary or office manager will tell you that the numbers of people coming to us for assistance has dramatically increased.

Now allow me to tell you a story that dates back 20 years before the article was written as Foodshare was being conceived. In December of 1981 there was a man , in the community where I served a congregation, who was going to retire and move to northern Minnesota to enjoy his lake cabin. For many years he had organized a collection point and effort to provide Holiday food baskets for about 20 families. Our congregation’s social ministry committee asked the questions: “If Ed doesn’t do this, who will?” Secondly, they asked, “If we don’t do this, who will?” And so, they organized an effort to provide food baskets for 20 families. Then their awareness led them to the question, “Once the holidays are over how will these families eat?”

At the same time in January 1982 Minnesota’s Foodshare program was gearing up. We decided to take part. There was a farmer from Becker, Minnesota, who was a potato farmer. He called me one day as the campaign was underway. He told me that he had warehouses of potatoes that were beginning to sprout. He wanted to give me some. This would be great. For every pound of food we collected, Pillsbury would match it. He offered me 400 bags of potatoes! 100# per bag. This was two tons of potatoes! Let me tell you, you can’t be a couch potato when you have 2 tons of potatoes to distribute! There they all were in the fellowship hall of the church building. They were sprouting, needing distribution. They were a windfall. They were a gift. There were hungry people to feed. But oh, the work. We brought potatoes all over the place. Then the ones we couldn’t distribute started to smell. Why I didn’t get fired I’ll never know! God provides, but what is required of the disciples when there is enough?

After this was over, I went for a whole year, to Captain Jack’s, just south of the bridge on Robert St, near where Janelle and Pastor Anita live, and I picked up the food that Pillsbury gave us in the match. This was the beginning of the food shelf in our community. Before we knew it, with the changes in that decade, we were giving away abut $1000 worth of food each month to people in need. As the need increased the committee and I gained an insight that has stayed with me over the years. No matter how much charity there is, it rarely meets the need. And so we began to ask, should we also focus on what causes the need? In other words, a justice question in addition to a charity question.

People began to get involved in legislative issues and hunger issues as well as food collections. That experience led me to understand the distinction. Once the food was gone and the potatoes distributed the need still existed. It still does and it is growing. Jesus fed 5000 but he did this on his way to Jerusalem. It was there that the high priests and the governor lived. 5000 hungry people were fed. God provided, but they listened for a different approach. They wanted something to address their deep need. What was required of the disciples? What was required then? What is required now? We address this with our charity. But also, very importantly, by the way we vote, the way we spend, and the way we perceive community.

God provides. There is no question about that. Ask yourself, “What is required of the disciples?” What is required when there really is enough?