Readings
2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-19
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
We once again find ourselves in a political season marked by all the stuff that goes with it. Already we are being bombarded with campaign ads and flyers. Already candidates are jockeying to distinguish themselves from their opponents. And the negativity which now seems endemic to politics has already begun. What is most disturbing in all of that negativity, however, is something implicit that bears scrutiny.
Regardless of political affiliation, most of the rhetoric presumes a zero-sum game. In fact, it goes beyond that, it presumes a world of scarcity where there is not enough and that something needs to be done about it. Each party and each candidate are quick to claim that their opponents are to blame for this scarcity. And each of them is quick to offer solutions that shift the balance away from the perceived source of that scarcity.
And why is that? Well, it’s because of something that is at the heart of the human condition. Who among us hasn’t found themselves in a position of feeling like there wasn’t enough? Who among us hasn’t struggled, at some point, with a sense of inadequacy, whether that be in terms of one’s finances, employment, safety, or ability? Whether we’re talking about the cost of our groceries, domestic disagreements and civil order, the crisis at the border, or the presence of wars or the threat of them, who among us hasn’t felt woefully under-resourced to meet these challenges?
To be frank, appealing to our sense of scarcity is the low hanging fruit for those who are seeking our votes because of there being a general sense of scarcity at large.
In today’s Gospel passage we hear the all too familiar story of Jesus feeding of the multitude. We are all familiar with the story. Jesus is being followed by a crowd. Philip, seeing them, tells Jesus to send them away to get something to eat and Jesus challenges Philip and, by extension, his other followers to feed them. The response is not much different than we might have. He points to the outrageous cost to do such a thing and just how meager their resources are: five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus then has them seat the crowd and takes the loaves and fish and gives thanks for them before instructing that the food be shared. When all is said and done, there are so many leftovers that they fill twelve baskets with them.
This miracle in the Gospel of John serves, again, not simply to prove who Jesus is, but rather gives us insight into the reality he proclaims and invites us to participate in.
You see, Jesus is pushing back against our proclivity towards a sense of scarcity. Jesus is asking us to live in a different reality. He is calling us to recognize that the basic nature of the universe is not scarcity but abundance. For Jesus, our sense of scarcity says more about our fear than about reality.
In my own life I have found that to be true. More often than not, my sense of wellbeing and sufficiency has been shaped by the degree to which I was or was not captive to my fear. And what was that fear based in? It was based on the assumption that life is a zero-sum game, meaning that there is only so much to be had and when our luck is down then there’s that much less.
It’s this kind of thinking that informs Philip’s remarks to Jesus when confronted with the call to feed the multitude.
But what is Jesus’ response? He takes what there is, gives thanks, and then shares it. And low and behold there is enough. In fact, there is more than enough.
The truth that today’s Gospel is pointing to is that we live in a universe of abundance, not scarcity. The issues of scarcity that exist in the world today are of our creation, not because of the nature of the universe in which we live.
The temptation when one presumes scarcity is to hold on to what we have. To not share. In fact, to do the opposite of sharing. But there is an alternative. It is counterintuitive when we are in a frame of scarcity, but it has the power to not only transform our lives, but the whole world.
What might our lives and our world look like if we took as our base assumption that we have more than enough, even when the empirical evidence would suggest otherwise? What if our basic orientation was towards thankfulness? What if, rather than hoarding what we have in desperation or fear, we shared what we have with open hearts and hands?
Well, if the miracle we read this morning is any indication, the result will be a level of abundance that will boggle our imagination. The result will, in fact, be an embarrassment of riches. All we need do is accept the truth of Jesus and live gratefully and generously.
We do not have to live in a world of scarcity. We do not have to live in fear. We do not have to be captive to the voices that would stoke our fears. But, as I have said a couple of times recently, we do not need to fix what is broken, but rather be an alternative to it.
May we have the grace and the courage to embrace the richness all around us. May we be a people of abundance. May we thankfully share what we have and in so doing find all our needs met as well.