A person sowing seeds, weeds, wheat, a mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, a pearl, a fishing net – for the past several weeks we have heard Jesus using these simple, common, everyday images to describe the Kingdom of God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows us the Kingdom in action. Through acts of compassion culminating in a simple meal, we get a glimpse of what God is calling us to be and do in this world.

The familiar story of Jesus multiplying a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish is one that I grew up hearing often as an example of divine providence and John’s version of the story with the little boy sharing his food was often used as a lesson that even kids have work to do in the Kingdom of God. This miracle is the only miracle, aside from the Resurrection, recorded in all four Gospels. Matthew and Mark even tell it twice.

In Matthew’s Gospel, this event takes place right after Jesus learns of the murder of his cousin, John the Baptist, and the feeding of the 5000 stands in stark contrast to the horrific events of Herod’s “Game of Thrones” birthday banquet. One meal filled with fear, deceit, revenge, and ending in bloodshed; the other full of compassion, generosity, and lavish abundance. This “tale of two feasts” shows us just how countercultural and revolutionary this Kingdom of God is. 

The Kingdom of God is INVITATION and WELCOME …

Have you ever had one of those days that you just wanted to end so you could go home and curl up with an obscene amount of junk food and a good book or movie? And then the boss comes along and says they need you to work a double because someone called out sick?

I imagine this is how Jesus must have felt. After all, he had been traveling all over teaching and healing and was probably ready for some down time. Then he learns that his cousin has been murdered, basically as entertainment.

He jumps on a boat to go across the lake to a place where he can be alone, only to find that a large crowd has followed him. I probably would have kept going and tried to lose them, but Jesus turned to them in his exhaustion and grief, welcomed them, and made space for them.

On this “Friendship Sunday” we are particularly intentional about invitation and welcome (and it’s great to see so many friends here with us today). A church community should be a place where people feel welcome, safe, valued, and included. In the 2023 movie Jesus Revolution, which chronicles the late 1960s Jesus Movement in California, Calvary Chapel pastor, Chuck Smith played by Kelsey Grammer, says,

If you feel like an outcast then join us here.
If you feel like you’re misunderstood and judged this is where you belong.
If you feel ashamed and trapped you will find forgiveness and freedom, right here.

But welcome doesn’t have to be dressed up in special events or lofty sound bites. Sometimes, making space for someone who needs what you can offer is enough.

The Kingdom of God is COMPASSION and SERVICE …

The events at Herod’s banquet have been the inspiration  for countless artistic endeavors, particularly the dance by Herodias’ daughter and Herod’s highly inappropriate reaction to it. Herod, motivated by fear: of the people, of John himself, and of looking bad in front of his guests, agrees to the girl’s demands and orders John’s immediate execution in a horrific display. Some birthday, huh?!

Jesus on the other hand, tired as he must be and grieving this gruesome turn of events, turns to the massive crowd and is moved with compassion to heal their sicknesses. Even when the disciples encourage him to send the people away because it’s getting late and people are getting hungry, Jesus insists on welcome and hospitality, 

telling the disciples to give them food. He doesn’t say, “They need not go away: I will give them something to eat.” He doesn’t call bread down from heaven nor does food magically appear in front of each person. He tells them, and by extension, us, to use what’s at hand to meet the need.

The Kingdom of God is GENEROSITY and ABUNDANCE …

A “zero-sum game” is a principle grounded in the idea that in order for one side to gain, the other side has to lose. This idea is deeply embedded in our cultural psyche; an economy based on the idea of scarcity and control of resources, a social and political system that disenfranchises many so a few can have wealth, power, and standing, phrases like, “I hold all the cards, so I’m the one dictating terms,” or “Why are we spending money on X that should be used for Y,” as if we can’t do both. 

“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish,” is the disciples’ response, to which Jesus says, “Bring them here to me.” At this point, I can almost hear them saying, “Whatever!” and resigning themselves to the fact that their dinner is going to feed a few people who are closest and that they, and everyone else, will go without.

Jesus has the crowd sit down on the grass and in a series of actions that the Church has interpreted as a reflection of the communion liturgy takes the bread, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to the disciples to give to the people.

Not only is there somehow enough to go around, but there is a substantial amount left over after everyone has eaten their fill. They didn’t have just enough to tide them over until they could get a meal; over 5000 people ate until they were full. And there were leftovers!

That is absolutely mind-blowing, a miracle of astounding proportions and there have been many attempts over the last two millennia to explain how this happened. The how is not important; it’s so easy for us to get caught up in the mechanics that we forget that God has done something truly wonderful.

If you are thirsty, come here;
come, there’s water for all.
Whoever is poor and penniless can still
come and buy the food I sell.
There’s no cost—here, have some food, hearty and delicious,pure and good.

— Isaiah 55:1-2, The Voice

These words are from the prophet Isaiah to a beaten-down people in captivity far from home still ring true.  God is still issuing that invitation. And God is still asking, and expecting, us to participate. A poem attributed to St. Teresa of Avila reads:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body …

What does this look like in the here and now? It’s a smile, a kind word, a shirt that tells the person reading it that the world is better because of them or, like the one Pr. Rosy wears, telling the person reading to tap her on the shoulder if they would like for her to pray with them.

In no particular order, it’s a food pantry feeding hungry families, an angel tree providing Christmas gifts for children who might not have anything otherwise, Thanksgiving food baskets, a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt, offering a place for a school class to display their art, a community movie night, working with immigrants and refugees to help them learn English and to help them navigate our increasingly labyrinthine and hostile immigration system, providing school supplies, making blankets that meet many needs all around the world, making sure that church leaders are trained and vetted to help ensure a safe environment for children and vulnerable adults, and so much more waiting to be discovered.

The Kingdom of God is invitation and welcome, compassion and service, abundance and generosity. It is the people of God joyfully participating in sharing the love of God to a world that needs it now more than ever. 

Brothers and sisters, the invitation lies before us.

Again, from Isaiah:

Now you will issue a call to nations from all over the world—
people whom you do not know and who do not know you.
They will come running, because of Me, your God
because the Eternal, the Holy One of Israel,
has made you beautiful.

— Isaiah 55:5, The Voice

Come, eat, drink and be filled, and then go, invite others to come and share the feast.

AMEN.