The Place of Abundance – sermon on August 3, 2014
Genesis 32: 3-12, 22-31 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the country of Edom. He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my lord Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now. I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please, tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
Matthew 14: 13-21 When Jesus heard what had happened to John the Baptist, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
“Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Sermon: The Place of Abundance by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Unpacking these two great stories, exploring the ways they may weave together threads to provide a tapestry of meaning could be a very rich and rewarding enterprise, and could also take a lot of time on a beautiful day. Rather than compete with the sounds of nature around us, and the possibilities that call to us, I thought I would share a few thoughts and questions that came to me, and encourage you to read and meditate on these texts another time. You will find the passages and my notes on the church website.
So, we have the story of Jacob, returning home after at least 15 years working with Uncle Laban. We remember that he fled home under threat of murder by his brother Esau. God has kept God’s promises to be with him and keep him, and Jacob knows it is not because he deserved such faithfulness. He acknowledges this as he prays, as he shares his fears with God and asks for that his life be spared. After sending everyone and everything ahead of him, he is alone. And then he is attacked! A man, we are told, wrestles with him all night long. What must have run through Jacob’s mind – is it Esau or someone sent by him, a robber, a demon? We learn, as Jacob did, that it was God’s very self, taking the form of a man, and a man who was about evenly matched in strength to Jacob.
What kind of God does this? And why? What did God want of Jacob? Was it a test of some kind? Was there something in Jacob’s prayer that prompted this intervention? Was this the “cost” if you will, of the promises God made and kept? Was God angry about the wily ways of Jacob, and this was a way of calling him out on it that still allowed God to “keep” Jacob? There’s something so compelling about the physicality of it. Are there any wrestlers or former wrestlers here? The only wrestling I’ve ever done is with my children. They gave their all, and it worked me out too, and there was always something cathartic about it. In this story, as daybreak comes, God has to ask Jacob to let go. Jacob didn’t win, but he sure didn’t lose. He didn’t get the wrestler’s name, but he received a new name. He didn’t come out unscathed, but he came out with a blessing.
And then we have the story of Jesus, distressed over hearing about the beheading of his cousin. He goes off to be alone, to pray, perhaps? The crowds, after hearing about John’s beheading themselves, follow him. John had been a powerful spiritual leader, and the only reason Herod hadn’t killed him before this was his fear of the crowds that followed John. Their leader had been killed, brutally, and they were a heartbroken and disheartened people. And so they go searching for the one John pointed them to, the one who would baptize them with fire. Jesus sees them and knows their grief needs to be shared. He cannot go off to mourn on his own, but must be with these people, must tend to them, heal them. And so he does.
The disciples have come also, and they start to worry. Perhaps they are hungry and tired, and wanting time with Jesus apart from the crowd. Let’s wrap this up already. They try to frame it as concern for the crowd – they must be hungry, let them go eat. But that is disingenuous. There is no place close by, and most of these people probably wouldn’t be able to buy food anyway. Food insecurity was prevalent in those days. And then comes the challenge – “you feed them.” A different kind of wrestling match, right? I think of the internal wrestling they must have done – is he serious? Do some of them laugh? Is he crazy? They try to point out the absurdity – we have only 5 loaves and 2 fishes. And he challenges them again – bring them to me. Hmm, should I? What about us? He’s going to try to spread this around and we’ll all be left with nothing. Maybe we should say we were wrong – we only have 3 loaves and 1 fish, or 2 loaves and no fish – hide the rest away for later. Who knows, maybe they really had 10 loaves and 5 fishes and minimized to begin with. But, with whatever hesitation they had, they did it, they handed over the 5 loaves and 2 fishes, and witnessed a miracle, a miracle worked through their own hands as they passed the food around.
It is interesting that God, in the story of Jacob, made Godself more vulnerable; and Jesus, already in the vulnerable human form, let some of his divine power shine. We see what happens when a perspective of scarcity – there isn’t enough – gets shifted to one of abundance – thank you, God, for these loaves and fishes. “There is no need for them to go,” Jesus says – the message being that the place of abundance is here. One of the commentators on the passage wondered how everything might change if this was the mantra of all the followers of Jesus – the place of abundance is here.
The place of abundance is here, despite any evidence to the contrary. Instead of thinking, oh no, there are only 20 people here, the pledges are down, no children are coming; we can say, thank you, God for these 20 faithful, that they give so much, that the children are well and busy, that we have so very, very much that we must share. We have been blessed, and are willing to let those blessings flow through our hands and into the world around us. May it be so.
