Supply and Demand
(Matthew 14: 13-21)
Last Sunday we talked about that part of Paul’s letter to the Roman church where he assured them that: God works all things together for the good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. I can think of no better example of what the Apostle was talking about than where we are as a church, a community of believers, today.
It was over a decade ago when our church had to face the harsh reality that they couldn’t continue on with business as usual. The average Sunday attendance was shrinking as congregants stopped coming for one reason or another, finances were becoming an issue as the cost of running a church kept rising, and the fulltime ordained pastor was ready to retire. Not able to afford even a parttime ordained pastor the church leadership was advised that the only feasible option was a something called a Certified Lay Minister. That had to have been a real shock to the system. I have no doubt many prayers were sent to God as the Spirit pled the case for Community United Methodist Church.
But remember what Paul said. We know that God works all thing together for the good for the ones who love God. There was never a doubt in God’s mind that the faithful of CUMC loved him and that he would work all things for their good, eventually. But we forget the last part of what Paul was talking about: “for those who are called according to his purpose.” I am sure that someone during this difficult time said that whatever happens it will be okay and according to God’s purpose. We just have to trust the process.
I remember it like it was yesterday when I got that phone call one afternoon in October of 2020 almost six years ago. It was from a guy who said he was with a group of people in Port Townsend building tiny homes and didn’t have a place to put them once finished. He said he heard that we had a lot of property and asked what I thought about putting a tiny home village in our backyard. I didn’t say that I needed time to think about it or that I needed to run it by the church council or contact the conference. I said that it sounded like a great idea and let’s just do it. That was the easy part. We christened Peter’s Place in January of 2021 welcoming twelve new neighbors greatly in need of safe and secure housing. Several ladies came forward and told me that we needed to get our clothes closet and food pantry organized which they did, officially opening our doors the following month in February.
And just to make things interesting, a couple of months into our new ministry COVID hit indiscriminately hospitalizing people everywhere and nobody knew what to do. All of the United Methodist churches in our conference received orders to cease in-person worship and to go home until further notice. I still remember the call I got on my cell phone from our District Superintendent who was calling around checking on the churches under his charge. He was shocked when I told him I was in my office and he reminded me of what the bishop had instructed. I told him that I understood but that now was not the time for the Methodist Church to close its doors, at least not this Methodist church. I told him that we had homeless people living on our property who were hungry, who needed clothing, and the basic essentials of life and that they had nowhere else to go. We couldn’t turn them away. I told him that we had protocols in place to minimize the risk and exposure to this virus nobody knew how to deal with. He told me to please be very careful, and I assured him we would. I kind of doubt he passed this on to the bishop.
And that’s what I think Matthew was recording for us in his Gospel, that if you have compassion for the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters that God will supply whatever it is you need to meet the demand.
In our reading for today Matthew starts out by saying that when Jesus heard about John, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The John Matthew was referring to was Jesus’ cousin who was known by many as John the Baptist, the same John the Baptist who had previously baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. John had gotten on the wrong side of King Herod when he publicly chastised him for marrying his brother’s wife Herodias. Embarrassed and infuriated, Herodias and her daughter hatched a plot to have John killed and backed Herod into a corner when he promised to fulfill any wish the daughter had after performing what must have been a very impressive dance for her uncle. Her request was to have the head of John brought to her on a platter.
Jesus was grieved by this news and understandably wanted to be alone in his grief as he mourned the unjust murder of his cousin. Matthew tells us that when the crowds who had been flocking to see this miracle worker with an unconventional message, they followed Jesus on foot wanting to see him and hear his words, hoping for miracles of their own. When Jesus arrived, he saw the large crowd and had compassion for them and healed those who were sick. I don’t think anyone would have blamed him if he just explained to the crowd what he had just experienced and needed some time alone but that wasn’t Jesus. John was dead and these folks needed help.
There were a whole lot of folks and the crowd kept growing. Matthew tells us that as evening approached Jesus’ disciples approached him telling him that they were out in the middle of nowhere and it was getting late. They suggested that Jesus send the crowd away so that they could go into the nearby villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus responded: There’s no need to send them away. You give them something to eat. The disciples responded that they only had five loaves of bread and two fish. Unfazed, Jesus told them to give him the bread and fish whereupon he ordered the crowd to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them and broke the loaves apart and gave them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. Matthew tells us that everyone ate until they were full, and they filled twelve baskets with the leftovers. Matthew also notes that there about five thousand men plus women and children who had all eaten.
I don’t know if any of the disciples snapped on this or if any of the Pharisees who may have been in the crowd monitoring what Jesus was doing and saying, but this feeding of the five thousand was reminiscent of when God provided manna for the people of Israel who were wandering around in the desert for forty years. Jesus was fulfilling one of the Jewish expectations the people had for the coming Messiah, that he would take care of and provide for his chosen people.
And that’s the lesson we’ve learned here at Community United Methodist Church. No matter what we have going on in our church lives, no matter how bleak the future may look for our continued existence, there are people out there who need us, in spite of the fact that we are a small church with limited resources. The people will continue to come in their desperation, and we are called to show them mercy, love, and compassion, no questions asked and no strings attached. We cannot turn them away. By his example, the Son of God showed us his humanity, putting aside his immediate needs for the needs of others. Jesus showed us what he would have us do in his name.
What Jesus was initially given, five small loaves and two meager fish, seemed insufficient to his followers, but in his hands, it became more than enough with plenty left over. And we can identify with the disciples who, that day, were faced with a seemingly insurmountable task. We too often feel that our contributions to Jesus are meager, but he can use and multiply whatever we give him, whether it is our talent, our time, our treasure, vacant land, or empty classrooms. It is when we give them to Jesus that our resources are multiplied and God supplies what is needed to meet the demands of his creation and his people.
Let us pray.
Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; visit us with thy salvation; enter every trembling heart. Gracious and loving God, how we praise you for your compassion and mercy shown to those who are suffering. And how grateful we are that you have chosen us to do your work here in our church for the vulnerable people in our community. We pray that in all we do that we reflect the love of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. May we be like Christ and put our problems and wants behind us when we see another in need and that we readily use what we have on hand to unselfishly relieve the suffering and want of the least of your children. We know that the demand is great but what you supply us, your workers, to meet these needs is even greater. Your love is divine and all excelling. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
No video this week.
8/02/26
Supply and Demand
If you have compassion for the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters God will supply whatever it is you need to meet the demand.