In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Are you worried?  Are you worried about money?  Are you worried about the price of gasoline and the rising cost of groceries?  Or are your worries more long term?  Are you worried about the future? . . . about your retirement? . . . about your medical expenses?  Are you worried about your children or your grandchildren being successful and taking care of themselves?  Well, you’re not alone.  We ALL worry and fret in some way about “having enough.”  But guess what?  We don’t have to worry!  There’s enough.  In fact, there’s more than enough.  There’s enough for EVERYBODY.  There’s enough for everybody to get all they need and for lots and lots to be left over.  We don’t NEED to worry.  This is what Jesus is teaching us today . . . this is what the miracle of Jesus feeding thousands and thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish is all about.  Of course, there’s a hitch to this . . . but I’ll get to that later on.

God has been teaching us that there’s more than enough for everybody since the beginning of time.  Walter Brueggemann wrote a wonderful essay about this some years ago in “The Christian Century” magazine, and I’m using a lot of his thinking in this sermon.[1]  I know I’ve mentioned this piece to some of you before, but it’s so important it bears repeating.  Brueggemann calls the first chapter of Genesis a song of praise for God’s generosity.  Over and over again we are told, “It is good, it is good . . . it is very good.”  God blesses plants and animals, fish and birds, God blesses humankind . . . God blesses all creation with tremendous vitality and tells all creation to be fruitful and multiply.  In an orgy of fruitfulness, everything is to multiply . . . multiply the overflowing goodness that pours from God’s creative spirit.  In fact, all this fruitfulness eventually becomes so overwhelming that even God has to rest . . . and so we have the Sabbath.

The myth that there isn’t enough . . . the myth of scarcity . . . enters the story later, with the story of Joseph and Pharoah.  Remember?  Pharaoh, the ruler of the Egyptians, has a dream that there will be a famine in the land.  The solution that Joseph and Pharaoh come up with is to administer, and control, and monopolize the food supply . . . not simply to survive the lean years . . . but to use the famine as an opportunity also to gain control over all the money, all the land, and even all the people of Egypt.  By the end of the famine Pharaoh owns just about everything in the country . . . the buildings, the land, and even the people, because the people have sold themselves into slavery for food.  For the first time in the Bible someone says, “There’s not enough . . . there may never be enough for everyone . . . so let’s try to get EVERYTHING!”  And so, as Brueggemann describes it, the contest between the liturgy of generosity and the myth of scarcity began.  This is a contest that still tears us apart today.

Isn’t this one of the fundamental, organizing stories of our society . . . of our world . . . that there isn’t enough for everyone?  Isn’t this what most of our worries are grounded in?  I realize that there are additional forces driving the fierce, competitive consumerism that seems to rule our world . . . but I wonder if they can’t all be traced back to the root fear that there isn’t enough for everyone.  When we buy into the myth of scarcity . . . and it IS a MYTH . . . when we buy into the idea that there isn’t enough for everyone, then, of course, we have to compete to make certain that we have enough for ourselves.  We struggle to find security where it can never be found.  Eventually, our very sense of who we are, our sense of identity, gets tangled up with what we own, where we live, the job we do, the car we drive, the clothes we wear.  And then a great hole opens in our souls, an emptiness that doesn’t have to be there, because we’ve come to believe a lie.  And we try to fill this hole, this emptiness, with THINGS, with prestige, with power, with money . . . thus perpetuating the lie.  Oh yes, I know that I’m simplifying tremendously . . . but I also think I’m speaking truth.

One of the great challenges facing us is whether the news of God’s abundance can be trusted in the face of the story of scarcity.  And here’s the hitch I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon.  No, in a fundamental sense, we don’t NEED to worry . . . there IS enough for everyone.  God’s abundance continues to overflow throughout creation.  BUT . . . our world continues to be organized as it was thousands of years ago under Pharaoh . . . organized so that God’s abundance is administered, and controlled, and monopolized for the benefit of the few out of fear . . . fear that there’s not enough for everyone.  And this means, that the world needs to be reorganized.

Reorganize the WORLD?  How do we go about doing THAT!  Well, first, remember a crucial TRUTH: nothing can separate us from the love of God.  As we go about our work to reorganize the world, God will be with us every step of the way.  Our baptismal service declares that each of us miraculously has been loved into existence by God.  And the story of abundance tells us that, not only do our lives begin in God, but that our lives are saturated with God, and that finally, our lives will end in God.  What’s more, this well-being – this essential connectedness with God – cannot be taken from us.  As we heard from Paul’s letter to the Romans this morning:  “I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38).  So, you see, we don’t have to worry about losing God.  That’s our safety net as we begin to challenge the myth of scarcity.

And, of course, we WILL be challenged as we try to live in the truth of God’s abundance.  All the ways of this world will challenge us . . . because the world believes in the lie that there is not enough for everyone.  The world is frightened by God’s abundance.  And so, after we first grasp onto the truth of God’s abundant love – which we cannot be separated from – we must, second, CHOOSE.  We must choose between the lie of scarcity and the truth of abundance . . . we must choose for Jesus Christ.  Jesus puts it very succinctly:  “You cannot serve God and mammon.”  And then Jesus adds:  “Do not be anxious, because everything you need will be given to you.”  But first you must decide.  You must choose.  And yes, there are ramifications in this choice . . . ramifications beyond the purely spiritual . . . ramifications that are economic and political and social . . . for the spiritual is not separate from all these things.

Jesus talks a great deal about the Kingdom of God.  And he is not simply talking about heaven . . . or about something far off in the future . . . something that will appear when he comes again.  When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God he is also talking about THIS world . . . OUR world right now . . . this miraculous, vibrant, love-filled creation of God.  Everywhere Jesus goes, he reveals the Kingdom of God.  And everywhere he goes, everything gets turned upside down . . . reorganized . . . because when Jesus is present, everything is placed under the sovereignty of God.  Everywhere Jesus goes the world is rearranged.  Ordinary people are dazzled and amazed and grateful . . . and powerful people are scandalized and infuriated . . . because Jesus reveals the lie of scarcity, the lie of that organizing principle, and reveals the truth of God’s love and the abundance of creation.  Jesus reveals the Kingdom in our midst.

The miracle we heard about this morning, the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitudes, is an example of the truth about God’s creation being revealed . . . fulfilled . . . it’s a glimpse of the Kingdom of God that is all around us.  Jesus takes the bread, he blesses it, breaks it, and gives it.  Takes, blesses, breaks, and gives . . . the four essential verbs of the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving.  As Brueggmann, that great theologian says,[2] in this action Jesus demonstrates that the world is filled with abundance and freighted with generosity.  If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all.  The Kingdom of God is revealed.

Making the choice to follow Christ, means making the choice to reveal the Kingdom of God in our midst.  Following Christ means rearranging the world.  Following Christ means denying the lie of scarcity and reveling in the abundance of creation.  Following Christ means reordering and transforming the world, and putting all things under the sovereignty of God.  A tall order?  Not really.  Remember, we not in this alone . . . this is the call of ALL Christians.  And no matter how small or insignificant our own efforts may seem, no matter what our tiny individual callings are, if they are of God they will be filled with grace and have ramifications beyond our wildest imaginings. 

Don’t worry.  Have no anxiety.  We don’t have to create the Kingdom of God, we just have to reveal it and live in it.  Oh, yes, it may be difficult at times . . . but we’re not alone . . . our brothers and sisters in Christ are with us . . . GOD is with us . . . and as the work is God’s work, it will inevitably succeed.  Along the way, however, we will need to keep up our strength . . . we will need food . . . we will need sustenance for this work.

So come to the table.  Eat.  Drink.  There’s enough for everybody!

Amen.

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