Sat 22 Aug 2009
We Don’t Have Enough
Posted by johnl under Sermons
David Orendorff Mark 6:30-44 August 9, 2009
It must have made the disciples quite joyful to feed all those folks from the resources that just kept coming. Think back to when you have had guests and there was more than enough. Or think of the joy at a church potluck, or faith dinner as they call them in Great Britain, when there is always enough. When folks are hungry and we can find enough to feed them our joy meter rises rapidly.
The disciples’ final joy contrasts sharply with the doubts they had when Jesus first ask them to feed such a large crowd with inadequate resources. It was easy and reasonable to doubt. It is Jesus’ encouragement, “You give them something to eat” and his instructions to begin the work, that makes the difference in the feeding of the five thousand.
Did you catch the symbolism in having 12 baskets of leftovers, enough for every tribe of Israel, enough to feed the world? Like all the miracles in Mark, this is also meant to be a teaching story of God’s abundance when we have faith. In this teaching miracle we can learn something from Jesus and the disciples about our ministry. I observe the feeding of the hungry in three movements.
The first movement in any ministry is to listen and notice the need of those around us. The disciples have noticed that it is getting late and the crowd is hungry. Out of their own compassion they decide something must be done. It is natural that the first movement to feeding the hungry, whatever their hunger, is to notice and to care, and this the disciples have done.
The second movement in ministry is to find out what resources there are to meet the needs heard. The disciples hunt the crowd high and low for what there might be and can only come up with five loaves and two fish. Five loaves and two fish are hardly enough for the disciples, let alone the crowd of 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
After hearing the need and checking the resources, the third movement of compassion is the difficult movement. It is to take what resources are available, even if they seem insufficient, and begin the work. It is hard for the disciples to go ahead and feed the crowd when they don’t think they have enough. At first they would rather send the crowd away. It is so very hard for us to think of feeding the hungry in our lives, let alone in the world, when we don’t think we have enough. We too would often wish it would all just go away.
The truth is the disciples, by themselves and with the crowd, don’t have enough. And it is true that we don’t have enough for the hungry children in Cottage Lake, whatever the hunger, let alone the world. But the gospel, the good news of Jesus with us, is that God has enough and will provide what we need to be compassion to the hungry voices we hear. God, through the efforts of the doubting faithful, makes what we have more than enough. So in faith we begin the work with what we have.
I have three stories about how inadequate resources joined with compassion and faith now feed thousands. The first story comes from Zimbabwe.[1]
Chief Tendai of Manyika Land, recognizing that his people needed to learn new skills, granted land and mining rights during the late 1800s to Cecil Rhodes in exchange for guns and educational opportunities.
In 1898, Joseph Crane Hartzell, a Methodist bishop, stood on Chiremba Mountain above Old Mutare, Zimbabwe … and looking down into the valley … envisioned hundreds of African young people with books in their hands, running to school.
Hartzell shared his dream with Rhodes and was granted a large tract of land at the base of Chiremba Mountain. This land was part of the original grant Rhodes received from Chief Tendai … The United Methodist Church developed schools, an orphanage and a small hospital to serve the needs of the African people. …
In 1984, two African bishops, Emilio J. M. De Carvalho of Angola and Arthur Kulah of Liberia, issued the call to create Africa University. Increased access to higher education was key, they said, to peace, stability and development in Africa.
Out of that challenge came the Africa University Initiative - regional consultations about educational and vocational needs, planning and site selection efforts - around the founding of the institution.
Prompted by United Methodist plans to establish a continent-wide university in Zimbabwe where no private universities existed, President Robert Mugabe formed a government commission in 1987 to study the country’s higher education needs and to make recommendations on the role of private universities in the nation’s overall education scheme.
When the proposal calling for the establishment of Africa University in Zimbabwe went before the worldwide church at the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in 1988, it fired imaginations. The General Conference approved the founding of an institution to serve all of Africa funded primarily by UMC congregations in the USA.
On April 6, 1991, thousands of people gathered at Old Mutare, on a site comprising 1545 acres of land donated by the United Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, for the ground breaking ceremony.
In January 1992, President Robert Mugabe granted Africa University’s Charter by official proclamation. Farm buildings on the University site were quickly refurbished to serve as teaching facilities. By March 1992, classes had started with 40 students from a dozen Africa countries studying in two faculties - Agriculture & Natural Resources and Theology.
In 1993, twenty-five new students were enrolled… Over the past decade, the pace of academic and physical development at Africa University has been phenomenal. Refurbished farm buildings gave way to modern teaching facilities, residence halls and a student services unit with the official opening of the University by President Robert Mugabe in April 1994.
Currently the enrollment is 793 full time students from 22 countries” (Angola, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Portugal, Rwanda, Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
Africa University currently offers Bachelors and Masters degree programs in six Faculties - Agriculture and Natural Resources, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Management and Administration and Theology. The Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance offers postgraduate Diploma and Masters programs.
Chief Tendai of Manyika Land had but a few loaves of bread and a few fish but he gave what he had to his generation and to the future generations of his tribe. What was a small grant of land has become a major university serving the hungry of Africa. In your regular offering, through special offerings, and by grants from the Mission Committee, Bear Creek is a significant part of the success in turning a few fish into a university.
The second story is also from Africa.[2]
From a chance meeting of a few Methodists from the South Congo and Pacific Northwest Conferences at General Conference in 1996 a vision grew to house, feed and educate the orphans of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This was the first movement of hearing the true needs of some desperate children. The Pacific Conference and the United Methodists of the Congo checked their resources and had some but not enough to do the work. Still a partnership was formed and the work was begun. Thanks to the generosity of United Methodists in the Pacific Northwest and the hard work of the South Congo Conference, 55 orphaned girls aged 8 months to 14 years have a home in the war torn and AIDS ridden Congo. Since 1998 in response to the Bishop’s Appeal for “Hope for the Children of Africa” individuals and churches from the Pacific Northwest Conference have given over $300,000 and 90 individuals in 9 Volunteer in Mission teams have traveled to Congo to support this effort. You have been a part of the effort with contributions to “Hope for the Children.”
Jamaa Letu, an orphanage in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, was opened at ceremonies Saturday, August 31, 2002. Working in partnership with the South Congo Conference, contributions and mission teams from the PNW helped to build the excellent new facility,
Participating in the dedication were state and city officials and representatives of the ecumenical Christian community, as well as local church leaders. “The Mayor of Lubumbashi said there were two reasons he felt emotional at the opening of the facility. It is providing for the poorest of the poor. And it is a symbol of hope. In a war torn nation the United Methodist Church chose to build a first-class facility. It is a sign of hope for a better future,” he said.
But the story doesn’t end here. Two years ago it was decided that the boys of Lubumbashi were also in desperate need of an orphanage. So “Hope for the Children” was expanded to begin the necessary work for a boy’s residence and staff. This year local congregations from all over the conference began the process of planning and raising funds. At our Annual Conference meeting in June we raised $160,000, bad economy and all, to begin the work. Again, God has made inadequate resources enough to build a home for the orphaned boys of the Congo. We heard the need, we counted our resources and began the work trusting God to provide. And the work of ministry is being done.
And just so you know that miraculous feedings don’t only happen in Africa, but that they are quite local as well, I tell this final story. In March of 2002 an adult class at Anacortes UMC was studying our United Methodist Social Principles. As a part of this study they reviewed the “Bishop’s Initiative for Children and Poverty.” During the discussion Jean Vonnegut asked, “What happens to children on free and reduced lunches in the summer, when school is not in session?”
The class didn’t have an answer and so they did some research and found that a few of the children are fed through summer school but that most of the children had no source beyond their families for daily bread. Most of the 400 children who qualify for food assistance did not have that assistance in the summer.
Some of the class then got together with other Anacortes folks who have a history of caring for children and asked what we could do. Jean Vonnegut kept pushing us and events kept opening to us and by refusing to take no for an answer and following serendipitous leadings the program grew until the program could five days a week feed any child 18 and under who wanted a meal.
We thought the hard part would be getting the food. Making the food multiply turned out to be the easier part. The hard part was getting the children to the food. They had no parents to bring them and no way of getting there themselves. So we borrowed some church buses and brought the children to the food. Eventually the school district found a state grant and took over management of the program. The churches of Anacortes continue to provide the needed volunteers.
Again the movements of compassion are clear. A small group of church folks heard the cries of the hungry, they checked their resources, trusted God, and began the work.
God has placed Bear Creek in the midst of Cottage Lake to listen and care; to wisely check resources and in faith work for justice whether it is feeding of the hungry, housing the homeless or giving compassion to skate boarders. And when we hear and to the best of our resources respond, God will be faithful and make it enough. God has enough if we will but do the work. God, through the efforts of the doubting faithful, makes what we have for the hungry enough to feed the world with baskets and baskets of leftovers. And our joy in the work of the kingdom of heaven is great.
Shalom and Amen.
[1] What follows is the Africa Universities own report on its beginnings to be found at www.africau.edu. There is also information on our UMC web site www.gbm-umc.org/mission/news, then select Archives and search for what interests you.
[2] What follows is from Channels, September 2002, Issue 8, page 1. Channels is a monthly publication of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference
