Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 16
Romans 9:1-8
Matthew 14:13-21
Take, Bless, Break, Give.
There is a certain Lebanese charcoal chicken joint on the south side that, whenever we order from there, we seem to end up with more left over than what we started with. We started with some chicken, rice and bread, but we all end up with a bag of leftovers to go home with!
However this is still nothing quite like what happened when Jesus sat down with the crowds. He started with five loaves and two fish and ended up with twelve baskets. Not even the charcoal chicken place can perform that type of miracle.
This is not the only feeding miracle we have recorded in the Gospels. In fact, across the four Gospel books, there are no less than six miracles just like this one. Certain details differ – the place it happened in, the conversation beforehand, the food that gets multiplied – and so it would seem that Jesus did this sort of thing often.
When we read the miracles of Jesus we must remember that he does not perform them in order to look like a great magician. There is always a reason for doing what he does. St John, in his Gospel, doesn’t even use the word “miracle”, but “sign”: because they are signs that point to something important for us to take notice of.
And so what is consistent across the feeding miracles, that might give us an idea of what God is telling us? It is what Jesus does at the start of the meal.
...he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. (Matt 14:19)
He takes the food, blesses it, breaks it apart, and gives them to the disciples to distribute. Four actions: take, bless, break, give.
Jesus does this every time he sits down to eat. He kept doing it right up until his Last Supper, when he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying the words that we hear every week during Communion.
Even St Paul, who didn’t meet Jesus until after the Ascension, knows about these four actions of take, bless, break, and give. When he wrote to the church in Corinth about how they should be celebrating communion, he talks about how the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to them saying the words of insititution. (1 Cor 11:23-25)
This four fold action of take, bless, break and give is what we do every Sunday. It is the pattern of our Lord, and it is the pattern we follow in our lives. It ties into everything we believe, say and do. It is the pattern of the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, and it is the pattern of a life of Christian discipleship.
We are taken by God. He blesses us, washing us clean in the blood of Christ, and forgiving us of all our sins, adopts us as his children. We then discover there are many parts of us that need breaking, and in that breaking, we are given new ways to be given in service to others.
This morning, we will baptise the newest member of God’s family. Freya has been taken and blessed by God, and we will confirm it in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Then she will grow in God’s family, and we all know what that is like. There will be things that need to be broken in order for her to give herself in service to others. We all have had things broken, and discovered that in the breaking, we come out the other side much more able to be given in service.
We heard an example this morning from Genesis. Jacob was absolutely certain of himself. He thought he had everything sorted, that his life was as good as he could make it for himself. Then the angel of the Lord appeared, and he went to take the blessing by force, trying to wrestle the angel into submission. (How much control are we trying to exert over our own destiny?) But just as he was about to win the wrestling match – just at the point he thought he had his life all sorted out – the angel merely touched the side of his leg, breaking it. He still got the blessing. But he hobbled out of that encounter, learning something about how the blessing comes from God, not from his own effort.
And so we get this pattern of our Lord every time he sat down to eat with his friends: take, bless, break, give. We have been taken by God the Father as his own children. He has blessed us in the heavenly places with everything in Christ Jesus. We are broken, cracking open our cynicism, self-assurance, pride, and so on, so that we may be given to the world, living in loving service to one another. And just like the leftovers after the charcoal chicken joint, God will give us more than enough to share with others.