Isaiah 55.1-5, Matthew 14.13-21
The Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 2nd August 2020
Eldroth, Clapham and online
“If you are thirsty, come to the waters; if you have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah’s great song of God’s boundless generosity echoes down the centuries through Jesus’ parable about the prodigal sower who spread his seeds wildly, and Jesus’ remarkable act with the loaves and fish; through the early Christians who each shared all that they owned to meet the needs of all in their fellowship; and right through to today where in food banks across the land people engage in kind acts of generosity towards our most vulnerable families.
“If you are thirsty, come to the waters; if you have no money, come, buy and eat!” Inspiring words - which make no sense to us, economically. For the way our world is organised means that those who have no money cannot buy and eat. But Isaiah’s wondrous hymn celebrates God’s economy, opening the door to a different way of organising our world.
Any flick through the pages of scripture shows how God looks compassionately on the world’s poor and longs to see them fed. Isaiah 55 is just one example. Listen again to today’s Psalm which says,
The Lord upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all those who are bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open wide your hand
and fill all things living with plenty. [1]
Now, what can these words possibly mean to people who in this time of the coronavirus have just lost their jobs, and those for whom being endowed with the title of ‘hero’ disguises the reality of their daily struggles with long working hours in poor conditions on very low pay? They may have been applauded during this crisis, but in their precarious circumstances how can they know themselves to be truly upheld and lifted up? [2]
And what can these words mean to our sister and brother Christians in the Sudan, whose churches are partnered with our churches here in Leeds Diocese, where rocketing inflation now means that a quarter of the population are in need of urgent help with food, and whose Christians are the poorest of the poor, living in long-term displacement camps, in crowded townships with no medical facilities and no running water. They look to the Church as their only source of help but the Church in Sudan has no financial reserves to meet this crisis. When their Archbishop hears these people claim “they would rather die of a virus than of hunger”, how can they believe that the Lord will give them their food in due season, and fill them all with plenty? [3]
When Jesus’ disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves”, he told them, "They needn’t go away; you give them something to eat.” [4]
It is miraculous that Jesus found a way to make five loaves and two fish feed the thousands of men, women and children gathered in that place. But perhaps the greater miracle is the transformation he brought about in the disciples. From being glass-half-empty people who couldn’t see how they could feed the crowds, they became the facilitators of that wonderful feast. Something in Jesus’ instruction to them gave them the confidence to go out into the crowd to see what food they had; and when they returned with a paltry amount of provisions, something about Jesus’ persistence persuaded them that this might just be enough. Their faltering faith was rewarded: twelve times over.
This is God’s economy enacted in first-century Palestine. This miracle’s great power extends way beyond that late-night lakeside gathering: it has inspired countless acts of generous giving throughout the ages by those who have captured its spirit.
For some time now we have been living under the idolatry of what has been called Capitalist Realism, that is "the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it". [5] The global climate crisis and viral outbreak is “forcing us to re-evaluate how we have been living and working” and “to imagine any number of alternatives as many of the old structures crumble around us”. [6] But Capitalist Realism was never a valid position for Christians to take, who have always embraced the struggle to live by God’s economy, to demonstrate the reality that in the world as God intends it, it is absolutely possible to “have no money, and to come, buy and eat”.
God’s economy depends, of course, on God’s people abandoning our glass-half-empty perspectives on such matters and - like Jesus’ disciples handing over five loaves and two fish to their Lord - being inspired to try out acts of generous giving, however modest they may seem. This may mean us sharing food and other physical goods with those in need; and it can also mean us giving time and energy to joining with the poor in campaigns to challenge the system to treat them better.
How can the newly-unemployed and the exploited low-paid workers in this country be lifted up? How can our fellow-Christians in impoverished Sudan trust they will be fed? The answer - not a complete or perfect answer, granted, but a holy, prophetic, practical and generous answer nevertheless - rests with us, and the ways we share the gifts that God has given us for the service and well-being of others.
Notes
[1] Psalm 145.15-17.
[2] Sophie McBain, What it means to be a hero: Acts of courage in the age of Covid. New Statesman, 22 July 2020: ‘Karleigh Frisbie Brogan, a shop worker, pushed back against the “hero talk”: “It’s a pernicious label perpetuated by those who wish to gain something – money, goods, a clean conscience – from my jeopardisation,” she wrote. Supermarket cashiers are not heroes, “they’re victims. To call them heroes is to justify their exploitation.”’
[3] Jack Bacon, Diocese of Leeds launches new appeal to support the church in Sudan. Diocese of Leeds website, 27 July 2020.
[4] Matthew 14.15-16.
[5] Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (Zero Books 2009). For an overview see Wikipedia: Capitalist Realism.
[6] Jason Cowley, Editor’s Note: The great university funding crisis, sub-prime degrees and Boris Johnson’s “new normal”. New Statesman, 22 July 2020.
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