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“You give them something to eat.” Matthew 14:16
I can’t decide if Jesus is absolutely exhausted or engaging in leadership development when he tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Perhaps it’s both. It’s been a challenging few weeks for Jesus. After a successful preaching tour, he headed to his hometown of Nazareth where instead of being greeted with honor and respect he received suspicion and ridicule. Then he heard the devastating news that his cousin John, the one who baptized him, was dead. At the whim of a dancing girl, he was beheaded by King Herod. Jesus responds by retreating to a deserted place to be by himself, to grieve and rest, pray and reflect. But someone finds him and then another and another until a great crowd forms, some curious, some seeking help, all wanting a piece of him. Instead of waving them away, Jesus has compassion. He hears their pleas, cures the sick and blesses them all day into the early evening. And when the disciples tell him it was time to send everyone away to get supper, he replies, “You give them something to eat.”
When someone asks me about Phoenixville, I tell them it has more non-profits per capita than any other small town in America, and now I add, more breweries per square foot, too. But that was not the case in the early 70’s. Then a small group of citizens formed the Humans Relations Council to deal with racism, hunger and housing. At the time barber shops would not cut the hair of African American men and there were no African American Cheerleaders on the squad at the High School. When folks needed help, they had to take two buses to West Chester to get assistance. In 1972, the Human Relations Council started Phoenixville Area Community Services, or PACS, as a place to find assistance, information and food. Congregation were asked “to give them something to eat” and did so by providing food for a month every year.
In 1980, Lois Gould became the director and only employee of PACS. She worked out of First Baptist (now GraceCrossing) on Church Street and then when a fish store closed a half a block away, PACS relocated. I remember dropping food off there when I first came to town. When PACS received a bequest from Earl and Grace Dahms, leaders here at St. John’s, the agency bought a building at Church and Gay Street, where their outreach expanded. Lois retired in 2002. Carol Berger became the Director, serving until 2018 and now Mary Fuller is the new director. The needs are so great that their building is for sale and they’re planning to move to a larger facility. From July 2018 to June 2019, over 8,700 hungry, men, women and children were given something to eat. Since March with COVID, the need has grown by 50% and again each month in April, May and June. PACS is serving more people than ever before.
“You give them something to eat,” Jesus tells his disciples and us. They bring what they have – five loaves and two fish. We do the same. Dropping off food for PACS on the shelves in the narthex, or through a drive-by collection in the Circle or picking up cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, cabbage, corn, melons and zucchini from Renninger’s Farm to be shared. When we first started doing the corn. Dave Granacher made the weekly trip, filled the back of his pick-up truck, dropped off all that PACS could handle and then drove around town, stopping here and there to give it away. “You give them something to eat,” Jesus tells us and during the school year, before COVID, 88 children received Phantom food packs each Friday through a program run out of our church kitchen. Now lunch sites are set up across town as our whole community gives and receives something to eat. Loaves and fishes multiplied again and again.
And again. Today, Jesus takes the bread, prays, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to his disciples who give it to the crowd, including us. When hearing today’s Gospel, you were also hearing the verbs of the words of institution: “In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body, given for you.” Jesus feeds us his very self that we might feed others.
In the deserted place, Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish, food that the disciples found, perhaps tucked away in one of their satchels, or given to them by someone in the crowd. Then Jesus thanks God for the loaves and fishes. In doing so, he acknowledges all of creation – wheat arising green, a bit of yeast, fish swimming in the sea, farmers gathering their harvest, bakers sliding fresh loaves from the oven, fishmen pulling in their nets, women scrapping the scales, lighting a fire, preparing a meal. He thanks God for everything and in his thanksgiving, all of it is made holy. Then Jesus breaks the bread. He does so, because it needs to be broken in order to be received by the 5000 men along with the women and children. I imagine if everyone was counted, they might’ve numbered 8,700 hungry people. The bread is broken because Jesus meets us in our brokenness, our want and our hunger and forgives us, opening us to his mercy and grace. Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and then gives. He gives freely without counting the cost, gives his life, his flesh and blood, his undying love that hangs on the cross, lays in the tomb and is reborn in resurrection.
Give them something to eat. That’s what Jesus instructs his disciples to do. And they do – two fish, five loaves, and 8,700 men, women and children are fed.
Give them something to eat. That’s what he tells us to do. We’re given far more than 2 fish and 5 loaves to share. It’s been almost 2000 years since that meal in the deserted place – and those 12 baskets of leftovers have yet to be empty. Amen.