IN THIS SEASON

Today’s Devotion Written by Pastor Dave Olson

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the 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.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 14:13-21

Five loaves of bread for feeding 5000 people. Impossible. Young shepherd boy David faces the giant Goliath and chooses five smooth stones for his slingshot (I Samuel 17:40). Foolish. The apostle Paul wearies of the “speaking in tongues” crowd and their spiritual arrogance and says, “ I would rather speak five words with my mind than 10,000 in tongues!” (I Corinthians 14:18). Brilliant.

Five, it appears, is more than enough. Unless, of course, you are the woman at the well, telling Jesus about her five failed marriages (John 4:18). But that’s another story for another day. Five loaves in the hands of Jesus are more than enough, with an impossible twelve baskets of scraps left over. It takes only one of the five stones for David to conquer the giant. And for the often loquacious apostle Paul, he is perhaps best known for lifting up the most important five words in human history: “saved by grace through faith.”

In the wake of the pandemic and racial strife, we have committed to come alongside our sister church, Gethsemane in North Minneapolis, and assist them with responding to neighborhood needs. Imagine the difference five bags of groceries will make in the life of a family or imagine what five or five hundred dollars could buy through community food shelves like ICA or foodbanks like Second Harvest with their purchasing power with wholesalers. Imagine the power of these five words lived out: “I will feed someone today.”

I received a voicemail a few years ago from a man I had not met. He identified himself by name and by saying that he was homeless. He had moved here from Florida and had lost everything. He didn’t leave a number, didn’t ask for anything nor did he ever call back. He said he called to say thank you. He had been fed here at one of our community meals and sent on his way with some food. He confessed to having lots of issues with religion and with churches in particular and said he had been regularly degraded in and by many of them. His experience with our volunteers, he said, was different. And he wanted to be sure to say thank you to the people who had treated him with respect and kindness. He wanted to thank you for walking the talk.

There are Scripture verses that would imply that those volunteers were serving Jesus Himself that day. Did they solve the giant issues of homelessness or child poverty? Not even close. But they took what they could give and gave it away, they grabbed those five smooth stones at their disposal and felled one man’s giant isolation and distrust. They had awakened that Thursday morning and vowed, “I will feed someone today.” Brilliant.