Not surprisingly, my mailboxes—both physical and virtual—have been deluged this past year with communications about post-retirement financial security. Invitations to enroll in classes, seminars, and “informational meetings” with free dinners attached. Advertisements for investment firms with the soundest advice. There are charts and graphs calculating what a person in my demographic will need to live well, and for how long. Maybe I’ve always received these, but I will tell you I’ve noticed them a lot more since the days are ticking down. Their message—sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle—centers on one question: Will you have enough?
It’s a familiar question, and one we consider throughout our lives. Will I have enough to pay for college? Will we have enough to bring another child into our family? Will I have enough to live the way I want to after retirement? And it’s not simply an individual question. A lot of the anti-immigrant rhetoric today suggests their presence means there won’t be enough for us. It’s one your church asks as we develop annual budgets and plan for future thriving. Will we have enough— to fund our vital mission, pay our outstanding staff, maintain our magnificent building, in 2025 and beyond?
It’s a question that can preoccupy us. And I think it’s the wrong question.
Will I have enough? The question practically screams No! No you will not. The presumptive answer is that there is never enough. The question itself incites fear and has a chilling effect on one’s sense of well-being and confident living. To get your share of scarce resources requires single-minded focus and willingness to keep, to save, to salt away for a rainy day.
We are inheritors of Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper. The busy, industrious ant spends the summer storing up food in her multi-chambered hill, while the grasshopper just fritters away her time in the luscious garden, nibbling on tomatoes and sweet corn she didn’t cultivate, and basking in the sunny days. And we know how this turns out. We hardly need Aesop to spell out the moral of the story when winter descends. It’s hard not to feel contempt for the lazy grasshopper who carpe diem-ed herself right into a frost-bitten retirement, er I mean end.
BUT. We are people of faith, and draw from sources other than conventional wisdom. The scripture text today provides a provocative answer to the question, Will there be enough? Even more, it offers a wholly different reality that reveals the utter poverty of the question. A reading from the good news according to Mark, in the 8th chapter, verses 1-10, and then verses 11-21. Listen for God’s Word to ants and grasshoppers alike. [READ MARK 8:1-10]
Nowhere in Scripture are the accounts of Jesus feeding thousands of people described as “miracles.” These narratives appear in all four gospels, so they must have been memorable evidence of Jesus’ power and compassion. But they don’t even imply that Jesus mysteriously whipped up some pita bread out of thin air. He took the resources they offered, gave thanks for them, and when distributed, everyone ate their fill, with substantial leftovers.
I wonder if we could replicate that today. Here’s one loaf of bread. Will it feed everyone here? Let’s see. While Jesus seems to have commanded the crowd’s attention for three days before the folks got fed, I’m not going to risk it for more than 15 minutes. . . .
To get into this text, let’s assess the situation using a SWOT analysis, as any good strategic planner would do.
Strengths: definitely Jesus and his compelling teaching; seven loaves of bread, and a few small fish; a dozen distributors ready to go.
Weaknesses: four thousand mouths to feed; not a grocery store in sight;
Opportunities: captive audience;
Threats: real hunger and the disciples’ disbelief in their capacity to feed that many people.
Not a very promising scenario, right? True, IF we use only our powers of observation and calculation and common sense. But Jesus demonstrates a different way, replacing a sense of “scarcity” with one of “abundance.” And I think that’s the key to understanding not only this text, but the question of having “enough.” There will never be enough, if what you see is all you get. But if we follow Jesus’ lead, we will use a different calculus to evaluate the situation.
There’s a presumption of abundance. There’s gratitude for what one has. There’s trust that God will provide all that is needed to accomplish the good we desire, with the resources and people at hand. Food to feed thousands. Lots of left-overs. The gospel writer is very specific about the numbers, so we don’t miss it. There is enough…..and more than enough.
We could end the lesson here, throw in a little pitch about pledging generously to Central’s mission, and call it a day. But this text is actually just one scene from a continuing conversation with religious leaders and Jesus’ own disciples that reveals how difficult it is sometimes to imagine abundance…..to picture God’s grace as an everflowing stream of blessing rather than a monumental result we have somehow to achieve. The text continues, now reading verses 11 through 21. [Mark 8:11-21 The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God]
I think Jesus sighs deeply in his spirit when I come at him like those ancient religious leaders, arguing, testing, anxiously showing him those charts, and reminding him about practical financial realities.
Do you not yet understand? Fact is, friends, God has provided for my needs abundantly throughout my entire life. Growing up in a family of seven, supported solely by my preacher father’s small town church salary. Financing college and graduate school with scholarships, financial aid, work-study, and yes, student loans. Serving 5 congregations over 40+ years in a job I absolutely love and for which I have been fairly compensated. Suddenly moving from a 2-income family to one. And now, looking at retirement with social security, a pension and a home.
And here’s the thing: little about this is miraculous. C-notes never fell from heaven. I didn’t get every job I applied for. There were some tight times, especially after my divorce. But there were people: a mother who patiently completed the FAFSA form for college financial aid each year ( I had no idea what a feat that was until I filled them out for my son) and family members whose emergency “loans” became gifts; a congregation who stepped up to turn a part-time position into a full-time one for their newly-single-parent pastor; individuals who identified gifts in me before I recognized them and opened doors for opportunities.
God has provided through every chance and change life has brought me. Though I forget sometimes, I do understand and can trust God to provide for my abundant future as well.
I think Jesus sighs deeply in his spirit when his beloved church approaches, worried about the bottom line, arguing about “what ifs” and our endowment balance, the cost of maintaining our beautiful and useful building, uncertainties surrounding the annual stewardship campaign. We get concerned –again!– that there won’t be enough. Fact is, God has provided abundantly for Central’s needs for over 164 years. . . . through wars and conflicts, social unrest and upheaval. . . the growing pains of a growing City….the diminishing role of religion in culture. . . global pandemics…..economic booms and busts. . . . the rise of the internet, AI, social media…..the time and tides that have continually changed this congregation and everyone of us.
Yes, God works through people: financial folks who share their skills, visionaries who ask us to dream and then do, preachers and prophets and elders and youngers who generously placed their resources into God’s hands. Friends, though forgetful sometimes, I believe you do understand, and can trust God to provide for your abundant future.
Where is the bread we passed? Has everyone eaten? Was there enough? Will there be enough? It’s time to replace that question with another one. When I first read the text, I thought it would probably be Jesus’ weary question Do you not yet understand? But I think there’s an even better and more hopeful one a few verses earlier: Do you not remember? And do we not? Oh, yes, we remember…..and give thanks.
We break bread and remember the transforming power of sacrificial love. We remember and breathe in Divine goodness. We remember and relax our clenched fists opening them to receive God’s bounteous blessing. We remember we are not alone. And we remind one another we are never alone.
In her remarkable book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Potawatomi Nation and a biologist, shares an origin story witnessing to the abundance filling the universe. During a long and brutal winter, three sisters visited a community where food was scarce, the people starving. Despite this famine, the three sisters were greeted warmly and fed generously. In gratitude for this hospitality, the three sisters gifted the people with three seeds—corn, bean, and squash—a small package that ensured the people would never go hungry again. Kimmerer explains: The lessons of reciprocity are written clearly in a Three Sisters garden. Together their stems inscribe what looks to me like a blueprint for the world a map of balance and harmony. The corn stands eight feet tall; rippling green ribbons of leaf curl away from the stem in every direction to catch the sun. . . The bean twines around the corn stalk, weaving itself between the leaves of corn, never interfering with their work. . . Spread around the feet of the corn and beans is a carpet of big broad squash leaves that intercept the light that falls among the pillars of corn. . The organic symmetry of forms belongs together; the placement of every leaf, the harmony of shapes speak their message. Respect one another, support one another, bring your gift to the world and receive the gifts of others, and there will be enough for all. [Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, The Three Sisters]
Thanks be to God!
