After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way." The disciples said to him, "Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?" Jesus asked them, "How many loaves have you?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish." Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
There are two accounts of Jesus feeding a multitude of people in Matthew's Gospel. We heard the first one last week and today we read the second. In this particular narrative Jesus feeds the four thousand after he had healed many of them. The people who gathered there around Jesus were those who were unable to walk, talk, see, and various other problems that people had. Jesus receives every person, heals them and then he feeds them. He feeds them with the Goodness of God. Jesus takes what the disciples have, gives thanks and uses it to feed the four thousand people. Jesus feeds both the bodies and the souls of those who came to him.
God gives to all of us out of God's abundant goodness. Each individual person has been gifted by God as a unique, loving and wonderful being. God calls all of us to give to God and others out of the abundance that God has given. God also knows that we cannot give what we do not have. And so through the Eucharist God feeds us with the Presence of Christ so that all of us who experience the emptiness of God, will again and again know that God has not abandoned us, but continues to fill us and feed us with God's Self. We cannot be givers of God's presence and goodness if we do not approach Jesus and receive God through the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood. When we are fed with the Presence of God in the Eucharist, we are nourished with hope so that we as Christ's Body the Church can share the hope of Christ with others.
God calls with in the Church various people to serve both as laity and ordained. God has made each individual person and blessed us all with hearts that love, minds that contemplate, think and know God's Presence, and the ability to share the Presence of God through those unique ways in which God has created each of us. It is very unfortunate that some in the Anglican Communion cannot recognize God's gift in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, and honor our dedication to serve not only as Lay people, but also as ordained Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Thanks be to God that the Episcopal Church through listening to the Holy Spirit has discerned that God can and does call women and men, heterosexual as well as LGBT to discern the call to serve the Church as Bishops, Priests and Deacons. It is very unfortunate that the differences of how people view LGBT people is leading the Anglican Communion to the point where the Archbishop of Canterbury feels the need to remove Episcopalians from the Ecumenical Dialogues. What is happening is that rather than keep everyone talking together at the table to debate, discuss, disagree and work towards some kind of consensus, Archbishop Williams instead chooses to keep those parts of the Anglican Communion who are acting on the Holy Spirit's direction for LGBT people to be ordained as Bishops, Priests and Deacons from continuing to participate in the discussion, debate and consensus at the table.
The great hymn found in the 1982 Hymnal #302 contains the following prayer.
"Watch o'er thy Church, O Lord, in mercy, save it from evil guard it still, perfect it in thy love, unite it, cleansed and conformed unto thy will. As grain, once gathered on the hill sides, was in this broken bread made one, so from all lands thy Church be gathered into thy kingdom by thy Son."
The Christian Church is made up of many people, with many view points, understandings, sexual orientations and/or gender identities/expressions, gender's, languages, and the like. What the Church is called to do is gather all, embrace all, bless all and feed all with God's loving presence. It really is not the place of any Bishop, Priest, Deacon, lay person, political body to decide who has more dignity or "rights" to be where they are. The Anglican Communion is made up of many bodies of people, each with their own unique persuasion, understanding, agreements and disagreements, yet we are called to remain in one fellowship. It is so very disturbing and sad that those who would prefer an Anglican Communion with a centralized authority, when we became such because we were opposed to such polarizing politics must use such measures towards the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.
As the news of Episcopalians being removed from the Ecumenical Dialogues became more news last night, many including myself respondd that we are proud to be Episcopalian in a church where all of God's children are welcomed and affirmed. We remain committed to the Episcopal Church and it's listening as the Holy Spirit calls us to welcome open LGBT people to discern their call within this church. I was further encouraged when I read the blog of Minnesota's Bishop Brian Prior who reminded us that in the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, Page 855, that "The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of ALL its members." This means that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals who are members of the Church are among those through whom the Church carries out its mission. The word ALL means, ALL. Contrary to those with a difference of opinion within the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church can decide who ALL is with or without the ABC's approval. It is the Holy Spirit's voice that we are most accountable to.
Some really good questions for us today are, with what are we bringing to the service of Christ and the Church? Are we coming to serve Christ with what we have or are we wanting to serve with things that we do not have? Are many of us LGBT people still caught up in the idea that the religious right has all the claims about our value before God, and therefore we just don't offer ourselves to the service of Christ and the Church? Do we see God's Goodness within ourselves as we share in the Eucharist? What is it we are being called to share to serve Christ and others?
O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 5, Book of Common Prayer, Page 229).
God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, Page 818).
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, Page 815).
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