Martha Gilmore - "Use What You've Got" (August 1, 1993)

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Man	Now here these words from the gospel according to	0:05
	St. Matthew chapter 14 beginning with the 13th verse.	0:08
	Now when Jesus heard this he withdrew from there	0:15
	in a boat to a deserted place by himself.	0:18
	But when the crowds heard it	0:23
	they followed him on foot from the towns.	0:24
	When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and	0:28
	he had compassion for them and cured their sick.	0:30
	When it was evening the disciples came to him and said	0:35
	"This is a deserted place and the hour is now late	0:39
	Send the crowds away so they may go in to the villages	0:44
	and buy food for themselves!"	0:47
	Jesus said to them "They need not go away,	0:50
	you give them something to eat!"	0:54
	They replied "We have nothing hear but	0:57
	five loaves and two fish!"	0:59
	and he said "Bring them to me!"	1:02
	Then he ordered the crowds to sent down on the grass.	1:06
	Taking the five loaves and the two fish,	1:10
	he looked up to heaven	1:12
	and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to disciples	1:13
	and the disciples gave them to the crowds.	1:18
	And all ate and were filled.	1:21
	And they took up what was left over of the broken pieces,	1:25
	twelve baskets full and those who ate were about	1:28
	five thousand men besides women and children.	1:32
	This is the word of the Lord.	1:37
congregation	Thanks be to God.	1:39
Woman Pastor	I want to tell you about Katherine.	1:54
	She was one of the girls in the senior high youth group	1:57
	where last I pastored.	2:00
	We didn't have a very big group, in fact we only had	2:03
	six women, young women and four young men.	2:07
	It was because we were a small group though	2:13
	that a youth director from another church called me one day.	2:16
	It seemed that he was looking at a ski trip and	2:20
	he wanted to have a certain number to guarantee	2:24
	a minimal affordable price and he needed ten more people,	2:27
	so we were kind of an answer to his prayers.	2:33
	He called and he said "Do you think your youth group	2:36
	would be, ah, would like to go skiing?"	2:39
	And I said, "Oh, yes!"	2:41
	"They've talked of nothing less than our (inaudible)	2:43
	more than skiing, so let me talk to them next Sunday	2:47
	and I will be back in touch with you!"	2:52
	Actually, the director had helped me out as well,	2:55
	for as it turned out, our youth group that next Sunday night	2:59
	was to go to a shelter to feed the homeless.	3:04
	Now all they had to do was just to get there	3:08
	and serve the food.	3:11
	Another church was preparing the food,	3:14
	was bringing the food.	3:17
	We were just to get there and serve the food.	3:19
	Now as you might suspect, the youth group had said	3:23
	"This was not our idea of a good time!"	3:27
	And I had kind of leaned on them with	3:31
	what I call a sort of a pastoral privilege	3:33
	and I had introduced the rather revolutionary idea	3:36
	that maybe the youth group should do something	3:41
	besides play volleyball.	3:43
	And I needed back in their good graces though and	3:46
	I thought well the ski trip is going to do it.	3:49
	Sunday night arrived and we were there together	3:53
	discussing the information about the trip and indeed it	3:57
	did look like it would be at a good time for our schedule.	4:00
	But the young people decided that they would go home,	4:05
	check with their parents, look over their bank accounts,	4:08
	look over their calendars, check with their friends	4:12
	to see what their friends would be doing at spring break,	4:15
	that they might want to do more than going skiing.	4:18
	Little did we know that the ski trip	4:22
	was soon to be a thing of the past.	4:26
	None of us was prepared for the impact	4:30
	of walking into that shelter that Sunday night.	4:35
	Row after row of mats lay on the concrete slab.	4:39
	One meager mat, marking individual space	4:43
	that could be claimed by each person.	4:48
	The director moved toward me, asking if I would offer	4:52
	Thanksgiving for the meal and a lump formed in my throat.	4:56
	A hush covered the warehouse and I said something	5:02
	which gratefully I cannot recall this morning because	5:06
	I was so overwhelmed of what I was seeing.	5:09
	The youth took their places behind the table and	5:14
	began to serve. More often than not, the resident would	5:17
	come by and say "Thank you! God bless you!"	5:22
	And when the meal was completed, the residents began	5:27
	to clap in appreciation and that's when tears began	5:31
	to stream down our face.	5:36
	It was then that Katherine moved toward me.	5:39
	"How much does this food cost?	5:43
	How much does it cost to feed all these people?"	5:46
	And I said "I don't know! Go ask one of the persons who	5:49
	prepared the food."	5:53
	And in an instant with an incredulous expression	5:56
	on her face, she returned saying, "It cost about $200!"	5:59
	And then beginning in her eyes, a smile traveled along her	6:05
	face and she said	6:10
	"Just think, for $200 we could feed all these people.	6:12
	Who wants to go skiing!"	6:19
	Katherine's exuberance was contagious, she gathered	6:22
	the youth around here and before I knew it, they had gone	6:25
	up to the director and they had signed the schedule and	6:28
	promised that we would bring a meal on a specific night.	6:32
	And I was standing there thinking one hour before,	6:38
	we were planning to go skiing.	6:41
	It was when we met next Sunday night that the awesomeness	6:44
	of the promise that we had made began to soak in.	6:48
	For you see as I told you we were ten, fifteen if you	6:53
	wanted to count me and the two couples who sponsored.	6:57
	And they were 350. Where would we get this money?	7:01
	Somehow it seemed to be harder to contemplate how we were	7:07
	going to get money to feed the homeless then it had been to	7:10
	think about how we would get money to go skiing.	7:14
	How would we make all of this food?	7:18
	And if we could even make it, how in the world were we going	7:20
	to get it to the shelter. I think it was Charlie who first	7:23
	verbalized what we all were thinking.	7:29
	He said "We've gotta get out of this!"	7:32
	(giggled) "Call them, Martha, tell them anything!"	7:34
	"Give them any excuse!" But then it was Megan who said	7:39
	"Wait a minute! Let's don't panic, I've got a plan coming!"	7:45
	"We'll just go to the congregation, you know the church	7:51
	is always behind what we are getting into and I think	7:54
	we could just go out in pairs to different groups."	7:59
	"For instance, two of us could go to the older couples	8:02
	in the church and ask for money!"	8:06
	"Two of us can go to the missionary society	8:08
	and ask them to bake cookies and brownies."	8:11
	"You know how they do that for us periodically and	8:13
	they can just make more!"	8:16
	"Then we could send two to the young people's department,	8:18
	the young married couples and ask them to bring a loaf	8:22
	of bread or a gallon of milk because they have to go to the	8:25
	grocery store everyday anyway with their young families.	8:29
	And then she said the little kids,	8:33
	they can just get potato chips and Fritos.	8:35
	On she went until the menu was complete.	8:39
	And so that's how feeding the homeless became a ministry	8:43
	of the entire congregation because you see the youth	8:48
	kept signing up and the people in the church kept	8:52
	supporting it with the gifts of their food, and in fact	8:55
	it wasn't long until they came and said	8:59
	"Why can't we go with you?" You kids have all the fun."	9:01
	And so they began to let them go, carefully instructing them	9:06
	about what they would need to do.	9:10
	And what they would be seeing. And then mysteriously,	9:12
	food began to appear in the church kitchen.	9:17
	Leftover food from school carnivals, from service clubs,	9:20
	from church affairs that had not been attended well	9:26
	and food was leftover always with a note attached that said	9:31
	to the kids in the youth group, take this to the shelter	9:36
	when next you go.	9:40
	Using what you got enlivened a congregation	9:43
	and fed a multitude.	9:48
	Some of the time our initial reaction to using what we've	9:50
	got is what Charlie's was as he articulated	9:54
	what the youth group was thinking.	9:58
	We look at a big need and we impulsively sign on	10:01
	not considering the consequences and then we want out.	10:04
	Sometime, our initial reaction to using what we've got	10:11
	is similar to the disciples in the gospel lesson	10:14
	that was read for us a few moments ago.	10:18
	We become defensive, we say, send them	10:21
	into the village to buy themselves some food.	10:25
	They should be more responsible for themselves.	10:29
	Why is their problem suppose to be my problem?	10:32
	We listen to ourselves and are	10:37
	ashamed to hear our own reactions.	10:39
	Reactions like if the poor would just get a job, we could	10:42
	close the shelters, we could get them off the streets.	10:47
	If the HIV positive had just been more disciplined,	10:52
	he or she wouldn't be carrying the deadly virus and	10:56
	furthering of the taxation of our health care institutions.	11:00
	We're quick to judge, to assign blame,	11:06
	quick to pronounce simplistic solutions.	11:10
	Send the people to the village to buy themselves some food.	11:15
	Some of the time, our initial reaction is grounded in a	11:19
	deep sense of our own inadequacy.	11:23
	We really believe that we're not good enough and	11:27
	what we have to offer could not be sufficient.	11:30
	Or perhaps a mentality of scarcity holds us hostage.	11:35
	Scarcity says there is not possibly	11:40
	enough to ever go around.	11:44
	Scarcity thrives on categories, we versus they.	11:47
	It says if you have, I don't.	11:52
	It says if you win, I lose.	11:56
	It says if you're successful or popular, then I'm not.	12:00
	Scarcity promotes fear and fear promotes hoarding.	12:05
	But our gospel lesson illustrates that scarcity is not true.	12:12
	Sometimes our initial response is grounded in greed.	12:18
	I don't know if our first century brothers and sisters	12:23
	in Christ were influenced by our twentieth century myth.	12:26
	They myth that says more is better.	12:32
	We dilute ourselves into thinking that happiness	12:36
	is connected to experiences and to possessions and	12:38
	that the more we have, the happier we will be.	12:43
	George Bateson some years ago called this a cradle of greed.	12:48
	Bateson said that it is never true	12:53
	biologically that more is better than less.	12:55
	There is, he said, in fact an always optimum value beyond	13:00
	which anything becomes toxic.	13:04
	He said that might be oxygen,	13:08
	sleep, psychotherapy, philosophy.	13:11
	But we ignore these limits, he said, because	13:16
	greed has gotten the best of us.	13:18
	Robert Stone said it another way in an essay	13:23
	that he wrote for Harvard's magazine.	13:25
	He said that we live in a society based overwhelmingly	13:28
	on appetite and on pleasure and on self-regard.	13:33
	We train our young people, he said, to be consumers,	13:39
	to think more highly of their own pleasure.	13:44
	Much in our culture says to us	13:47
	send the people to the village to buy themselves food.	13:51
	Yet the gospel proclaims another way.	13:56
	It proclaims that our pleasure and another's need	14:00
	is not often neatly symmetrical.	14:03
	I was touched to discover that the passage which immediately	14:06
	precedes the one that we're preaching and we read today,	14:10
	is the account of Salome's Dance and	14:14
	the beheading of John the Baptist.	14:18
	Now this event was very important for Jesus.	14:21
	First of all, John was his cousin.	14:25
	It was John who had presided over the baptism of Jesus.	14:28
	So John's death no doubt brought deep personal loss.	14:33
	For Jesus says as well, his death posed	14:38
	a serious threat to his ministry.	14:41
	Indeed this was not a good day to have to face a multitude.	14:44
	Yet Jesus responded compassionately	14:50
	to the needs of the crowd, and apparently, the disciples	14:53
	were able to respond as well until the moment	14:57
	when they were met with their own vulnerability.	15:01
	They were met with a situation that	15:06
	they thought they could not fix.	15:08
	Here I believe is the pivotal moment in the story today.	15:11
	Jesus cuts through their vulnerability	15:17
	with an amazing statement.	15:19
	He says to them give them food yourselves.	15:22
	Use what you've got.	15:26
	They must have wondered, well, is he joking.	15:30
	But after all, had not Jesus been modeling	15:33
	vulnerability all day long	15:36
	in his response to the crowd, "Use what we've got"?	15:39
	We've only got five loaves and two fishes.	15:44
	And our commentary tells us the fish they had was not fish	15:49
	like we eat here in such wonderful portions when we go out	15:53
	to eat, no it was fish that was made into a relish.	15:58
	So all they had actually were five loaves of bread	16:03
	with a small amount to spread on them.	16:08
	How could they possibly have enough,	16:12
	they must have been wondering.	16:15
	Yet Jesus said, "Bring to me what you have!"	16:17
	And herein is the second pivotal moment in the story.	16:22
	"With what you have," Jesus says, "God's abundance will	16:28
	be released." It was and the people were fed.	16:34
	The subject of the story at this point shifts to God.	16:39
	To God's abundance which is available	16:43
	and is so deeply satisfying.	16:46
	Now the paradox is that the way God's abundance was accessed	16:50
	by the disciples was not through their strength	16:55
	as we understand it but through their vulnerability	16:57
	and through their needfulness and through their brokenness.	17:02
	This turns all of our notions of strength and power	17:07
	upside down, but of course, that's	17:11
	what the gospel is all about.	17:13
	For it is as the bread is brought to Jesus that	17:17
	the bread is blessed, that the bread then is broken.	17:21
	Only you see as Jesus breaks the bread is the multitude fed.	17:27
	The loaves did not magically multiply.	17:32
	Rather the loaves were broken into pieces	17:36
	and the pieces small as they were, were enough.	17:41
	The people were satisfied with far less than	17:46
	they usually thought they needed.	17:50
	Turning still another one of our notions upside down.	17:54
	For you see, less becomes more.	17:58
	And if this isn't a miracle, I don't know what is.	18:03
	What an image the broken bread is for us as long as	18:08
	we appear together like an intact loaf of bread	18:12
	pretending to be perfect on top of things	18:17
	defending and protecting our self-image.	18:20
	Pretending our image of of our strength and power	18:24
	does not need anything from anyone else.	18:28
	We remain as bread that is unbroken.	18:32
	But as we allowed ourselves to broken apart by	18:36
	(mumbled) what life brings us,	18:40
	then God's sustaining love can run rampant.	18:44
	You see, God needs our brokenness	18:48
	because God needs our authenticity.	18:51
	And after all, aren't we finally all broken.	18:55
	As we look around this sanctuary this morning	18:59
	we can only imagine what that brokenness	19:03
	represents for those of us who are here.	19:06
	All to always takes a different form.	19:18
	For some of us, we've been broken by	19:21
	homes that are no longer together.	19:23
	Maybe we've been broken by a dream that we held onto that	19:26
	looks as though it is not going to come true.	19:30
	We have felt our brokenness when	19:34
	we have lost our loved ones.	19:36
	We have felt our brokenness when our	19:39
	self-reliance doesn't work for us anymore.	19:41
	Some of us have looked addictions in the face	19:45
	to acknowledge their dreadful hold on us.	19:49
	Some look to bodies broken apart by strokes, by injury,	19:53
	by accident, that in an instant changed everything.	19:58
	Yet how often the brokenness, no matter what form it takes	20:05
	becomes the means through which God's goodness	20:08
	is experienced in profound ways.	20:12
	And our very brokenness becomes the way God's love is	20:16
	made visible, not only to ourselves but to so many as well.	20:19
	Brokenness is God's catalyst.	20:25
	But we do not readily want to embrace our brokenness.	20:29
	Most of us put up quite a fight.	20:33
	Yet when we embrace the brokenness,	20:36
	we are transformed in the moment.	20:39
	When talking about our congregation's ministry	20:42
	to the shelter, I'm more often than not to point first to	20:46
	Katherine as I did this morning.	20:50
	Yes, it was her generous heart that connected with the	20:53
	generous hearts and the needful hearts	20:57
	of those in that shelter.	21:00
	Yes, it was she who took spontaneous action.	21:04
	Yes, it was she who provided the group first and	21:08
	then the church with a vision.	21:12
	But it was Megan who gave that vision feet and hands.	21:16
	How? By first and foremost holding us firm to the	21:21
	frightening moment of our fear.	21:26
	It was she who forced us to sit with our vulnerability.	21:29
	It was she who in the words of the psalmist	21:34
	made us holler help.	21:37
	But as we were willing to be broken, the whole congregation	21:40
	discovered their enough-ness and a multitude was fed	21:45
	both at the shelter and in the congregation.	21:50
	We even began to take additional paper bags	21:55
	when we went to take the meal.	21:59
	For more often than not, there was food collected	22:01
	in baskets that were made into lunches	22:06
	for the next day for the residents.	22:10
	Yet isn't it actually God to whom we need to first look.	22:13
	It is God that this story is finally about, God's abundance.	22:18
	Waiting for release through the lives of we, who already	22:24
	have enough, to we who already have gifts	22:29
	and graces and talents.	22:35
	Just asking that God is asking us	22:38
	to use, it is we who are enough.	22:42
	So use what you've got.	22:46
	You just might be in for a big surprise.	22:50
	Let the church say "Amen."	22:56
Congregation	"Amen"	22:59
	(church organ music)	23:01

Item Info

Title:

Martha Gilmore - "Use What You've Got" (August 1, 1993)

Description:

Sermon start time: 01:54. Sermon end time: 23:01.
We are all broken, but God knows and accepts this. Though we are broken, we should move forward and function with what we have and the strengths we offer. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Yet how often the brokenness, no matter what form it takes, becomes the means through which God’s goodness is experienced in profound ways, and our very brokenness becomes the way God’s love is made visible not only to ourselves but to so many as well.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4v980671

Date:

August 1, 1993

Speaker:

Gilmore, Martha

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Matthew

Chapter and Verse:

Matthew 14:13-21

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0659
ref9289_2ei
uachapelsermaud
duke:320301
dcrau001441
ark:/87924/r4v980671
803f39b7-0a91-4825-b1be-b2f5354f4053

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Martha Gilmore - "Use What You've Got" (August 1, 1993)

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