Setting Up Tables (Tenth Sunday after Pentecost)
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A very long time ago, I was a seminary intern. Internship is the third year of our four year seminary process, when you work full time in a congregation as kind of a “student pastor” under the supervision of an actual pastor. And I did my internship in northeastern Pennsylvania, where I was blessed to have a great congregation and a great supervisor to work with. I was their 8th “Vicar” in a row, so there was already a long-standing tradition of working with the vicars.
And one of those traditions was that when the Pastor went on vacation, and the Vicar was left in charge, someone would die and the Vicar would have to do the funeral. And so in keeping with tradition the year that I was there, someone died almost immediately after the Pastor left on vacation. This really was not a surprise, as this person had been on his way out and the Pastor and I both expected him to go before the Pastor returned.
So, as expected, I helped the family after the person died. I worked with them to plan the funeral and I led the funeral service.
About three weeks later, after the Pastor came back from vacation, we were talking about all the things that had happened while he was away. And he told me that he had spoken with the family and other people in the congregation who had also helped with the funeral and the reception. My supervisor always tried to coax people to tell him what they really thought of the Vicar’s performance, so that the Vicar could learn from the experience…
So he told me, “this is kind of funny, but it just goes to show you what makes an impression on people. Everyone liked the way you led the service, and your sermon and how you comforted the family. But the thing that REALLY impressed them was that when you got back to the fellowship hall for the reception there weren’t enough tables set up, and you helped set up extra tables …!”
Tables – I thought I was doing all this great theological and pastoral work (and apparently that was fine, too!), but it was helping with the tables that they really remembered, and really had an impact!
I’m not sure why setting up tables was so important. But my intern supervisor was right – often, it’s really funny what things get remembered, and what things make an impact on others.
And I think about that whenever I read the story of the feeding of the 5000. As you may know, one of the reasons we have 4 Gospels in the New Testament is that they often tell different stories about what Jesus did, including the miracles that Jesus performed. Occasionally, one or more of the Gospels tell us about the same miracle.
But there’s only one miracle Jesus performed that shows up in all 4 Gospels. Only one. And it’s this story about Jesus feeding 5000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and two fish.
This event, apparently, was the one thing Jesus did that everybody remembered and talked about. And in some ways, it’s kind of like setting up the tables.
Honestly, I’d expect that something bigger and more life altering would be remembered than a picnic on a hillside. Instead of 5 loves and two fish, you’d maybe expect the miracle to be remembered in all four gospels would be something like:
- raising somebody from the dead … (and Jesus does raise people from the dead in all 4 Gospels, but it’s not the same person …)
- healing a person with an incurable disease … (and Jesus does cure people in all 4 Gospels, but it’s different stories that get remembered …)
- doing something more gastronomically interesting than bread and fish – turning water into wine sounds WAY more fun, but that only gets remembered in one Gospel …!)
Yet it was bread and fish, shared with 5000 people in the middle of lonely place that got remembered more than anything else. Somehow, God’s love and presence in the real lives of everyday people came about through the simple act of disciples sharing their food, and through that simple sharing, Jesus providing a meal. That apparently had even greater impact than dramatic healings or resuscitations from the dead.
And I think that’s an important point to this story, no matter what Gospel it appears in. It’s often the little things that get remembered. It’s often the small things that have the biggest impact in people’s lives. It’s often the ordinary things through which people sense God’s presence.
We live in a world right now in which we’re constantly bombarded with news of the big and world altering problems. And every time I look at my news feed or glance through social media feeds, I’m reminded of the big problems that I probably can’t do anything about. And yet, very often I’m told that if I just tried harder or joined the right protest group or supported the right relief causes, I could be part of a big and miraculous thing that would have an impact on everything from ending wars and political corruption to solving world hunger and climate change.
Honestly, it’s good to be concerned about those problems and to do what we can to help solve them. But mostly, I don’t have much more ability to have an impact on those things than the first disciples did in liberating the people from the Romans, rooting out Temple corruption, or feeding everybody who needed to be fed. And if they spent all their time and energy focusing on those things, they’d probably end up feeling dismayed and hopeless.
And there’s also a lot of dismay and hopelessness in our world right now. Sometimes, it’s because we’re seduced by the idea that we really are, in and of ourselves, smart and powerful enough to change anything we want, if we just tried harder or were more committed. And sometimes, it’s because we’re looking for something big and dramatic that will quickly make a huge impact and change the world.
But today’s story reminds us that it’s often the little things that get remembered. It’s often the small things that have an impact on the people right around us. And it’s very often the normal things we do in the course of our everyday lives that can make God’s presence a living reality for others.
As we enter August at PoP, we’re getting a break from some of the big “programming events” of the year! But we’re doing a lot of little things that actually make a real difference in peoples’ lives:
- We’re collecting stuff for Comfort Cases for kids in Foster Care…
- We’re collecting school supplies for kids who are about to start school…
- We’re continuing – as we do every other month – to bring in food for Gaithersburg HELP …
In a sense, this sounds like setting up tables. It’s the normal stuff that people need every day and every year, not unlike a meal those 5000 folks on the hill needed that day. But in supplying the need, you make a difference. You have an impact. And often, you make God’s love and care a reality in way that even a “miracle” might not.
It’s important to remember that the disciples did not solve world hunger. They did not learn a secret technique for feeding people in the future. And in the short term, they were just as clueless to what was happening as the people they helped.
But in being open to Jesus’ call to share what they had in that moment, they fed people who needed to be fed that day. They made an impact in that moment. And they did something that made the love and presence of God a living reality in the lives of people that day. And people remembered.
My intern supervisor was right. It’s often funny what people notice and what gets remembered. The story of the feeding of the 5000 reminds us of this.
But even more, this story reminds us to be open to Jesus’ call to share what we have, even when we don’t see how it can make a dramatic difference. This story reminds us to focus on the needs in front of us, rather than whether meeting the need will get noticed. And maybe most of all, this story reminds us that Jesus is always working through us even when we don’t realize we’re having an impact.
Amen.