Lent IV 2019
My thoughts on the gospel today were prompted by a discussion at our parish council meeting yesterday concerning the recent Annual Parish meeting we had in February.
We were discussing the goal to pay off the current loan so we could move forward with a new building program. We were reflecting on the annual parish meeting, during which we looked at the giving of the parish by way of pie charts and some general statistics. In light of this information, we stressed the importance of stewardship in tithes and offerings. There has been a strong positive response and I am hopeful that many of us took to heart the admonition to make joyful and sacrificial giving a central aspect of our Christian obedience.
We plan to provide a report in May which will tell us how we are doing, but I can tell you now that the giving has gone up, and many who had not given in the past have begun to give.
I will repeat something I said in the parish meeting, which I also reminded the parish council of yesterday: If we give joyfully and sacrificially in obedience and love, God will make up the difference. If everyone in this community tithed and it was not enough to pay off the loan, it does not matter; God will take care of it. God will provide in His own way. I have no stress or anxiety about this. It is God’s part to provide, and to slay our enemies. Our part is to be obedient and to have faith in God. Our part in this arrangement is incomparably miniscule, and yet it is necessary.
God is our creator, deliverer, and provider. He is the one who made and sustains the worlds, He gives us life and existence in every moment, and we possess nothing in and of ourselves of intrinsic value apart from what we have received from Him. And yet, He invites us to participate by bringing an offering to the table. What can we give that is of any value? In comparison to what He brings, we have nothing. Yet He waits for our offering. He has made us to be participants in creation and the movement of the world. The contradiction of our inherent insignificance with our creative influence on reality should cause us to marvel. Do we truly understand that our participation changes reality, for good or for ill?
God is all – we are nothing in and of ourselves, and yet in this relationship there is an exchange, an offering from both sides – but what can we give? Anything we have to give is from God anyway; anything we contribute is meaningless in comparison. It is not as if God brings a diamond and we bring a pearl. No, rather it is that God brings life and existence and the cosmos and all the diamonds in existence, and we bring pocket lint, and maybe not even that, maybe just a sigh. It is in fact the absolute disparity of our respective offering in this exchange which makes it believable. If there were a measurable difference then the whole thing would be absurd.
The point is, God wants your pocket lint. He requires it, and it is of great value to Him that you offer it, but it is of even more value to you that you offer it.
What was Mary’s yes in comparison to God’s act of becoming man in her? Hold up God’s offering – His power, His love, His condescension, His sacrifice – hold it up against her fiat, her obedience, her offering. There is no comparison, and yet He would not have become man without her yes. It was the Spirit which made the Word flesh, not Mary, and yet He would not have become flesh without her yes. At the simple yes of a young girl, mankind was re-born and the worlds were redeemed.
On the face of it, there is nothing we can do, nothing we can offer that would make any difference. And this was the situation the disciples found themselves in when Jesus told them to feed the great crowd.
In the case of our gospel story today, compare what Jesus did with what Andrew offered. Jesus in His power multiplied the fish and loaves and nourished the multitudes; Andrew sheepishly brought a lad with a couple fish and a few loaves. It wasn’t any kind of zealous offering, it was a torpid “I don’t know what can be done with these, but here they are”. There is no comparison between what Jesus offered and what Andrew – almost – kind of – offered. But would Jesus have fed the multitude without the offering of Andrew?
At the beginning of the episode, Jesus asks Philip, “Where will we buy bread for these people?” In the other gospel accounts, He tells His disciples, “You give them something to eat”.
He says these things to the disciples to test them. To test their willingness to bring something, to offer something, even though it may seem infinitesimal. This offering is your faith, your love, your very self, and it is a required part of the exchange.
As St. Augustine says, without Him you can do nothing, but without you, He will do nothing. What He would do would be force and not love, and in the end it would not result in your salvation. He does not need your money, He does not need your obedience, He does not need your sacrifice – it is you who needs to give it, or there will be nothing. He only needs a mustard seed of faith to move mountains, but the mustard seed is necessary for the mountain to be moved.
God walked with the two forlorn disciples on the road to Emmaus and He would have kept going and not stopped at their house, except that they asked Him to come home with them. He tested them, and they prepared bread for Him, and He was known to them in the breaking of the bread. The glorious Lord was made known to the depressed and hopeless disciples because they invited Him in and offered him simple bread.
In a few moments you will come and kneel at this rail, like hungry little birds, and I will place the body of Jesus on your tongue and you will consume Him. God has not only become a man for you, He has made himself your very food. Can you calculate the value of this offering? Can you measure the worth of what He brings to this altar? And what do you bring? It was your money which bought this very bread that was transformed by God: a little flour and a little water, each cheap and insignificant wafer not worth even a penny, has become more valuable than the cosmos, than life itself. Many Christians did give their life for a taste of this flesh of God, this seemingly worthless bread which is the bread of immortality. Your offering is this wafer, and God’s offering is His very flesh which hung upon the cross.
And yet if you do not provide the wafer there is no Eucharist, no communion, no life, no sacrifice, nothing. If you do not come here to this gathering, there is no exchange of love between you and God, between you and your brethren. God can offer His Son’s infinitely valuable divine life, but if you don’t provide .0006 oz. of flour and water, there is no communion.
St. Paul’s shocking statement in his letter to the Colossians must be understood in this context: I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.
Whatever does he mean? Certainly there is nothing lacking in Christ’s sacrifice, but even though His offering is of infinite value, there is no exchange, no communion, no salvation, without our participation – our paltry offering.
It does not matter what you have to give; just give. If God has given you ten talents, bring all ten. If you only have five then bring the five. If two, then bring the two, and even if you have only one talent to offer, whatever you do, don’t bury. This will cut you off from life itself. You must bring it, offer it, offer what you have, even if it is only a penny. Give it to God in faith as an act of love, and you can expect eternal life in exchange.