You Give Them Something To Eat
June 7, 2007 – 4:41 pm | by Duncan Macleod
Luke 9:10-17
The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He then took them with him to the village of Bethsaida, where they could be alone. But a lot of people found out about this and followed him. Jesus welcomed them. He spoke to them about God’s kingdom and healed everyone who was sick.
Late in the afternoon the twelve apostles came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd to the villages and farms around here. They need to find a place to stay and something to eat. There is nothing in this place. It is like a desert!” Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.”
But they replied, “We have only five small loaves of bread and two fish. If we are going to feed all these people, we will have to go and buy food.” There were about five thousand men in the crowd. Jesus said to his disciples, “Have the people sit in groups of fifty.” They did this, and all the people sat down. Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and fish and handed them to his disciples to give to the people. Everyone ate all they wanted. What was left over filled twelve baskets.
I was organising a young adults conference a few years ago - not 5000 people but more like 200 people. We sat down in small groups around tables to share in a Pacific Island style communion service. When I asked one of my colleagues if he’d like to help celebrate communion with me, he replied, “I need to be a consumer tonight, Duncan.” He’d been pouring himself out as a leader and felt he needed to sit with a group rather than be ‘up front’. That got me thinking.
I’m grappling like many others, with the effects of consumerism on everyday life as well as the culture of the church. In the 1980s we learnt to focus on the cultural preferences of emerging generations, the Baby Boomers and their predecessors, providing options and programs and recognisable links with entertainment culture. At the time we were vaguely aware of the dangers of pandering to consumerism. It certainly became more acute when people expressed their disappointment when their favourite worship or sermon menu wasn’t served up.
When I communicate with workshops and conferences I make an effort to find visual hooks (metaphorically speaking) that help people stay connected. That’s where my interest in television and print advertising came from. But at the same time I’m trying to unlearn the art of dazzle by screen and up-front leadership (not needed in lounge rooms), aiming for a lifestyle that is not driven by branding, impressing or acquiring consumerism.
Here in this narrative I find a reminder about being a different kind of consumer - a consumer who shares resources in community. This is not about consumer preferences. It’s about making do with what we have and learning to make it go further. Resources that might normally be used only in a nuclear family setting now used to go beyond that. That might have some connection to the question I had when putting on dinner for tonight. I found the value pack of chicken was enough to feed 8 or 9 people, not just the five people expected home tonight.
This Sunday coming is celebrated as Corpus Christi in some parts of the church. There’s a connection with Jesus’ body experienced in the eucharist. But there’s also a connection with becoming Jesus’ body as we share with one another. And, back to the experience of my colleague, there’s the connection with the blessing of receiving from others the blessing of God. Often, since that time, I’ve gone and joined the queue for communion after blessing the elements and giving them to the servers.
