Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Year A) | 1st August 2026 | St Anne’s Church, Wrenthorpe | Eucharist
Matthew 14.13-21 | Romans 9:1-5 | Isaiah 55:1-5
Have you ever been in a situation where, on reflection, you might have made better preparations? It’s the Summer, and maybe you have been to an event – outdoors, maybe surrounded by food vendors – vans of plenty, wafting the aromas of something nice…
But the prices…! And the queues…! Oh, if only we had brought a few sandwiches with us… maybe a bag of crisps!
Nope! I will persevere and queue up, pay the exorbitant price, and enjoy my [insert your favourite food here] – a Cornish pasty that is so hot, I will either injure my mouth or have to wait until later to eat it!
And then there is no place to sit, and I didn’t bring any water… The experience becomes so much less than ‘good value’.
Surely it’s not just me!
Today, Isaiah seems to be calling to us, about the food vendors, saying ‘come and get yer lovely food here! It tastes good and it’s free! What’s not to like?’
Isaiah is a prophet – he speaks the word of God. God abundantly invites everyone to invest their whole lives – in what is true and good – which is much better value than what normally seeks to meet our needs.
I wont be so crass as to say that ‘we all have it so easy in the Western part of the world compared to other places’. That is an over-simplification, and it removes the real challenges of countless people in our own land, from sight and thought. No, the physical ‘abundance’ of God’s creation – food, water, even human-made resources etc – do seem to be more available in some countries than in others, but the truth is always more complex.
Harvest in the UK is often hampered with either too little or too much sun or rain and wind etc. We still do very well though, thank you very much, compared with other places. And yet all the focus remains with the awful climate-based changes we see on the telly everyday. What of other nations, beset by endless drought, fires, war, disastrous regimes? How is God’s abundance encountered and received in such places?
This, of course, is an open and somewhat rhetorical question. The actual experiences of other countries are not always known to us. And I don’t know how the world is going to feed itself in the years to come. What I do know, and you know it too, is that our gratitude and our humility; our tendency to want to share our table and extend hospitality, will be met with challenges as yet unknown.
The Feeding of the Five Thousand is one of the miracle narratives that, at first makes us wonder what has happened – is it magic? And then, with reflection, it demands of us to question further, and to wonder, what does this mean for us, for me. What is actually taking place?
This is a very familiar bible story, often heard when we were younger and, with retelling over the years, it gives us a chance to develop our understanding of God’s love for us. Jesus leads us to many such places.
In the previous chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus had just heard that John – the Baptiser, His cousin – had been put to death by Herod. Jesus wanted time alone to grieve and reflect.
This was not possible as the crowds sought Him out and they hungered for His healing, His wisdom and His words. However, instead of being frustrated with them, Jesus takes His grief and applies it as compassion to those around Him, those in need. This inner transformation of ‘feeling’ into ‘action’ is often what motivates us all, every day.
The story is often used in bible study as a form of imagined contemplation.
It’s not so easy to do here, on a Sunday morning, but you might try it on your own sometime, perhaps while sitting in the sunshine. After reading the passage, close your eyes, feel the warmth, and imagine….
If you were there, where would you be? Who would you be?
Why did you go there today, and what were you hoping to hear or see? Had you heard Jesus before? What does it feel like?
You might be one of the disciples, or a regular follower – observing Jesus working out His grief through love – as always.
You might be one of the crowd – tired, hungry, perhaps rather anxious at what was happening next.
You may even be the one with a tuna sandwich, willing to share, if maybe everyone else does!
As mentioned, this story may be quite familiar to you – but beyond the words, and the use of imagination, what else do we find?
Appearing in all four Gospels, this story has been faithfully handed on, written for different audiences and in different contexts and anguages, down the centuries. There is so much that is timeless and universal. Matthew has Jesus connecting with Isaiah and also with Exodus, and the feeding in the wilderness with manna from God. And as well as connecting with the past, there is a glimpse of a future heavenly banquet.
And Matthew makes it very clear that the body of Christ (us), should be inclusive, as the people are not sent away to find their own food, but are encouraged to remain.
And these events and narratives are an essential part of Christian theology, especially in how they speak through the Eucharist – food is taken, blessed, broken and shared out. The same as it was in early Christian communities as it is for us, here today.
There are other things to look out for in this passage:
We are told that there were five thousand men – BESIDES (the word used) women and children. That’s an awful lot more than 5000 people, isn’t it. And those “besides” people? I bet you all thought of taking a picnic, didn’t you?
And Jesus ordered them to sit down on the grass. I don’t know about you, but it’s all too easy to conjure up images of where Jesus walked and worked as being an arid desert. Of course, it was not like that then, nor is it now. The grass speaks also of sustenance – for sheep and goats, especially – and thus a pasture that is needed for the people too.
I watched the Franco Zeffirelli classic drama “Jesus of Nazareth”, when it was first released in 1977. There is a scene in which Jesus – played by a very pale, blue-eyed Robert Powell – prays long and fervently over the meagre offering of a loaf and a fish. This becomes a truly miraculous event! An endless bounty – huge baskets of fish and bread, with overjoyed people, and disciples that really seem to “get it”. The abundance of God is truly awesome, and thus, we “get it” too.
We understand the Hospitality – the provision and giving of food to sustain the human body, often when greatly needed – that is at the core of Christian discipleship. It always has been and you…? Well, you see to it that hospitality prevails in this time too, right there, at the back!
And we understand the Generosity – God gives us Creation in all its joyous glory and all its terrifying chaos; in all the ways that humans inhabit it – living, dying, and everything in between.
In todays prayer for the day – the Collect:
“… open our hearts to the riches of your grace
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit…”
If God’s gracious riches are given to us – for free – what are we to do with them?
What does Jesus say to the disciples? They have raised the issue that there are many hungry and tired people present. They suggest that Jesus send them away to get food for themselves.
You have to ask: WHERE TO? I don’t imagine anyplace near to them had a food-court with the capacity to feed them all, do you?
And no, Jesus did not send them away…instead, He says “you give them something to eat”.
Jesus says that to us now – every day.
Imagine then, a world where, at the lovely Summer event you were visiting, all the food vendors looked at the tired, hungry people and said – ‘stuff it. Just give the food away for free… no charge.’
It is hard to imagine such a thing when food costs… the land, the farm workers, the buyers and sellers involved and the one who cooks and prepares, and all who are reliant on such an industry. There is a cost, in this world. You have money, you can afford it, hopefully.
The world is not equitable, not just, and certainly not free of charge. Human beings have devised all sorts of economic systems in the hope of creating fairness. None has eliminated injustice, because injustice begins in the human heart, and any extremes of human thought only create extra layers of injustice that prevent human flourishing.
God’s abundance might seem lovely as an idea – a hope, and for some, just a dream…
It might be a concept for discussion, planning and something to build a future on.
The reality for so many in our world… is scarcity – less water, failed crops, poor health and education.
And even closer to home, regardless of how governments want to make changes, again the reality for many is one of poverty – a hunger that the endless stream of fast-food adverts will never truly satisfy.
God’s abundant love – is it real?
In those quiet moments when we look up and wonder…
And, in those quieter moments when we look down or within, in sorrow and sighing…
When all we see is the void – the emptiness – when pain and hunger prevail, when our thirst and longing for justice and truth are denied us…
Have faith.
Trust that God will meet us in our need and find ways for us to be fulfilled.
God’s generosity is endless and without cost, yet we might have to at least try to recognise it.. let it flow through us.. to ensure that everyone has a chance to know.
This is our hope, as disciples of Jesus Christ.
And we need all the help we can get, for this, don’t we?
Jesus took food of the everyday and shared it. Imagine what we could do.
Yes, but….
We will ask – ‘what difference can we make?’
When we come here, or in our prayers – present with God, we may feel that we have so little to spare, to share and give out. We may even feel worthless, and we come here with empty hands to worship. God takes what we have, the ‘nearly nothing’, and does amazing things with it. You turned up! Maybe you brought a tuna sandwich!
You may have to go further with less, but God can and does work miracles, and the ordinary becomes extraordinary. What we take from this place, food received for the journey, might seem very little. A bit of scripture, a wafer, a sip of wine – but with God a little goes so very far.
It was always my reading of this Gospel passage, that, encouraged by Jesus, the people got out their own food and shared it… there was enough, and more… An abundance of grace that moved amongst the people, and all were sustained.
After the feast, Jesus sends them all away. We will be sent out too, in a short while.
So take what you graciously receive and, with Jesus, feed and nurture, from God’s glorious bounty.
Alway hope.
Always love.
Amen.
Image: Multiplication Mosaic, Church of the Multiplication, Tabgha Israel – SB Pilgrimage 2008