Fishes, Loaves and Toxic Charity

Other than the resurrection itself, there is only one miracle that is present in all four of the gospel accounts. We hear about this miracle in the gospel today. It is also one of the very few miracles in which Jesus distributes goods, the other being the miracle at Cana. The multiplication of the loaves and the fishes is so important and if we look closely at Jesus' actions, we can learn how to minister to those in need.

Jesus is one busy guy. The crowds will not give him any peace. He tries to get away and they follow him like a swarm of flies. And yet, he cares for them, despite all their neediness.

The crowd has followed Jesus, the sun is setting and everybody is hungry. The disciples tell Jesus to send them away so that they can find food for themselves. "We cannot help them," the disciples say. "There are just too many of them."

We can't do it. We don't have enough. That is what the disciples say. And that is what we say when confronted with violence in the Middle East, the outbreak of the Ebola virus, and brutalities in the Ukraine. "I can't solve these problems," we say. "I just don't have enough...strength, resources, wisdom, patience, understanding...I just don't have enough!"

In Mark's rendition of this miracle, before Jesus does anything at all, he asks a very important question. He asks,

"What do you have?

"What have you got?

Instead of focusing on the lack of food, money, resources, Jesus asks them to identify what it is that they DO have, and then he multiplies it. You may not have much but you do have something to offer. What is it? What is your offering?

Jesus could have made food appear out of nothing, but he didn't do that. He used what they had. He asked them to contribute to the miracle.

This summer, a group of us have been reading an amazing book. It is called Toxic Charity. The author, Robert Lupton, argues that non-profits and especially churches have been throwing money, clothing and food at the poor for decades without asking for anything in return. This kind of behavior presupposes that the people you are serving have nothing to offer, nothing to contribute. If you feed them without asking for their contribution, you demean them.

We send mission groups to foreign countries where we, for example, build houses. In doing so, we may be making ourselves feel better but the local people are basically being treated as if they cannot build their own houses, as if they have no skill and need complete rescuing. This creates a kind of toxic dependency, as the African villagers begin to believe that the only way they can improve their lives is to wait for Americans to come and build for them, feed them, dig their wells.

In the last fifty years, the continent of Africa has received $1 trillion in benevolent aid. And yet, country by country, Africans are poorer today. Per capita income is lower than in the 1970's. Over half of the 700 million people on the continent live on less than $1 per day. Dambisa Moyo, African economist and author of the book Dead Aid, writes, "The foreign aid becomes a disease which pretends to be a cure."

We do the very same thing to the poor of this country. We try to provide for their needs often without asking for them to contribute. Churches converge on neighborhoods, planting flowers and picking up trash, bruising the pride of the residents. We give children Christmas gifts as if their parents are no longer capable of giving. We fly off on mission trips to poverty-stricken villages, suitcases full of goodies, trips that one Nicaraguan leader says "turns my people into beggars."

No one has been worse at toxic charity than churches. Why? We want to help. We want to be generous, to do what is right. We want to do what Jesus did. But we have forgotten that the very first question to ask is not "what do you need?" No, the first question that Jesus asked was the polar opposite. He asked, "What have you got?"

Lupton talks about his first year in inner-city ministry. He brought a pile of wrapped Christmas presents to a family in the core of Atlanta. He unloaded the presents in the living room of their apartment and the father was so ashamed that he walked out of the room....

Does a person have a strong body? Can they hold a hammer? Can they clean a kitchen in exchange for food? Can a father earn those Christmas presents for his own children by doing some simple tasks, thus preserving his dignity and enabling him to be a father once more?

The crowd of people with Jesus had so little, just five loaves and two fish. But Jesus took what they had to give BEFORE he served them. He gave them their dignity by asking them to contribute to their own meal. They contributed before Jesus did anything at all, and, best of all, he used everything that they gave as part of his solution, part of the miracle.

Every Sunday, we share Christ's body and blood together. But there is something immensely important that happens before the priest says the prayers. The bread and wine are carried up the center aisle from the congregation. These gifts, they come from you. We could easily bring them in from the side, but we bring them up from the midst of the congregation because Christ makes his Eucharist from what you can give him, from your contribution, from your offering.

Charity should never be a one-way relationship. Always the one who is serving the poor should acknowledge that they too are receiving something in return. It is relationships of mutuality that create love and strength for the days to come.

Lately, when I turn on the news, I feel completely powerless. One of our members, Richard Samuel, is in Guinea right now and hiding from the Ebola virus. I have no answers for how to help him. I have no answers for how to end the mind-boggling hatred and violence which infects the Holy Land. I am dumbstruck by the way that the Ukrainians are suffering. But just when I am feeling overwhelmed, I remember Jesus' words, "What have you got?"

I have prayer. I can pray. I can study and learn. I can listen to the cries of the world and ask for God's guidance. I can welcome Father Raja into our midst and try to help other Christians fleeing violence.

Many years, ago, when things were more peaceful in Israel, I went to the Galilee with JD, to the place where they believe that this miracle occurred with loaves and fishes. There is a sixth century mosaic on the floor of the old church there. The mosaic is replicated on your bulletin cover. Just five simple loaves and four fish. Take a look. It doesn't look like much, does it?

Listen to me now.

It is not your job to fix the world. God alone can do that. All Jesus asks of you is for you to give Him whatever you have. What is your five loaves and two fish? Give your gifts, your money, your skills, your prayers. Give yourself. Give your intelligence, your listening heart. These issues are complex and not easily solved. We must be willing to do all that we can. And Our Lord will do the rest.

What have you got? Whatever it is, it is all that Jesus asks of you, no more and no less. Give what you have and then let God do the rest.

- The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead