From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Fourth Week after the Epiphany
Mark 8:1-10
In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.” His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.
There are several aspects to this story in Mark worth our attention. This is the second so-called feeding story to occur in Mark. The first takes place in the Jewish territory of Galilee: Five thousand fed with twelve baskets left over. This passage today tells of another feeding that takes place in the Decapolis, that is, in Gentile territory on the eastern side of the lake. Most interpreters see this as an indication of the Jesus movement’s universal implications, that Jesus’ ministry extends beyond the parochial confines of Judaism.
In the first feeding, twelve baskets are left over, which is, of course, an allusion to the twelve tribes of Israel. One might say that the disparate scatterings of the people of Israel are re-united in something as common as a meal. The Spirit of nurture and the nurture of Spirit. In the second feeding, seven baskets are left over, an allusion to the Jewish practice of Jubilee which occurs every seven years when debts are forgiven: another, and more particular, manifestation of liberation. Mark also evokes the typology of the desert, reminding his audience that God fed the wandering people of Israel in the desert of Sinai after their exodus from slavery in Egypt. This is all typical of Mark, who is more interested in imagery than in literary narrative.
In reading Mark we must always remind ourselves that this Gospel is about the Baptized. Our vocation is to feed, to liberate, to socially and economically dignify and sustain our neighbor. Which neighbor? All neighbors. In God’s world, despite the insidious illusion of scarcity, there is abundance; there is enough for all God’s people. Mark makes the point that this sharing of resources is a collaborative enterprise. Jesus blesses the food; the disciples distribute it. The point I take from this is that we must be intentional and willing to do this collaborative work, the work of making God’s world enough.
In our own culture in which the poor and the outcast are actively opposed by the status quo, we must seek ways to upend the unequal balance of power and privilege. Perhaps our proximity to those so disaffected is our first step. In this story Jesus crisscrosses the lake to be proximate to the hungry of his world. Coincidentally, healings take place along the way. A trail of energy, the wake of Spirit. Microcosmic action, with macrocosmic ramifications. It may be as simple as to just get moving.
A Prayer for Vocation (BCP p. 261)
O God, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
