March 8, 2026: Feeding the People

The Gospel:  Mark 6: 30-44
The Epistle Reading: Ephesians 3: 20-21

Jesus and the disciples needed a break; they needed to rest. The disciples had just come from mission work sent out in pairs with nothing but a staff and told by Jesus (Mark 6: 10-13) “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” The inference here is although they may not have been welcome in some homes, they were welcome in others and they stayed there and did work for the people in Christ’s name.
 
Next they heard that John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod at the request of his new wife and former sister-in-law through her daughter. 

I can imagine they were both tired and overwhelmed with grief and worry wondering - will we, too, go the way of John the Baptist for following Jesus?

Jesus gets what they are feeling and responds accordingly suggesting, (Mark 6: 31), “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.” What a relief this must have been to the exhausted, worried disciples. They left by boat but by the time they got to the other shore, the people had gotten there by foot first. I can just imagine the disciples sighing and looking to Jesus for help. Rather than getting back in the boat or running and hiding, Jesus felt compassion towards the people and began teaching them. He put the needs of the people before his needs and those of his disciples. And, as we know in this story, he fed the people physically, not just spiritually. 

One has to feel a bit sorry for the disciples though. They are tired having just finished a successful mission healing and teaching and they were hoping for a rest that Jesus had suggested. We can easily relate to their suggestion that maybe the people should be sent away to find food but Jesus gives them a much more challenging, seemingly impossible task: “You give them something to eat.” 

You can just imagine them giving each other looks like, “Is this guy crazy…we are supposed to feed 5000 people?” Of course, they are polite and do not say that but they do skeptically ask, “Are we to go and buy 200 denari worth of bread?” 

Then Jesus surprises them again by not emphasizing what they don’t have but asking what they do have. They respond that they have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

“Aww… a starting point,” I can imagine Jesus thinking as he puts his feeding plan in action. 

Every task needs a starting point, even a seemingly impossible one. Jesus quickly shows that the impossible is possible with God as he tells them to organize the people into groups and he performs the miracle of turning scarcity into abundance. I imagine that the Disciples, tired as they were, were fed and restored in a very different way by this miraculous lesson of focusing on what you have rather than what you don’t have and working with it. 

Jesus is not the only one who can do this. It just takes having a starting point and a lot of faith. Hard work sometimes helps too. 

This was certainly true last fall when Linda, inspired by something in one of my sermons, decided to organize the Stuffed Shells to Stuff Hungry Bellies Dinner to Fight World Hunger. With hard work reaching out to Rotary, church and community members as well as local businesses, she coordinated a dinner that raised over $3000 to fight world hunger and the leftovers were donated to The Mission Homeless Shelter in Rutland and the Mountainside House here in Ludlow. She turned an idea into abundance. 

Neighboring is the concept of helping to sustain others when you have the capacity to do so. That is what we helped do in our local and global neighborhoods with that dinner but we are not the only ones who do that. 

The Sand River Community Farm in Upstate NY started with a gift. The Farm had been in the same family since just after the Revolutionary War but the last descendent had died in 2004 and the property had been rewilding for 17 years when a neighbor with inherited family money gave the $500K to Adam Wilson to buy the farm to continue his work of food gifting, which he had started over the border in Vermont at the Brush Brook Community Farm in Huntington.  Adam calls it, “Radical Neighboring - a farm where nothing is for sale.”  He harkens back to a time when people lived sustainably, where neighbors shared resources whether it be labor, crops or livestock. 

As he began with sheep, cattle and growing vegetables, he began bringing soup containers to be given out free from the library. People were encouraged to take two, one for themselves and one to give away to another neighbor. He will also just go to neighbors and give away beef asking nothing in return but sometimes receiving eggs or other gifts from the earth. When giving the food away, he often hears,“Surely someone needs this more than I do.” But the gift seems to beget generosity and a change in heart for people. 

They host monthly Gratitude Feasts, a community meal at the farm that is served Family Style “Simply changing our relationship to the food awakens a capacity for village mindedness” “It’s not a hardship for people to share with one another; it’s actually joyful,” Adam says. 

The meals begin with a song. They then share a Farm Gratitude Blessing (loud enough for the sheep and cows to hear them) that goes like this:
“For the dark soil that cradles the seeds, For the rains that bring forth the green leaves, for the stars that give form to the flowers, for all this goodness and beauty, We give thanks. Blessings on the meal!”

Adam says, if we can “Free the land up to do its work of breaking the spell of scarcity. Feeding humans…the world might look a little bit different.”

This is what Jesus was doing with the loaves and fish. He was breaking the spell of scarcity. He was feeding people with food but also with hope. He was changing the mindset that there is not enough by beginning with what they had. Life will send challenges where we feel like we do not have enough money, food, health, love, or luck at times. When that happens we should step back and consider but what do we have? Do we have family, friends or a church community who cares about us - YES! Do we have a beautiful landscape to look at, at times YES! Do we have clothes and a roof over our heads at the moment- YES! Do we have wonderful memories from different times in our lives YES! 

The list could keep going. And when we have extras we can follow Jesus and Adam’s model of abundance by giving it away. Because when you give gifts with no strings attached, it changes hearts and lives. They soften, become more open, and inspired. Those who receive, also, when they can, want to give as well. Selfless giving of time, talent, or treasures from our pockets, lands, hands, or kitchens, brings pleasure not just to the receiver but the giver as well. 

Somehow, I think those disciples were replenished in a very different way as they collected those leftover baskets of loaves and fishes and considered the scarcity that was turned into abundance. As they went to sleep that night, I bet they considered what they had: a teacher to guide them, the fellowship of their fellow disciples, some homes that welcomed them, the ability to help and heal others, rather than considering what they did not have. I bet they rested well and were excited to go out the next day to share their own gifts. 

This Lent, I invite you to take stock of what you do have. Whether it is a lot or a little, it is likely enough. If you have more, give some of your abundance of time, talent, or treasure as a gift, no strings attached, to help or inspire others. If you need something, graciously receive the help offered to you knowing that the gifter is getting as much out of sharing as you are in receiving. Amen.

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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