GOD AND THREE PENNIES
Matthew 14: 13-21
Mother Theresa of Calcutta had a dream. She told her superiors, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.””Mother Theresa ,” her superiors chided gently, ” you cannot build and orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can’t do anything!” “I know,” she said ,smiling, but with God and three pennies I can do anything.”
It is almost similar conversation in the Gospel today. Jesus had gone in a boat to a deserted place to be by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. Jesus had compassion of the people who come to follow him and cured their sick.. When it was evening, the disciples indicated that they were in a deserted place and was getting late so wanted to send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. Jesus said that they didn’t have to go that Jesus and his disciples could feed them. The disciples said they didn’t have enough food to feed this crowd of people. Jesus took what was available, five loaves and two fish, blessed them and fed the whole works and had some leftover.
There are many layers of meaning to this story but today I just want to talk about a couple of things here. (1) The story says something about the attitude that Jesus had toward the people of the world in their great need, and the attitude of the disciples in facing the task of ministering to those needs. (2) There is also in this story a belief on the part of Jesus that no gesture in meeting the needs of people is too small.
The importance of attitude
The attitude of Jesus in looking at the great needs that faced them was that nothing was impossible. With God and a few loaves and fish he could do anything.
With the disciples we see two different attitudes. The disciples seems to throw up their hands and send the crowds away. Feeding them was out of the question. Much the same as when we see the tremendous needs in our world – people starving, people suffering, people being affected by drought, famine, war, natural disasters, unemployment, sickness, and violence, it is so easy to take the attitude of the disciples and say, “What’s the use? The needs are overwhelming? There’s nothing we can do to even have a small dent on these problems.” Edmond Burke once pointed out, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good (people) to do nothing”.
Jesus ended up taking the five loaves and two fish that were available and knew that they were enough.
The attitudes that we have are really important to our ministry. There is nothing that drains the life out of us quicker than negative attitudes. I have been in situations where you could feel the negativity as a draining force. I have gone into a meeting where negativity and pessimism was a living reality. The people were tired and beaten from it. These meetings tended to be long meetings but It didn’t matter how long they were, nothing could happen. People who are negative tend to pull other people down with them. Negative people believe that nothing can be done and so nothing will be done.
“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit” (Helen Keller)
Norman Vincent Peale was a great proponent of positive thinking. Some people have quipped that “Paul was appealing but Peale was a appalling”. I’m not one of those. I believe that there is a great lesson to be learned from the Peale’s view of positive thinking. He said in one of his books, “Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.” I truly believe that, and I have tried to make a practice of looking for the positive aspects of every situation. Sometimes they are hard to find. In the story from the Gospel’s this morning, there wasn’t much to be positive about a few loaves and fish among so many people, but if Jesus hadn’t decided that there was some merit in this situation, as the story is told, the people gathered to hear Jesus on that day would not have been fed.
The first thing that we need to examine in view of our task in the world as followers of Christ is our attitude. Do we tend to be pessimists or optimists? Are we negative or positive? How you answer those questions will determine more than anything else what you will do, and how you will do. What was it that Mother Theresa said with a smile , “with God and three pennies I can do anything.”
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Nothing too small
Any action no matter how small and insignificant we think it may be, can make a momentous difference in lives of people. The small boy in the Gospel had one advantage over us – he was able to see the results of his meagre offering. We often don’t have that privilege. Sometimes we never see the results of the small thing that we do for others. There is the odd time that you realize it years later. I remember getting a letter from a girl who was in the youth group and confirmation class in my first parish. It was ten or fifteen years later.
She said, “I am married and a mother of three now. Yes! that pugged nosed mouthy kid that I was. Do you believe it? I don’t think that you or I realized the influence that you had on my life in those days. I look back with fond memories of those times as the most important and formative in my growing up.”
Any small gift that you bring. Any small offering that you can make. Any small display of caring can through the grace of God be multiplied far beyond our expectations. A smile or act of generosity in a chance meeting can make a difference in peoples lives. Have you heard the short story of Donuts Root Beer and God
There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with donuts and a six-pack of root beer, and he started his journey .When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man. He was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old man looked hungry so he offered him a donut. He gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. His smile was so incredible that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered him a root beer. Once again, he smiled at him.
The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old man, and gave him a hug. The old man gave him his biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later; his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?”
He replied, “I had lunch with God.” But before his mother could respond, he added, “You know what? He’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”
Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy on his face was asked by his son, “Father, what did you do today that made you so happy?” He replied, “I ate donuts in the park with God.”
But before his son could respond, he added, “You know, he’s much younger than I expected.”
Never underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or even the smallest act of caring! All have the potential to turn a life around.
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I was reading today on Facebook that from January 1 to August 2 this year, the world’s 7.5 billion people will have used as much of Earth’s biological resources—or biocapacity—as the planet can regenerate in a year. During the remaining five months of 2017, our human consumption will be drawing down Earth’s reserves of fresh water, fertile soils, forests, and fisheries, and depleting its ability to regenerate these resources as well as sequester excess carbon released into the atmosphere. Another words humans are depleting living Earth’s capacity to support life. (Global Footprint Network GFN) as reported in YES magazine in an article by David Korten A Living Earth Economy)
Is their nothing that can be done? We have to have a positive attitude or we will reach a point that the earth can no longer support life. There are some things that we can do rather than give up hope. GFN suggests:
(1) Whatever we can by reducing the carbon footprint by as least 50%
(2) Within our capacity to reduce population growth by limiting family size.
(3) Avoiding highly processed foods, reducing meat consumption, and cutting food waste by half.
(4) Supporting the increase the energy efficiency of the urban built environment through measures such as efficient mass transit.
Yes we can help to increase the world capacity to meet the needs of all people, by doing whatever is in our power to do no matter how little that may seem.
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After confronting this Gospel this morning, I have to watch my attitude and I have to take a different look at even the smallest things that I have to give.
Mother Theresa was right “With God and three pennies I can do anything.”
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