November 2, 2025 – Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 16.9-18
John 6.1-14
The Gospel in a Tuna Sandwich
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
As I wrote in the most recent Uniter, On your mark, Get set, Go get ready for the holidays which are about to come cascading over us. The other day at practice, one of the bands I play with rehearsing Christmas music, because there is a holiday benefit show they’re playing at this afternoon. I leaned over to a friend and whispered, “Look out, here it comes!” And so it is: Hallowe’en, All Saints Day, Election Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and 2026 will be here before we know it. But there is one more season to toss into the mix, for most churches anyway: that’s Stewardship Season, and it begins today! In a few weeks our Trustees will present next year’s proposed budget at our annual budget meeting, and we need to let them know we support them, we support the church, we support the church’s ministries, we support the community that we serve, we support all the good work you and I undertake as members of the body of Christ. So happy Stewardship Season everyone, and don’t forget to buy me a gift because CVS does not carry greeting cards for Stewardship season. Not yet, anyway.
This morning’s text is one of the most familiar stories of our faith – even people who have never darkened the church’s door nor cracked open a Bible can probably tell you something about the feeding of the 5000. A little bit of bread, a little bit of fish make for a tasty scriptural sandwich. Some read this as a miracle story. How in the world was it possible for Jesus to feed thousands of people with just a few morsels of food? As John tells the story, it all began with a young boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. Even though the disciples worried that there wouldn’t be nearly enough to take care of all those people, Jesus simply said, “Make the people sit down.” And so they did. And Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, distributed the food, and the people ate as much as they wanted. I think it is fitting to read this story on a communion Sunday, not just because it involves food blessed by Jesus, but because of the blessing itself. As John wrote, “When he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.” The Greek word for giving thanks is eukaristw, (eucharisto). For those of you raised Catholic, this is a familiar word – what does it mean? That’s right, what Catholics call the eucharist we call communion. So there is a connection here between feeding the multitudes and being fed at the sacramental table.
There’s also a connection between this story and Stewardship, the opportunity we have to support our church. Because while some folks read this story as a miracle, others see it as simple human kindness at work. A young boy comes forward with five loaves and two fish. Well, if he can share what little he had with others, maybe then I can pull out what I brought to eat and share it with others as well. After all, I can’t be outdone by this little boy. And it became contagious: slowly but steadily, other folks began to share what little they had brought with the folks seated around them, and by the end of the day, when they had all eaten their fill, they could still fill twelve baskets with all the leftovers. They had enough to eat to begin with, it just took Jesus’ encouragement and the example of one individual to loosen up all the food they brought.
I have two favorite stewardship lines I’ve heard over the years, only one of which I can recite from the pulpit; catch me during Coffee Hour if you want to hear the other. The one goes like this: “Today is Stewardship Sunday, when we ask the congregation for their support of next year’s budget. I have some good news and some bad news: the good news is that we already have more than enough to fund our financial needs for the year ahead and beyond. The bad news is, much of that is still in your pockets.” It was not until the example of the boy’s loaves and fish that the great multitude recognized the meaning of Jesus’ blessing, or his eucharist, and opened their own pockets, or baskets, as it were, and shared their provision with everybody else and there were more leftovers than you typically carry home from an Italian restaurant.
Ironically, the best closing line for this story is not in any of the New Testament gospels, but in the Old Testament book of Exodus that Bill read for us this morning. It follows the story, not of the loaves and fishes, but of the quail and manna that God had provided the Hebrew people for food as they traversed the wilderness. “Gather as much of it as each of you needs,” the Lord commanded,
“an omer [which is a unit of measure] to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.’ The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it… those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.”
Those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.” This is at the heart of good stewardship, isn’t it, that when undertaken faithfully and well, no one has too much and no one needs more, we – all of us, the church and the people we serve – have as much as we need.
But it is not just about us, because our generosity provides for more than ourselves. It wants to provide for everyone who is hungry: hungry for food, hungry for shelter, hungry for wellness, hungry for a living wage, hungry for justice, hungry for relationship, hungry for meaning. And these hungers are deeper than ever. We mentioned it last Sunday and reinforced it on our social media this week: funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ended yesterday. Nearly 10,000 of our neighbors in Middlesex County alone will see their grocery resources reduced by an average of 63%. An average. This of course means that while some will lose less, others will lose much more. For the state of Connecticut the number is more than 360,000 people, and in the US as a whole more than 41 million people. What can one little church do in the face of such massive reductions in people’s grocery budgets?
It is not overly simplistic to reply, Remember the story of the loaves and fishes. The generous gesture of one young person provided food for thousands. Here is a story some of you know, but not all. You remember late last year we received a generous gift from a neighbor, and we shared that gift in its entirety with our own neighbors, including Tri-Town Youth Services. Here is what TTYS did with some of that gift. They built a Giving Garden and engaged local middle school youth to plant, tend and harvest it, with the proceeds going to the Deep River food pantry. The spring/summer planting provided an abundance of cucumber, eggplant, Swiss chard, squash and tomatoes. With those harvested and distributed to local families, they planted spinach, carrots, arugula and kale for the winter harvest. Not only is this food for hungry families, but a combination of fun, engagement, and making a difference for our region’s young people. And the garden will continue to provide in the seasons and years to come. And like the thousands gathered around Jesus, the Tri-Town Youth Services’ generosity is infectious: it inspired the folks at Deep River Hardware, who have committed to providing seeds for each successive crop. In a very real way, your giving just keeps on giving.
And if we want to talk about multiplication of gifts, we don’t need to go any further than the communion table. How much do we eat and drink at the sacrament? I’ve seen croutons bigger than this piece of bread; and this shot glass would never pass muster in an Irish pub. And yet think of the abundance of grace and mercy we receive at this table. If God can use these small gifts to convey the magnitude of the bread of life and the cup of blessing and all they bring us, God can transform our contributions to the church into life and blessing, not only for our small congregation, but as we have seen, to a generous swath of our neighbors and friends who see us as a beacon of life and blessing and hope in a world where these are sometimes in short supply. May our generosity in this Stewardship season and in every season speak for our love for God and for all God’s children.