I have a quiz for you.  I am going to sing the first part of some advertising jingles, and I want you to complete them.

Plop-plop, fizz-fizz, oh what a relief it is.

I’d like to teach the world to sing.

Brylcreem, a little dab’ll do ya.

You deserve a break today at McDonald’s.

See the USA in your Chevrolet.

This next one is a three-parter:

My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R.  My bologna has a second name, it’s M-A-Y-E-R.  Oh, I love to eat it every day, and if you ask me why I’ll say, “‘Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.”

According to the publication Branding Strategy Insider, those are 6 of the 30 most influential advertising jingles of the television age.[i]  In case you were wondering, the one deemed second most influential was “Plop-plop, fizz-fizz,” which promoted Alka Seltzer, and the jingle ranked most influential was “My bologna has a first name.”  One more:

Nothing says lovin’ like somethin’ from the oven . . . .

That is a jingle for Pillsbury bakery products.  It dates from 1957, but it still works.  One reason we remember this jingle — according to the folks who study this kind of thing — is that it has a simple tune and a very basic rhyme scheme.  But, another reason we remember this particular jingle — and a key element in its ability to motivate us to buy Pillsbury dessert mixes and refrigerated dough — is that it addresses an important aspect of food and what it means for us to prepare and serve food.  Let me read for you how Pillsbury expresses it:

Welcome to the Pillsbury Bakery

We believe the bakery is art.

We believe the bakery is tradition.

We believe the bakery is community.

We believe the bakery is all that’s good in the world.

To us, the bakery is more than donuts or cakes or cookies, it’s a place that lets us connect to our families, our friends, and ourselves.[ii]

Even allowing for the spin and hyperbole of capitalistic promotion, that is an audacious statement.  Particularly the line, “We believe the bakery is all that’s good in the world.”  Wow!  But, whoever writes the ad copy for Pillsbury is onto something, has tapped into some deep-seated emotions that people have about food.

Since the start of the year, we have been working our way through the Gospel of Mark.  We have seen Jesus do miraculous things and heard him ask provocative questions.  Examining those questions, we have seen that they were designed to cause the people who traveled with Jesus to consider just who he was and what power and authority he might have.  This past week, we recognized that those questions also were designed to cause the people around Jesus to consider what power and authority they wanted him to have.  Did they want Jesus to have only the power and authority he might need to cure them of illness and solve their dilemmas?  Or did they want Jesus to have the power and authority to change their lives?  All of these considerations are present in the question we will hear Jesus pose today.  To best hear that question, we need a feel for the context in which it was posed.

Recall that Jesus and several boatloads of his disciples have made trips back and forth between their home territory on the western side of the Sea of Galilee and the region on the eastern side.  That eastern region was home to Gentiles, people who were not Jewish and did not worship the one God.  Jesus has performed miracles — acts of power — for his fellow Jews and for the Gentiles.  Looking at the miracles the writer of Mark describes for us, we find that Jesus performed many of those miracles for ne’er-do-wells and outcasts, criminals and traitors — folks most people considered unworthy.  Jesus drew criticism for that and for generally treating people at the bottom of the social and religious ladder as well or even better than he treated the people at the top.  His reply?  “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”[iii]  That kind of talk only added fuel to the fire, and the religious and political leaders began conspiring to have Jesus destroyed.[iv]

Jesus held firm.  He continued treating people at the bottom of the ladder as well or better than he did the people at the top — such as when he stopped on his way to treat the dying daughter of a synagogue leader to chat with a woman that scripture said was unworthy of his concern.  Jesus continued demonstrating how things operate in the kingdom of God, and he began sending pairs of disciples out to practice doing the same thing.  As our Second Lesson begins, those evangelism teams have just returned.

The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.  He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”  For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.  And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.  Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.  As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.  When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.”  But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?”  And he said to them, “How many loaves have you?  Go and see.”  When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”  Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.  So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.  And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish.  Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

More than one preacher has been told that a sermon is too long if it prevents members of the congregation from getting to lunch on time.  You all know what I am talking about:  the competition for a good table at a favorite restaurant or the desire to make it home before the pot roast turns dry.  What you and I plan to do next all too often carves its way into what we are doing right now, even when what we are doing right now is pondering Scripture and worshiping God.  Evidently that principle was not in operation for the huge crowd of people Mark has just described.

We do not know how long Jesus preached that day, only that even when it grew very late, no one in that crowd wanted to leave.  They must have been hungry, and we have no indication that they were penniless.  Which means we would expect these folks to want head off into the nearby towns and get something to eat, but no one wanted to leave.  Because, you see, this is not a story about food.  Not really.  It is not even a story about how five loaves of bread and two fish became enough food to feed thousands.  Not really.  This is a story about a huge crowd of people who saw and heard and experienced the love of God — and then did not want to leave.

Someday, Jesus himself would leave.  As we said earlier, the religious and political leaders were conspiring to destroy Jesus, and eventually they would hang him on a cross.  This day, in the middle of this huge crowd of people, as the sun was going down, Jesus was getting his disciples ready for his departure, showing them how to carry on his work.  When the disciples made the very reasonable suggestion that Jesus send the crowd into the nearby villages to find themselves some food, Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”  Now, if you add the likely number of women and children to the 5,000 men who were present that day, the total is about 20,000 people.  Who showed up, unexpectedly, while Jesus and the disciples were trying to go off on a retreat.  And yet, Jesus casually says, “You give them something to eat.”  The disciples respond with another very reasonable comment:  “You want us to spend half a year’s income on bread?”  You can almost hear them mutter at the end of that, “Yeah, right.”

That is when Jesus posed his question:  “How many loaves have you?”  The disciples have already calculated how much food they would need to feed this crowd and concluded that it was completely beyond their capacity, yet Jesus asks, “How many loaves have you?”  The disciples check around and find that what they have is not enough even to feed themselves — those loaves are what you and I would call dinner rolls — but Jesus doesn’t blink an eye.  He just tells his disciples to get everyone sitting down in groups, so that the meal can begin.  Then, Jesus starts to use what it is that the disciples have. 

First, Jesus looks up to heaven, giving thanks to God, the true source of the bread and fish.  Then, Jesus blesses the food, dedicating it to the work of God.  The next thing Jesus does is break the loaves of bread and divide the fish, preparing them for use.  Finally, Jesus gives the pieces of bread and fish back to the disciples and tells them to “set [them] before the people.”  The writers of Mark and the other three gospels never tell us how it was that the disciples went out into the crowd with nothing but the broken pieces of 5 dinner rolls and 2 fish, and yet “all ate and were filled.”  But then, this is not a story about food.  Not really.  It is not even a story about how five loaves of bread and two fish became enough food to feed thousands.  Not really.   It is, instead, a story about how thousands of people came together and experienced the generous love of God — and about a band of disciples who were discovering how they could help people come together and experience the generous love of God.  Who were discovering that Jesus expected them to help people come together and experience the generous love of God.

Even people who were different from them and worshiped strange gods.  Even ne’er-do-wells and outcasts, criminals and traitors, folks most people would describe as unworthy.  Jesus expected his disciples to treat people who were at the bottom of the social and religious ladder as well or even better than they treated the people at the top — and to help everyone come together and experience the generous love of God.  If the disciples stopped to evaluate the extent of their abilities, they would realize that Jesus was giving them an impossible task.  But, that is not what Jesus asked them to do.  Jesus did not ask his disciples to calculate what they were capable of doing, he asked only, “What do you have?” and then showed them how to put what they had to use.

Today, Christ puts that same question before this church:  What do we have?  What does this congregation have that we are willing to dedicate to the work of God?  What do we have that we can put together with what some other folks have and have it add up to a whole lot more?  What do we have that we can set before others to help them experience the generous love of God?  What does this church have?  Whatever it is, it will be enough.  Whatever we have, Christ can take it and use it to help accomplish his will.  Sometimes, as on that day 2,000 years ago, what Christ will use is our food.

A few months back, we had a luncheon downstairs following worship, and we had a guest with us that day.  Melva, you and Mary Ellen did not know her, but you cheerfully drove to her home and brought her here in time for Church School.  As soon as our guest arrived, several of you made sure she had a Krispy Kreme donut and something to drink.  Those of you in her Church School class included her in your discussion as though you had known her all your lives.  Then, others of you brought her up here to the Sanctuary and helped her join with you in worship.  When our service ended, some of us were dismayed to see her walking away up the street, but a few minutes later she was back.  After sharing lunch and some good conversation, we told her how much we had enjoyed having her with us.  We never did see her again, and a short time later she died.  But, before that woman’s death from this life, you all welcomed her into this fellowship, into this body of Christ.  Your welcome began with Krispy Kreme donuts and ended with lunch, but it was not about the food.  It was about demonstrating God’s love, sharing in God’s love, and creating an opportunity for a lonely, hurting woman to experience the generous love of God.

What do you have?  What do you have that you are willing to dedicate to the work of God?  What do you have that you can put together with what some other folks have and have it add up to a whole lot more?  What do you have that you can set before another person as a way of demonstrating God’s love, sharing in God’s love, and creating an opportunity for that person to experience the generous love of God?  What do you have?  Whatever it is, it will be enough.  Whatever you have, Christ can take it and use it to help accomplish his gracious will.  Amen.

Copyright 2008 © Leslie R. Stacks. All rights reserved.