Cory Rice—Year A Proper 13
Anthony: Let’s do this. Let’s dive into the lectionary text that we have for this month. Our first pericope is Matthew 14:13–21. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 13 in Ordinary Time, August 2.
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Cory, for the start, let’s think about God’s side of this. What does the Lord’s act of multiplying loaves and fish reveal about the nature of God, his divine provision, and especially as it reveals the relationship of God’s abundant grace?
Cory: Man, just listen to that. So, I’ve got two thoughts on this, maybe three. But first, like, the miracle begins with honesty. I love, “we only have five loaves and two fish.” I like that part because that reveals the humanity in people, because I think like that. Even in my education I still deal with doubt and frustration.
“All right, God, I only have this situation.” So, I’m a big key on that only thing. Grace begins with honesty, and Jesus always meets people there. And so, the rhythm of the kingdom is found in Jesus’ response to that honesty is, “Yeah, bring them to me.” He doesn’t rebuke them for the fact that they only said “only.”
And so, what looks like lack in our hands often is what becomes abundance in his. I would say that the second one is this miracle reveals the nature of God, right? Not that he is transactional, but that he is self-giving love himself. The Trinity has always existed in abundance, generosity, overflow, you name it. So, this miracle to me is not God meeting a need reluctantly, but rather Jesus revealing what God is — always abundant, always compassionate, always generous. And that word compassion is very interesting in the Greek. One of my funniest stories of all time …
Anthony: Come on …
Cory: … has to do with the Greek word for compassion, which is where in the English it gets translated as your inner bowels. And five times in Scripture, it tells us that Jesus is moved with compassion, and all five times when it specifically says that, he does a miracle. And it’s almost like this uncontainable reaction that happens internally that flows outward expressively.
And so, I always talk about because I was a college athlete, and I got food poisoning on a road trip in Oklahoma once, and I got violently sick. And I woke up one evening covered in poo, and I realized it was my own. I had pooped my own bed, which is like wildly insane to talk about. I usually preach a really funny story around this, and then I tie it into — that’s compassion. If literally the Greek word is our inner bowels, something happens that we can’t contain it, it has to come out. And that’s the love of Christ, that’s the compassion of Christ, that’s the miracles of Christ. I know way too much information, but …
Anthony: I did not have it on my bingo card for today that we were going to talk about poo, but here we are. And he couldn’t …
Cory: You never know.
Anthony: … he can’t contain it. Hallelujah. So, let’s talk about the flip side of that same coin.
God’s abundant grace — but he’s always kind of inviting us into what he’s doing. “Come along. Come and see.” So, what about human participation, especially with the imperative, “You give them something to eat”? What does that unveil? What does that tell us about God?
Cory: Yeah. Honestly, I’m still learning this because there’s aspects of me that it’s, “All right, God, what are you doing?”
And I think that his response every time is, “Yeah, I’ve given you the power to do it. What are you doing about it?” And so, this miracle, to me it reveals, yes, human participation matters 100%, but participation is not pressure. Honestly, it’s the overflow of divine love and you have to understand your union to be able to overflow in divine love.
And so, the Church as a whole, big letter Church, it doesn’t create bread because Jesus is the Bread, but we do get to distribute what we’ve received. We’re not the source. We’re the resource. And so, sometimes we reduce ministry to information rather than nourishment. I kind of like to use that word, especially since Jesus calls himself the Bread of Life and I’m not just talking about literally.
You’ve got physically, emotionally, spiritually. The Church co-labors when we participate in the healing, in the reconciliation, in mercy, in justice, in compassion, in presence — you name it, right? And I think that our participation is massive. I know one of my spiritual fathers, Jamie Engelhardt, he always talks about when people talk about, “Oh, God doesn’t need you,” … Without us, he chooses to do nothing because he has no body except yours. So, if you want to see the manifestation of Christ on the earth, then the sons and daughters have to recognize their power.
Anthony: Yeah, there is this tension, isn’t there, Cory, about …
Cory: Oh, yeah …
Anthony: … knowing God’s grace and yet participation. There’s such joy in it. God loves you regardless, but there’s just something that that eyes can only see when they see it, when they do and participate, right? Without it ever being pressure. It’s this … I can almost always see the Spirit going, “Come on. This is going to be so good. Let’s go.”
Cory: Yeah. So much.