For Sunday, August 3, 2014 – Matthew 14:13-21
“… and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.” After the miracle of compassionate multiplication, after everyone has had their fill, twelve baskets of broken pieces remain. (For the twelve tribes of Israel, perhaps, a complete set of disciples, the whole hungry batch of us all?) What bounty there is, even in the brokenness. Jesus blesses and breaks the loaves, and then, like Oprah handing out cars, I hear him calling to us still—“You get some brokenness! And you get some brokenness!” Enough brokenness for us all.
In many circles we are encouraged to strive after wholeness and perfection. Reach higher, stretch further, make it happen. Sadly, even in our churches and among friends we often try to hide our wounds, mask our scars, not reveal too much of our broken selves. Jesus has a different idea. He tells the crowd to sit down, where they will be able to see not only him but each other. Face to face, we cannot quite as easily ignore our neighbor’s hunger, and we cannot as easily hide our own. Seeing our meager baskets, our lack of capacity to feed ourselves, we have to admit we are needy, hungry, beggars all.
Helping us to form little circles of community is the way Jesus breaks himself open, and breaks us open, too, and gives us to each other. Only then do we begin to realize how hungry we are. Facing each other in our brokenness, we can no longer pretend we are whole. We are twisted and pulled, chewed on and wounded, and yet we are enough. We are not perfectly shaped pieces of a puzzle, searching for the right fit with other perfectly shaped pieces; we are broken and misshapen leftovers. Who could ever want us? Yet, we are in good hands. We can be here for each other, unafraid to see into the abyss, sharing what we have, food enough for our next becoming.
