The Rev. Richard W. Budd, Ph.D., Rector

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Richmond, VA

11th Sunday of Pentecost, 7-31-05, Proper 13, Year A 

 

Nehemiah 9:16-20; Psalm 78:14-20, 23-25; Romans 8:26-34; Matthew 14:13-21 

 

 

God is Good; All the Time 

 

Sometimes our thinking in the Episcopal Church can get too sophisticated. Sometimes, we tend to miss simple truths, stated plainly and simply. There are, we all know, many traditions in which the old-time, “tell ‘em like it is” approach to religion is still in vogue. One such church developed a kind of chant that expressed one of those simple truths. The preacher would shout, “God is good.” The congregation would enthusiastically respond, “All the time.” It was their way of affirming truths about the power of God to provide for God’s people. 

This fundamental truth is the underlying theme of today’s readings. The lesson from Nehemiah teaches that God, described as gracious and compassionate, provides for the basic needs of a people who are nevertheless arrogant, obstinate and who commit “monstrous impieties.”  

The Psalm recounts God providing for the needs of His people in the desert in the time of Moses. He guides them by day and by night, brings water from the rock in the time of thirst, and rains down the bread of heaven in the time of hunger. And even all the while they went on sinning and rebelling against Him.  

And we learn anew from today’s Gospel that God is God—that He will provide what we need. We re-learn, in the midst of the Body of Christ, that God will lift up among us resources to accomplish His holy and life-giving purposes.  
 

In Matthew’s Gospel, we encounter hungry people being met by a suggestion from the disciples that Jesus send them away to get something to eat. But Jesus had something else in mind. Maybe it was His way of saying, “God is good.” But the disciples didn’t know to reply, “All the time.” So Jesus told them not to send the hungry people away but to give them something to eat themselves. He was saying, “You don’t think there is enough for these hungry seekers, but the truth is—there is enough because God will provide.”   

The miracle of feeding the 5,000 reveals how God can raise up in the midst of the people of God what they need because God is good: All the time.

This miracle gives us hope and direction if we can see that as Matthews tells us, with God all things are possible. If we can see that looking to love, the love that comes from God, can be the key to meeting the needs of our brothers and sisters.

Sometimes we are too sophisticated to believe in miracles—to believe that God really is good—all the time; that the power of God can, in every instance, provide more than we can imagine. Sometimes we know so much we can’t see the truth when Jesus faces us down with the familiar, “You—give them something to eat.” And yet, the goodness of God calls us always to know that God’s love, moving in and overflowing from us, can provide what God’s people need: because God is good: All the time.

In every situation in life, God’s power works toward lifting up whatever promotes love in that situation. Wherever there is injustice or pain or grief or hardship or hunger, God is there, for God is good: All the time.

I am however, quite certain the preacher in the “old-time-tell-‘em-like-it-is” church would not want to end his sermon up there on a fluffy white cloud place—nor would (will) I. While Christianity is being pushed by many into a “peace-love and feel good” model, it is not the faith we see in Scripture, nor in the words of Jesus. While most surely God is good—beyond reason good—beyond all expectations, good—He is not the corner candy store where everything is free all of the time.

In this morning’s reading Nehemiah writes that God “did not abandon them in the desert.” Though this is certainly a true statement, God also undeniably punished that rebellious generation of Israelites. Ultimately, however, later generations, including Nehemiah’s own, saw God” actions as merciful and providential.

And the verses of Psalm 78 not included in this morning’s readings reveal that God was more than a bit unhappy with the people of Israel—he was, in fact, “full of wrath and his anger mounted against them,” it says in verse 21 of Psalm 78. Though he provided for them, the people still came under judgment.

The issue here is not to draw a portrait of a vengeful and angry God, but rather to suggest that with God, the arrangement is give and receive. We were created in His image to offer Him companionship, and to use His creation—his gifts if you will—for our well-being and, yes, our happiness. But while his love is unconditional, people baptized into the image of Christ, will live Christ-like lives. Offering continuous praise and thanks to the Father for our lives and welfare as He did, reaching out to one another in love as he did, placing the well-being of others above our own, and making disciples of all people.

As Paul says so majestically in today’s Epistle, “In all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Paul reminds us that in all things God’s abundance will, in the final analysis, become sufficient to meet our needs. Right here. Right now. In the midst of who and what we are, God will provide. Because God is good: All the time.

Not long ago a woman died in a small Kansas town. She was a widow and mostly a recluse. Everyone thought of her as having little. She didn't have a lot, but when she died she left a third of her modest estate to the church to be used for the poor, because, she said, "The church knows who they are." That is how we should be seen, as the people who know who the poor are because we are in touch with our own scarcity in the midst of a culture which says we can never have enough.

With Jesus there is enough, enough to eat and drink, enough to heal and care for, and enough to teach others about him. This Gospel reading calls each of us to abandon our excuse of not having enough to do the work he gives us to do. The Good News is that whenever he asks us to do something in his name, all we need is provided. The gift of this story is that we are free in faith to follow him wherever he leads us, and that God will give us the grace and help to accomplish whatever he calls upon us to do, because God is good: All the time.