The Two Feedings

Monday, August 3, 2009 -- Week of Proper 13, Year One
George Freeman Bragg, Jr., Priest, 1940

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 978)
Psalms 80 (morning) 77, [79] (evening)
2 Samuel 7:1-17
Acts 18:1-11
Mark 8:11-21

"Do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" They said to him, "Twelve." "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" And they said to him, "Seven." Then he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

Mark's gospel is the first gospel. He makes it very clear that there are two feedings of the multitudes. I think it is an important message.

The first feeding (6:34f), the feeding of the five thousand, was in Israel. The second feeding (8:1f), the feeding of the four thousand, was in the Decapolis, a region of ten cities of Greek and Roman culture just east of Israel. The first feeding was a crowd of his own people, Jews. The second feeding was foreigners, from a different culture and religion.

It is striking. Jesus performs the same miracle of feeding for the Jews and for the Gentiles, for the chosen people of God and for the outsiders.

Numbers are usually significant in Biblical literature. I don't know the significance of "five," as in five loaves for five thousand. I'd love some help with that.

The twelve baskets represent the twelve tribes of Israel. When Jesus feeds the multitude in his home region, they gather up the fragments to collect twelve baskets full of bread, the fullness of the people of Israel, the twelve tribes.

The operative number in the feeding of the multitude in the Decapolis is the number seven. Seven is a mystical number in many religions. In Genesis we read that world was created in seven days. Seven is a number meaning wholeness, completion or perfection, the sum of three (the spiritual order) and four (the created order). In a foreign land, among Greek and Roman peoples, There are seven loaves and seven baskets full -- the whole order of creation and humanity.

The feeding of the multitudes is an important story. It is the only one of Jesus' miracles that is reported in all four gospels.

The hospitality of his table was a significant characteristic of Jesus' life and work. Contrary to convention and custom, Jesus ate with Jew and Gentile, with clean and profane, with Pharisee and peasant and tax collector. After his death and resurrection, the hospitality of the table and the breaking of bread became the characteristic pattern for his disciples' remembrance of him and our communion with him and with one another.

Between the two feeding stories in Mark, we see Jesus moving about in Tyre and Sidon, across the borders, among Gentiles. There he has the notable encounter with a Gentile woman who asks him to heal her child. He refuses. "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She answers, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Jesus heals her child. From that moment on, we see Jesus healing and feeding the Gentiles just like he heals and feeds his own people.

Although it took some debate and conflict, we see the early church coming to embrace Jesus' openness toward the other. As Paul proclaimed, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female..."

One other little detail. In today's story, Jesus has compassion on the great crowd because of their physical need, "because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way." How very practical and physical. In the earlier story of the feeding of the Jewish multitude, Jesus has compassion for them "because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." He fed their minds and spirits, and then he fed them with bread.

Jesus attends to both the physical needs and the spiritual needs of people, whether they "belong" or they are "outsiders." The same compassion, the same healing, the same feeding. All are within the embrace of his compassion. Jesus is our model and guide.
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Appropriate to the theme of equal hospitality, we have a new observance in our trial calendar, George Freeman Bragg, Jr.:

George Freeman Bragg, Jr. was born on January 25, 1863 in Warrenton, North Carolina. When Bragg was two years old, his family moved to Petersburg, Virginia. Bragg's paternal grandmother lived in Petersburg; she had been the slave of an Episcopal minister, and at the end of her life she helped to found St. Stephen's Episcopal Church for Negroes. Bragg grew up in St. Stephen's Church, and he attended its parochial school until 1870, when he was expelled due to claims that he was not sufficiently humble. In 1885, he reentered the school.

Bragg founded "The Lancet," a weekly newspaper for African-Americans, in 1882. When Bragg returned to seminary in 1885, "The Lancet" became the "Afro-American Churchman" (and finally the "Church Advocate").

In 1887, Bragg was ordained as a deacon, and in 1888 he received his ordination as an Episcopal priest in Norfolk, Virginia. Both within and beyond the church, Bragg was a leader, working to advance education for African Americans. Bragg was a critic of racism in the church; he was opposed to the exclusion of African Americans in the missionary organization of the church. George Freeman Bragg, Jr. died in Baltimore, Maryland on March 12, 1940.
(from "Documenting the American South," -- online from the University of North Carolina)

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas