Our Gospel reading this week from John got me thinking a lot about abundance, scarcity and excess. Here we have a story in which Jesus’ disciples see the scene in front of them through the lens of scarcity. They see thousands of people spread out before them and all they can think about is how little they have. Jesus looks at the scene in front of him and sees abundance. After all, standing near him is a young boy who has 5 loaves and 2 fishes, certainly more food than one young boy can eat. Now, I know that John tells the story in terms of a miracle, that Jesus took those 5 loaves and 2 fishes and miraculously turned them into enough food for 5000 people, and that is certainly a possible read of this story. I am perfectly willing to acknowledge that there is much in this world that I do not understand, and God can do more than I could ever imagine. But I think there is also another explanation that for me is more helpful as I consider my own life, how I view the world and how I chose to live.
What if the miracle that day was that Jesus, because he saw the world through the lens of abundance—the idea that God provides enough for all of God’s creation, knew that amongst those 5000 people was enough food for everyone? Individually, perhaps there were people going hungry, but when everyone’s resources were pooled together, there was enough to go around and then some. Jesus’ disciples could only see the empty hands and the large numbers of people. Jesus could see the abundance and inspire people to share what they had with each other.
I think abundance is a very difficult concept for most humans to grasp, mostly because we confuse it with excess. Abundance is having enough for everyone, and excess is when an individual or a group has more than they need while another individual or group does not have enough. In order for there to be excess there has to be scarcity somewhere else. Where there is abundance there is enough for everybody. When our gospel story for today begins it is a situation of scarcity and excess. Some in the crowd have more than they need, and others don’t have enough. Jesus leads them all to a place of abundance where everyone has enough. This is miraculous.
Excess is not good for anybody, including the people who have more than they need. Those who have more than they need become possessed with protecting what they have and getting more. This protecting and seeking doesn’t lead to happiness, but instead to obsession and a need to insulate one-self from those experiencing scarcity. This is why trickle-down economics, though interesting in theory, never works in practice. Reducing taxes on those who have more than they need simply encourages those with excess to hold on to what they have and to hide it if necessary. Jobs are not created, wages raised, or innovation encouraged. Instead, excess and scarcity are simply increased. Those who have get more and those who don’t have enough have less. This has been demonstrated over and over again, and yet people cling to this unworkable idea, because they confuse abundance with excess. It never dawns on Jesus’ disciples that perhaps those who have excess food could be asked to give some to those who have little or none, and then all could be fed.
But the true reality is that there is enough of everything in the world for everyone, if we only have eyes to see. Did you know that the world produces enough food to feed 10 billion people every year? Our current population is 7.9 billion with about 800 million of that 7.6 billion going hungry every day. We have an abundance, but because some parts of the world have an excess of food, other parts of the world have a scarcity of food. Fortunately, there are people and organizations who are able to see the world through Jesus’ eyes, who are able to see the world through the lens of abundance. I’ll give you a few examples.
City Fruit is an organization in Seattle, Washington. Seattle has an abundance of fruit trees throughout its neighborhoods and parks. Most of the fruit was never harvested and would fall to the ground and rot. City Fruit harvests the fruit every year and sends it to communities lacking healthy food access. Last year they harvested 55,000 pounds of fruit.
Then there is the organization, Boston Area Gleaners. This group organizes groups of volunteers in Boston to rescue surplus farm goods and provide them to people in need. They rescue 360,000 pounds of food a year.
Or how about a non-food related organization that sees through the lens of abundance, RIP Medical Debt. This nonprofit was started by two former collection agency executives. Normally when an individual defaults on their medical bills, the hospital or other providers will sell this debt to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar (in other words if the debt is $100 the collection agency will buy the $100 in debt for $1.00). Then that agency goes after the debtholder and attempts to collect the original $100. This is how these agencies make their money.
RIP Medical Debt raises funds and buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar and then forgives that debt. Medical debt causes people to lose their homes, their livelihoods, sometimes everything. In this country 66% of bankruptcies are tied to medical debt issues. Since the creation of this nonprofit, RIP Medical Debt has helped 2,654,401 families get out from under their debt. St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Sante Fe, Mew Mexico raised $15,000 and through RIP Medical debt cleared all medical debt in New Mexico plus Apache, Gila, Graham, Mohave, Navajo and part of Maricopa County Arizona. $15,000 paid off 1.4 million dollars in debt for 782 households!
Or how about the organization, Give Directly. This organization conducted an experiment in Kenya to see what happens if you give cash to people living in poverty instead of food and other aid. What they discovered is that these grants of money didn’t keep people from working. The grants didn’t contribute to inflation. The grants did boost the economy at a scale far beyond the initial investment. They learned that people know their own needs best and will meet them if given the chance. They have expanded their work throughout Africa.
Or I could tell you about Civica RX, a nonprofit drug company. This nonprofit company manufactures generic drugs in order to ensure that there will be a stable supply of life-saving medicine. They began with an antibiotic and have moved on to insulin and other basic life-saving drugs.
There is enough of what we all need in this glorious world that God has created for us, if only we have eyes to see. Abundance is all around us, if we can resist the allure and myth of excess.
“When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’”
May you too see with the eyes of Jesus. Amen.
