Scrappy Faith

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, August 2, 2026
Matthew 14:13-21

What is a gift or talent you have – something you are really good at?  Or what is one of your most-prized possessions?  I wonder, how could God use that gift or possession?  How might that help someone else?
    We are getting ready to go on a two-week vacation, and I can see the bottom of our freezer drawer, which isn’t usually the case.  Maybe you do this too before going on vacation – we’re trying to eek by on freezer food until we leave so we don’t have perishable food in our fridge while we’re gone. Ya know, I’m making scalloped potatoes and ham with the leftover frozen ham from Easter, for example.  It’s not our favorite meals, but it’s something to eat and making use of what we have.  
    This morning, we hear the famous feeding of the 5000 story in the gospel of Matthew, and Jesus performs a miracle with scraps – the bottom of the barrel.  The people are hungry, it’s a deserted place, it’s dinner time.  The disciples want to send people away to figure out what to eat on their own, but Jesus promises them that though it’s only scraps that they have, there’s enough for everyone to stay and eat together.  No one has to go buy food for themselves.  God will provide.  The disciples’ first reaction?  “We have nothing here.”  BUT “five loaves and two fish.”  Ah, so nothing is actually something – five loaves and two fish.  Jesus can work with something.  It’s scraps; it definitely doesn’t look like enough to feed 5000 men plus women and children.  Yet Jesus blesses and breaks the loaves, gives them to the disciples, and “ALL ate and were filled,” Matthew tells us, in fact, there are 12 baskets full of leftovers.
    In your life today, where do you see nothing when there is actually something?  Where are you looking at the bottom of an empty freezer drawer, what looks like “just scraps?”  It may be comforting to know that even Jesus is in a down place mentally and emotionally here before this miraculous feeding of the 5000.  “When Jesus heard about the beheading of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself,” Matthew tells us.  His beloved cousin and fellow proclaimer of the kingdom of God has been killed.  The healing work and teaching they are doing is dangerous.  It might get Jesus and the disciples killed, too. In fact, Jesus already knows his destination is the cross.  We see a very human Jesus here who needs time alone to pray and grieve.  And then God’s answer to Jesus’ prayers and own fears or questions about what is coming next is abundance.  Enough food to satisfy a whole crowd with leftovers besides.  The Christian journey is not always an easy one, but God is there and God is providing, abundantly. God takes the scraps of our faith, the little bit we have left, and assures us that it is more than enough!
    So again, in what areas of your life do you wonder if you have enough or worry about what you lack?  It’s very easy in this area of Long Island to compare ourselves to others and think that what we have is “nothing” or at least, not enough.  Are my kids getting into the best college for them, or the best college in the eyes of the world?  Am I making enough money?  Do I have the right kind of friends?  Am I working hard enough and keeping busy enough?  Am I healthy enough, eating the right kinds of food and so on?
It’s very easy to come in prayer to God to ask for what we lack. God I have nothing. I am nothing. I only see scraps.  And God’s answer in our prayers is often, “what you have is enough.” And most importantly, “YOU are enough, because I am enough.”  We don’t have to feel 100%.  We certainly. don’t have to have it all together.  Jesus shows us that God can even use the scraps that we have of our self-esteem, of our material possessions, of our time and yes, of our faith and trust in God, to provide and multiply.  
So we come forward this morning to receive a little wafer and wine, and we hear those assuring words, “This is the body of Christ, given for you.”  “This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.”  And even though it’s just a little bit, it’s enough, because Christ is enough.  Just like the parable of the mustard seed that Jesus told last week, a little goes a long way in the kingdom of God.  God makes a little more than enough.  God can work with our scrappy faith.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.