Cat Goodrich
Faith Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD
June 20, 2025
Year W: Trust in Providence
Matthew 15:29-39
Yesterday, three people were killed and many more were injured at a food distribution site in Gaza. As you may know, Israel has blocked food, medicines, and other aid from entering Gaza for more than three months, to prevent what it believes is theft of supplies by Hamas militants – something UN agencies say is extremely rare. The blockade has created a horrific humanitarian crisis, with the entire Palestinian population – 2.1 million people – “facing acute food shortages, with nearly half a million at risk of famine by the end of September.” [1] This is a manufactured crisis, entirely preventable and easily averted. There are new aid distribution sites run by an NGO and supported by the US and Israel, but they have been plagued by violence, with more than 300 people killed and thousands more injured since they were established in late May. Palestinians say, “they face the choice of starving or risking death as they make their way past Israeli forces to reach the distribution points.” [2] This is just one of the places around the world where our fellow humans face hunger.
You know that DOGE stopped all US-AID funding to many life-saving international programs. Included in that was the cessation of funding to the World Food Programme, which has led to millions more malnourished children, acute hunger, and food insecurity in Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Sudan, and Kenya – to name a few.
My children cannot go from breakfast to lunch without a midmorning snack – and for that matter, neither can I!! We do not travel away from home without a protein bar, a piece of fruit, or at least a packet of peanut butter crackers. And sometimes, sometimes in my less proud parenting moments, when a child is begging for a snack because they are starving even though we just finished a meal – which they left half eaten on their plate – sometimes I snap, you don’t know what hunger is. A distended belly, a listless child, too tired even to cry or whine. Stunted growth, sallow skin, black hair turned the color of rust by lack of nutrients. That is hunger. Entirely preventable in this world of abundance. And yet – The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Director-General says “hunger today is not a distant threat – it is a daily emergency for millions,” There was a report released earlier this week on hunger hotspots around the globe, and according to the UN, Sudan, South Sudan, Palestine, Haiti, and Mali are all under the threat of starvation thanks to conflict, weak economies, and climate change.
Food insecurity and hunger were a daily reality for many in ancient Israel, too. The Israelites came to live in Egypt because Joseph, sold into slavery by his older brothers, gave them and their families refuge many years later, when they were threatened by famine in their homeland. Remember?
And in the years of wandering in the wilderness, after Moses leads the people of Israel to freedom, God provides manna and quail: miracle food, to sustain them in the desert. The image of a feast, an abundant table, of food provided to quell hunger and sustain life – this is one way the kingdom of God is portrayed in scripture. God sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies; our cups overflow. You know the words of that Psalm. In the face of hunger and want, God provides not just enough, but more than enough – more than we could hope for. That is what life is like in the kin-dom of God.
So it makes sense, then, that in addition to healing those who were sick, and teaching about God, Jesus feeds people. And not just a few, but thousands of people, with next to nothing. You might be more familiar with the feeding of the 5000, a similar miracle to the one we read this morning, where there are just 5 loaves and two fish. Faced with a hungry crowd, Jesus instructs the disciples: YOU give them something to eat. This is a story that we find in all four gospels.
Just a chapter later in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus again is faced with a hungry crowd – one that has gone without food not just for an afternoon, but for three days – surely exhausting whatever small snack supply they brought with them. And it seems like the disciples are learning their role, though they don’t quite yet believe or understand what God is capable of. Again, Jesus shows compassion for the people, and miracle of miracles – there is not just enough for everyone, there is an abundance: seven loaves and a few fish turn into a feast for all, with seven baskets left over.
I had been living in Mexico for about a month when I went to my first quinceañera. It was in a grand hall, the biggest salon the family could secure, and it felt like the entire town had come to celebrate. A quinceañera is, of course, a 15th birthday party, maybe a combination of a bat mitzvah and a sweet 16 soiree. The community gathered was fairly stoic – Presbyterians in Mexico don’t really drink or dance, at least not before the minister leaves. This was not a wealthy community by any means, but a celebration needs food! So before too long, Styrofoam trays began to be passed through the party, piled high with chicken, rice, and beans – a plate for each person, passed from hand to hand. I was amazed as everyone found a seat at the edge of the wide salon, lining the room, and began to eat. There was not only enough for everyone – people left with extra plates that night, taking home an extra meal for those at home. The experience stayed with me, because at parties I’ve been to in the US, meals at weddings, or cocktail parties with fancy hors d’oeurves, not many have ended with such abundance that families return home with an extra plate of food. This felt like extravagant generosity, a family providing for their community in a tangible, compassionate, sacrificial way. It’s stayed with me as an image of God’s kin-dom – enough for everyone, and more to share.
Yesterday, our nation acted in concert with the state of Israel to bomb three sites in the sovereign nation of Iran. This is an unprovoked act of war, based on the premise that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon – something that the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said was NOT happening just a couple of weeks ago. We are on a precarious road that will lead to great suffering, a road that will be not only difficult to follow but has few, if any, safe exit ramps.
Meanwhile, at home, the budget bill under consideration in the Senate contains enormous cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)… $295 billion will be cut from SNAP over the next 10 years. Advocates say these cuts will leave an enormous hole in the safety net meant to ensure hungry people are fed in this country, in a landscape that has seen a tremendous increase in food insecurity since the pandemic – food pantries in NY have seen an 85% increase in monthly users since 2019, for example.
A friend’s church in Boston started a food program during the pandemic that feeds hungry people by collecting unsold food from the biggest grocery chain in town and the big public market at Haymarket – and redistributing it through meals and grocery deliveries each week, feeding about 450 families monthly.
The truth is, hunger is not a food production problem. It’s a food distribution problem, and a compassion problem. The text tells us: Jesus looked out at the crowd and he had compassion for them, and found a way to feed them. But people in leadership in our country, men who claim to be Christian, say compassion is a liability. They are cutting programs that feed hungry children to give big bucks to billionaires, and dropping bombs to fuel the growth of the military industrial complex. This is happening on our watch. With our tax dollars. In our name.
It feels like we are in the wilderness, like we are out in the desert, without more than just a few loaves and fish to respond to the spiraling crisis of need all around us. But listen: look around. God has no hands and feet but our own, no voices but ours to call for compassion in the public square. God calls us to trust that our meagre offering of letters, or the loaves and fishes we provide for the CARES pantry or the men of Harford House – will lead to an abundance.
On Wednesday of this week, as I was heading out to a meeting, a woman came to the fellowship hall door with a bag full of canned goods. She lives across the street, she said, and was eager to hand them off, frenetic, said her mom had more than she needed and she just wanted to give back. So I let her in, and showed her where we collect items for CARES. And one by one, she emptied the bag of cans into our basket, filling it up. An abundance, poured out. Thanks be to God.
[1] UN Warns of Starvation in ‘hunger hotspots’.” Al Jazeera, June 16, 2025, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/16/un-warns-of-starvation-in-hunger
[2] “The deadliest day of attacks on Gaza’s food distribution centers,” Al Jazeera, June 17, 2025 https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/6/17/the-deadliest-day-at-gazas-food-distribution-centres