the good news is… together, the impossible is possible
READ
Mark 6:32-44; Ephesians 3:20-21
COMMENTARY
God Doesn’t Start with the Problem
The early days of planting my church, Jubilee, 12 and the early days of motherhood were one and the same for me. They were days when my dreams were coming true—but I wasn’t sleeping much.
My call was clear: start a new faith community. In my living room. With the expectation that we would grow to need a bigger space, soon. (Where would said bigger space be? Yeah, that was the milliondollars-we-didn’t-have question). Every little thing felt so impossible because it was so new. I cannot tell you how many late nights I spent fretting, not just about the liturgy, but how I could make a bulletin for the first time. . . ever. . . and how we’d get it printed, and how to know how many we would need, and where I could get affordable altar linens. We were growing too fast for me to keep up—a wonder! A gift! And! It was all so depleting, this dream-come-true business.
I wonder if that’s how the disciples felt. The dreams were coming true! And, a God who makes all things new means. . . a lot of new. I picture their eyes popping when Jesus tells them to feed the crowd. I feel my stomach curdle on their behalf as they do the mental math for that much food.
But God does not start with the problem: How do we feed all these people?13
God starts with what God has—which is everything, held in her hands. And God also starts with what God has given us—five loaves, two fish. With God, all things are possible because God knows that God is always. . . God. It’s us who break faith, it’s us who listen to scarcity, it’s us who fear our own hunger. Our God is a God of abundance. However loud the scarcity of the world grates, God delights in feeding the hungry, in accomplishing what we dare not imagine.
I remember one of the first abundance interruptions that salved my scarcity-frantic brain in those early motherhood-and-church-planter days. My in-laws were moving to town (grace upon grace) and my mother-in-law was a lifelong church pianist. Thus far, as much as I wanted music—music, after all, was what nourished me most in prayer—we had just done some simple, a cappella, Taizé songs for worship. It would be so wonderful to have her play, I thought. If only I had a keyboard.
I kid you not. The moment I said this half-prayer, half-hope, my neighbor posted on our local “Buy Nothing” group that he was getting rid of a keyboard and needed it gone ASAP.
God doesn’t start with the problem. God starts with what we all have. That Sunday, we sang “Amazing Grace” while the rafters shook. Turns out, nothing really is impossible with or for God.
Written by Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail
REFLECT
When has God interrupted your life with abundance?
12 Jubilee Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, founded in 2022.
13 With gratitude for the stewardship work of the Rev. Dr. Steven Tomlinson for this idea.