We all have friends with dietary restrictions – some are as simple as people dieting to lose weight or to eat more healthy foods. Others are more complicated – issues such as being lactose intolerant that can be worked around with pills before eating dairy products. Other dietary restrictions are literally life and death issues because people have food allergies. One of the most dangerous of food allergies is a peanut allergy. People can be so allergic to peanuts that just being exposed to peanut dust from someone else eating peanuts in the room is enough to trigger the allergic reaction. We deal with such issues in our church school and the Learning Tree preschool and have taken steps such as having peanut free rooms, where even the old staple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have to be prohibited. Other dietary restrictions are religious. In planning an interfaith gathering all of the dietary prohibitions of other faith traditions need to be considered. Going out to lunch with a clergy association I was involved in brought us to some very interesting restaurants from Levi's Kosher Italian deli, to a Kosher, vegetarian Indian restaurant. We found the simplest way to share food together during our meetings was to eat from paper plates, which met the cleanliness rules for those keeping Kosher … and to have Entemmann's doughnuts which were both Kosher, and permitted for the Muslim diet. When you have dietary restrictions, whether they be for medical reasons or religious reasons, it is an act of trust to eat food prepared by others. If your dietary restrictions are religious you will rest more comfortably when eating food prepared by people who are keeping the same dietary food rules. For those with allergies, you tend to eat only with those you know and trust the most. Restaurants can be a challenge for the foods you are allergic to are often added to the most unsuspecting of food items. Those of you with wheat allergies know what detective work it takes to find the foods that have wheat or wheat gluten added to them.

It is with that in mind that we approach the well known gospel story of Jesus feeding the crowds. The story is set in a time of terror and grief: "When Jesus heard this, he withdrew by boat from there to a deserted place by himself." What had Jesus heard? It was the news his cousin John had just been executed by Herod at the request of Herodias's daughter. With that news Jesus attempts to find some time alone to deal with all the emotions his cousin's death brings. But instead he finds crowds … crowds so insistent they follow his boat around the lake and are there waiting for him when he reaches the other shore. It is there that their persistence pays off and he looks at the crowd with pity and spends the day healing the sick. With evening approaching the disciples urge Jesus to send the crowds on their way so they don't have to deal with the massive logistical issue of feeding … but Jesus curtly says to the disciples – "you take care of it!" With the little they have, Jesus gathers the crowd together and they are fed. We have the symbolism of the Eucharist, the twelve baskets of remnants and then the final tally statement for the day: "Those who ate were about five thousand, not counting women and children." That the statement includes women and children is astonishing, for those groups didn't really count in Jesus' time … astonishing also is what that does to the number fed, bumping it up to probably something in the range of 30 to 35 thousand people gathered. (No wonder the disciples were concerned!)

Back to those food issues … something we miss in the well-worn familiarity of this story. The crowds aren't well defined in the story. Presumably it is a mix of people. Religious leaders hanging out gathering more ammunition to hang on Jesus, desperate groups of people bringing their sick, and hungry people thirsting for the word of God from this remarkable teacher. The rules of ritual cleanliness, of food restrictions were an ingrained part of their lives … so this idea of a giant lawn picnic with a crowd you didn't know all that well … with food that was from an unknown source, was a pretty radical one. Even with all the hospitality rules of that time, food issues were pretty rigidly structured. So, the idea of all these people sharing a meal is radical – it is like those of us with dietary restrictions being able to trust another to prepare our food for us.

Here's how I think it went. First we have Jesus and the disciples in shock and grief, trying to get away for some alone time – to weep together at their loss, to figure out what next. Their attempts to get away fail … and Jesus looks at the crowds and is moved with pity. The word used means Jesus is literally moved at the depths of his being – almost sick at the level of need people are bringing to him … and is response moved to bring something new into being – hope and healing. He works among the crowd for the day, developing relationships with them, curing their sick, talking to them. Then it came time for food. By this time, the crowd had begun to trust Jesus … and one another. They could all sit down and eat … as equals, trusting that the food provided would be ok. And the food – the disciples gathered what they had – five loaves and a couple of fish – surely that wasn't nearly enough. But remember, the women and children were there as well. And where there are children, there are snacks. I suspect if we took an inventory this morning, we'd come up with quite an assortment of snacks in those diaper bags. At the Freehold church a family took it upon themselves to vacuum the pew cushions and clean the pews once a month on the first Saturday. The next day they'd give the "count" of what they'd found. The cheerio count was always a highlight. So … in this crowd with all the children, there'd be the first century equivalent of cheerios and juice boxes. I can see as the disciples came up with their five loaves and two fish others offering up what they had to share … and by the time it was all gathered together, quite a meal was to be had.

Because of the care that Jesus had for the crowds, and the trust he had built through that day a miracle happened … a radical moment of hospitality, where rules that divided were set aside, and all were able to sit and share together. And we remember that kind of meal every time we share in the sacrament of communion – we remember the radical hospitality that Jesus offers to us, where divisions are broken down, and all are equal. The crowd responded to the hospitality of Jesus with their own hospitality, sitting down together, sharing together, and trusting one another. Our job is to remember this incredible story of hospitality and trust, and make it our own – responding to the compassion we have known in Jesus Christ with a radical hospitality to all those around us. Such opportunities are everywhere. When we volunteered a few weeks ago to help with the Mexican consulate's visit I met a woman who worked for a newspaper in Mexico. Lucy was covering the story … but she also had a passion for making sure people got fed. It pained her to know we couldn't provide food and water all day to the families who waited in long lines. I noticed, however, as the afternoon came one, she would take one family at a time to the room where some snacks and light meals had been set up for the consulate officials and volunteers and make sure the family got some food. The woman in charge of the program would roll her eyes and worry there wouldn't be enough. That didn't deter Lucy … and somehow, everyone she brought back got fed … one by one, family by family.

We take the radical love and hospitality we have found in God to the world … multiplying it as we share and give … moved with the compassion of Jesus Christ who saw the crowds and was moved with pity. We go with the same command Jesus gave the disciples: "There is no need for them to disperse. You give them something to eat."