Chinese churches - participating in global justice in natural disasters

Embracing a Kingdom approach to global justice in the face of natural disasters and crisis’s

By Dr. Matthew Todd, MTS, MA, DTL

The week of the Haiti earthquake crisis I had been systematically preaching through the gospel of Matthew.  During this timeframe I delivered a sermon (Mt. 14:13-21) on the subject of Jesus addressing a healing and hunger problem (feeding of the 5,000) and then I offered an  application about how we might participate in the Lord’s work of helping to feed and heal the needs of the people of Haiti after the devastating tremor.    I did not try to explain why the earthquake happened but I attempted to engage our people in a solution, “for such a time as this,” where God could use us to do his work to make an incremental difference.  When it comes to giving explanations for catastrophes, Barbara Brown Taylor uses Job as an example noting,

“God never does answer Job’s question.  Job’s question was about justice.  God’s answer is about omnipotence, and as far as I know that is the only reliable answer human beings have ever gotten about why things happen the way they do.  God only knows.  And we are not God…When the dust settles…Job admits, “I have spoken of the unspeakable and tried to grasp the infinite.”

Matthew 14:13-21 focuses on:  The compassion Jesus has for needy people (v.14); the responsibility of Christ-followers to model after Jesus in ministering to needy people (v.16).  And a miracle of creation.  It is not just an account of Jesus supplying material needs.  It contained lessons for the disciples – and it contains lessons for us. 

 (v. 14)
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.   
Jesus was speaking into the anxiety of the time.  This verse begins to show us what God like? Compassion[ate] - this is the heart of God – wanting to heal and meet people’s needs.  We can sing that great hymn titled, “Great is Thy faithfulness,” and forget God’s compassions don’t fail.  It’s too easy for Christian people to be judgmental of others and problems in society.  Jesus sees the real needs – and I think he would long for us to see what he sees.   In our own city community, we can be judgmental over the homeless issues or we can ask God to see what He sees and to learn how to compassionately respond to the needs.  A personal question for all of is, ‘What is the concrete evidence in our lives that the compassion of Jesus is being lived out for others?’

 (v. 15)
As evening approached (the day is now over – time for dinner), the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late.  Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.” 

My sense here is that the disciples had an ad hoc ‘board meeting’ and made a practical decision – passed a motion, and approached Jesus with their decision on a logistical problem.  The facts are we lack resources, it’s getting late (so Jesus finish up with the ministry time), and there’s a shortage of food.   Perhaps no village in the distant area could have been able to provide food for such a sizable group of 5,000.  Do we make up our minds first before bringing a problem to Jesus?  Yes!  Too often we lack the imagination about what Jesus can do with the lack, limitations, shortage, and need.   The disciples’ idea of sending this needy crowd away revealed their own helplessness to do anything.   Jesus was challenging them to see who He really was, and what that can mean to people who ‘walk with him.’

(v. 16)
Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away.  You give them something to eat.”

An outrageous statement it must have seemed like a hollow joke!   I can see them concluding in their minds, ‘But I don’t have the resources!’  I’m thinking, to feed this crowd is a recipe for bankruptcy: how can you feed the needs of so many people when all you’ve got, so to speak, is only ‘one piece of gum in your pocket!’   (The Disciples)  “How do we even make a dent in the scope of these basic needs?”   I can imagine the disciples thinking: “Are you kidding me – now not even the 13 of us will be able to find hospitality in this area because of the crowd.”   Actually our own needs are in jeopardy.

“You give them something to eat” - Now we are in the realm of what is physically impossible. YET GOD WANTS US TO PARTICIPATE (responsibility) IN HIS MIRACLE WORK   Where do we start?  Why is Jesus’ statement in verse 16 seemingly ludicrous?    Why does Jesus tell them “You must give them something to eat?”  Why is this a seemingly absurd statement?

Because it’s not rational.  Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of circumstances that cannot be explained rationally.  It points out we approach our problems often exclusively on rational terms.  We eliminate God in many solutions.  There is a quick reflex in us to do things in our own strength (the ‘old nature’ reflex).  What was Jesus expecting of them in terms of a response?  He is pressing them to see beyond their limited thinking.   It’s almost as if he’s saying “you are not listening!”  “You need to think in different terms – not just rational practicalities.”  Can we get our eyes long enough off the messages of fear to hear Jesus’ message?   The disciples seemed to be so preoccupied with the scarcity, Jesus wasn’t overlooking that, but he was, moment by moment, communicating that God was with them (First by healing and expressing compassionate grace, mercy, and love).  The disciples were primarily focused on things that Jesus was not primarily focused on.   In other words – they were not pointing to something better (the faithful and generous character of God) and this appears to have been a faith issue.

 (v. 17)
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

I have no doubt that Jesus wanted them to tell him the problem.  They assessed the situation.  “Here is the problem Jesus. What will it take to solve this?”  Incidentally, throughout the gospels this story does seem to have a slight resemblance to a particular Old Testament situation that the people of God similarly faced in Exodus in the desert.

(vv. 13, 15) they are in a remote / solitary place – (literally a wildernesses) (v. 15) they are facing a lack of food, (v. 15) there seems to be some grumbling about the need emerging; maybe the tone might have even been a bit accusatory (i.e., “Jesus, you need to call this off”)

The story seems to touch on Jewish memory and the idea that maybe they hadn’t learned the lesson of Israel in the desert.  It would appear that Jesus may be rooting in the past to point to a present reality.  If Moses was associated as a spokesman for God with such a miracle, it should have occurred to the disciples that Jesus was capable of doing the very miracle itself.[1]  They don’t see the resources of God at hand.

They were blind to this.  And so can we be blind to this.   Where else are we blind to God’s capacity to deal with big needs?  With what I know about the needs around me, how can I really yield & submit with my life so that Christ’s power can work through me more?   Jesus wanted to help them take the next step into a greater realm of experience.
(Disciples) “Me feed them?”  (Jesus)  “Yes!”  (Don’t be so insensitive!)

What was their problem? A lack of faith in God’s capacity.  The ‘God reflex’ isn’t there – remembering from their past and history who God is and that Jesus is the same God.  The problem was not knowing!  The problem was not having enough evidence.  The problem is much deeper in us – it’s a faith issue.   They should have said, “We know who God is, and Jesus we know who you are, and that you can help.”

The disciples and we have the same problem as the Israelites in the desert.
We know who God is from Sunday school and church but when we are in a crunch or there are problems …we can default.   Faith recognizes the shortage of our resources – but trusts in the greatness of God.

(v. 18)
“Bring them here to me,” he said.   Do we hear this?  Problems that are in the realm of the impossible.  The Good News: Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.”   And the real hunger is not just for bread! 

(v. 19)
And he directed the people to sit down on the grass.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks (expectant of the Father’s blessing) and broke the loaves.  Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

I want to come back to the question – how do we become a part of a solution where there is a big need?

Pattern:

First we must recognize that Jesus is in charge of the situation.   The pattern we see in this text is that they assessed there was a problem (vv. 15, 17) and then they brought the problem to Jesus.  Have we not recognized that there is a problem in Haiti and we have been praying and bringing this problem to Jesus this morning?  Bringing the problem to Jesus is a recognition that Christ is supremely in charge of the circumstances.   When we look at verse 16, we can see that Jesus invited the disciples to participate with him in the solution.   In this current crisis with Haiti I think God would plead with us to participate with Him in the solution.  In verses 17 and 18 the disciples brought what they had – “only five loaves of bread and two fish.”  In human terms, not very much but it was something.  In being part of a solution we bring what we’ve got to Jesus while seeking him to meet the need; this is where we pray.  Jesus essentially told the disciples; don’t tell the people to go away (v.16).  Turning our backs on the problem or ignoring the news casts on an issue like Haiti doesn’t change the problem, in fact we abdicate an opportunity to experience how the Lord can use our little to bring about setting things right.  Once the disciples had given their little to Jesus He brought it before the Father (v.19) and a transformation (a miracle in this case) changes the problem.  Then Jesus empowered the disciples to help in organizing the dispersion and dispensing of the distribution for the peoples needs.  Definitely you can see the disciples having a role both in assessing the problem, bringing the problem to Jesus and then in the circulation and delivery.  The disciples were all involved in doing something to address this problem; I believe that all of us can, and should, organize to do something that can add to the well being of such needs as Haiti.

 (v. 20)
They all ate and were satisfied (stuffed) and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over

Here we see the generous hand of God – what is God like – He’s generous.  God’s blessing can make a little go a long way; every time we take an offering we pray that God would stretch our resources for His kingdom purposes…verse 20 says there were, “twelve baskets…left over.”
 (v. 21)
The number of those who ate was about five thousand men , besides women and children 

This is phenomenal; can we believe this?  From 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread?  Matthew 14:21 astounds us with the statement “…besides women and children.” This is a pre-birth control society; if conservatively each man was married with 3 children we are talking about 25,000 people being fed!  GM Place can only hold just over 21,000; BC Place holds 55,000 – it’s quite possible that the people Jesus fed reached the number of half the capacity of BC Place.  What areas of your life have you seen Christ multiply what little you have given Him?  Are there little areas you are still holding back from Him?  What are those little areas?  There are some of you here sitting in your church that may think that you don’t have much to give ….yes you do – even if it’s little.  (I have experienced providing either a little email counsel that I thought wouldn’t do much – but it turned out to be much for the recipient).   You may say to me – “Matthew 14:13-21 is speaking about a generation in the bible that was hungry….but we come from a generation that has everything here in Canada!”
There are people in this congregation who have advantages. (We have been blessed).
The question is:  ‘Are we going to dominate that or yield that?’  (I’m not just talking about money!)   What is our response to the call from outside our circle to help with need?   As Jesus takes what we bring him, He blesses it, and transforms it back as a blessing.   Verse 20 notes that the bread was broken into many pieces.  
We are often familiar with the analogy of the communion bread, being broken into many pieces, as representing finding our oneness / wholeness in Christ.  But we may not like the idea that part of our offering to the Lord that will be used to bless others has to do with allowing God to break us from things like our own selfishness.   We get to know God when he transforms us and out of the broken pieces of our lives so that other people can be blessed.  This is a new reality.  I would like to suggest that we allow this story to challenge our assumptions of selfish comfort and pursuit.  It challenges our assumption that God gave us gifts and advantages for ourselves.  Being missional will be inconvenient at times.   But lets’ see this story as it is written:  So often we wait for the bread basket to pass to us with our bibs on – waiting to be served.  This story of the feeding of the 5,000 is intended to adjust our understanding of Jesus and His mission. 

Will we be part of a solution?

What concerns come to our mind when we hear about large scale needs?

A few things come to mind: for one, the size of need (i.e., devastation from the Haiti earthquake was so huge and overwhelming Christians needed  help to cease thinking they couldn’t do anything).  Some question, ‘How do we know the money we give won’t be taken advantage of if we give to the helping agencies?’ Thank God there is a high level of trust in the integrity of MCC to channel funds directly to such crisis needs. People also need to be able to find a place to grieve over such sad events, yet grasp the fact that they can be a part of offering help and hope.  When it comes to large needs (international disasters) and being kingdom focused, does your church get involved?   Did your church respond to the call for help with the Szechwan, Taiwan earthquakes and Indonesian tsunami crisis?  Does your church put most of its focus in doing mission and social concern (allocation of funds internationally) amongst its own ethnicity?   Is there a kinship towards Asian causes and a distance with the needs of other ethnicities?.   Has there tended to be a ‘blind eye’ towards non-Asian crises (i.e., Italy and Chile’s earthquake, Sudan’s Darfur, etc.). Does the church board and leadership communicate expectations that their certain language congregations continue to aim their mission and global social concern activities at ethnic groups similar to themselves, despite that congregations’ wider social networks and missional viewpoint?  After decades of being in existence, has your congregation been moving towards a more ethnically plural mission, ministry or social / global concern and humanitarianism? The scriptures tell us that every human being bears God’s image and is therefore eternally valuable to him (Gen. 1:27). God tells us in Ex. 19:5 “…the whole earth is mine.”  The world and every race in it was so precious in the Creator’s eyes that he gave his only Son for them (Jn. 3:16). Gen. 12:3b notes that through God’s community “all peoples on earth will be blessed.”  We are wise to embrace the Lord’s opinion and the priority he puts on “the world,” mission and social concern.  God intended believers to be a “light to the nations” (Isa. 42:6). While the Bible reports that non-Hebrews occasionally came to faith, God judged His people, in part, because of their refusal to be neighborly with foreigners (e.g., Mal. 3:1–5; Zech. 7:10–14).  Isa. 49:6 says that God wants to use His people globally “that [we] may bring [His] salvation to the ends of the earth.”  

What does the Gospel say about a kingdom approach to global justice and social concern?  

So much could be said from scripture about sharing and giving for kingdom purposes (Is. 58:7; Mt. 22:39; 25:34-46; Jas. 2:14-20).  We are only stewards (Mt. 25:14-23; Lk. 12:48; 16:1-15) of the resources God gives us and we should “have the poor and needy” in focus as it is one of the ways we grow “rich toward God” via neighborliness.”  Acts 20:33-35 encourages the church to “help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus himself…’It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”  Isaiah 58:6-7 says, “Is not this [what] I have chosen: to ...share your food with the hungry…”   There needs to be more deliberative theological thinking, reflecting biblically on traditional embedded convictions around social and global concern / justice to develop a more holistic scriptural understanding that frees decision-making from a constrained response to international disasters.

Biblical passages / narratives on a kingdom approach to social concern and natural disasters.

Duet. 15:11, 18 says, “…be open-handed toward …the poor and the needy …and the Lord will bless you in all that you do.”   In Mark 8:19-21, Jesus says, “When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”  “Twelve,” they replied.  “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”  They answered, “Seven.”  He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”   Ephesians 5:1 commands us to “Be imitators of God…”  I can envision that liberation comes as leadership spends more time reimagining what it might look like to be a compassionate people (Lk. 10:25-37); if God is faithful to all peoples, how can we emulate His character in a participation of bringing hope and life.

Theological themes that help our understanding in approaching social concern and natural disasters.  

One Theological theme that can contribute to our understanding is that God has the capacity to meet needs in times of scarcity (1Ki. 17:1-6, Elijah fed by Ravens; Deut. 8:16, Moses and the Israelites fed in the desert).  I think that many of us do truly struggle with the idea that there is not enough to go around in the face of global crises; but we should be willing to share with those who are marginalized.  God is big enough to use believers (anyone) to help with crises.  Throughout the scriptures (Gen. 1:28; 1Cor. 3:9; Phil. 2:13) there is the theme of God leading his people to co-work with him.  It begs the question, what sort of disciples are we? Are we prepared to be those who engage community and global problems and contribute to the needs of service and mission to which Jesus has called us?  It is too easy for us to be judgmental of others in crisis around the world, and pass by the problems of a society we see. Jesus saw the real needs of people in his day and He does so now, longing for us to see what he sees and do something about it.  That leads me to another theological theme that can help us, which is the theme to move beyond ourselves to extend compassion to our neighbors in need (Lk. 10:25-37).   Sometimes we encounter needy circumstances that cannot be explained rationally.  A theme in this can be the Silence of God.   I do not want to feel responsible for God’s silence in natural disasters like Haiti for example.  But I do recognize that God has used people in the past to contribute to the needs of sufferers of natural disasters during such silence; to help is a good thing; every good thing comes from God (Jas. 1:17).    I believe I will find myself coming back to the principle truth that – God is with us…for everything we and our neighbors may need.   When we see natural disasters and great need let’s resist the temptation to conclude it comes from Divine retribution (God’s judgment).   I would encourage the reader to be a catalyst for change in how your church responds in helping with global disasters; this may be a discipleship issue in your church where people need to be equipped to prepare people for a ‘next time;’ to help the congregation and church to enlarge their ministry vantage point; the way we love our neighbor is a thermometer moment.   A deficit can be that our love is not generalized to ‘all’ peoples.   God loves all races and that we must emulate that; we need to discuss this drawing our wisdom from scripture, Christian tradition, and a contemporary global understanding of life.  The Holy Spirit is given to us and the church, and expects growth beyond a current posture in participating in global concern.    In preparation for a ‘next time’ we should think more on why our church should love both the neighborhood and show love in global concerns.  It is reasonable to ask about what humanitarian global social concerns that we align our church giving too; at what point is it too selective?   If we are being too selective, then shouldn’t we see this as an indicator that we are being too selective in our emulation of Christ?   Let’s think about how we can get agency outreach information on how congregants could practically participate with more than just their prayers and money; on how they could physically serve to help meet such global crisis needs with their skills and abilities.  I think it’s reasonable to discuss a  response to global relief and social concern that aligns up with scripture (God loves the world); I think we all could drink more deeply from the well of some of our MB denomination’s theological emphasis on social concern and bring that into the Christian education contexts of our church so that congregants can have a deeper grasp of why they should get involved, and how they can get involved.   I would challenge our people to continue to pray for those who have experienced crisis, who find it difficult to appreciate that God loves them and wants to help them.

Background Reading

Brueggemann, Walter. The Word That Redescribes the World: The Bible and Discipleship (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2006).

Taylor, Barbara Brown.  When God is Silent (Lanham, Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield publishers, 1998).

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[1] It is believed that Matthew wanted “to show that Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament expectations,” and it would be ludicrous for him to make claims “if he did not believe the events [he reports concerning Jesus] to be factual.”  Greidanus, “Preaching the Gospels,” p. 275.