Spiritual Hiccups - Scarce Resources

Right now I'm following a discussion on Twitter about the future of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a lot of the conversation is related to scarce resources.  Strands in the conversation include how older pastors are being encouraged to retire later by the Board of Pensions, which of course makes it harder for new pastors to find positions.  There is also a strand about how we keep funding church camps, often at the expense of New Church Developments (NCDs).  Many younger pastors - quite rightly, I think - see NCDs as essential, but often people my age and older have great memories of their days at church camp, and so they vote to fund camps out of these nostalgic feelings.

When resources are scare, the question of how to allocate them is always difficult.  Many congregation, many families, and many governments are struggling with what to cut and what to retain.  All of which makes today's gospel reading of more than passing interest to me.  It's one of the several accounts of Jesus feeding a huge crowd with just a few morsels of food.  In today's account from John's gospel, Andrew responds to Jesus' question about how they would feed the crowd with, "There is a boy here who has five  barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?"

What are our meager resources in the face of such great needs?

There are two very different ways of understanding the stories of Jesus feeding the multitudes.  One insists it is a full blown miracle.  Jesus multiplies the few loaves and fish into an abundance.  Another view sees the story as a miracle of sharing.  Lots of folks in the crowd had food with them, but kept it hidden until Jesus began to share the boy's small offering.  When everyone shared, there was more than enough.

I'm inclined to view the second understanding as a modern, rationalist view of the story.  But I also think that the bigger issue is not which interpretation is correct, but whether we can act like either interpretation is true.  Can we trust that we have enough between us to do everything Jesus is calling us to do?  Or can we trust that Jesus will provide everything we need when we do what he calls us to do?  Seems to me that how we act looks very much the same whichever understanding of the story we believe, as long as we act out of trust.

None of this answers the question of whether to give funding priority to NCDs over church camps.  I think that is a question of call.  Is Jesus calling the Presbyterian Church to maintain its camps, or to start new faith communities that help 21st Century people learn to be Jesus' disciples?  (The way I frame this question betrays my answer.)  But I am convinced that when we are doing what Jesus calls us to do, there will be enough, and then some.

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