The Gospel lesson for August 2, 2026, was Matthew 14:13-21, the story of the feeding of the counted five thousand men and uncounted women and children. I am always moved by this story and its message of abundance amid perceived paucity. Five loaves of bread and two fish miraculously proved to be more than enough to feed the huge crowd with twelve baskets of broken pieces left over after all had eaten what they needed to satisfy their hunger. My favorite few verses are Matthew 14:15-20:
15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled… (NRSVUE)
It is a remarkable story about the power of Christ to multiply the few blessings we have into an abundance that exceeds the needs of all. It is also a story, however, about a group of disciples who thought they were powerless to satisfy the hunger exhibited by so great a crowd. As in so many other stories about His followers giving in to their undersized faith, Jesus was having none of it.
We know what happened next, don’t we?
How apt to have this passage designated for this dreadful time in the life of our nation and some communities of the Christian faith. It challenges us to address the reality of food insecurity and hunger for millions.
Some have described the situation as “frankly sickening” or “grotesque and indefensible.” The Reverend Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and a senator from Georgia, recently commented on the morally bankrupt state of this administration:
Those in power told us there was no money to feed hungry children. Only to turn around and immediately spend billions on war.
Indeed, it has been reported that at least 1.5 million children have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits since President Donald Trump signed the Republican budget package into law last summer, enacting the largest cuts to federal food aid in the nation’s history. The new estimate of food aid loss among children comes from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), which said Tuesday that SNAP participation was down by over 4.5 million people overall between July 2025 and April 2026.
The day before the lectionary passage from Mathew was read from pulpits all across America, Nicholas Kristof wrote an Opinion piece for the New York Times, titled: “Meet The Americans Who Can’t Afford Haircuts or Toilet Paper (August 1, 2026). He wrote:
Many sectors of America — and many Americans — are thriving. Yet my sense is that many of us are blind to how many people have been left far behind. So far behind that they scarcely inhabit the same country as the rest of us. And this pain across America is now magnified by President Trump’s cuts in food stamps, Medicaid, mental health funding for children, pregnancy prevention initiatives and other social programs, as well as by rising gas and food prices. Republicans are also imposing tougher work requirements for benefits; this is reasonable in theory, but in practice such requirements have proved costly to administer and end up mostly just driving people deeper into poverty.
On this trip, I talked to so many people who are losing food stamps and other benefits and increasingly desperate — and resentful, understandably, of elites who seem indifferent to their struggles. A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that two-thirds of Americans consider groceries unaffordable.
Heather Cox Richardson, in a resent Substack post on her “Letters from an American,” reminded me recently of an insightful and relevant quote by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He famously warned about the dangers of the military-industrial complex in his 1961 farewell address, emphasizing that its influence could threaten democracy and lead to excessive military spending. This spending comes at a great cost to the entire nation.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed,” he said. “This world in arms is not spending money alone.
“It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
“The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.”
“This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense,” he said. “Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Trump’s war of choice, the war in Iran, has forced humanity to hang from that cross of iron. Billions upon billions of dollars have been diverted and spent in places far from the pressing needs of our nation. It has wreaked havoc with our economy and that of the global community. The war effort has robbed from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are dressed in rags rather than being clothed properly, those who are homeless and are not housed safely and those who once had hopes for their children but not anymore, such is the grip of poverty upon them.
Today, Kristof wrote a follow-up article to “Meet the Americans…” This one is titled: “Where the Teacher Is a Hero” (New York Times, August 15, 2026) It is a tribute to a teacher in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Crystal Barnes, highlighting what she did to address one child’s needs. He describes the situation:
Crystal Barnes teaches high school biology in Pine Bluff, Ark., and in March she had a student who kept falling asleep in class. Barnes could have scolded the girl, sent her to the principal’s office or simply let her fail. Instead, she asked the student why she was always sleepy. It turned out that the girl’s parents were out of the picture, so she had been sent to live with her grandmother. The grandmother didn’t have a bed for her, so the girl didn’t get much sleep. Barnes then bought a bed frame and mattress topper on Amazon for $119.97 and a mattress for $43.80 from a shop owner who gave her a discount when he heard the purpose. Barnes made the purchases with savings from her $50,000-a-year teacher’s salary. Another teacher contributed sheets and a comforter. Barnes went to the girl’s house and set up the bed — and found that termites were devouring the house and that the electricity had been turned off for nonpayment of bills. And the student was also helping to raise two younger children living in the house.
The girl was very grateful for the bed but had one more worry. “Can you give me some food? I’m hungry.”
He concludes his article with these inspiring and empowering words:
I see leadership not so much in Washington as at America’s grass roots. Our president and his family are enriching themselves even as he cuts funds supporting struggling families, but many ordinary Americans like Barnes are reaching into their own pockets to try to meet the needs of those with less. I’m awed by the church-run pantries, volunteer mentoring programs, after-school sports leagues coached by moms and dads — the army of good-hearted people across the country who try to keep their fingers in the dike. This is what Tocqueville admired about America almost two centuries ago, and it remains one of our strengths.
Yes, this is a dispiriting time. Two-thirds of Americans say our country is “pretty seriously” on the wrong track. But maybe we can find a dollop of inspiration from those who selflessly step up to do what they can. Their efforts ripple through the lives of others in ways that are difficult to foresee.
The Trump administration and its allies, some of whom mistakenly call themselves Christian, are frankly sickening and the situation is grotesque and indefensible. Admittedly, many are inclined to side with the disciples and succumb to feeling that the hour is late, the numbers are too large and their resources too small. However, Jesus will not let them off the hook, upon which their undersized faith hangs. Rather, he tells them to feed the people and shows them how they will accomplish the task. Twelve ordinary folk, relying upon five loaves of bread and two fish and trusting in Jesus, more than met the needs of those sitting there on the grass! Heroes all.
We are meant to be that army of good hearted, and I would add, faithful Christian people with our fingers in the dike, holding back the angry waters of deprivations being imposed upon our poor by the rich and powerful.
I am presently reading a book by Isabel Wilkerson titled Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In Chapter Nine, The Evil of Silence, the author quotes the dissident theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was one of millions who suffered and perished behind the electrified walls of a Nazi concentration camp. Bonhoeffer said:
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil,” and ‘God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ( p.81)
16 Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”