You learn pretty early on that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. When something claims to be free, look for the catch, and chances are you’ll find it. You probably get as much mail as I do claiming that there’s some great deal inside, completely free, just waiting to be accepted. Putting that on an envelope is the best way to ensure I won’t even open it. Straight to the trash!
It’s not that it never happens, but it’s rare enough that we become suspicious. A few weeks ago on a Friday night I was in St. Louis for a wedding and had four absolutely primo tickets to the Muny. Really great seats. My friends and I couldn’t use them so we went way to the back of the free section, found a party of four, asked if they’d be interested in sitting way up there, and handed them over. I’m not sure they even said “thanks.” If they did, it was mumbled and got lost in the very confused and even suspicious look they were giving us. I walked happy, knowing they’d get the picture eventually.
Another reason we sometimes shy away from free things is pride. We like to think of ourselves as relatively self-reliant to some extent. We like to think we earned what we have. Well, that’s a good thing so far as it goes, but it’s gone wrong when we’re unwilling to accept a free gift, even an undeserved gift. It’s gone wrong when we’re unwilling to accept the help we really need, out of pride.
This is important because you really can’t be a Christian if you’re not willing to believe in free, undeserved gifts, or if you’re not willing to accept them.
Isaiah 55: “Come to the water all you who are thirsty, though you have no money, come!” So much of human religion has been about winning divine favor. Offer a bull so Baal will make the crops grow. Offer some money so that Aries will help your army in battle. We’re not immune, of course. There have been times I’ve childishly tried to buy God’s favor, and maybe you have known this temptation as well. But it’s a silly charade. God’s favor cannot be earned. You can’t win it or deserve it, buy it or swipe it.
God doesn’t need anything from us; He’s God. He is perfect and complete. We have literally nothing to offer Him except what He’s already given us, plus the messes we make, and all of that matters not at all. And that’s the starting point of the Christian religion. The word for it is grace, and it’s my favorite word.
Romans 8 takes up a similar vein. St. Paul asks “what can separate us from the love of God?” And you know his answer. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. A baby can’t cry one time too many and lose her parents’ love. You can’t sin one time too many and lose God’s! Nothing can separate us from the love of God! Neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing. Not your vices, not your selfishness, not cancer, not depression, not that habit you just can’t seem to kick for good. Not the secret you keep in shame. Not the failure in your past for which you can’t forgive yourself. Nothing.
We can reject God’s love. But we can never lose it.
And finally, the Gospel, this story of the feeding of the multitude: there’s so much to be said about this, but just notice this today: the Apostles didn’t have nearly enough to offer, not even close, a handful of fresh and a few chunks of bread for five thousand grown men and some unknown number of women and children... what the Apostles have to give is laughably inadequate. We should be able to relate. Think of the needs in the world right now, from right next door around the globe - don’t we look like those Apostles? So inadequate, so hopelessly outclassed, why even try? But this is Jesus Christ we’re dealing with. He isn’t worried about our poverty, our weakness, our inadequacy. He seems to brush it aside; it’s beside the point. The solution for us is the same as for the Apostles that day. Gather what we have, don’t be embarrassed how little it is, just offer it to Jesus Christ and get ready to be amazed.
Three readings, three aspects of God’s amazing love, three reasons my favorite word in all the world is “Grace.” A simple lesson that we can never hear too often about the way God loves us. Love doesn’t ask “what do you have?” or “what can you do for me?” Love doesn’t ask “what will it cost?” or “what do you deserve?” Love only asks, “what do you need?”
What we need, friends, is God. So that’s what He gives us.
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