Leftovers

Proper 12

28 July 2018
Gospel John 6:1-21

When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.

“Leftovers” that is what we have here. The official definition is “remnant or an unused portion.” In today’s Gospel reading there is quite a lot to “chew” on, forgive me the bad pun: the high cost of food for the multitude, corralling the young entrepreneur who is looking to sell his five barely loaves a few fish to make some money for himself and probably his family, the miraculous feeding itself, the stormy seas…we can relate to that after the rain, hail, thunder and lightning we expierence this past week, and Jesus walking on the water and calming the turbulent seas….all fodder for the preacher.  But what caught my eye?  What about those leftovers?  What exactly happened to them? What is the symbolism, if any, of these remnants, these unused portions?

In my home growing up in the Bronx with four siblings, my parents, grandmother and a bachelor uncle, who had the good sense to get married and move out as soon as possible, leftovers were a rarity for most meals, but when they occurred, they were used wisely. Having a mother who came of age at the end of the Great Depression and who was a newly married woman during World War II, made her a genius at stretching a family’s food budget. She could take a chicken, roast it for Monday dinner, make her vision of chicken chow mein for Tuesday night, make chicken soup out of the carcass, gizzards and heart and leftover vegetables, and, finally, whip up a chopped liver spread to have with cheese and crackers on Saturday evening while watching “The Lawrence Welk Show” with my father.  To this day, the smell of chopped liver reminds me of “champagne music”.

My favorite kind of leftovers are the remaining portions of the Thanksgiving dinner that can be re-purposed into some old favorites and some new culinary creations.  I have had an interesting turkey stuffing hash, pureed vegetable soup, turkey tetrazzini and turkey/stuffing croquettes.  My all-time favorite, though, is a turkey sandwich on Pepperidge Farm white bread with cranberry sauce and stuffing…. I dream of that sandwich every year as I squirrel away the necessary ingredients during preparation for the meal, hiding them in the refrigerator before the feast is done.

For many years I worked in a Soup Kitchen on Saturday in Stapleton.  One of the weekly concerns was would we have enough to feed everyone? We usually did.  One of our cooks called this “The Soup Kitchen Miracle”.  And we usually had leftovers. We had strict rules about how to handle leftovers. We would always try to give a generous portion (“Give them a plate like the one you would give to your 17 year old nephew”, I would say). The Board of Health prevented us from giving people plates of food to take home….There always was the possibility of spoilage or food poisoning from mishandling. But we had an arrangement with the outreach center of Project Hospitality; they could take the leftovers and serve them to folks at the drop-in center, many of whom had lunch with us…so they got fed twice! Not such a bad deal.

Did you know that here was a television series on HBO that ran for three seasons called, “The Leftovers”? It told the sorry story of the people left behind after 2% of the world’s population is taken up after the “Rapture” referred to as the “Sudden Departure”. It ran for three years and celebrates the emerging cult of the leftover folks called the “Guilty Remnant” …. sounds interesting. I have to admit, I did not watch it, but think the premise is theologically interesting. Maybe it will be on Netflix.

But I digress, I was still wondering what exactly is Jesus to do with the 12 baskets of leftover fish and bread from this feeding? Well, I could think of several things to do with them: some nice fish salad sandwiches the next day, or fish and toast with eggs for breakfast, perhaps make some bread crumbs or stuffing or even a nice bread pudding with the remnants. 

But I sincerely doubt that this was the purpose for noting this overabundance of bread and fish. Perhaps the meaning is a more personal one. Might it symbolize the spiritual overabundance of God’s love and concern for the health and wellbeing of his creatures whom God loves unconditionally? God is providing the extra stuff we need to grow in our spiritual understanding of the all-encompassing and over flowing love of God for us as God provides us with the extra nourishment we need to journey on in our spiritual journey, a journey that will lead us to knowledge and love of God in our lives and the lives of those around us.