Enough for Everyone and More

Short Talk (SHT215) Enough for everyone and more! © Jane Hulme 2020 Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: Props: To encourage people that no-one is left out in God’s Kingdom. Jesus offers His gift of life to everyone. This is a short All Age talk picking out one issue from the Lectionary Gospel reading of the Sunday main service. The talk stands alone and assumes that the Gospel Bible reading may not yet have been read to the congregation. It could be used for example, for the whole congregation before the children go out to their age specific groups, leaving the adults with a full sermon later. Kingdom of God, Jesus, Bread, Life Matthew 14:13-21 Year A – The 8th Sunday after Trinity You will need a very small box of chocolates, (ie. a box that only SHORT TALK: “Enough for everyone and more!” has 6-8 chocolates in it) so that only a few people can have one. .................................................................................................................. Who likes chocolates? (Receive response) • Great.... • Well the good news today is that I have a box of chocolates and you can all have one if you would like one. • I will pass them round now. (Produce small box of chocolates and pass them round encouraging people to take one until they are all gone) Oh, that’s a shame – they ran out very quickly didn’t they? • Most of you didn’t get the chocolate that you were hoping for. • Sorry about that. It doesn’t feel nice to be left out of things does it? • Whether it’s being left out of being given a chocolate, • or left out of someone’s game, • or left out of someone’s party invitation, • it can leave us feeling forgotten, unnoticed and even excluded can’t it? That certainly wasn’t the case for over 5000 people one day in Galilee. • They had spent all day with Jesus listening to His teaching and watching Him heal the sick.... • and then it started to get really late. © Jane Hulme 2020 2 Jesus’ disciples suggested to Jesus that He send the people away to get some food from the neighbouring villages because they were all really hungry, • but Jesus had other ideas. He found out that they had 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish between them all and told the people to sit down. • Having thanked the Heavenly Father for the food, He got His disciples to hand it out to everyone. Now you would have thought that after handing out the food to three or four people, the food would have run out, like our chocolates did earlier, but it didn’t. • Matthew’s Gospel tells us that there was enough bread for everyone; • not just a crumb or a crust, but people ate until they were full up. • Not only that but there were 12 basketfuls of pieces of bread left that were collected up at the end so that nothing was wasted. Jesus didn’t simply make sure that His close friends, the disciples, were fed. • He made sure that every single person who was present on that day was fed. • Every single person mattered to Jesus. • No-one was left out. • No-one was left hungry. Not only that, but there was loads of food left! One of the things that we can learn from this amazing story of what happened on that day in Galilee is that every single person matters to Jesus. • Jesus knows that inside each one of us is a hunger, not for bread, but for a satisfying and fulfilling life. • Jesus offers that gift of life to each one of us if we choose to come to Him. • There is enough life to go around everyone who wants to receive it! No-one is left out, • No-one is forgotten, • No-one is unnoticed, • No-one is excluded, • No-one needs to stay hungry. On the day that Jesus provided enough bread for everyone to eat, the people all had a choice whether to eat it or not. • They could have seen the bread and said, “no, we don’t want it!” • We too have a choice whether to receive the gift of life that Jesus offers us, or not. • Have you said “yes” to the gift Jesus offers you, or are you still hungry? © Jane Hulme 2020 3