18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, YEar A

Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.
~Genesis 32:29
 
…he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
~Matthew 14:14
 
What goes around comes around. Until it doesn’t. There’s something unexpected going on with the God who occupies this week’s stories. Perhaps the better term is apocalyptic—an inbreaking of something new, something counter to what typically comes around.
 
Consider Jacob—this heel-grabber, this wrestler, this opportunist who has burned bridges wherever he has gone. On the eve of a meeting with his brother who, last he knew, wanted to kill him, Jacob is no doubt terrified. And he is wrestling with some demons—or maybe with God. Jacob doesn’t win, but he doesn’t exactly lose either. He should be annihilated. Instead he leaves limping and blessed with a new name.
 
The familiar story of the feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14) happens on the heels an all-too-familiar cycle of rivalry, retaliation, and regret. Herod loses his head about the threat John the Baptist poses to his administration, but it is John who makes the literal sacrifice in Herod’s rule of terror and intimidation. Jesus retreats to “a deserted place” to try to make sense of it all. But the crowds who follow clamoring for some hope make privacy impossible.
 
We can imagine the fear and anxiety we might feel, and the need for a break for Jesus. The disciples are little help. They see nothing but scarcity. Rather than retaliate for the impossible situation he is presented with, Jesus makes a different kind of sacrifice. Compassion. He blesses what little resources are evident. He calls the disciples to action. And there is enough. There is more than enough. The economy of God is again demonstrated to be one of plenty, one that breaks out of destructive cycles and introduces a generous future of possibility and newness.
 
Scarcity is a learned behavior. So too is the generosity of non-retaliation, compassion, and non-violence and the abundance it can produce. Which sounds better to you? Which are you learning? Which are you choosing?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 32:22-31 † Psalm 17:1-7, 15 † Romans 9:1-5 † Matthew 14:13-21
 
About the Art: Moyers, Mike. Israel, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57141 [retrieved July 20, 2026]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.

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