Feeding the 5000 and Woodstock
by Karen McPherson
Last Sunday's sermon was about Jesus feeding the 5,000 men - probably several times that number, including women and children. When I was young I would laugh at the thought of fish and loaves of bread magically popping up in the disciples' baskets as they somehow made their way through the gathered crowd.
Many years later, the pastor at my Presbyterian church explained that her take on the situation was that Jesus offering what was his meager store encouraged all to open up with generosity, as people did not travel in those days without provisions.
As many of you know, in August 1969, I attended the Woodstock music festival in New York. What made it special was the total lack of preparation for the huge influx of spectators. My group went up in 3 cars; we brought food enough. We did not think to bring water - rarely sold in the U.S. pre-bottled - or toilet paper.
When it became clear that there was a real problem - not enough food, not enough to drink - small "communities" started forming on the hill where people were gathered to listen to the music. We enlarged our group to include some people who shared with us their bottled juice, while they ate our sandwiches. The paths through the crowd traced around newly formed communities. At night, gathered around our campsite, hungry people would hang on the periphery and we would give them whatever food was left from our meals.
It was a time of sharing. One young man even offered me soap, when I jumped into the pond (as modestly as I could manage) to wash myself.
These were, indeed, primitive conditions. And, yes, most of the music was spectacular. But Woodstock was hardly a bacchanalian orgy. It was so much more a fast-forward development of community. Though the residents of White Lake (it wasn't actually held in Woodstock) initially shunned and complained about the 400,000 guests - by Sunday the townies had card tables set up everywhere and were giving out peanut butter sandwiches and water. Their generosity saw and served the hungry people there.
A little like people feeding each other on the hill while Jesus preached.
