Let It Begin With Me
Matthew
14:13-21[1]
Another slogan from the Twelve Step movement
is “Let It Begin With Me.” In fact, it comes from what is known as the “Al-Anon
Declaration”: “Let it begin with me. When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for
help, let the hand of Al-Anon and Al-Ateen always be there, and let it begin
with me.” Many Al-Anon and Al-Ateen meetings either open or close with this
declaration. It’s a constant reminder that Al-Anon and Al-Ateen exist to help
the families and friends of people who misuse alcohol and other substances.
Their sole purpose is to provide a helping hand to those who suffer because a
friend or a loved one is an alcoholic. I can tell you from personal experience
that many people come to their first meeting and spend the whole hour sobbing
because they are hurting so badly, their lives feel completely out of control,
and they are terrified of what tomorrow will bring.
“Let it begin with me” is a call to action.
It’s a reminder that we each bear responsibility for our choices and actions. If
we want to see changes, we have to be the ones to make changes in our lives.
That doesn’t guarantee we’ll get the outcomes we want. Most people come to Al-Anon
hoping that the changes they make will change their friend or loved one so that
they no longer misuse alcohol or drugs. Sometimes that happens, but mostly it doesn’t.
What taking responsibility for our own choices and actions does guarantee is
that we’ll learn to face life in a healthier way. This mindset applies not only
to families and friends of alcoholics and those who struggle with other
addictions. We all share in the brokenness of the human family. And when we
find ourselves at the point of feeling overwhelmed, perhaps feeling like our
lives are completely out of control and fearing what tomorrow will bring, we
are right in the middle of the brokenness that everyone in this world shares.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t respond to
being in that place very positively. Our first instinct is to blame someone
else. If I’m hurting, someone else must be at fault. That approach might be
characterized by the slogan, “it has to begin with you.” We look at our pain,
we find someone to blame for it, and we put the responsibility for our happiness
in their hands. If we’re going to get better, they have to change. Of course,
that places all the power for our wellbeing in the hands of someone else. “Let
it begin with me” takes the opposite approach. If I’m hurting, it’s my pain.
I’m responsible for my feelings and what I do about them. I’m the only one who
holds the key to my happiness in life. Nobody can “make” me happy by what they
do or don’t do. If I want things to change in my life, I’m the one who has to
make the changes.
I think there’s a part of our Gospel lesson
for today that relates to this line of thinking. I didn’t really plan these
sermons on the Al-Anon slogans. As I read the Scriptures each week, it just
developed that way. And that applies to our Gospel lesson for this week. When
it comes to our Christian lives, we’re wise to recognize that there’s much
about this world that is bigger than we can control. Only God can handle those
things. But we can control our choices. In our Gospel lesson, Jesus has been
teaching a huge crowd: 5000 men, not counting women and children. And at the
end of the day, when it was time to eat, they were all a long way from any
place where they could find food. The disciples’ suggestion that Jesus dismiss
the crowd so they could find food in the surrounding towns and villages wasn’t
very practical. It’s doubtful there was enough food in the surrounding area to
feed such a crowd. They were just trying to “pass the buck” and get rid of the
problem!
Jesus ignores their suggestion. Instead, he
tells them, “You give them something to eat” (Matt. 14:16)! The disciples
responded as you might think: they asked how they could possibly feed such a
huge crowd with the little food they had with them. But I think Jesus may have
been trying to teach them something. They had seen him work miracles that
amazed them. But in one sense they’d become spectators, watching what Jesus was
going to do instead of taking an active role in God’s Kingdom, as he called
them to. I think Jesus used this setting to challenge them to step out of their
spectator role and to take a more active stance with their commitment to follow
him.
The story that follows is intriguing, because
although it’s the only miracle of Jesus recounted by all four Gospels, there’s
no mention how Jesus was able to feed such a massive crowd with five loaves and
two fish! Some have suggested that the example of generosity inspired those in
the crowd to share their food with others. We don’t know that. Popular movies
have depicted it as an instantaneous miracle—Jesus lifts the food in a basket to
bless it, and when he brings it down the basket is overflowing with loaves and
fishes. But we don’t know that either. We really don’t know and may never be
able to explain how Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish. At the end of the
day, all that we really know about this miracle is that Jesus gave the loaves
to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and everyone had
enough to eat and more!
It leaves me wondering if it could be that it
was in the act of the disciples being willing to step out of the relative
comfort of a spectator role and taking a more active role in the work of the
Kingdom that the miracle occurred. We still don’t know that for sure, but it
does seem significant that Jesus instructed the disciples who wanted to send
everybody away to serve their food to the hungry crowds. And perhaps the
miracle happened somehow in the giving. By moving from spectators to taking an
active role, the disciples became channels for God to do his miraculous work.
Perhaps one of the lessons is that true miracles happen in ways we may never be
able to explain.
We’ll probably never know for sure exactly
what happened that day by the Sea of Galilee. But I think we can know that when
we stay comfortably on the sidelines, adopting the role of a spectator, not
much is ever going to happen. When we get stuck in our fears that there’s not
enough or perhaps what we have to give isn’t good enough, all there will ever
be is a bunch of hungry people. We have to take an active role in serving
others if we want to follow Jesus. I think this is where the wisdom of the
Twelve-Step slogan, “Let It Begin With Me,” can help us. Instead of looking at
all that’s wrong in the world and trying to find whom we can blame, when we
“let it begin with me,” we step up and do what we can do. As the Scriptures
illustrate, when do so, even the little that we have to give can become more
than enough. There is much about God’s work in this world that’s bigger than
us. But there are things we can all do right where we are. I think that’s part
of what Jesus wants us to learn from this miracle: when we step up and do what
we can do, God takes what we have to offer and uses it to do more than we can
imagine!
[1] ©
2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/2/2026 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
