July 26, 2015
1 Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. – John 6:1-21
The disciples probably didn’t need Jesus to point out the problem to them. If they’re like any other group of people, they were already aware of the problem a gathering crowd presented even if there was enough grass for them all to sit down on. They were probably silently thinking about how to deal with this crowd of 5,000 people or whispering to one another a few complaints about how Jesus just never considers how to deal with things in a practical sense. So Jesus brings it out into the open – and with a question, no less: “How will we feed all these hungry people?”
Philip doesn’t have an answer, but by golly this is Jesus asking and so he’s going to do his darnedest to come up with something. Maybe he says to Jesus, “Just a moment, let me take a look around.” Perhaps he asks Judas the keeper of budget for Jesus’ Galilean ministry program. Perhaps he consults the map for the nearest farmer’s market. Perhaps he calls around to a few caterers to figure out if they can swing at least a reception with heavy appetizers if not a full dinner feast. Coming up short, he returns to Jesus with Andrew, who has a meager offering that he took from a young boy. He’s probably already mentally dividing it in his head. 5 loaves, 2 fish, 5000 people. 5 loaves, 2 fish, 5000 people. Over and over again imaging that if you just had a small enough knife somehow each person might get a crumb. He doesn’t say it outright, but he’s trying to tell Jesus it’s just not going to work. Let’s just give up and go home.
But how well we know the frantic searching for solutions. How well we know the enormity of the need we face. Another week of violent news. Another shooting that drew national attention, and a whole lot of gun violence that didn’t even register in our collective consciousness. Once again we cycle through polarized arguments about how to solve the problem – put more guns in the hands of the so-called good guys or enact and enforce stricter gun laws, knowing deep down that neither of those solutions fixes the problem of violence in our hearts. Like Philip running around for a solution to the need that confronts him, we are at a loss to solve this problem.
And how well we know the continued problems of racism that has once again finally been named as a problem after years of denial. We look for laws to enact or enforce. We look for categories of people to blame. We run around for a solution to the tension that Jesus confronts us with, and we realize the solution is bigger than we can solve on our own. Who are we against so much need?
And how well we know the inadequacies of our own lives. How often we come face-to-face with our inability to transform our own worst habits and our ever-failing bodies. We seek books and programs and mentors. We try spiritual practices and prayer and confession, running from person to person seeking the solution. Do you have the bread I need? And still we remain broken people.
Jesus, having let Philip and the other disciples run around for a few moments, looks into their frantic and tired eyes and asks for their meager offering. Give to me what you have, Jesus says. And more than likely the disciples hand over the bread and fish but they hold onto their fear and anxiety. I suspect, if they’re anything like me, they sit back and laugh at Jesus’ confidence that this is all somehow going to be alright. They laugh at the notion that the enormity of need that they confront can be met with what little they have.
And in the face of the skeptics, Jesus gives thanks and breaks the bread and begins to feed the crowd. He distributes chunks of bread and pieces of fish. And like the bit at the end of the gospel reading where the boat magically jumps to shore, maybe Jesus is able to distribute this food to 5,000 people before the disciples even realize what is happening. Suddenly they are eating bread and fish, aware now that the need was not only in the people around them but deep within themselves, too. And so with the 5000 they begin to eat.
Now, the idea of a genuine miracle is sometimes, shall we say, hard to swallow. There are attempts to explain it away. But such scientific or sociological rationalizations while satisfying in their own right, do not leave us hungering for more. They do not send crowds racing around a lake to crown someone king. And maybe, best yet, they do not upset the world order.
But our need, our hunger is for the turning upside down of a world marked by violence, division, and death. Our hunger is for the God who transforms our desperate situation before our eyes in ways we cannot understand. Our hunger is for a God who agrees that we are not enough on our own but who then feeds the whole world anyway with basketfuls to spare.
So we gather hungry at this table today, hungry for peace, hungry for safety, hungry for rest, hungry for justice. And we do not have all the answers. We are not enough. And so we say a prayer of thanks for all that God has done for us and all that God has already promised to do for us in the future. And we break the bread and share it together. In doing so we participate in the promise of God’s miraculous transformation of the world.
In the eating we become what we receive, the body of Christ. And so it is that our desperate searching for answers is interrupted. The burden we so often carry of the world’s deep need is lifted. And God transforms us into food for the world. God uses what is not enough to satisfy the hunger. God uses people who cannot see the answer, who cannot solve the problem, who cannot manage to trust God despite all that they have already seen and heard, God uses us in the feeding of the world.
So come, you who do not have enough, you who feel you are not enough, receive from God the bread. Participate in this feast of abundance. Be transformed into the body of Christ.
-Pastor Steven Wilco
Stewarding the Word 