304 S. Elam Ave.
Greensboro, NC

Phone: 336.272.2196
Fax: 336.275.7800

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Greensboro, NC

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July 30, 2006 Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:1-21
"More Than We Think Possible"

Last weeks' gospel lesson from Mark ended at chapter 6 verse 34, and if you would pull out the pew bible and turn to page 712, and look about half way down the first column, you will see that the next verse, verse 35, begins a very similar story to today's gospel lesson from John. In both gospels the story headline is: “Jesus Feeds the Five thousand.” And Mark's account is retold in slightly different versions in both Matthew and Luke Gospels. You can check the comparisons out more closely in the yellow bulletin insert from a gospel parallel book.

Jesus feeding the five thousand is the only miracle story found in all four gospels. And there's still another account in Matthew and Mark's gospels where Jesus feeds a crowd of 4,000 with 7 loaves and a few small fish the disciples provide. At that meal there are seven baskets filled with leftovers. Is it any wonder we get the details of these stories confused? Perhaps the writer of John's gospel did, because while parts his story are identical to the other three accounts –a large crowd gathers around Jesus because he's been healing the sick. It's past time for supper and the people are hungry with no restaurants or food vendors in site, so at Jesus' command, the disciples have the people sit down, and Jesus feeds them with 5 loaves and 2 fish. After everyone has helped themselves to 2nds and even 3rds, the disciples fill 12 baskets with leftovers. On these facts all four stories agree. But in Mark's, Mathew and Luke's accounts, it is the disciples who come to Jesus and ask him to send the crowd away to go buy something to eat, and Jesus tells the disciples to “you all give them something to eat.”

In John's account though, Jesus initiates the conversation with Phillip: “where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” And then the voice of the ever present, all knowing narrator of John's gospel whispers in our ears, “Jesus said this to test Phillip, for Jesus himself knew what he was going to do.”

We then hear Phillip pronounce the words that all of you who have ever served on the board of elders or trustees have heard,

“it would cost… six month's wages and even then that wouldn't be enough to do the job.”

Like many of us in the church, Phillip is not looking at what God has already gifted the congregation with, what we have. Instead Phillip is looking at what he thinks they need and how much money it would cost.

What happens next in John's account is what needs to happen in our congregational life—in First Moravian's witness and ministry in Greensboro and the world: one of the disciples, Simon Peter's brother Andrew, notices what is already present among them– a child-- not another disciple, not another adult, but a child--willing to share all he has—5 barley loaves and two fish.

Now we can't underestimate the skepticism that we all would share with Andrew—what good is what the child has to offer? When it's clearly not enough to do the job?

When we rely on our own power, the wisdom of this world, we stayed mired in cynicism, negativity and fear in the face of having so little compared to what we think we need to do the job.

But the gospel story shows us a different way to respond to the seemingly meager gifts offered by a mere child---and that way is to give our all and relinquish our offering to the power of God, to the power of the living Christ.

Then as now, Jesus does not rebuke or get angry at Phillip and Andrew for giving him a “realistic assessment” of the problem to be solved. Instead, Jesus takes the gift offered, the entirety of what the child had, gives thanks, gratitude, and the child's offering goes farther than anyone could have imagined or dared hoped.

When we give all we have, even though what we have is meager by the world's standards, when what is offered is usually overlooked because of who is offering it—God can do amazing things with our offering! Our cautious calculations of what is doable, what is possible are blown to bits by the power of the living Christ using what we offer.

You all who have ever cooked or served meals at the night shelter know something of the miracle I am talking about—how at first you thought you couldn't possibly feed everyone with what you had, but then, miracle of miracles, you did. And maybe you've witnessed something similar to what I witnessed when my daughter Salem was about 9 or 10 doing one of her chores of taking out the trash. Salem spied several unopened envelops of those “send money pleas” we get every week for starving children, hurricane and earth quake victims, the nature conservatory, doctors without borders, and she carefully divided all her allowance so that each charity got $1. 34.

What's that prophesy about a child shall lead us? Show us the way?

Or, to such children as these, belong the kingdom of God ?

There are some clues in today's gospel lesson we need to pay attention to here at First Moravian. John tells us Jesus first had the disciples sit the people down in the grass. But Mark and Luke's account add that Jesus divided the crowd into smaller groups. What happens in these small groups?? None of the 4 stories tell us—Maybe Jesus uses his miraculous powers and makes food appear on everyone's plate as a sign of God's power and glory. But if the point is simply that Jesus can do this, that Jesus can fix the problem by himself—why did he begin by asking the disciples where are we to get the bread for these people to eat? And why bother with organizing everyone into smaller groups?

Now we can certainly read and understand this story as a sign of Jesus' miraculous powers like the walking on water, or turning water into wine, or Jesus' healing of blindness and leprosy. That is a good and true reading and understanding of these stories, but we can also read this miracle as an example of what happens when instead of waving his hand so manna falls from heaven, Jesus starts the ball rolling by having us look at what we already have, offering all of it, giving thanks for it, and using what we've offered to do far more than we think as possible. Like the man from Baal-shalishah we read about in our Old Testament lesson, God can do far more than we can imagine when we don't hold back and offer our all—no matter who insufficient it seems in addressing the problem at hand.

Divided in smaller groups, maybe the people were able to recognize and appreciate what they did have, and inspired by the child's offering, contribute their own offerings to the group, and in doing so, they discovered an abundance of what they needed. The same is true for us today here at First Moravian. Those of us who have been part of a Gemeinshaft group have experienced the power and grace of a small group that shares its joys and sorrows, their prayers for one another, their growing in Christian discipleship through the study and practice of the Moravian Covenant for Christian living. It is another amazing example of what Jesus can do with a mere two and half hours of your time once a week for forty weeks. In Gemeinschaft you have the opportunity to enter the program with your meager gifts and resources, and emerge full, with leftovers to spare!

There is a real miracle present when we live and work together in faith, trusting in the power of God to use what we offer. The Holy Spirit blows in and among us revealing God's power to us when we act in faith and trust and upon our love for God and neighbor. There is a real miracle when we each give our all, however meager that might seem to you and to me in the face of what it appears we need.

Today's gospel story ends with a caution. Once fed, the crowd wants to make Jesus king. What else can we get out of this miracle worker? More free meals? Does this kind of “what's in it for me?” thinking sound familiar? It's the kind of “this world” thinking that tramples on the reality of God's grace and seeks to make Jesus a glorified genie, a Santa Claus satisfying our human wants. From such thinking, from such relationships, Jesus retreats then and now. John tells us Jesus goes to the mountain by himself—appearing next when the disciples are terrified and in the dark. Just as Jesus can be counted on to be with us when we are terrified, when we are in the dark. “It is I,” Jesus says, “do not be afraid. It is I. Do not be afraid.”

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