Year
B, Pentecost 9
John
6:1-21
I suspect that most of us have
prayed for a miracle at one point in our life.
Sometimes the prayer was answered with that miracle, sometimes we don’t
see the miracle. Of course all of us
define miracles differently. The most
common way that we hear miracle described is a transgression of the laws of
nature. It is when something happens
that cannot be explained with a rational explanation. Our faith and our Bible are full of
miracles. Over the years, people have
tried to come up with explanations for many of these miracles. When
Moses divided the Red Sea, it was actually the Reed Sea, which is much narrower
and at a certain point of the year the Reed Sea is shallow, allowing for easy
crossing. Another theory is that it was the Red Sea but
that there was a powerful wind that exposed a reef which the Israelites then
crossed.
Jesus performed many miracles during
his time on earth, things that could not be explained, things that were simply
extraordinary. For every miracle he
performed, there are many people who have tried to provide rational
explanations. Consider the Gospel
reading for today. Jesus fed more than
5000 people with five loaves and two fish.
The traditional understanding is that he multiplied the loaves and the
fish. Perhaps the baskets were just
bottomless baskets and the bread and the fish never ran out because no matter
how much bread was given, the basket was always full. We don’t know because John doesn’t say how so
many were fed with so little, he just says that they were fed until they were
satisfied. The rational explanation is
that all of these people actually had bread and fish with them. It wasn’t like they were carrying around raw
fish. Many people would carry pickled
fish when they were travelling. When they saw Jesus giving thanks for what he
had, they took what they had and shared.
While this explanation does not defy the laws of nature, it still feels
like a miracle to me.
Every Gospel tells this miracle
story. It is the only miracle story that
is described by all four Gospel writers.
They don’t all agree on the particulars.
This is not unusual. We know that
the Gospel writers were all writing at different times with different
perspectives. It is perfectly
understandable that they would have different details in their stories. One of the unique features of John’s version
of this story is the boy who brings forward the 5 loaves and 2 fish. He is not in the other Gospels.
We don’t know if he came up on his own,
but Andrew announced that there was a boy and he had food. You would think that the disciples had some
food as we;;. They were pretty much nomads and they probably carried food with
them. Yet none of them pulled out their
supply to share. It was a boy from the
crowd.
I wonder about this boy. Why did he come to the disciples with his
meager offering? How did he even know
that food was needed? We don’t know, but
I have a theory. Perhaps this boy was in the front of the crowd sitting with
his parents, watching Jesus with rapt attention. The boy saw Jesus scanning the crowd with a
look of concern on his face. He saw him
talk to his disciples, even saw the disciples trying to convince Jesus to turn
the crowd away. He saw all this and
thought to himself, “I bet they are hungry and here I have 5 loaves and 2
fish. It’s not much, but it’s something.” He argued with his parents because they
didn’t want him to give up their food, maybe the only food they had to sustain
them for the day. They tried to stop him
saying that Jesus surely had his own food.
He was a great prophet and a miracle worker. If he wanted food, he could make it appear
out of thin air. What use was their
small offering to this great man?
But the boy presented the food anyways
because he had it and he wanted to contribute in some way to the ministry of
this great man. Maybe he was afraid that
that Jesus and the disciples would scoff.
Barley bread was the food of the poor.
They could turn up their noses at him.
It was worth the risk. So he
brought his offering forward, shyly, hesitantly and he pulled on the sleeve of
one of the men who was standing close to Jesus. The man was about to turn the boy away, but
then the boy saw something in his eyes, a spark of something he could not
describe. Then the man knelt down and he
thanked him and brought him to Jesus saying, “There is a boy here who has five
barley loaves and two fish.” Then Andrew hesitated as if he was second guessing
himself. He added, “But what are they
among so many people?” Then the boy knew that this was not just for Jesus and
his friends, it was for everyone. He
felt even more foolish, but then Jesus looked down at him and he accepted the
bread and fish as though it was precious to him and he thanked him and told him
to go sit down. Then the boy saw Jesus held
up the bread that he had given him and gave God thanks. Baskets were passed and the baskets were full
of the bread he brought forward, but there was more, so much more. What was once little is now great. His small offering was transformed by Jesus.
Part of that narrative is my
musings, but the end is the Gospel truth.
Jesus took a small offering and he made it great. He shared it with
thousands. How the bread multiplied is
not important, but the way it was presented is critical. We pray for miracles. We beg for miracles. We wait for
miracles. What we don’t realize is that
Jesus is waiting for us too. Jesus has
the power, but he has given us the materials needed for the miracle. He is
waiting for us to present those small gifts.
Sometimes the gifts are material things.
Sometimes the gift is who we are as children of God. Because we live in a time where we worry that
we will never have enough, enough time, enough money, enough strength…we hold
back on what we share with God. We think
that an hour a week is all that God wants.
But God wants all of us, even when we think that all of us is not good
enough. So I ask that you consider what
it is that you have to give and you take one of the index cards at the end of
the pew and you write it down. Then when
the plate is passed, you add that offering to the plate as a promise to God of
what you will share. Because no matter
how small the gift that you present, God will transform it. God will multiply it. What once was meager, what once was small and
insignificant is now great. Each of us
carries the materials for a miracle.
Don’t wait for a miracle, start it.
No comments:
Post a Comment