John 6:1-15
July 25, 2021
Feeding the Multitude With Loaves and Fishes Eric Feather |
It’s a
crowd. A big crowd.
Actually,
the biggest city in the area at the time
might
have been around 7,000 people.
So if
this hillside picnic were a city,
it
would have been the second largest in the area.
That’s
a pretty big event.
Now, I think that promoters, and event coordinators,
and
disciples then and now can agree on one thing:
you
don’t try to feed a crowd of 5000,
at
least not all at once, not without selling tickets ahead of time,
or
charging up front, or sponsorship, or a big group of volunteers
and
definitely not without some advanced planning.
So when Jesus asks the disciples where they’re
going
to get food for all these people,
Phillip
has a perfectly reasonable response.
He
says “we don’t’ have enough.”
We
don’t have it, we don’t have access to it,
we don’t
know where to get it, we don’t know who would
give
us enough— to feed all these people.
There
is not enough.
It’s a
reasonable response.
Phillip
has the voice of reason here.
And sometimes, occasionally its true.
But we’ve heard it and said it so much
that
we start to believe it, that that voice of reason
starts
to seep into everything that we do and say,
it
starts to be our mantra, our organizing thought,
the
way we operate throughout our lives.
There
is not enough.
There is not enough. The story that gets told by
corporations,
politicians, commercials, TV shows,
news
shows, school districts, city councils:
There
is just not enough for everyone.
Not
enough food, money, land, jobs, time, doctors, medicine,
electricity,
heat, water,
and whatever
else can be counted and held back.
We
hear it so much, it’s repeated and insinuated,
and
drilled into us from the moment we’re born.
So
much so, that the fear is always in us
and it
drives us and directs our actions.
There
is not enough.
There’s enough for billionaires to go up into
space
for ten minutes. But still there’s not enough
Remember the great toilet paper panic of 2020?
There was
not enough. Really there was enough.
But
because everyone thought there was not enough
There
was not enough.
People who calculate these things
say
that there is enough food produced in this world,
so
that every person in it could eat 3000 calories every day.
But
still, around 815 million people go to bed hungry.
We’re
fortunate that there is not a production problem,
But
there is a distribution problem. And at the root of it, is this fear:
There
is not enough.
This is part of many people’s issue with immigrants,
with
people of color, with those who are poor.
If
those other people get, there won’t be enough for me.
There
is not enough.
We’ve got to hold it back, hoard it, keep it safe
so
that the right people get it and are in charge of it.
because
there is not enough.
We live by the principle of scarcity.
And at
its root, this principle of scarcity is a lack of trust in God.
The principle
of scarcity tells us that we’re on our own.
We
only have what we can get for ourselves.
We
only get whatever we scrap and fight and work for.
Only
what we “deserve”. What we have we’ve earned.
It
says there are no gifts to be given because God doesn’t give gifts.
There
is not enough and there will never be enough.
The story of scarcity we’re telling today
is the
same story that the disciples told.
There
is not enough to feed those 5000 people, Jesus.
Send
them away.
But in the middle of that story of scarcity being told o
on
that hillside in front of that crowd,
One
boy came up and said, “I have enough!”
Even
though all he had was five loaves and two fish.
Even
though it was probably all the groceries he had for his family.
And
even though Andrew only saw the scarcity and said,
“What’s
so little food when you’re talking about so many people?”
It was
still enough.
And Jesus took what the boy had to share
he
blessed it, he broke it and gave it away.
With complete
trust in what he and God were going to do.
Now here is where the mystery happens.
Without
a food committee, without making
an
announcement of a pot luck, without tickets,
without
any planning whatsoever,
there
was enough – for everyone in that crowd.
Some
people read this and see that Jesus made more bread
and
more fish right there.
Enough
for all to eat and more, ex nihilo,
out of nothing.
Some
believe that Jesus and God
produced
food where there was none
and
the people had more than enough to eat.
Now
that is a miracle of God no doubt.
But some people look at this and see something else.
They
see that Jesus brought the Spirit of God to rest
on a
community of 5000 people
and
they were inspired by that boy, and they were inspired by Jesus
to
trust God and share all that they had.
A normal crowd of people who traveled with their own
provisions,
taking
whatever they had just bought at the market,
whatever
they were taking along with them for their journey,
whatever
they were going to eat themselves
whatever
they had there to sell to this big crowd,
and
they were inspired by Jesus, and the Spirit,
and
that young boy’s generosity.
And
they didn’t keep it for themselves.
They brought it out of their tunics and pockets
and
baskets and shopping bags and let it all go.
They shared
it with the people
around
them who had brought nothing to eat.
And
there was more than enough for everyone.
And
this, I think, is an incredible miracle.
In our
world where the principle is scarcity.
Whichever way you see it,
Jesus’
miracles are never just miracles.
They
always show us something about God.
And with
that picnic meal miracle,
Jesus
showed that the world is filled with God’s blessings.
We can
trust in God’s abundance.
Even
when all your senses tell you there isn’t enough.
Even when the voice of reason tells us otherwise.
There
is enough.
The way that Jesus came into everyone’s life on
that
hillside is the same way Jesus comes into ours.
Whenever
we feel nervous, or we’re not sure we’ll make it.
Whenever
we worry about the future,
Whenever
all we see ahead is disaster,
whenever
we’re stingy and selfish and not willing to share,
Jesus
tells us, “there is enough.”
With that meal on that hillside,
and
this meal that we eat every week,
Jesus
is slowly reordering the world’s reality.
Not
just in our stomachs, and in our churches either.
Jesus
is reordering the economy, the government,
the
world, and our hearts.
There
is enough: enough food, enough money,
enough
space, enough time, enough attention, enough love.
Jesus shows us and this crowd the real story about
God’s
grace, God’s gifts, God’s love for everyone.
Jesus
shows us and feeds us the real story
about
God’s abundance.
What Jesus is saying is that when people
come
together in faith in the presence of God,
When
people trust in God’s abundance,
there
is nothing that can’t happen.
There
is enough.