7/27/03
Enough is Enough - John 6:1-21
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Our gospel lesson today is hopefully a familiar story, with two scenes. First, the feeding of the five thousand, and second, Jesus walking on water. This lesson today comes as part of a four week cycle of stories that focus on food, bread, the intersection of our physical and spiritual hunger and sustenance. In the weeks to come we will hear Jesus speaking of bread from heaven, Jesus sharing that he himself is the bread of life, and Jesus alluding to the yet-to-come last supper, describing his flesh and blood as bread and drink. Obviously, so much attention given to these images of food, of bread, signify that Jesus is trying to teach something of critical importance. In fact, the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels. Not only did Jesus emphasize this teaching about bread and life, but the gospel writers also considered this particular story especially important. What is it about the feeding of the 5000 that so captures their imagination and ours? What sets this miracle apart from the others recorded of Jesus?
Because of the apparent importance the gospel writers placed on this miracle, modern day scholars and theologians have spent much time as well trying to figure it out. Some debate: is this a literal miracle recorded? Did Jesus actually multiply fish and loaves before the eyes of the crowds? Others suggest that the miracle was that a little boy would share all that he had, which in turn encouraged others to pull out the meals they had packed, knowing that they would need food for their day's trip. But debates like this do little to help us understand why this story is important to us, and what it can mean for our lives today. Jesus looked at the gathered crowds, and wanted to feed them, physically, and spiritually. In his miracle of feeding them, there are lessons for us, ready for us to explore more deeply.
The crowds have been following Jesus, listening to his teachings, pressing in on him for healing and comfort. Seeing them all gathered on the mountainside, Jesus asks Philip, a disciple, what they will give them all to eat. At this detail, John's account of this miracle differs slightly from the other gospels: in the other gospels, the disciples raise the questions of how to feed the crowds. In John's account, it is Jesus who raises the question, perhaps further emphasizing the disciples' inability to see a creative solution to the hunger of the gathered masses. Jesus presses Philip, "where are we to buy bread for these people?" But Philip is skeptical: "Six months wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." Andrew at least makes an attempt at a solution, bringing up a boy who has five loaves and two fish, but pessimistically responds that they will do nothing among so many hungry. Jesus doesn't hesitate - he just tells the disciples to get the crowds seated. He blesses the food, and passes it around. We read that all ate and were satisfied, and twelve baskets of food were left over.
We find ourselves easily with the disciples in this story. Which of us would look at the crowd of so many and feel prepared to meet all of their needs? Which of us would view 5 loaves and 2 fish as enough to go around? There just didn't seem to be enough - there was not enough food, there were not enough resources, there was not enough money, and perhaps the disciples felt that there was not even enough of them to go around on such a day. In our own lives today, we feel much the same why. Perhaps Jesus does not come to us asking what we will feed the hungry thousands. But God certainly confronts us with other responsibilities: we have a church and its ministries to care for, we have a community of people with needs to meet, we have demands on our time and our resources. Sometimes it seems too much is being asked of us - we feel like we're always coming up short, like there is not enough of us to go around. How can we do all we're being asked to do? Enough is enough! We're already overextended, we've already done all we can, given all we can, answered as many calls from God as we can. One pastor sums up our circumstances in an on-target response: "Truth is," she says, "we have closets packed with thousands of excuses why our boats are too small to sail in the big, deep side of the ocean called life. So often we opt for the safe floating along in the shallow end of the predictable, taking no risks, never going outside our comfort zone. . . . we cannot afford it, we say." She continues, "We have a myth of limited resources. We often think there's just enough for some of us. Some of us will have to go without, we think, there is just not enough to go around. If we give away too much, we'll run out."
The feeding of the 5000 is, for one, a miracle about how we use our resources. How do we make what seems like too little and not enough meet the needs of everyone present? One year when I was a camper at Aldersgate, we took part in a meal called the Hunger Meal, a meal a little bit like the example in Children's Time this morning. At our usual dinner time, we went of to the lodge with our own group, and entering the building, we were divided up by continent, in numbers proportional to the actual populations of the different areas of the world. Many of us, for example, including myself, were sent to the 'Asia' continent, while only a few were sent to Europe or North America. Then, we were served food in quantities that represented the percentage of food each continent had out of the world's supply. The North Americans, for example, got two meals from McDonalds, plus dessert, and had more than enough for the number of people they had. They even had a waiter to serve them! We over in the Asia section, however, got only a little bit of food to figure out how to divide among us. Finally, near the end, those in the regions with more shared with those of us with less, The experiment was a vivid lesson for all of us, clearly illustrating how much we have, how little others have, and how there really is enough already to go around.
How do we use our resources? Do we use what we have been given in a way that makes sure that all are provided for? These past weeks have brought me an increased awareness of my own financial state. After struggling with money through years of college and seminary, I now find myself earning a good, steady income. For the first time in my life, I have more than enough to pay my bills, and my student loans, and live a comfortable life in a beautiful. I joke with some that after all, now I am a rich pastor. But joking aside, I have to consider this change seriously. Now at the beginning of this path I do feel so rich, but will I simply grow into my income, expanding my lifestyle until it seems like I don't have quite enough to attain all I want? Will I feel stretched again, once I get use to the change? One of the founders of United Methodism, John Wesley, figured out early in his adult life how much money he needed to pay his expenses. The remainder of his income he gave away. Even after his salary increased, he still kept the same amount for himself, and still gave all the rest, now a greater amount, away to the church or to those in need. Can you imagine planning your income that way? Keeping only what is enough to pay your debts and feed and clothe your family, no matter how much you earned?
But before you get too nervous that this is only a sermon about money, let's expand our scope. We are called to use and share all of our resources faithfully - financial and otherwise. Jesus' concern is for those who hunger. But as we will see in the weeks ahead, his concern is not simply for those who hunger physically, though such a bodily pressing need must be quickly met. His concern is for filling the hungriness that touches our very souls. Jesus wants to touch people's spiritual emptiness, to fill the void in so many lives he confronts. For Jesus, cost is not a factor that slows things down, be it the financial cost that might have been involved in feeding the crowds with bread, or be it the deeper costs of his time, energy, heart, even his life.
We are called to do likewise, to live in this way like Christ. The hungry crowds await us too, making demands on our time, making demands on our love, making demands on our resources, making demands on our lives. Like he asked Philip, Jesus asks us where we can get the bread to feed those who are hungry. Like Philip, we reply that the cost, economic and otherwise, is too great, we can't afford it. Thankfully, Jesus doesn't believe us when we say things like that. But there is another miracle yet in this story: Even as we gear up to give of ourselves, this miracle story also reminds us that we don't have to go it alone. The disciples alone could not imagine providing food for so many. Philip thought of the costs - 6 months wages - 6 months of one individual's wages, instead of imagining what would happen if the cost was shared. Andrew thought of how little 5 loaves and 2 fish would go among so many hungry people, not about how happy some at least might be food that could be shared with some. The world is full of people who are hungering for something deeper, who are hungering for meaning and love. We are so rich, richly blessed with abundant life, abundant resources, and abundant love from the God who created us, redeemed us, and continues to sustain us. Enough is enough. God's got enough for all of us. And we've got people to feed. Amen. Benediction: "I pray that you may have the power to comprehend . . . what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Go in peace, Amen.