Christ Episcopal Church
July 29, 2012
12 Proper B
The line at the Food Pantry was long on Wednesday. When I left the office before noon to go to a meeting, there was already a line and the Food Pantry does not open until 1 o’clock. Richard Spangler, the Food Pantry Director, had already been in the office and had offered water to those who were waiting outside. As I left, I took the cookies we had in the office and offered them to our waiting guests. I think the plate was empty before I pulled out of the parking lot. Not surprisingly, when I cam back a the end of the day, the well stocked Food Pantry shelves were completely bare and there was a stack of empty boxes as high as the refrigerator waiting to be torn down. Especially in July, when the kids are out of school, there is more month than there is money, and people are hungry.
This morning we her the story of the Feeding of the 5000 from John’s gospel. The story of the Feeding of the 5000 occurs in all four gospels, but the story is told a little differently in John’s gospel. In each of the gospels, the basic problem is the same- there are at least 5000 people to be fed and there are only five loaves and two fish available. In each of the gospels, the outcome is the same. Everyone eats their fill and there are 12 baskets full left over. The key difference is this: In Mark, Matthew, and Luke’s gospels, when the disciples come to Jesus with the problem of how to feed all these people with no food, Jesus says to them "You give them something to eat." To which the disciples reply "How are we supposed to do that?" And Jesus tells them to have the people sit, then Jesus takes the bread and fish, blesses the food, breaks the fish and the bread, and gives the food to the disciples to serve the people. But in John’s gospel, Jesus is the one who states the problem "Where are we to buy bread for all these people to eat?" The disciples assure Jesus that feeding all these people is simply impossible. Jesus tells the disciples to make the people sit down, then Jesus takes the few loaves and fish, gives thanks, then Jesus distributes them to the people. The only thing left for the disciples to do is clean up afterwards and count the left overs. There are 12 baskets of food left over.
The hungry people were so excited by this miracle that they wanted to take Jesus by force and make him their king. Jesus will have none of that, and he escapes to the mountain by himself. No doubt, both Jesus and the people had King David in mind. David was a king-hand chosen and anointed by God through Samuel. David has some great accomplishments on his resume: he conquered Jerusalem and brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and he united the northern and southern tribes into a single kingdom, among other things. But there was also David’s shadow side. This morning we hear the story of King David’s affair with Bathsheba. David tried mightily to use his power to get himself out of the mess he created, and he dug himself in deeper every step of the way. When Bathsheba was pregnant and he was clearly the father of the child, David sent for Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to try to trick and even bribe Uriah so that Uriah would appear to be the child’s father. When that ploy did not work, David had Uriah sent to the front lines of battle, where Uriah would no doubt be killed, and indeed he was. David married Bathsheba, but they certainly did not live happily ever after. While David did many fine things as king, he was certainly not above using his kingship to satisfy his own selfish desires.
Jesus is a different kind of king and he will not allow himself to be held captive to the people’s idea of kingship. Toward the end of John’s gospel, when Jesus stands before Pilate before he is crucified, Pilate asks "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus says "Did you ask this on your own or did others tell you about me?" Pilate asks "What have you done?" Jesus answers "My kingdom is not of this world." Pilate asks "So you are a king" Jesus answers " You say that I am a King." Were there not so very much at stake here, the exchange would almost be comical. Jesus refuses to let anyone else define his kingship.
With the feeding of the 5000, Jesus has demonstrate that, whatever kind of King he might be, his kingship is not of this world, and exists to serve others and point to the glory of God. He has used 5 loaves and 2 fish to make food enough for 5000 people with 12 baskets full left over. And now he has retreated to the mountain to avoid capture.
We learn something about Jesus from this story, but what do we learn about our selves? Where does the Feeding of the 5000 meet the Christ Church Food Pantry?
When I was ordained, Bishop Thompson gave me a Bible in which he had written the last words from the reading from Ephesians. "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." At the time, I thought that was a nice sentiment to write in the Bible of a newly ordained person. What I have figured out since then is that, rather than being a nice sentiment, Bishop Thompson was challenging me and everyone else he ordained, and the whole Church to actually believe that God working though us can accomplish more than we can ask or imagine and to live accordingly.
In the Feeding o f the 5000, what the disciples learn, and what we learn, is that God working though us can do more than we can ask or imagine. When Jesus says "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" Philip says "Six months wages won’t buy enough food for each of them to have a little." Andrew says "There is a little boy here who had five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so may people?’ Both of these objections are 100% true. They are totally rational objections. There is no way the disciples can come up with food for 5000 people. But what they fail to realize, and what Jesus then demonstrates, is that God working through them can do more than they can ask or imagine.
The Feeding of the 5000 meets the Food Pantry, or the Neighborhood Fair, or the Rainbow Table, Reading Camp, or Interfaith Hospitality Network when ever we really believe that God, working through us, can do more than we can ask or imagine, and we act on that faith to serve others and point to the Kingdom of God in our midst. The Feeding of the 5000 calls us to put aside our rational, correct, and quite sane objections and to believe that God, working through us, can do more than we could ask or imagine.
Amen.
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