Participating in the Miraculous

John 6:1-21

This story of Jesus feeding 5,000 families is a pretty familiar story. In fact, this is the only story that is recounted in all 4 gospels. You may remember from last week that we heard just the beginning of this story – where Jesus arrived and had compassion for the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. You may remember that last week’s gospel invited us to reach out and touch people, to be Jesus’ healing hands and feet and voices, in our world today. This week’s gospel invites us to do much the same thing.

Today we hear that a huge number of people are following Jesus because of the things they saw him doing for the sick. We don’t know whether these are people who are sick themselves, or if they’re just enjoying the magic show. Maybe they were disciples in the traditional sense – followers of Jesus’ teachings – or maybe they were disciples in a more literal sense – they physically followed Jesus to see what he would do next. In any case, they’re following him and Jesus knows that at some point they’re all going to have to stop and eat. But when he asks where to buy bread for them, the apostles bristle. Jesus surely knows they can’t afford to buy that much bread – and they probably wonder why he even asked in the first place.

So, maybe they began scouring the crowd and asking if anyone had brought a picnic basket. Or maybe a boy overheard Jesus talking with Philip about lunch. Either way, the child volunteered the lunch he had brought with him. When Jesus took the bread, he blessed it and he broke it and he gave it for all to eat. Likewise, he took the fish, blessed it and broke it and gave it for all to eat. And     everyone     ate. Out of 2 fish and 5 loaves there was enough lunch for 5,000 men – who were counted – plus the women and children who were there too. And in the end, Jesus knew how important food was – and made sure that the disciples gathered all that was left over, so none would be wasted.

I’ve heard this story a lot. And I’ve heard a lot of explanations and rationalizations about what really happened on that mountain that day. I don’t know if every generation is this way or if it’s just mine, but in my generation, it has become fashionable to disbelieve whatever you were taught as a kid. More importantly, it’s fashionable to believe only what can be proven, one way or another. In fact, I ran across a news story last week about people getting ‘de-baptized.’ Essentially, there are people who were baptized as children who don’t believe in God anymore. They think their baptism was at best a sham, at worst an outright lie. The way de-baptism works is that a group of people who want to renounce their baptism get together. They write the word “reason” on a hair drier, and they get blown off with it. Then, they snack on saltines and peanut butter. In making fun of the church ritual they no longer believe in, they feel somehow vindicated.

For people who look for scientific or reasonable answers to the things we face in the world, miracles are hard to swallow. Mysteries are hard to believe in. In truth, miracles and mysteries are hard for anyone to believe in – even for those of us who really do believe in God. Even for us, sometimes the miraculous is difficult to swallow.

So maybe that’s why there are so many explanations and rationalizations out there about how the miracle of the loaves and fishes happened. One of these is that when the little boy was willing to share his lunch, the person next to him was willing to share hers too, and then the person next to her, and the person next to him… It is true that sharing has a tendency to rub off. But that’s not the way the story is told. Another explanation is that the boy’s lunch was just a representation of what was available – that there wasn’t really a shortage in the first place, but Jesus needed something over which to give a blessing. But again, this is not what we are told happened. We are told that there was not enough – and through Jesus, somehow there became not just enough, but more than enough.

It’s easy for us to get caught up in what exactly happened, in trying to rationalize or explain what’s really going on here. It’s easy for us to want to understand so much that we lose what’s really important.       Try to imagine being one of the people on that hill that day. It’s hot and dry, and you haven’t eaten in hours. Jesus tells you to sit and eat. Do you care where the food comes from? Do you care whether your neighbor took it out of her basket or whether she took it from the person next to her? Either way, you had no food and now you have food – and this is a miraculous thing. Whatever Jesus did, he made a miracle happen. Jesus made a miracle happen, and he allowed those around him to participate – to see, to touch, to eat; to be a part of the miraculous. And the amazing thing is, God is still making miracles happen. And God still invites us to participate – by seeing and touching and eating – and by being God’s presence in the world.

This year, we at St. James are making a real effort to be a part of God’s miraculous presence. While we do this in many ways, one thing we’re doing is giving to the ELCA Hunger Appeal. This appeal brings relief, development, education and advocacy to places in the world where our brothers and sisters are afflicted by starvation, thirst, and disease. The money we give, the prayers we say, and the actions we take are gathered together. Through God’s miraculous and mysterious blessing, our humble offerings multiply. Many are fed, clothed, and healed, and in their health and education, they offer food, clothing, and healthcare to many others. Nothing that is given is wasted. This week and in the next several weeks, the gospel lessons invite us to remember the hungry, and to remember that through Jesus, all can be fed.

You see, the problem the world faces is not that there is not enough food to go around. The problem is that we haven’t yet figured out how to take what we need and give what we don’t need to our neighbor. But we are learning – one person, one congregation, one village at a time. We are learning how to be a part of God’s miraculous work today.

One person who has figured this out is Godfrey. Godfrey is a 15 year old from Bukoba, Tanzania A team from the ELCA World Hunger Appeal visited Godfrey at a center which the appeal supports that serves orphaned children. Godfrey and his younger brothers live alone now, because their parents died of AIDS. Godfrey is now the head of their household. The care they receive from the center allows them to stay in their own home and continue going to school. The entire time that the team sat and talked with Godfrey, he held a squirmy chicken tightly on his lap. At the end of their visit, Godfrey whispered nervously in the host’s ear. She told the team, “Because you have given gifts, Godfrey has a gift for you. He would like you to have this chicken.” The team asked him, “Godfrey, how many chickens do you have?” Godfrey answered, “Two.”

Godfrey understood that gifts multiply. Godfrey was willing to risk giving up half of his income potential, half of his bank account, so that God could multiply his gift and be a miracle for someone else.

As we go about our lives, may we too remember that God multiplies what we give. However it happens, God makes miracles happen. And God lets us participate too.

Thanks be to God.