Pentecost 9B
July 26, 2015
John 6:1-21
Here’s some
Bible trivia for you: Of all the miracles we attribute to Jesus, would you
believe that this well-known miracle, the Feeding of the Multitude, is the only
one that appears in all four Gospels? In fact, a similar story appears twice in
two of them, for a grand total of six times! Another Bible factoid: while the
Gospel of Luke omits the other well-known story we hear today, the one about
Jesus walking on water, Matthew, Mark and John all include it, and in all three
cases, it appears directly following the feeding of the 5000. Famous as both of
those stories are, I had never noticed that they always appear right next to
each other like that. It got me wondering: why? If you’ve ever read straight
through the Gospels, one after another, you may have noticed that the four
accounts of Jesus’ life on earth do not all follow the same order. John, in
particular, seems to have a mind of his
own as far as how and in what order
things happened. (The reason for this, if you wondered, is that John’s interest
is more in the meaning of things than in what is historically accurate). And
yet this order, the miraculous
feeding and the walking on water, is maintained for everyone. Why?
 |
| By Jesus Mafa |
As I have
reflected on that question this week, I have noticed that a lot can be gleaned
from looking at the reactions of the people involved. John’s Gospel is so
wonderful at giving us insight into the emotions of those involved. And in both
stories, one emotion I notice is fear.
In the walking on water story, it’s obvious – John tells us that the disciples
were terrified. And wouldn’t you be, if you saw your friend walking toward your
boat, right on top of the water?!
In the
feeding story, the fear is a bit more subtle. They are afraid they won’t have
enough food to feed all those people. They are afraid of their scarcity. Philip
immediately looks at their budget and sees this will not work – “Six months
wages wouldn’t be enough!” Numbers don’t lie; there is not enough. Andrew tries
to think out of the box a little bit, looking at what other resources they have
beyond money – maybe someone here has something to share? And someone does: a
young boy, willing to share his lunch with Jesus and the crowd. But still, it
is clearly not enough. And whenever we get in that mindset of “not enough,”
there is, underlying it, that pesky emotion: fear.
Fear of not
enough – it is such an ordinary fear, really. It is not usually debilitating,
like what the disciples must have felt seeing Jesus walk on water, but it is a
fear we still regularly face, sometimes on a daily basis. For middle class
folks, it’s not usually about lack of food like in the story, but it often
rears its head in financial matters: Will I have enough money to retire when I
want to? Will I have enough to send my kids to college? Do I have enough to
risk being generous with my giving? We look at the numbers, like Philip, and
make what we discern to be savvy decisions, in hopes that we will have enough.
Of course
the question of enough also comes to us in other forms, often in the form of self-esteem.
When I applied to seminary, several people told me to apply to Yale, and my
first thought of course was, “I’m not smart or accomplished enough to go to
Yale.” Women, especially, are often plagued by the worry that their bodies are
not enough: “I’m not skinny enough or curvy enough or tall enough to wear this
outfit.” Some of us are shy to meet new people because we’re afraid we won’t be
interesting enough, or clever enough, or good-looking enough to make a good
impression.
You see,
everywhere we look we see the fear of “not enough” – just like the disciples.
How often this perception of life deters us from gratitude for what we have,
and also our preoccupation with “enough” often deters us from the opportunity
to serve to others. I read a story from a woman who served as a pastor in
Nairobi, Kenya. One day, three young men came into her office. They were ragged
and dirty, but had smiles on their faces. They asked if they could sing for
her. She said of
Then they shared with her their
story. They were refugees from Rwanda. They had been university students, but
when war broke out, they left the country with only the clothes on their backs
and the song in their hearts. They didn’t know where their families were. They
had often barely had enough to eat. They had learned to be grateful for their
lives each day, and though they could never find the words for the prayer they
wanted to offer to God, they could always sing Amazing Grace, and they knew God
would understand their prayer. They had come that day seeking assistance – they
had found a room for $8/month. They had no furniture, but would gladly sleep on
the floor. Could the church help by paying the $8, plus a little extra for food
- $12 a month?
The pastor
brought the opportunity to the church leaders. They were interested in the
idea, until someone, looking at the numbers, said, “$12 doesn’t seem like a
lot, until you multiply it by 12 months. $150 is a lot!” Someone else wondered
if this would set a precedent – what if word got out that they were willing to
pay people’s rent, and all the homeless refugees came to them?
Soon enough,
this opportunity to serve in a wonderful way turned into a litany of “not
enoughs.” The pastor writes, “As I listened to my church leaders, I learned so
much about the myth of limited resources. We often think there’s just enough
for some of us. Some have to go without. We’re worried we’ll run out, but guess
what? God’s world has enough for all of us. Someone has put it well, saying,
‘There is enough for all our needs, but there is not enough for all our
greed.’”[1]
A story from
across the world, that hits so close to home. The fear of not enough pervades
the hearts of people everywhere, I suppose, even across time. There’s another
Old Testament story – we’ll hear part of it next week – about the Israelites
wandering in the wilderness and God provides them manna from heaven, with the
instruction only to take what they need for today. Of course, the people are
afraid to take so little – what if the manna doesn’t appear tomorrow? So they
take more than what they need… and the excess manna gets moldy. But it’s okay, because
God promised they would always get enough manna, and so the next day, they get
some more.
It seems
what we have here – in all three examples – is a lack of trust. Philip and his
buddies, the Kenyan church, and the Israelites – none of them trusted that God
would provide just exactly what they needed. That is the danger of fear – it
leads us to a lack of trust, or perhaps, it leads us to
But it is
the God who promises abundance in whom we need to put our trust. Remember what
Luther writes in the Small Catechism? “God provides me with food and clothing,
home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day.” God provides all those things! We can
worry and fear all we want, but in the end, God provides all we need from day
to day.
And in fact,
God provides much more. Look at our second lesson, from Ephesians. The writer
tries to capture just how generous and abundant God is in this phrase, “[God]
is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” Or
another translation puts it, “exceeding abundantly beyond everything.” God’s
abundance is so abundant, it’s hard to capture it in words! All we know is that
God gives us far more than we could ever imagine.
And with
that recognition comes freedom – freedom from worrying about whether there will
be enough. Freedom from fretting about running out. Freedom to be more generous
with our time, our money, and our love and care for others. Freedom to trust
the one who gives us “food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all
we need from day to day.”
“Therefore,”
the catechism goes on, “we surely ought to thank and praise, serve and obey
him. This is most certainly true.”
Let
us pray… Generous God, your providence
exceeds abundantly beyond everything. Make us grateful for what you give, not
fearful for what we don’t have, so that we would feel freedom to love and serve
without fear. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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