by Deacon Diane Zwick
Proper 12B
Listen to the Sermon for July 29, 2012
Read the Sermon for July 29, 2012
Tag: Loaves and Fishes
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Sermon at Calvary Church ~ July 29, 2012
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If we’ll make it available, God will make it enough!
On Sunday, July 29, we are observing Loaves and Fishes Sunday. We are asking worshipers to bring items that will be used in the Weekend Snack Sacks for clients of The Community Kitchen or make a contribution that will be used at to purchase the items needed for those weekend meals from River Cities Harvest. We’re doing this because donations of food and funds tend to drop off during the summer vacation season. But hunger never takes a vacation.
Our Gospel reading for Sunday is John's version of the story of the Loaves and Fishes. It is the only miracle of Jesus that is included in all four gospels. All four gospels agree that there were five thousand or more hungry people, that the meal started when Jesus blessed five loaves of bread and two fishes, that everyone had enough to eat, and that there were twelve baskets of leftovers.
What is the significance of this miracle? Firstly, Jesus is revealed as the Ruler of Creation, the One who multiplies food in Nature. In his classic work Miracles, C. S. Lewis shows how many of the miracles take what God normally does slowly in Nature and speeds it up dramatically as a kind of flourished signature, signifying, "the One who always multiplies fish and grain is here."
Secondly, Jesus is also revealed as the Ruler who Provides. And what does he provide here? What promise does he keep? What need does he meet? Is it the need of the hungry or is it the need of the disciples? Or is it both? He has commanded the disciples to feed the people and that elicits their admission that they are not able to do it. Then, to their amazement, he tells them to have the people sit on the grass anyway. The need being met here is not only the people's need for food. The other need that is met is the disciples' need to be able to minister! You and I are in the same position today as Jesus' disciples were on that day.
In their obedience, the disciples learned a lesson about faith, elements of which are present in every mighty work of God: Need seen + desire felt + inadequacy confessed + Christ obeyed = the opportunity for God to work miracles. It is our job to make our inadequate loaves and fishes available. It is God’s job to make them enough. Faith is the determination to obey in spite of our inadequacy, to consider our own inability irrelevant in the light of Gods ability, and to act on that basis. The more we do so, the more we will find our own paltry loaves and fishes multiplied.
In each of the Gospels, this event is a time of transition in the earthly life and ministry of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus now concentrates on preparing himself and his disciples for the Cross. Disciples often learn important lessons during times of transition. By the grace of Jesus Christ, those hungry people were fed by those disciples. And, by the same grace, the hungry people who are standing outside those red doors of Calvary Church are going to be fed by these disciples.
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Hunger never takes a vacation.
We're having a special emphasis on relieving hunger at our church this Sunday. We're calling it "Loaves and Fishes Sunday." Leaders of our Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry will provide inspirational talks at both services and educational materials at the receptions that follow in the Parish Hall.
The idea for this summertime emphasis comes from St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Granby, Colorado, where my family and I have worshiped from time to time. They realized that donations of food and funds to fight hunger drop during the summer months while people are on vacation. Yet hunger never takes a vacation! Therefore, this is an important time of year to ask people to be mindful of our Lord's call to feed the hungry.
Our three-year Revised Common Lectionary includes the story of the Loaves and Fishes as told by Matthew in Year A and as told by John in Year B. However, for some reason, Luke's version (Luke 9:10-17) is skipped in Year C. So, in order to set this up as an annual emphasis, I petitioned the Bishop of Kansas to allow us to use the story of the Loaves and Fishes from the Gospel of Luke instead of the Gospel reading appointed in the lectionary for this Sunday.
The story of the Loaves and Fishes is the only miracle story that is recounted in all four of the Gospels and it carries a powerful message. Here's the gist of it:
• The disciples come to Jesus with a problem – the people need food.
• Jesus told them, "You give them something to eat."
• The disciples protest that there isn't enough food.
• Jesus told them to "Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each."
• Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, blessed and broke them, then gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
• All ate and were filled.
• There were twelve baskets of leftovers.The lesson: When we place what seems not enough in the hands of Jesus, he transforms scarcity into abundance to fulfill his mission.
We place our contribution and our commitment into the hands of Christ. He adds his blessing and returns them to our hands, multiplied, so we can carry out his mission. Recognition of our inadequacy is the first step, but never the last. That recognition reminds us that God's work is always humanly impossible and prompts us to trust him to add everything needed to make us adequate to the task. Without him we can do nothing!
So, on Loaves and Fishes Sunday, we are aware of the immensity of the problem of hunger in the world, in our nation, and in our community. It is overwhelming to realize that in 3.8 million U.S. households, (3.5 percent of all U.S. households) one or more household members were hungry at least some time during the year because they could not afford enough food. We feel inadequate to even make a dent in the problem, Jesus. And yet he says, "You give them something to eat." So we bring what we have – food from our pantries, funds from our pockets, the work of our hands – and give it to him. He will take it, break it, bless it, and give it back to us to share, with the promise that because it is his work that is being done, there will be more than enough.
Let's try it and see what happens.