29 July 2012 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
2 Kings 4: 42-44 + Psalm 145 + Ephesians 4: 1-6 + John 6: 1-15
We have set aside Mark’s Gospel now until September 2. For five more Sunday we shall explore with the whole church the 6th Chapter of John’s Gospel, and this openinig today is loaded with what I like to call “teasers”. Think back for a moment with the details you just heard. Each of them should spark your religious imagination if it has been fed. If they don’t, there is also a message here: “You have not studied the Word of God.”
He crossed the Sea of Galilee. What does that crossing mean? Jesus went up on the mountain. This is no passing detail. He sat down in the posture of a Rabbi: a message about his identity. Passover was near. Can you connect that to something? He raised his eyes. That happens often in John’s Gospel. It’s like clapping your hands! It gets attention. Something is about to be said that is important; and it is. “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” This is not a practical question for a picnic. This is a cry of desperation. It is the cry I hear from those who serve the poor all the time. I had an email while away last week from the leadership of St Vincent de Paul. “We’re of money. Where shall we send the poor?” was the message in the email. Then there is Philip and Andrew. When one of the named apostles speaks, there will be words worth remembering: a declaration that there isn’t enough. It sounds like doubt to me and it boraders on cynical scepticism……. And then, there is that boy.
I have wondered where he came from and what was he doing there with five barely loaves and two fish. If you’ve ever had barley bread, you would not ask for seconds. It’s poor food for poor people. What was he doing there? Was he on his way home from a shop sent by his mother to get the evening meal? Was he an entrepreneur who knew he could make some money out there among that hungry crowd? If sent out by his mother to the shop, did he come home with more than she expected having been given one of the twelve baskets heaping full with the left-overs?
Then there is that warning about gathering and waisting, and that significant number of baskets: those people understood all these details, these signs, these wonders, and they responded instantly knowing now who was in their midst. But it wasn’t time for that “king” stuff, so he withdrew alone.
I want you to think about that boy this time around with John’s Gospel. I have been thinking about him for several days. John give him no name, so we can’t begin thinking he is someone else. With no name, he has our name. He is the unlikely one chosen to do the work, to supply what is needed, to feed a hungry crowd, and even more so, he is the one to awaken in us the message, the truth, and the wonder of what God can do with what God has given us.
The issue of whether or not there is enough is swept away in a single verse: “Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks, and distributed.” These verses are not simply about Jesus. They are about us; and there is here a great image of what we bring to the kingdom, which is far too little; but also a reminder of what God ‘s grace does with our offerings.
We are bombarded these days with messages that insist that there isn’t enough, and the consequences of that thinking are all around us raising doubts about God’s presence, God’s grace, God’s providence, mercy, and love. I don’t believe those messages, and I am not going to let you believe it either without a serious challenge. The consequence of thinking that there isn’t enough is hoarding what we have. The boy in that Gospel did not do that. He brought and gave what some considered too little, and the consequences were a sudden insight and experience of the Kingdom of God.
There is enough, and we have what it takes to reveal the Kingdom of God and bring others to excitment about it, but too many do not believe it. Why did St Vincent de Paul run out of money this week? Where is the boy of this Gospel? Two weeks ago I finished a long and painful struggle with the new budget for this parish. For the first time in my entire life as a priest, I will present to the Finance Board a deficit budget. Doing so leaves me sad and discouraged. With an accountant advisor everything was cut, and still we could not match the projected income declining little by little over the past three years. Nothing on the expense side has declined. Insurance, utitilites, and maintenance of this building now old enough to begin falling apart makes it more and more difficult to meet our debt service obligations which continues to take nearly half of every month’s income.
All I can do in my last year among you is look for the boy with the barley loaves, and I think this Gospel holds the answer to this challenge. You have what it takes to continue the work of Jesus Christ in revealing the Kingdom of God. That is the work of this church which you are day by day becoming. I will not be the voice of Philip complaing and doubting that there is enough. I want to be the voice of John who tells the story of what God can do with what God has given you when you offer it. I believe you will go home with a basket full, knowing that nothing is waisted.