A Kid's Lunch
John 6:1-14
July 23, 2006
(We had worship outdoors today, and passed out baskets of smoked fish and pieces of bread during the scripture reading and sermon. We had some leftover.)
There are many kinds of miracle stories in the Gospels - healings, walking on water, turningn water into wine, and the feeding of the 5,000. This is the only miracle story to be found in all four Gospels - some details vary a bit, but this story appears in all 4.
This version is a bit more detailed - in Matthew, Mark and Luke the disciples say, “How are we going to feed everyone?” Jesus says, go find what you have. Then we have John, where Jesus asks Philip how they are going to feed everyone, to test him. (Notice all through the book of John Jesus says things but the writer reminds you that Jesus knew what was going on and only said things to heighten the drama.) The disciples all come up with the same amount of food - 5 loaves and 2 fish. In John, however, they are from a boy, a lad. They are described as barley loaves, buns, really, and of a poor person -- the poor ate barley and the rich could afford wheat.
Then, with these meager resources, Jesus blesses the food and gives it to them -- sounds like communion, doesn't it? -- and feeds 5000 men, plus those who were with them. And they were full; they were satisfied. And there were leftovers.
We know from many of the miracle stories that Jesus doesn’t work in a vacuum. When Jesus went home (in Mark) he could work no healings because the people there didn't believe in him. He doesn’t, or can't, heal people who have no faith at all. The person themselves, a friend, someone has to believe for the healings to work. Jesus needed raw material to work miracles -- water, faith, a kid's lunch will do.
We have a Covenant Discipleship group at church that meets weekly to offer support and accountability as we try to live out a covenant we made last year. One of the most difficult parts of our Covenant group’s daily practice is to pray for forgiveness for our part of those who starve each day. It is so hard to live with that daily reminder when we are surrounded by good food, and are worried about eating too much food, or just the right kind of food. We all worry, at some level, about the hungry of the world, especially children. We pray, “Lord, feed the hungry of our world.” We pray, “Lord, bless our food, and help the hungry of the world.”
But Jesus needs some raw material to work with. Jesus needs a starter loaf, a crop, a mustard seed’s worth of something. I’m reading a book about hunger by Don Messer, Bob Dole and George McGovern - Ending Hunger Now. It suggests three actions by the Christian to help the world hunger situation: make a commitment to become personally involved; link that personal involvement to your spiritual life by, perhaps, prayer and fasting; and then participate in one of the faith based organizations working to end hunger. Like our work with CHUM, or Heifer Project, UMCOR, or Advance Specials. In other words, do something about it. Give Jesus a little raw material to work with.
We pray, "Jesus, feed the children."
Jesus says, "What have you got? Bring it to me."
I've been at Hope for three years now. It’s been delightful to watch this church gain strength and stability the last few years. That first year was hard -- when I returned from maternity leave we cut the budget, began a building project, found out we had a unbudgeted roof to fix and a new fire alarm system to put in. I wondered how we would gain financial stability. But we have. We have done all right. The congregation gave, a kids lunch at a time.
And when we have ministry that needs to be done, pretty much someone steps up to do it. We could use an extra Sunday School teacher or two right now, but pretty much we have gotten what we've needed. You've given a bit of yourselves to the church.
We say, "Jesus, we’d like the miracle of having our financial problems solved, we’d like the miracle of having a thriving church."
Jesus says, "What do you have? Bring it to me."
We long for miracles in our own lives as well. We long for peace, for love, for security, for health. We long for safety for our children. We long for meaning in our lives. We long for a reason to get up, we long for a community where we can belong.
We pray, "Jesus, make us whole. Jesus, fill us."
And Jesus says, “What do you have among you? Bring it here to me.”
July 23, 2006
(We had worship outdoors today, and passed out baskets of smoked fish and pieces of bread during the scripture reading and sermon. We had some leftover.)There are many kinds of miracle stories in the Gospels - healings, walking on water, turningn water into wine, and the feeding of the 5,000. This is the only miracle story to be found in all four Gospels - some details vary a bit, but this story appears in all 4.
This version is a bit more detailed - in Matthew, Mark and Luke the disciples say, “How are we going to feed everyone?” Jesus says, go find what you have. Then we have John, where Jesus asks Philip how they are going to feed everyone, to test him. (Notice all through the book of John Jesus says things but the writer reminds you that Jesus knew what was going on and only said things to heighten the drama.) The disciples all come up with the same amount of food - 5 loaves and 2 fish. In John, however, they are from a boy, a lad. They are described as barley loaves, buns, really, and of a poor person -- the poor ate barley and the rich could afford wheat.
Then, with these meager resources, Jesus blesses the food and gives it to them -- sounds like communion, doesn't it? -- and feeds 5000 men, plus those who were with them. And they were full; they were satisfied. And there were leftovers.
We know from many of the miracle stories that Jesus doesn’t work in a vacuum. When Jesus went home (in Mark) he could work no healings because the people there didn't believe in him. He doesn’t, or can't, heal people who have no faith at all. The person themselves, a friend, someone has to believe for the healings to work. Jesus needed raw material to work miracles -- water, faith, a kid's lunch will do.
We have a Covenant Discipleship group at church that meets weekly to offer support and accountability as we try to live out a covenant we made last year. One of the most difficult parts of our Covenant group’s daily practice is to pray for forgiveness for our part of those who starve each day. It is so hard to live with that daily reminder when we are surrounded by good food, and are worried about eating too much food, or just the right kind of food. We all worry, at some level, about the hungry of the world, especially children. We pray, “Lord, feed the hungry of our world.” We pray, “Lord, bless our food, and help the hungry of the world.”
But Jesus needs some raw material to work with. Jesus needs a starter loaf, a crop, a mustard seed’s worth of something. I’m reading a book about hunger by Don Messer, Bob Dole and George McGovern - Ending Hunger Now. It suggests three actions by the Christian to help the world hunger situation: make a commitment to become personally involved; link that personal involvement to your spiritual life by, perhaps, prayer and fasting; and then participate in one of the faith based organizations working to end hunger. Like our work with CHUM, or Heifer Project, UMCOR, or Advance Specials. In other words, do something about it. Give Jesus a little raw material to work with.
We pray, "Jesus, feed the children."
Jesus says, "What have you got? Bring it to me."
I've been at Hope for three years now. It’s been delightful to watch this church gain strength and stability the last few years. That first year was hard -- when I returned from maternity leave we cut the budget, began a building project, found out we had a unbudgeted roof to fix and a new fire alarm system to put in. I wondered how we would gain financial stability. But we have. We have done all right. The congregation gave, a kids lunch at a time.
And when we have ministry that needs to be done, pretty much someone steps up to do it. We could use an extra Sunday School teacher or two right now, but pretty much we have gotten what we've needed. You've given a bit of yourselves to the church.
We say, "Jesus, we’d like the miracle of having our financial problems solved, we’d like the miracle of having a thriving church."
Jesus says, "What do you have? Bring it to me."
We long for miracles in our own lives as well. We long for peace, for love, for security, for health. We long for safety for our children. We long for meaning in our lives. We long for a reason to get up, we long for a community where we can belong.
We pray, "Jesus, make us whole. Jesus, fill us."
And Jesus says, “What do you have among you? Bring it here to me.”
posted by Michelle at 2:26 PM
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