I love this reading. It\u2019s one I think most people know \u2013 even those who have never come to church. It contains two of Jesus\u2019 miracles \u2013 walking on water and somehow managing to feed 5000 people. We often dismiss it as a children\u2019s story \u2013 somehow trying to tell us something, we\u2019re not quite sure what\u2026 but certainly that there wasn\u2019t suddenly \u2013 magically enough food to feed 5000 people when moments before there were just five loaves and two fish.<\/p>\n
We think like this because this is what our lives have taught us. I often think of Jesus and the Disciples as a sort of PCC \u2013 because that\u2019s what I know! I can see them sat around a rock in the middle of a field with an impending crisis.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, onto our next agenda item\u2026 um\u2026 where did we get to? We\u2019ve done building and plant, we\u2019ve done matters arising, did I sign the last set of minutes? Ah yes, here we go\u2026 item 5. Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?\u201d<\/p>\n
All eyes turn to the treasurer\u2026 they all know the difficult truth\u2026 the accounts are not strong\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cUm\u201d replies Philip\u2026 \u201cIt would take about six months wages and we\u2019d still not actually feed everyone properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus looks on knowingly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u201d says another disciple, \u201cif we can\u2019t do it properly is it worth doing at all?\u201d Another disciple cutting across him \u201chang on, we can\u2019t seriously consider this can we? What about our donation to the orphan fund of Galilee? We didn\u2019t have enough money to do that how can we do this?\u201d. \u201cNo no\u201d another voice dives in. \u201cThis is MISSION! If we do this we can be seen to be helping people and that will bring more people to meet with Jesus!\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cPhilip\u2026 what do we have in the mission account?\u201d \u201cWell\u2026\u201d replies Philip, \u201cwe could just about manage it but I\u2019m not sure what the point is if we want to get good PR \u2013 as I said \u2013 there wouldn\u2019t be enough to give everyone more than a small amount\u201d.<\/p>\n
I can see Jesus listening to all this. As ever, the disciples disagreeing with one another, everyone trying to get their point across \u2013 all very good points of course \u2013 all worth listening to \u2013 but they all miss the point. They\u2019ve already missed the first miracle. And so have we.<\/p>\n
What is the first miracle in this reading? Is it the multiplication of the loaves and fishes? No\u2026 the first miracle is in the second verse.<\/p>\n
\u201cA large crowd kept following him\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first miracle is one that we can understand as humans \u2013 it requires no faith or belief in the supernatural \u2013 in fact in attempting to engage with the two other miracles in this reading we miss the easiest for us to understand. We can understand it because we do it each day, each Sunday. We follow Jesus \u2013 because he speaks to us.<\/p>\n
What is truly wonderful is not that a (seemingly) human being could multiply loaves and fishes but that this man could inspire thousands of people to follow him \u2013 physically \u2013 across a sea! That this man could represent such hope, such healing, such love that people would follow him about to such an extent that in another part of the bible we learn that Jesus had to go out to sea a little in order not be crushed and so that he could be heard by such a large crowd.<\/p>\n
The fact that people followed Jesus then, and still follow Him today is the first miracle. If we understand that then we can start to engage with the rest of the reading. When we understand that miracle then our conversations about problems that seem so huge that they can\u2019t be \u2018fixed\u2019 become different.<\/p>\n
We all understand that\u2026 what\u2019s the point of engaging with homeless people? Do we ignore it \u2013 because we can\u2019t fix it \u2013 it\u2019s too big a problem. Do we attempt to do somethingthat we can label as Mission and can attach a press release to \u2013 because in being seen to \u2018do good\u2019 we attract people to the church? Do we immediately turn to our accounts to try to figure out what we mightbe able to do?<\/p>\n
We can be so overwhelmed with the size of our problems that our response is to engage with the detail in front of us and forget that we are all in a boat together, rowing towards the other side of the sea, apparently without Jesus \u2013 only to find he\u2019s there ahead of us, but not in the way that we were expecting. We get stuck in thinking that we\u2019re in the boat rowing and that\u2019s the thing in front of us we need to concentrate on.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s another way of looking at overwhelming problems, and that\u2019s one of the messages from today\u2019s reading. How do we feed these 5000 people?<\/p>\n
We do the small things that are in front of us.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve just come back from St. David\u2019s and I was reminded of his last words to one of his fellow monks:<\/p>\n
\u201cBe joyful and keep the faith. Do those little things you have seen and heard from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it struck me once again how important that is. \u201cDo the little things\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jesus tells his disciples to ask everyone to sit down. He then takes the loaves and the fishes, and he starts to hand them out. From that small step, from that tiny start He then feeds the 5000. He didn\u2019t just feed them \u2013 first He gave thanks \u2013 he prayed \u2013 and then He fed them in abundance. He fed them until they were satisfied. In fact so much that there were left overs \u2013 12 baskets!<\/p>\n
In this miracle Jesus has offered us a pattern of how we may approach those things that are too much, too big, too difficult.<\/p>\n
We start with the most important. We give thanks, we pray. We do that each and every week we meet \u2013 we pray for the world, for its needs, for His church, we pray for each other and for those in need. We give thanks.<\/p>\n
The next step is to start to feed people. Feed people with the love and knowledge of Jesus. Feed people until they are satisfied, until there is too much to go around. With enough knowledge and with enough love of Christ then these enormous issues will start to be tackled. We don\u2019t always know how. There isn\u2019t a project plan with a neat deadline date and milestones that need to be met along the way. We can\u2019t measure the performance of this sharing of the knowledge and love of Christ. But we know, because Jesus tells us and because we have faith, that in the end all things will be well.<\/p>\n
This is all very well \u2013 but what does this look like in the world today? Let\u2019s take an example from Hereford. Several years ago we saw the horrendous, heart breaking pictures and videos from Calais of refugees gathered on the coast of France trying to get to the UK. The big international aid agencies were essentially banned from helping and the French and British governments were trying to do everything they could to break up the large camp that had been established \u2013 they succeeded and dispersed 10,000 desperate people along the Calais \u2013 Dunkirk coast.<\/p>\n
What could we do? What could we hope to do for 10,000 people in another country? We started with prayer. We gave thanks for Jesus in our lives and then we started doing the small things in front of us. We collected sleeping bags. We collected food. We drove out to Calais and gave it out.<\/p>\n
That was a tiny scratch in the problem in front of us, but we continued to do the small things in front of us. Many people were doing these small things and over time those small things started to add up and a group called People In Motion grew out of those small things. People In Motion \u2013 amongst other small charities – drew together lots of people who were doing small things and they are just one small part of lots of other people doing small things and now in Calais there is a distribution point, a warehouse and people on the ground trying their best to make an impossible situation better.<\/p>\n
They do it through prayer, through love and through the small things in front of them.<\/p>\n
And because of that 5000 people get a hot meal every day. 5000 people get prayed for, every day.<\/p>\n
And that everybody \u2013 thatis a miracle.<\/p>\n
From the marrows and pumpkins of the West Hereford Team, 5000 people get a hot meal. From the 20 sleeping bags we collected, 5000 people get a warm night\u2019s sleep. From the 40 bags of donated clothing at the Team Office, 5000 people get clean cloths free from tear gas.<\/p>\n
From our prayers, 5000 people know that they are loved.<\/p>\n
Miracles happen each and every day. Pray. Do the small things in front of us.<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love this reading. It\u2019s one I think most people know \u2013 even those who have never come to church. It contains two of Jesus\u2019 miracles \u2013 walking on water and somehow managing to feed 5000 people. We often dismiss it as a children\u2019s story \u2013 somehow trying to tell us something, we\u2019re not quite … Continue reading “Sermon on John 6 1-21 – Feeding of the Five Thousand – Jesus walks on Water”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[226,228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}