July 25, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Ephesians 3:16-21; John 6:1-14[1]
How much is enough? I suppose it depends on when and where
you ask the question. The answer depends on your state of mind, and the
circumstances in which you find yourself. If you’re just making it day by day,
hunger satisfied by even a small meal is enough. A little food can make the difference
between a good day and a bad one.
Look at this another way, however, and the question becomes
much more open-ended. If you have enough to fly a private rocket from a private
facility to the edge of space, is that enough? I find it strange that folk with
very little can find just a little to be enough; but those with more than
enough often think there is never enough and always more it needed.
Our story today of Jesus feeding a large crowd, five-thousand
or more, is one that all four of our Gospels tell. Each telling has its
nuances, of course, but the basic story is the same. A large crowd, thousands.
It is time to eat. There is only a little food. Jesus takes what there is,
shares it, and everyone eats and is satisfied.
The crowd kept following him. It wasn’t because they were
hungry, at least not physically hungry. The text says it was “because they saw
the signs that he was doing for the sick” (v. 2). It was the healing miracles
that drew the crowd, though I’m sure they expected a speech, some lessons, or at
least a parable. What they did not expect was supper. The amazingly abundant
feast, with basketfuls of leftovers, was surprising. It brought to mind a story
of the prophet Elisha, giving a little food to a crowd of people. “He set it
before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.”[2]
This is the sign that causes them to begin to call Jesus a prophet.
Is a little enough to make a difference? Not if you believe
in scarcity. In the minds of the disciples, Philip and Andrew, it certainly
wasn’t. Philip focuses on the financial – they would need six-months wages to
feed so many, which of course they don’t have. Why would Jesus ask such a silly
question? Where are we to buy bread? With what money? Impossible. Andrew
notices a boy with food they might appropriate, but there’s not enough. What
are five loaves and two fish among so many people?
That sounds like a lot of church meetings, actually. There’s
not enough in the budget to buy new curriculum for the Sunday School. We need a
new secretary, but can we find anyone willing to work only five or ten hours a
week? There is too little to even begin thinking about something new.
Jesus operates out of abundance. Rather than stopping at the
obstacles, he goes ahead with instructions to be generous. Take what we have
and give it to them, and see what happens. Unexpected, remarkable to give away
what we might need for ourselves. The opposite of scarcity, this confidence in
abundance is striking. How can so little make a difference?
We have learned scarcity in our society. Just as the greed
of billionaires might be described as a sickness, scarcity is a sickness of society.
The Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay writes, “Scarcity is a sickness, not of the
individual body, but of the community that has resources it withholds out of
fear of deprivation.”[3]
If I give away what I have, there won’t be enough for me or my family. There is
never enough as it is. Besides, what difference can I make with so little?
Was the miracle that God multiplied the bread and fish, that
two became four, became eight, became twelve baskets of leftovers? And where
did the baskets come from? That may be the miracle. I find it just as
miraculous, however, the idea that after Jesus shared what little he had,
people began to open their own bags or baskets and share what they had intended
to keep for themselves. Generosity inspires generosity; confidence changes minds
oriented toward scarcity to refocus on abundance. As Dr. Lindsay suggests, “Could
the lesson be not just that Jesus can multiply, but that the miracle doesn’t
happen until we stop clinging to what we have and place it in God’s hands?”[4]
There is a subtle detail that John includes in the telling
of this story. It is not the disciples who have the loaves and fish, but a boy
from the crowd. What an intriguing nuance. When the size of the crowd was noted,
it was the men who were counted. The women and children were a side note. Matthew’s
Gospel actually says that there were “five thousand men, besides women
and children.”[5] The
New Revised Standard Version of John’s Gospel reads “about five thousand in
all,” (v. 10) but the original Greek specifies men. So, who offers bread and
fish to the disciples? Someone who wasn’t even worthy of counting.
How often does our society ignore or dismiss those deemed
too young or inexperienced? Who might have something creative or innovative to
offer, but their contribution isn’t welcome due to their age, gender, race, or
abilities? Yet here we have a boy who provides the means to deliver a miracle.
It wasn’t much. Just a little bread and fish. It wasn’t enough to feed
everyone, but it was enough to make a difference.
Do we have enough money, or bread, or love to change the
world? Surely not. But in the hands of Jesus, a little can be enough. We don’t
have to have a master plan, with all the paperwork filed and receipts filled
out before we start to serve the world in ministry. We can’t do it all
ourselves, but we don’t have to. The mission of saving the world is not all on
our shoulders, or on the shoulders of any one person or group of people. It’s
not even only on the shoulders of Americans, or Christians, or adults. Because,
you see, all of us count, not only the men but also the women and children. Not
only us, but them. Each contribution matters, however small.
Felicia once told me a story called “The Tale of the
Starfish.”[6]
It comes from a longer essay by Loren Eiseley called “The Star Thrower.”[7]
A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands
of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each
starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People
watched her with amusement.
She had been doing this for some time when a man approached
her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You
can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”
The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few
moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she
could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made
a difference for that one!”
The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about
what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing
starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were
saved.
Amen.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] 2 Kings
4:44.
[3]
Cheryl Lindsay, “More Than Enough” for Sermon Seeds, Sunday, July 25, 2021
at https://www.ucc.org/.
[4] Ibid.
[5]
Matthew 14:21, italics mine.
[6] “The
Tale of the Starfish” from https://www.thestarfishchange.org/starfish-tale.
[7] Loren
Eiseley, “The Star Thrower” in The Unexpected Universe, Copyright © 1968
by Loren Eiseley and renewed 1996 by John A. Eichman, III.
