In the 1980 S One Man Became Synonymous with Ingenuity and Creative Ability

In the 1980’s one man became synonymous with ingenuity and creative ability.

This man had the ability to take everyday items and use them in ways that us mere mortals would be unable to.

His cat like mind could solve any problem with nothing more than duct tape and a Swiss army knife.

Who is this man?

MacGyver.

For those of you unlucky enough not to know MacGyver well lets just say you’re in for a treat.

MacGyver is a secret agent that works for the US government and gets sent on missions.

He doesn’t like to use violence as a means to an end so he finds creative ways to solveseemingly unsolvable problems.

For example he repairs a blown fuse using the aluminum wrapper of a stick of chewing gum to bridge the blown fuse.

He uses two candlestick holders, a floor mat, and an electrical powercord as a makeshift defibrillator to revive a fallen comrade.

This is MacGyver in action.

Some of his creations are less convincing then others but his propensity for taking normal and sometimes useless things and using them to solve complex problems eventually coined the term MacGyverism which almost made it into Webster’s Dictionary.

A MacGyverism means to do the impossible.

Today we find ourselves faced with a MacGyverism.

Jesus has just gotten word that his relative John the Baptist, a fellow worker in the kingdom of God, has been executed, beheaded to be more specific, by King Herod.

He finds himself needing some time alone as many of us do when faced with death, and so he heads off to a lonely place to grieve.

But no sooner does he get to this lonely place and the crowds are there to greet him.

Jesus own sorrow is soon overshadowed by his intense compassion for the crowd.

His own pain moves to the side as he has compassion for the crowd, com-passion meaning with suffering.

He finds himself suffering with them and therefor is compelled to act.

He spends the day healing their sick and soon evening approaches.

As the sun goes down it’s apparent to the disciples, if not Jesus, that the people need something to eat.

Perhaps the disciples are annoyed at the never ending need before them or maybe they themselves are just hungry but either way they scold Jesus for not being aware of the reality that’s right in front of him.

Jesus seems so caught up in their problems and spiritual needs that he’s failed to recognize their basic physical ones.

“Send the crowd away so that they might go into the villages and buy some food,” they bark at him.

And it’s here that our impossible problem enters the story.

Jesus promptly throws the ball back into their court.

“They need not go away, you give them something to eat.”

So let’s see, they are in a lonely place, far away from any food, there are five thousand men, besides women and children and as the disciples promptly inform Jesus there are only five loaves and two fishes.

What the heck is wrong with you Jesus?

Any person in their right mind would see that this equation doesn’t add up.

The challenge before the disciples is impossible.

They really need MacGyver but maybe, just maybe, Jesus is up for the task.

Jesus takes the loaves and fishes, looks up to heaven, gives thanks, breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples to distribute.

And what do you know, everyone ate and was satisfied.

It’s a true MacGyverism.

Jesus takes a seemingly impossible situation and does the impossible.

He takes five fish and two loaves and feeds over 5000 people.

MacGyver would be proud.

But you know MacGyver would also be dumbfounded because he was a practical man that used everyday things to solve problems.

There wereno fancy miracles with something coming out of nothing just down to earth things put in the right place at the right time to do what was needed.

Jesus on the other hand seems to rely on some ability that none of us have, the ability to multiply bread and fish out of thin air.

One of the great debates through out Christianity involves the question of whether God in fact prefers to take nothing and make something, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat or take something and combine it into something new.

This second version, this taking pieces and weaving them together, is known in French as bricolage.

MacGyver is a sort of bricoleur, weaving disparate pieces of this world into something usable, and more than that using them to solve impossible problems.

So back to the question; is Jesus making something out of nothing or weaving together what is already there?

Does Jesus multiply the loaves or multiply the potential that already existed?

I think we can safely acknowledge that either way Jesus is the primary actor in this drama.

Whether it’s through his ability to make more where there is nothing or bring together what is already there, it is Jesus at the center of this drama.

And it’s pretty obvious that the disciples, while practical in their solutions, do not have the wherewithal to see the potential or the part that they play in this feeding.

For the disciples the problem is simply offloaded to those sitting there, those who have come for words, healing and even the food they need to physically survive.

Let them go to the villages and find food.

Problem solved.

The disciples obviously fail MacGyver 101.

They fail to see what Jesus already sees.

The turning point happens when Jesus takes the loaves and fish, looks up to heaven, gives thanks, breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples to distribute.

Suddenly they aren’t trying to convince Jesus that the people need to be sent away but they’re caught up in distributing the food.

The practical reality; the insurmountable problem; whatever you want to call it fades to the background.

And there before them is Jesus, the MacGyver to end all MacGyvers, the master bricoleur, weaving together an impossible situation into something truly miraculous.

It seems that we don’t need to look very far to see the master bricoleur working.

More recently I think about our community garden.

Wood given, soil donated, soil hauled, hands hammering and digging, people of many ages and nationalities planting, water from the sky and through hoses, sunshine to nourish, people to pick and cook and eat.

One might even say that right there in our church parking lot, on a lonely piece of land that was formerly barren, a feeding of sorts has begun.

Some people might say that this is human potential coming together but I know that it’s much more than that.

We are a crowd gathered in a lonely place longing for healing and life.

“Look, this is all we have,” we cry out to Jesus in frustration at our own limitations and inadequacies.

“Give it to me,” Jesus says as he takes things like soil, students from Brazil and China, plants from REAPS and the warmth of the sun and weaves it together into the beauty right out front of our doorstep.

Give it to me Jesus says to each one of you, and I will take what seems like nothing and do the impossible with it.

In Jesus the impossible is possible.

You truly do open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing gracious God.

Thank you.

Amen.