Trinity 7 – 26 July 2009
There is a sentence that comes in the middle of our Gospel this morning which I find very helpful. “When Jesus realized that they were about to come and make him king he withdrew again to the mountain by himself” John 16.15.
The human race has a tendency to seek for a saviour, a king, someone who will solve our problems, take responsibility and return us to good order and safety, so that we can get on with our lives in peace. President Barack Obama, poor man, is seen by many as our present saviour, President Kennedy was another. For the Germans in the 1920s and 1930s Hitler offered such a promise. Some appeal to our worst characteristics of tribalism, while others offer a kind of pan-nationalism which seems to promise universal peace.
As you look forward to the arrival of Jonathan Lloyd this week as your new chaplain, I am sure that none of you think that he is going to be a panacea for everything at St Albans and that in one giant leap he will relieve you of all responsibility. Though I do think that the arrival of a new incumbent can lead to a great sigh of relief with a suggestion that now he or she has arrived we can all sit back and let him or her get on with it.
That’s not the way it is. For the whole point of the Church is that it is a school of discipleship in which we learn together to live in Jesus’s way in order that we may then live it in our daily lives, in our community, within our families, amongst our neighbours, though whatever work we do, and in our daily activities and relationships. There’s no escape once you set out to follow Jesus.
Those who wanted to make Jesus king had entirely misunderstood what he was up to in feeding the 5,000, and indeed when he later came to his disciples in their boat in the middle of a storm. Jesus’s point is not that he can miraculously feed 5,000 people. If he could do such miracles then there was nothing very marvellous about it – it’s just something he could do. What he is doing is teaching first the disciples and then the crowd about their own capacity to do miracles, and about God’s availability to them when they live by faith.
It is significant that we are told that Passover is near. Passover when the Jews remember God’s provision for them as they leave Egypt and go through the Red Sea at the beginning of their 40 year journey to the Promised Land. God orders them to pack unleavened bread for the journey, and that order contains the promise that if they will trust him then he will sustain them throughout their journey.
The message is “Use what you’ve got and you will find that you have sufficient for your needs.” This is true of them corporately rather than individually. If they share there will be enough for all, if they only each look after themselves some, probably many, will go short and they will fall to pieces as a people.
And it is the same message that Jesus is giving to his disciples and to the crowd. You need feeding – look within. What resources have you got? “Fives loaves and two fish” comes the answer from Andrew, “and” he adds “they come from this small boy”. Not the first person you would look to in order to feed 5,000 people. So part of Jesus’s message is that when we need to do something – and the emphasis is on need not luxury – then look and see what you already have amongst you to do the job. And don’t just look to the obvious people who always come up with answers (or perhaps as often with reasons why it can’t be done!), look to everyone and perhaps especially to those who often get overlooked and forgotten, perhaps even excluded.
And then the bread and fish are taken. In this case by Jesus, in our time by someone, anyone, but someone, because it is important to take note and value what you discover you have, and then to give thanks to God, as Jesus did. And then to share. We don’t know what happened. Whether Jesus did miraculously multiply the loaves and fish – the business of filling the 12 baskets with the fragments suggests there was much more at the end than at the beginning - we don’t know.
But the miracle for me is that what was very little was enough, so that all were satisfied. I feel that really these people were hungry to be taught by Jesus and these small pieces of bread and fish fed them spiritually, so that all were delighted. No one had ever treated them like this before. Everyone felt included and ministered to. No wonder they wanted to make Jesus king – but to do so would be to miss the point.
Jesus wants them to realize that he does not have a monopoly on God. God is available to us all, he provisions us so that we can make our contribution to the needs of one another, of our community, of the world. But we have to learn to do it together, though if others won’t then we may have to do it alone, as Jesus himself had to, and as many other have had to through the ages.
In the second part of our Gospel reading, Jesus has retreated to pray alone on the mountain and the disciples have set out in a boat in stormy weather to cross to the other side. And then we are told Jesus came to them walking on the water. Again we do not know what actually happened, but I do not think the main point is a miracle. The point is Jesus is with them when they are without him and frightened by the storm. Jesus and God in him is available to them so they must not be afraid. They must keep their heads.
And I wonder if that is the point of the 12 baskets of fragments. The fragments could represent the new faith that the 5,000 have received through their feeding. The faith that they carry away with them to feed them on the journey of their future lives. They had not just been fed for that moment but for the future. They were now equipped to help others to discover the truth of God’s availability.
And this in turn should feed the disciples, the 12. Twelve baskets to encourage the disciples to see how this gospel of Jesus is to spread not just through them but through many others. And Jesus’s appearance on the water confirms the message, that even when he appears to be absent he is present and that if they will trust then they will have the resources to carry them through whatever challenges, difficulties and opportunities they face.
Jonathan comes this week to help you to grow in this faith, as you will help him to grow in it. He comes to lead you into new ways, to let go of some things that are familiar but hold you back, and to discover new ways of being the Church of Christ here at St Alban’s and you will help him to discover new ways too. The ministry of the Church is always mutual – we move together and we help each other to grow.
Jonathan and Sue will need your prayers, your love and your care of them as you will need theirs. There will be many opportunities for you to feed each other and together to feed others, and for walking across the waters of stormy weather to bring comfort, support and encouragement to each other and to others. And to discover together God’s availability in Christ, not only for you but for all people. If we trust in that, then there will be many miracles to help us on the way.