"The Bread of Life"

Marty Albershardt

Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church

Psalm 145: 10-18 and John 6: 1-15

July 26, 2009

This week, I received four different mailings asking me to contribute money for food, locally and around the globe: Unicef, the Capital Area Foodbank, Feeding America, and Bread for the World. The need for food is overwhelming! How can we adequately respond? You might be thinking, as I am: what little I have to give seems hardly enough to matter. But we know every little bit helps.  

And at times like these people are praying for miracles. They're looking for signs of help. This morning we'll explore the best known miracle in the Bible, the Loaves and Fish, in the Gospel of John, and look for signs, signs that point towards the miracle of God's abundance. 

Our passage from John begins as Jesus has come out of Jerusalem after healing and teaching there. It's from John 6: 1 - 15. Listen to the Word of God...

Our story today is probably familiar to you! It's about scarcity and abundance, a huge crowd and not enough food. It turns our ideas about economics inside out. It's about being empty and being full - not just our wallets, or our stomachs, but our spirits. What fills you up? Are you feeling empty, are you hungry?

For years, miracle stories have inspired belief, that's why they are told in the Bible, but to our modern ears, they often inspire skepticism. We are like Philip and Andrew in this story, wondering!

This is the only miracle story about Jesus that is told by all four gospels.   So it was very important to the early church. In the book of John, the theological emphasis is on how God is revealed through Jesus Christ. The people had been waiting for a prophet in the tradition of Moses. God promised the arrival of a Messiah who would satisfy the people's needs for food and justice. They remembered the promises, from Psalm 81: 

        I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Now Jerusalem wasn't far away and those who had seen him heal followed Jesus.   They interpreted the healing Jesus had been doing as a sign. The Greek word for sign, semeion, is also sometimes translated as: miracle.

By this time on the journey everybody must have been tired, hungry - a frazzled time. A time we all know when our temper is shorter and we are more irritable. It's that end of the afternoon time, at five or six o'clock, when we've had it and we need to sit down, and eat. 

In this story, Jesus anticipates the travelers' needs. There's theological significance for us here. In our Reformed theology God comes to us, pursues us with irresistible grace, love, bringing abundance for which we haven't even asked.

Jerusalem was unprepared for the enormous Passover crowd, spilling out into the surrounding countryside. People were bumping into each other on the dusty road, children running ahead, it was noisy. All these people crowding in were mostly peasants.   Their normal diet was mostly "bread and salt, along with olives, oil, onions and perhaps some grapes." The needs of the peasants were not important to the elite of the city.[i]

But from Jesus, we see outrageous and amazing hospitality. Jesus is the host at this event, and according to the numbers, 5,000, this is like what some of you may have seen at a rock concert or a folk festival. 

Imagine you are in the crowd. It's happening right here on the hillside, by the water, a natural amphitheater. The harbor, the busy wharf at the Sea of Galilee is within view, at the bottom of this hill. This is where you and the rest of the pilgrims have disembarked from a boat that took you across the lake. The hillside where our picnic occurs is right on the trail to the Temple in Jerusalem. You are hungry but you don't feel you have anything to share. Your pockets are filled with coins, because you're making your way to the only Temple, where they would exchange their money in the outer courts, and buy small animals and birds as offerings to God. During Passover you would be reminded of the story of the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt, up out of slavery, words you recall from Deuteronomy (8:3): 

          He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you       with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were      acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not        live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the    mouth of the Lord.

By now, the crowd is saying, "we're hungry!" Maybe he will feed us. But Jesus has anticipated the need even before the people ask. Let's look at his leadership style. He asks Philip, " Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" And Philip very practically talks about how much it will cost. Do you hear people in the church reacting this way to mission, or other projects? Philip had the same concerns we do. We might say, "These are difficult times, and how can we do anything? How can we change economic conditions?   Then Andrew has an idea. He suggests receiving what the boy has offered: five barley loaves and two fish, but he also thinks it's impractical, impossible even, to achieve the goal of feeding all the people. Then Jesus sees the vision and leads like a shepherd. He says: "Make the people sit down" - it sounds like Psalm 23 to me:

         He makes me lie down in green pastures ...he leads me beside quiet waters...

The grass feels cool and fragrant, and I'm so tired that I lie down. Are you kneeling, still trying to see Jesus and the disciples and what they're doing?

As I wait for the basket to be passed I remember this from Isaiah

49 (8-13):

        They shall feed along the ways, on all the bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst... Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into        singing! ?For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have         compassion on his suffering ones.

While we wait, maybe we do a little singing...

And I wonder, how can there be enough for everyone?

Suddenly someone says: "It's a sign. I think there's enough! It must have happened when he blessed the food!" And another says: "Maybe it's because a little boy gave up some of his food."

To you and I, we hear echoes of the Lord's Supper in the words from John (v. 11):

      Then Jesus took the loaves;

      and when he had given thanks,

      he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish...         as much as they wanted...and they were satisfied...

Here comes the basket... I can smell the bread, and I see tiny bits of fish... some herbs...a little oil. Wow, eating this outside on the green grass with everyone makes this a wonderful feast. This makes me think of the joys of sharing food together, like Julia Child saying, in French: "Bon appetit!" Or Lidia, saying, in Italian: "tutti a tavola a mangiare," everybody come to the table and eat! 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if at communion our hearts were filled with such enthusiasm as that, for the abundance we receive, when we say: "We lift up our hearts!"

John Calvin believed that in worship and the sacraments

we sit here, in the crowd, in church, and all around us is a liturgical dance of the Trinity. God comes to us and God fills us. God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit. Abundant and amazing grace!

Our story says the people had "as much as they wanted"... and "they were satisfied!"(v.11-12) Filled! Writer Barbara Brown Taylor thinks that people at this feast might have had a little traveling snack in their pocket, and shared it by putting a little bit in the basket as it went around, so there would be enough for all.[ii]

The crowd wanted to pursue Jesus after this as a king, but he knew that his was not a conventional calling, as an earthly king. And so he retreated.

How wonderful it is that we have so many in our church, especially among our young adults, going to live and learn in parts of the world where meals are morsels, and where sharing meals is not just a nice thing or optional like it is here, and where rice is the daily bread. 

My daughter Liz, who is twenty-two, a member and a deacon in this church, spent five months during this past year in The Gambia, in Africa, studying and learning the language Wolof, and working in a preschool, but she also living closely with two family groups - one in the city and one in the countryside. She spent enough time to no longer be treated as a guest, and to be fed like one of the group. And that means a common bowl, sitting very close together, eating with one hand; small portions according to how many mouths there were gathered together. The oldest woman, one of the mothers takes the main items in the middle of the bowl. There might be a big cabbage leaf, cassava, onions, a fish or two, and the rest the main part of the meal, rice or millet. She "cuts" them with her hand into little portions - this reminds me of Jesus in our story. Liz said that the practice of the oldest female dividing up the food is everywhere. Even if she gave a little piece of candy to the children they would run and get the oldest female among them and they would count all of the kids, and she would bite it into teeny, tiny little pieces so that everyone could have a taste, because EVERYONE had to have some. There is always enough for all. 

The people came to Jesus because they trusted him. They were hungry. They counted. Food was given. They heard that he was the one who healed. He seemed trustworthy. Jesus did not ask for any proof from them, all were welcome to eat with him, and he ate with them, and he extended his grace to all: the sick, the poor, the Samaritans, non-Jews, women, children, even those who are skeptical. There was no security screening to get through, no stamped hand, no ticket, or sticker. Jesus didn't ask! But he promised. And his food was surprisingly satisfying, and there was plenty, and all were welcome. 

What can we notice here, about Jesus' message, about who he is, and about his vision for the Kingdom of God? If we could hear his voice from where we sit here in the crowd, I think we'd hear him say: 

        Here, all are welcome. 

        Bring what little you have. 

        There will be enough for all. 

        Lift up your hearts,

        and be filled!

Amen.