Here are the scripture readings and the sermon for this past Sunday… for your personal meditation. Unfortunately we were unable to record and post the service from Sunday.
2
Kings 4:42-44
42A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” 43But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” 44He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.
Psalm 145:
10-18
10 All
your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall
bless you.
11 They
shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power,
12 to
make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your
kingdom.
13 Your
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all
generations.
The Lord is faithful in all his
words, and gracious in all his deeds.
14 The Lord upholds
all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The
eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.
16 You
open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is
just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Ephesians
3:14-21
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
John
6:1-21
6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea
of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd
kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the
sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his
disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was
near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward
him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to
eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he
was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would
not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of
his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There
is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among
so many people?” 10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now
there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five
thousand in all. 11Then 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. 12When they were satisfied, he told his
disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be
lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of
the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When
the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed
the prophet who is to come into the world.”
15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
The
Sermon
When
Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him
king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
- This Sunday happens to be what I’d
call “an embarrassment of riches.” There is just SO much in the Gospel to
preach about – The multiplication of the loaves and fish, the boy’s
sharing of his lunch, the twelve baskets of leftovers, the walking on
water, the call to not be afraid in the middle of a storm, and the
immediate arrival of the boat even before Jesus is taken into the boat,
and more. We could each take our pick and go from there. My family kids me
about the loaves and fishes, saying this is the passage our cats, Pangur
Ban and Maeve, want to hear about most.
- Meals in John’s Gospel have a special
meaning and place. John sees this multiplication of loaves and fish as a
sign of the messianic banquet that is yet to come. (So is our simple
communion and –if you’d like- our pot-lucks as well.) The huge amount of
leftovers are a sign of the plenty found in God’s grace and reflected in
the banquet-to-come. Even the use of the boy’s picnic lunch (barley pita
and fish) shows that Jesus can and will use what he finds within us for
the Kingdom.
- What struck me was the part about the
crowd wanting to force Jesus into becoming the King. They had just eaten
their fill and now things were going to turn political. They saw an
opportunity to have all they wanted all the time. Jesus was to be a means
to an end, a tool and creature of their desire rather than the fulfillment
of the desire of creation.
- They wanted Jesus on their own terms,
which means they didn’t want Jesus as Jesus; they wanted their own terms –
a full belly every day and doing what they wanted between meals. In John’s
Gospel and in the life of Jesus, this was not to be. Jesus withdrew
again to the mountain by himself and avoided this trap.
- The Kingdom is what the crowd missed.
I think the boy caught on right off, but the rest of those gathered that
day did not see the Kingdom of God. They saw the Kingdom of Bread and what
it meant for the way they wanted to live their lives.
- Jesus could fulfill their needs. If he
fulfilled their need for food, would it be enough? Would they be
satisfied? Would they eventually complain about it like the Hebrews
complained to Moses about the manna?
- If they had their “bread King”, would
they ever work together for the Kingdom of God? Would they be a community
that “loved one another”, the hallmark of the early Christian community ? Or
would they keep their unlimited bread to themselves? Would they change
their focus from their bellies to the Kingdom? With full bellies, would
they reach out to others and offer what they had?
- Those are questions that can’t be
answered since Jesus “short-circuited” them by going to the mountain
alone. He often would find time alone in prayer at pivot points in his
ministry. The pivot here is that the crowd ate but did not understand what
they had seen with this meal and its twelve baskets of left-overs. They
saw food and missed the banquet of the Kingdom.
- Jesus’ escape to the mountain and his
walking on the water are signs of the Kingdom. As miraculous as they might
be, their role as signs of the Kingdom might be missed. It depends on
whether those seeing actually see Jesus on their own terms or on his. The
Kingdom of God is about the entry of God’s rule and God’s grace into every
aspect of creation rather than the fulfillment of our expectations and
grand designs. The Kingdom will lead to change in each of us.
- John wrote When Jesus realized that
they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he
withdrew again to the mountain by himself. He would not be
what was expected, no matter how wonderful that might have been. He would
be who he was – the Messiah willing to suffer and die –and rise- for the
unexpected Kingdom of God.
- What is to come is still beyond our
understanding and our expectations, and it’s for the best. We’d probably
still want a “bread king” when what we need –and have- is a king of grace
enthroned on the cross.
When
Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him
king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
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