Sermon Title: "Abundance"
Date: July 26, 2009
Minister: Rev. Susan Bjork

Lesson:  John 6:1-14

I have struggled this week with how to talk about abundance in light of the economic challenges we, as a global community, face right now.  After all, we are all pretty well aware of the global problems of widespread hunger, access to clean water, lack of adequate shelter, and access to basic medical care that many on our planet deal with on a daily basis.  And, most of us know friends, neighbors, family members, and even our own selves who have been affected by rising unemployment, market instability, and shrinking retirement funds.

Perhaps it is a lot easier right now, in light of all these financial problems we face, in light of the injustice we see, to focus on a real feeling of scarcity, a feeling of insecurity, perhaps even a tendency to hold on tighter to what we have, lest more of it be lost. 

And it certainly is not my intent to make light of these feelings because I’m willing to bet we’ve all experienced them at one time or another.  We have all focused on scarcity at one point or another…perhaps it was lack of money that we were concerned about…if only I could afford that house…perhaps it was lack of energy to complete a certain task or carry on in a particular career…I just have to get that report written…perhaps it was lack of time with a loved one who was dying…life really can seem so short sometimes.

These are real experiences, real feelings.  Part of being human is that we long for what we don’t have; we wish for what we want and think we need.  Sometimes these feelings of scarcity are a little less serious…after all, do we really need that new trendy outfit we can’t afford when we have plenty of perfectly fine clothes that fit? 

Other times these feelings of scarcity are a much more serious and touch the core of our being very deeply…we may have great faith and great hope in life eternal, but for most people I know that does not make saying goodbye to a loved one and experiencing the very real physical separation of death easy.  It’s not easy.

So, if experiences of scarcity are a very real part of the human experience, how do we, as people of faith, proclaim a God of abundance?   And what does the feeding of the five thousand have to do with this anyway?

Well, let’s start by entering into the story.  We’re going to try something a little different today.  I want you to go ahead and close your eyes if you want to…seriously! 

Imagine you are part of a crowd of five thousand people.  You have been following the crowd for a little while now…wondering about this Jesus who has been teaching…wondering who he is, why he’s here, wondering if the rumors that he can heal the sick are true, wondering if what he teaches will really affect you…after all, you are just a small child…a person of no real consequence or influential power in the eyes of the Roman Empire…you might not be the poorest of the poor, but neither are you rich…you have just followed along with this crowd out of curiosity. 

Imagine you stop on a hillside as the moving crowd slows; the grass is slightly dewy and soft beneath your sandaled feet.  The heat of midday approaches and your belly begins to rumble with hunger.  So, you pull out the food you have brought with you…two small fish, perhaps caught in the Sea of Galilee and prepared this morning and 5 bite-size loaves of barley bread, perhaps kneaded, baked, and wrapped up by your mother in the early hours of dawn.

Just as you are about to eat, you look around you and realize that no one near you has brought food with them.  For a moment you think about sharing your meal with those close by you, but are hesitant because there isn’t enough to go around.  In the next moment you consider hiding away the food you have brought, planning to save it until the crowd disperses and you are once again alone.

But just as that thought passes through your mind, you realize that it is too late.  One of Jesus’ friends is walking toward you.  As he makes his way over to you, he encourages the crowd to sit down and get comfortable.  He asks for your two fish and five loaves and you give it to him.  You’re not really sure if you want to give up your lunch, but perhaps you are also curious as to what he is going to do with your small amount of food.  So, you sit down with the rest of the crowd and wait.

The man takes your food to Jesus as everyone watches.  The chatter that had filled the air quiets to a hushed whisper as Jesus takes the bread and the fish, gives thanks and blesses them and begins to offer them around to the crowd.

“Well, there goes my lunch,” you think.  But just as you think it, someone’s gasp gets your attention.  You look around and realize that what was once just enough for you has now become enough to feed five thousand.  And soon you too are partaking in this miraculous feast.

Now that you have eaten all that you could want, you look around to realize that not only has everyone there had their fill, but Jesus’ friends have been able to collect twelve baskets of leftovers…enough for food for all to be filled with enough left over for another day…all from your two measly little fish and barley bread.

If you’ve closed your eyes, you may now open them.

The story of the feeding of the five thousand is a story of abundance; it is a story of miraculous transformation.  What was small and seemingly scarce is transformed into a sufficient amount and then some.  What was brought to serve the needs of one was transformed into a bounteous feast for the multitude.  And the seemingly fixed, mundane, everyday elements of bread and fish were multiplied, expanded, and transformed by the grace of God.  Not only were bellies filled, but hearts were filled too…filled with awe, filled with wonder, filled with faith, filled with hope.

God’s grace is something we often talk about abstractly.  Like love, the experience of grace is somewhat difficult to find words for.

Part of what this story does is it makes God’s grace tangible in the offering of food to those who were hungry.  Certainly we may talk about the spiritual nourishment received as well, but I would be an irresponsible preacher if I were to neglect the very real, physical, bodily element of this story.  And that is that Jesus, in his pastoral wisdom, saw the needs of those who followed him and he gave them what they needed…in this case, food.  Through the experience of being fed, literally fed, those present experienced Jesus’ compassion; they experienced God’s grace.

Those of you who have helped serve food at Christian Outreach in Action here in Long Beach or have done that kind of service elsewhere know that feeding a hungry person is no small thing.  And for many who are hungry, the experience of being full is nothing to take for granted.

You see, those people in this story who at first glance saw scarcity as their reality were invited to taste, savor, and chew on abundance…the abundant love of a God who invites us to feast just as we are, on a hillside, where it’s not even necessary to have a table…the abundant grace of a God who perceives our longings and our hunger pangs and responds with lavish mercy…the abundant presence of a God who knows our fears and responds with a gentle embrace and encourages us to share God’s nourishing power in our communities with each other.  

What an experience that must have been!  What an experience it is to open ourselves up to receive God’s abundant grace, to strive to be vessels for others to experience God’s abundant grace.

You know it is no accident as we listen to John’s telling of this story that we begin to think of other feast stories.  On one hand we might recall the Exodus story in which the Israelites are given manna in the wilderness.  That too was a tale of a God who provides nourishment, guidance, and sustenance in the midst of what seems to be a barren landscape where scarcity, not abundance, is the obvious state of things.

John’s gospel also particularly focuses on Jesus as the host and provider of the feast as he feeds the five thousand.  It’s almost liturgical and ordered as if an act of worship.  Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, distributes it, the people take it and eat until they are satisfied.  After the fragments are gathered up, people begin to proclaim God’s abundant grace present in Jesus whom they call prophet, messiah, or savior.

So naturally this story recalls for us another feast Jesus shared, this time not with five thousand, but with only his disciples in the upper room on the night of the feast of the Passover…another meal in which Jesus used ordinary food, in this case wine and bread and transformed it into a banquet of God’s abundant grace.

In the time that followed Jesus’ death, I’m guessing that the disciples needed to remind themselves many times of God’s abundant grace.  They knew what scarcity felt like.  They knew what it was like to have everything they’d hoped for turned upside down.  And I’m guessing that it took awhile for the Easter reality of God’s abundant grace to really sink in after all they’d been through.

So let’s be gentle with ourselves and let’s not get down on ourselves in those moments when proclaiming God’s abundance is harder than others.  We all have our moments.  And the life of faith is a process…sometimes easier, sometimes harder.

You know one of my favorite moments at camp last week was when all the juniors spent the night camping out at Johnny’s Tree Farm.  As we were settling in to go to sleep I had one camper who was right next to me on the tarp start to cry.  She was scared…scared of the dark, scared of the strange nighttime forest noises she heard.  And she was homesick.  She had been homesick most of the week.  Going to camp was a totally new thing for her as was just about everything she was doing at camp, including sleeping outside.

So I, and another counselor, laid there next to her and talked to her.  We all looked up at the bright, beautiful stars and talked about how many there were and how bright they were away from the city lights.  And soon she calmed down and before too long she fell asleep.

The next morning when she awoke and we began to pack up our belongings to return to camp, she looked at me and said, “I really liked looking at the stars last night!”  I smiled at her and said, “me too…looking at the stars always makes me feel small and amazed at how big the universe is…how big God is.”  She said, “Yeah it’s really neat!”  I told her I was proud of her for trying something new and that I hoped she was proud of herself too.  She said she was.

You know, I think we sometimes need to remind ourselves of God’s abundant, present love in our lives.  That’s why we need stories like the feeding of the five thousand.  That’s why we need to stop and take notice of the beautiful wealth of stars in the night sky.

When we are in the middle of hard times; when scarcity seems more real than abundance…that’s when we especially need to recall Jesus’ compassionate invitation to the feast of God’s grace…that’s when we need to imagine ourselves giving what we have, small as it may sometimes seem, over to a God who can transform even two little fish and five little loaves into sustenance for the multitude.  If we can trust enough to let God’s transformative love fill us, I think we might be amazed.

May the abundant grace of our loving God fill you and sustain you this day!

Amen.