Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "Getting What You Need When You Need It "
Date: July 30, 2006
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  John 6:1-15

You may not like automated interactive voice response telephone systems, but they can be helpful.  Whenever I need to refill a prescription, either from my local pharmacy or the 90-day supply through my insurance, I just call the number, punch in my prescription number and the last four digits of my phone number, and an automated voice tells me how many refills I have left.  By entering the proper prompts on the keypad, I can determine what day and time I wish to pick up my prescription locally, or how I want it mailed if it’s the national plan.

Automated voice response systems can be annoying as well, as I’m sure you’ve come to realize.  A few days after my mother’s death last month, I sat down with all her Social Security, insurance and annuity policies and made calls—one by one—to each of them.  I had to enter the Social Security number.  Which Social Security number, I wondered:  hers, or my late father’s through which she got her Medicare benefits?  Then I had to enter the account number.  Then choose the item I was calling about from a menu of numbers.  When I finally got through to a real live person—who said their name so fast I could scarcely make it out—the first thing they wanted was her Social Security number and account number . . . again!  I wanted to ask, “Doesn’t it show up there on your screen.”  Then, after they got that and found out why I was calling, they transferred me to another person who handled that specific item.  And the first thing I had to do was give her Social Security number and account number.  (Early on, at least I found it was hers and not my Dad’s they wanted!)  I eventually got what I needed, but that Tuesday was a very long day on the phone.

The classic example of getting what you need when you need it is contained in today’s story of the feeding of the 5,000.  That it occurs in all four gospels is a clue that it was an important story about the ability of Jesus to provide very personal and powerful service.  The crucial point here is that the people had an immediate and pressing need, an immediate Person to address that need, and an immediate response to the need.

The crowd that gathered by the Sea of Galilee had some definite needs.  John 6:2 tells us that many had come for healing, seeking the cure that getting close to Jesus might provide.  Not only that, they were likely far from any town or village that could provide them with some fast food options.  These people were hungry — physically and spiritually.

Jesus knew this and was about to give his disciples the ultimate lesson in customer service.  Seeing the predicament that was fast reaching crisis proportions, Jesus turned to Philip and asked, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” (6:5)  It’s a rhetorical question, a problem that cannot be easily addressed by simply calling the local bakery and pressing “1” and punching in a credit card number.  There was no cell phone reception on that hillside.

The disciples are thinking scarcity rather than abundance.  Philip does the math — six months’ wages wouldn’t be enough to give all these people even a bite of food.  You can almost imagine the disciples circulating among this crowd with people recognizing their closeness to Jesus and asking them questions: “Can we see Jesus up close?  Got anything to eat?  Can you tell me if I can get healed here?”

Much as you might hear an automated voice on the telephone telling you there is a high call volume today and your wait time is so many minutes, the disciples too might try to distance themselves from the problem of too many people and too little food by simply pointing out that there would be no real possibility of the crowd getting all their needs met personally by Jesus today.

That’s why the disciples frequently saw themselves as a band whose function it was to keep the crowds from getting too close.  They kept little children at bay, until Jesus reminded them that “such” are the kingdom of God.  That scripture is imprinted on the wooden cross we present every child who is baptized here.  The disciples tried to keep the blind and disabled from getting too close to Jesus as well.  They saw themselves as an insulating layer between the people and the Christ — as though Jesus needed their protection.

From our earliest Sunday School days we’ve probably thought this was a story about a miraculous feeding, but it’s essentially a story about access.  Will these people have access to Jesus who can — and will — feed them; that is to say, respond to their questions and their needs?

Do you think you have access?  Do you know it?  Or do you assume that when you punch the keypad on your cell phone, you’re going to get a menu?

Do we understand that Jesus offers access?  That there is indeed a menu, but it’s a menu of loaves and fishes, a menu in which Jesus says, “Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.”  (Matthew 7:7)

Sure, Andrew finds a boy with some loaves and fishes, but in the midst of a crowd this big (5,000 men, plus women and children), someone has calculated that would be the modern equivalent of a 747 jet filled with passengers sharing one packet of airline pretzels.  That’s a problem that isn’t covered in the manual, so the crowd is essentially on hold.

But that’s when the real miracle occurs.  Imagine that you’ve called your insurance company in a panic and, lo, a person picks up the phone and it’s the CEO himself waiting and wanting to address your needs.  How would that make you feel?

That’s essentially what happens.  Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish that have been brought to him and invites the people to have a seat.  He then begins to act like the host of a Jewish meal, extending the invitation, making his guests comfortable, and then distributing the meal himself. (6:11).  While the other three gospels say that the disciples waited on the crowd after Jesus blessed the meal, John’s version focuses on the service of Jesus himself walking among the crowd and handing out bread and fish.

This story is about what Jesus wants to do.  Unlike in the other gospels, Jesus is not moved here by his compassion.  No one had been complaining that they were hungry.  No murmurs from the crowd.  No restlessness.  Nothing even from the disciples.  There is no excitement among the crowd.  This is not a group of people caught up in the mystery of the feeding:  ‘Will all 5,000 of us really be fed by five loaves and two meager fish?’

In the story, at least, no one seems to care.  The story is less about the magic than about the man.  It is Jesus who suggests the meal to the disciples, not the other way around.  It is Jesus who distributes it.

That simple act provides an overflowing abundance of food, but also of hope for the crowd.  Some scholars believe that Jesus simply pointed out the boy’s act of sharing his lunch and that encouraged everyone else to share what they, too, had, but such an interpretation misses the real point of the miracle.  Jesus had not only given these people food, but in a larger sense he had also given them himself — his touch, his compassion, his word.  Later, he would go so far as to allow himself to be broken and his sacrifice distributed as grace for all people in need of hope.

The crowd responds with ultimate customer loyalty and satisfaction — they want to make Jesus king (6:15).  Jesus would ultimately be considered king, but not according to their mortal definition of power and prestige.  His call would be for them to serve others and give of themselves, following his example.  As Christians today, we are called to do no less.

In next week’s Carillon, you will read two thank you letters we received last week.  One follows a call I received from the chair of the board of Centro Shalom the very day they received the Missions Commission gift of $10,000 to assist them in their new facility.  The letter details how Centro Shalom has helped the needy in our area for the past 29 years.

The other letter is from the director of the CARE Family Food Bank at St. Mary’s Medical Center.  He tells how, since their funding has been cut by the Los Angeles County Office for AIDS Programs, the families who come every two weeks for food are very dependent on the $200 a month in Smart and Final grocery scrip we provide, as well as the food we continually collect in the bin in the Concert Hall.  We also provide $200 a month in scrip to Long Beach Rescue Mission and Christian Outreach in Action.

These are but two examples of how we attempt to answer Jesus’ call to serve others, to provide them what they need when they need it—most often to people we do not see and will never know.

My favorite scripture passage is from Matthew 25:40.  Jesus is speaking of the Last Judgment and when he speaks to the blessed who will inherit the kingdom, they inquire when and what they ever did to deserve this.  His reply is:  “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

(Portions of this sermon adapted from a sermon on the John text entitled

“Jesus Doesn’t Use IVR!”, Homiletics, vol. 18, no. 4, July 2006, pp. 41-46)