The Best Supper

John 6:1-14

All week long I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with a good story to begin this morning’s sermon.  Rolling the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 over and over in my mind, like Winnie the Pooh sitting on his thinking log, I thought and thought and thought trying to come up with even one story that would set the tone for the challenge faced by Jesus and his disciples as they faced those 5,000 hungry people in this morning’s scripture lesson. 

Finally, on Wednesday morning, realizing that I was simply not going to come up with an appropriate story, I asked Nancy if she had an idea.  “Honey,” I said, “Can you think of a time when we were sitting down for dinner and somebody showed up that we weren’t expecting and we didn’t know how we would be able to feed them.”   She too thought for a minute, then replied, “Not really, because any time that something like that has happened, we just call the delivery place at the bottom of the hill to bring us up whatever we need.”  And that’s when it hit me.  The set up story for this morning is that we don’t have a story.  Because never in my life have I ever had to face a situation where I was in want to the degree that I couldn’t take care of those seated at my dinner table, as well as anyone else who might happen to show up unexpectedly. 

And I’m sure that for most of you, the situation is the same.  Let’s face it, we are all extraordinarily blessed, and have seldom, if ever been in extreme want.  And so it’s nearly impossible for us to relate to the experience of the disciples in this morning’s scripture.  Think about it, if it were us standing there with Jesus on that hillside facing a hungry mob, we’d just call out for pizza.

But the disciples weren’t that lucky.  Instead, they found themselves late in the day standing on a desolate hillside face to face with a hungry and tired crowd of 5,000 people.  And they couldn’t begin to imagine a way out of their dilemma.  But as usual, Jesus response to the situation was very different from pretty much everyone else.  By looking at the way that the story is told in all 4 Gospels, you can almost begin to picture the disciples running around in a panic. In each of these 4 Gospel versions of the story, we are presented with the full spectrum of responses that the disciples displayed. 

In Mathew, the disciples try to pawn the problem off on Jesus by telling him to do something about it.  In Mark’s Gospel, their solution was to send the people home so that they could feed themselves.  In Luke’s version of the story, the disciples just basically freak out.  They throw up their hands and say “There’s nothing we can do!!”  But John’s gospel is unique, for in his version of the story, it’s not the disciples who identify the problem and attempt to come up with a hair brained scheme to solve it.  It is Jesus who first perceives the situation.  John tells us, “Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, “How are we to buy bread so that these people may eat.” John 6: 5

In typically limited human fashion, Philip answered him “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”  We see that Phillip was overwhelmed by the need.  But thankfully the situation was not entirely left in the hands and hearts of the disciples which were so full of human nature.  Not only did Jesus first perceive the situation, but he also knew the solution as well.   And Jesus answer to the problem is intimated in the little sentence that John adds after Jesus’ question as to how it was that they would ever buy enough bread for all these people to eat.  John adds, “This he said to test him (Phillip), for he himself knew what he would do.”

But before we can go any further, we can’t forget to note that there was another essential player in this drama of divine grace as well.  And that is of course the little boy who showed the love of God in his willingness to share his meager little lunch.  It was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother who first took note of the boy and said to Jesus, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish.”  And once that young boy was willing to share his little bit of food with these strangers, Jesus plan was set into motion and at the end of the day there were 12 baskets full of leftovers for the disciples to collect from this crowd who a short while before had nothing to eat.

Jesus solution was a collaborative effort that provided for the need presented that day.  Jesus solution was a process that combined the abundance of God with the faith and willingness of the disciples and it was all set in motion by the generosity of a little boy who was willing to share his supper.  And that perfect formula more than provided for all those that were gathered there that day.  And so we come to understand that God’s ability, joined together with human generosity can solve any need in the world.

Much like Jesus’ disciples, we face a daunting challenge this morning as well.   Just as hunger gnawed at the stomachs of those gathered on that hillside by the sea of Galilee 2,000 years ago.  There is a powerful hunger afoot in the world today as well.   First there is a physical hunger.  Just check out these statistics, One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.  Every year 15 million children die of hunger.  But how about right here closer to home?  The Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6 elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet and that one out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.   Here is the most sobering statistic of all.  Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.  Count it out 1… 2… 3… 1… 2… 3… 1… 2… 3… 1… 2… 3.  Four people just died of hunger, think about it. 

And what of the spiritual hunger that grips our world as well?  There is a tremendous spiritual vacuum in our world, yet Christian churches close by the thousands every year.  Increasing stress, decreasing morality, divided families, and an ever growing sense of religious pluralism has presented us with a situation where the need for God’s people to reach out to the world around us and clearly communicate Christ’s love and grace in word and action has never been greater.   People, the physical and spiritual hunger around us is reaching epidemic proportions, and Jesus stands before us this morning as he did that evening in Galilee and he is once again asking, “How are we going to provide the bread to meet the spiritual and physical needs in the world?”

We look at the need around us and sometimes, like Philip are tempted to say “we have no way to take care of all this need.”  But the miracle that took place on that hillside 2,000 years ago reminds us that when we combine the abundance with which God has provided us with a healthy dose of faith and willingness and then stir in the yeast of generosity and sharing, we have at our fingertips the sort of power and ability to feed the world with the bread of life, God’s love and grace. 

You see, God has given us adequate resources to feed the world physically and spiritually.  We know that we have enough to accomplish the job.  The question is, will we be willing to share what God has given us in such a way that Jesus design for creation can reach it’s fulfillment.?  As Carroll E. Simcoxonce wrote, “If somebody goes without his daily bread, as happens too often, it is not because God has failed to provide a sufficient quantity of our daily bread but because somebody has failed to recognize that it is ours and hot his own, and has failed to share.  This is man’s failure, not God’s.”

In just a couple of moments I am going to invite you forward to present to God your pledge of financial support for the ministry of our congregation for the year 2008.  And as you do so, I want you to think about all of those hungry mouths and starving souls that surround us, and remember the miracle that took place on that Galilean hillside, 2,000 years ago, and the assurance we have that if we are willing, God will provide.  I want you to look inside of your heart and find that part of yourself that wants to make the world a better place, then visualize the way that each and every dollar that you give to this church goes to feed the physical and spiritual hunger that besets our world today.  May God bless the gift and the giver as we come forward in faithfulness to feed the world with the bread of life.
Amen.