In the name of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Have you ever read a story, one that you have read many times before, and have a character pop out at you as if that person had never been there before? You wonder how you never noticed the significance of the person’s actions in all the many times you read the same words? Well, that is what happened to me when I read the Gospel for today. A character I barely noticed before jumped off the page and demanded my attention.
“There is a boy here”, Andrew told Jesus, “who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Imagine this young boy. Thousands of people gathered on the grass along the side of the Sea of Galilee. Thousands of people who are far from home, who have been draw together by this man who brought healing to the sick. They come without food and without money. Seeing the people, Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip, being ever practical, looked around and calculated in his head that not even 6 months wages would be enough to give each person a taste of bread. No, not possible to feed this group. Andrew also looked around, assessed the need in relation to the resources he has found among those gathered and came to the same conclusion. No, not possible to feed this group. The need is too great. Yet we have this young boy, quickly passed over by the disciples, not even named in this story, this young boy offers the little he has brought with him. In the face of huge need he offers what he has. 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. How have I not noticed this boy before?
He has changed the way I view this miracle story. The number of people in need doesn’t daunt him With a hopeful heart (and maybe a healthy amount of naïveté), he simply offers to the community what he has. And in Jesus’ hands, his small offering, becomes enough to feed more than five thousand people. This simple meal becomes a feast.
It seems to me that the miracle isn’t just that two thousand years ago Jesus multiplied the bread and fish, it is also the actions of this boy. That makes this story also about a miracle that can continue to happen today.
What if he had kept this food to himself? What if he was overwhelmed by the great need around him and didn’t think to offer his gift? What if he kept his food to himself, fearing if he gave it up he would be left with no food for his journey. But he didn’t allow fear or insecurity get in the way, rather he opened the possibility for miracles to happen.
When I’m faced with great need, I know my temptation is to think that my small gift can’t make a difference. I wonder if that ever happens to you? Sometimes I think we are tempted to say that the gifts God has given us aren’t enough. We hold back because we think what we have to offer won’t make a difference, or it isn’t perfect enough yet, or we are scared there won’t be enough left for ourselves. Holding back doesn’t serve anyone. Holding back doesn’t give Jesus the opportunity to work in and through us. We see this morning that amazing and astounding things can happen when we place what we have into the hands of Jesus.
We don’t have to look far to see this truth in our own lives. I was reminded of it this past Thursday when I attended the worship service at the Crossing. The crossing is a church community housed at the Cathedral that truly welcomes everyone. It is filled with people who spend their lives on the margins of society. These women and men, many who thought there was no place for them in church, many who had given up on God, found a community in which they can be fed at the altar and be sent out as agent of God’s love in the world. This all started 7 years ago when the Rev. Stephanie Speller, their lead organizer had an idea of a different way of being church. She gathered some young adults together to imagine what this could look like. They never could have dreamed of the successful ministry that now exists. What if Stephanie or those she gathered looked at the spiritual hunger around them and decided it was just too great? If they had looked into their hands and said, we don’t have enough or let’s wait until we have our plan perfected, hundreds of people would not have been touched by the loved of God and this life-giving and life-changing community would not have been born. By placing what they did have in the hands of Jesus and in service of the community, their gifts multiplied, people were fed, and Christ Jesus was made known.
Or we can think about Circle of Hope, an organization that now serves hundreds of homeless and poor people in Boston. This organization that has helped so many people started with a few donations in the garage of a Christ Church parishioner. Imagine if she or the leaders who followed her looked at the number of people in need and did nothing.
These are just two examples but I bet if we pulled this group together we would have as many examples as there are people in this chapel. We can trust the words written by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, “now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generation, forever and ever.”
The invitation in today’s Gospel reading is to be like the boy who gives what he has in order that all can be fed. No matter how insignificant it might seem to us we can trust that in the hands of Jesus, great miracles can happen, much more than we can ask or imagine. Great abundance is possible.
Amen.
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