Today’s Gospel lesson tells of Jesus taking
a small amount
of food, blessing it,
and turning it
into a feast for thousands.
It’s a central story in the New Testament, the only miracle
recounted in
all four Gospels.
It’s obviously super important but what does it mean?
When Jesus did something miraculous
it wasn’t to
hear the crowd gasp and then applaud
like
at a magic show.
He was trying to show us something.
The next time Jesus saw this crowd
he challenged
them for just eating the bread
but
not seeing the sign.
They had missed the point.
Mark’s account of this story is close to John’s.
Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes.
That night he walks on water to help the disciples
when they are
having trouble on the sea.
When he gets in the boat, Mark says,
“They were
dumbfounded because they had
not
seen what the miracle of the loaves meant.”
So what does this miracle mean?
It’s a story of transformation, change,
miraculous
change that happens by God’s grace.
The point is not to get stuck at the material literal level.
It isn’t about changing a little bread into a lot of bread.
It’s about changing hearts trapped in scarcity
into hearts of
abundance.
It’s like the Eucharist.
One liturgical scholar reminds us
“The Eucharist
isn’t about changing bread;
it’s about
changing lives.”
Just so, Jesus’ miracle of the loaves
is an outward
and visible sign
of inward and
spiritual grace.
Let’s stay with the food situation and bring it up to date.
963 million people live with daily hunger.
Each year, 3 million children die of malnutrition before the
age of five.
A child dies of hunger-related causes every five seconds.
But there is already enough food to feed everyone.
The cost of eradicating world hunger is less
than the
United States and Europe spend on pet food.
The problem isn’t our capacity to produce food.
The problem is with our hearts.
Hunger is a spiritual issue.
Senator Mark Hatfield said,
“We stand by
as children starve by the millions
because we
lack the political will to eliminate hunger.
Yet we have
found the will to develop missiles
capable of
flying over the polar ice cap and landing
within a few
hundred feed of their target.
This is not
innovation.
This is a
profound distortion
of humanity’s purpose on earth.”
We don’t need more food, more houses,
more of any
material thing.
We need more love, more grace, more generosity.
St. Paul’s prayer in our Epistle lesson
describes the
kind of change of heart
the
miracle of the loaves represents.
It’s the same change of heart the Eucharist represents.
He prays that God “out of the riches of his glory” will
bless us
in these ways:
That we might
be strengthened in our inner being
with
the power of the Holy Spirit;
That Christ
might dwell in our hearts;
That we might
be rooted and grounded in love;
That we might
comprehend the depth and breadth
and
height of God’s grace;
That we might
know the love of Christ
which
is beyond the reach of human understanding;
That we might
be filled with God.
Brothers and sisters salvation does not just consist
in what
happens to us in the afterlife.
Salvation is becoming radically changed
right down to
the core of our being
– not
someday – now, today.
Is that possible?
The resounding answer of Scripture and our faith is Yes!
Paul’s lesson concludes by reminding us
that this
isn’t something we do.
It’s something God does.
And, in Paul’s words, “God’s) power working in us
can do
infinitely more
than all we
can ask or imagine.”
There is no limit to what God can do.
Remember what Mary said to the Angel Gabriel
at the
Annunciation? She said,
“ How is this
possible?’
And the angel said, “All things are possible for God.”
God acting though an illiterate peasant girl in Galilee
brought forth
the savior of the world.
Do you think God can do anything less in you?
Do you think God cannot touch your heart
and change
your life?
What are our lives about, Friends?
What do we spend ourselves on?
“Getting and spending we lay waste our powers,”
Wordsworth said.
And it’s true. We slog along through lives
that are
beneath the dignity of human nature.
But God can change that.
God wants to change that.
God wants to transform us
– to transform
each individual heart in this room
– and to
transform us together into agents of change
in
this darkened world.
God did not want 120 children to die of starvation
during the
time of this sermon.
God wants to change that – but he’s not going to do it
with a magic
trick.
He wants to eradicate hunger though changing us,
through
opening our hearts to compassion and mercy.
Christ wants to live in us.
The Holy Spirit wants to empower us for abundant life
and bold
action.
Are we willing?
God can do anything,
but some
things God will not do.
God will forgive us whether we like it or not.
God will love us whether we like it or not.
But God will not change us without our consent.
When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ today,
will we
receive it as sustenance only
– or
will we be transformed?
Are we willing to live a larger life,
a life that
will not tolerate the cruelty and injustice
of
this world?
Are we willing to undertake a mission
that is beyond
our human power
so
that we have to rely on God’s power?
Are we willing to be transformed into the likeness
of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ?
How long will we live in his exile?
How long will we tolerate the desolation
of a routine,
respectable, mundane life?
When will we become the people our Maker
intends us to
be?
That is what salvation is.
Salvation is becoming whole.
Salvation is coming into our own,
being
transformed into our true selves.
When will we be saved?
Paul answered that question for the Corinthians.
He wrote: “(God) says, ‘. .
. In the day of salvation I helped you.’
I tell you,”
Paul says, “Now is the time of God’s favor,
Now is the day
of salvation.”
God speaks to us in the now.
Now is the time to become a new being,
a child of
God, worthy of our parentage.
Now is the time to be strengthened in our inner being
and invite Christ
to dwell in our hearts.
Now is the time to be rooted and grounded in love;
so that we
comprehend the depth and breadth
and
height of God’s grace.
This is the day to know the inestimable love of Christ
and be filled
with God.
And before the sun sets, “God’s) power working in us
will do
infinitely more
than all we
can ask or imagine.”
