Sermon Seeds: God’s Abundant Presence

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 12 color_green.jpg

Lectionary citations
2 Samuel 11:1-15 with Psalm 14 or
2 Kings 4:42-44 with Psalm 145:10-18
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21

Sermon Seeds

Focus Scripture:
John 6:1-21

Weekly Theme:
God’s Abundant Presence

Reflection:
by Kathryn Matthews (Huey) katehuey150.jpg

It’s tempting to read this story from the Gospel of John as one more example of Jesus’ compassion, with the feeling of communion added in, when Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, and distributes it to the hungry crowd. We would be missing so much, however, because we read from the weekly lectionary in short passages, missing the setting of the story and the progression to what comes afterward (or from what came earlier). We miss “the rest of the story” when we read the Bible in these short excerpts.

This week, we leave our Year B progress through the Gospel of Mark and read from the Gospel of John for a five-week reflection on the Bread of Life. Charles Cousar cautions us about the challenge of moving from one Gospel to another, because each one is set in its own “literary world,” each with its own “assumptions, purposes, and strategies” (Texts for Preaching Year B). Reading this passage all on its own, we miss the grand themes of the Gospel of John, and we might wonder why he places this story, which is told in all four Gospels (but not always exactly in the same way), where it is. We might also be left wondering why these two stories, the feeding of the multitude and Jesus walking on water, are connected in today’s reading. What do they have to do with each other? Yes, there is compassion and communion in these stories, but there is so much more.

While Jesus’ heart is touched by the hunger of the crowd, John is teaching us about what seems to be his favorite subject: the power of God in Jesus, and who this Jesus is. Of course, we learn who Jesus is by what he does (isn’t that true of everyone – don’t actions speak even louder than words?), but John’s powerful discourses by Jesus are not free-floating. The words Jesus said (the discourses) connect to these stories about what Jesus did (his signs, or amazing works of wonder). And so we have the disciples, down-to-earth (even up on a mountain) and overwhelmed by the crowd, computing the cost of feeding so many people. “Impossible!” they say, but we know that all things are possible with God, of course, especially, as Charles Cousar observes, with Jesus, “who redefines what is possible” (Texts for Preaching Year B). So this story is just as much, if not more, about the power of God in Jesus as it is about Jesus’ compassion for the hungry crowd. God’s power, after all, is “far more than all we can ask or imagine,” as we read in Ephesians 3:20b.

Are we asking for too little?

Ironically, the longing of the people for freedom from the empire that oppresses them, leads them, alas, to set their sights too short. It’s certainly understandable, and only human, that they would see Jesus as a miracle-worker and even as a potential king. Like their ancestors before them, they hold onto the promise of Deuteronomy 18:15, the promise of a prophet like Moses who will be raised up by God to lead them. Is it any wonder then that they see a good candidate for king in this man of power? Even the desire for a king, however, is too small a dream and falls far short of God’s dream for the people. Cousar describes the mind of the crowd as “utilitarian,” focusing on what this miracle worker can do for them, which “skews the reality of grace and seeks to make of Jesus a genie or an errand boy….” Instead, Cousar writes, Jesus is even greater than that prophet they had been waiting for all these centuries, even greater than “a wonder-worker” who will fulfill their every need and desire (Texts for Preaching Year B). We’re reminded of the Ephesians text that sings of God’s power to “accomplish far more than all we can ask or imagine.” Jesus wants to give us what we don’t even realize we need, at least not consciously; he knows what we need, deep down in our innermost, authentic human selves. Have we actually asked for too little, when God can give us so much more? Can we see beyond our immediate wants and expectations? How else will we begin to see where God is leading us?

In telling these stories, John recalls more than the text from Deuteronomy, more than the actual events of that day on the hillside or of that night out on the stormy sea. John is teaching us about God; in a sense, he’s “doing theology,” and he draws on the traditions of his people in order to connect all of these things to the larger story of God. Feeding the hungry masses and calming the troubled waters sound familiar, don’t they? As John P. Burgess observes, Moses faced a similar problem in the wilderness, asking “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?” (Num. 11:13). These are Exodus memories, memories of liberation and freedom, memories of promise and new life, but Burgess connects this story with other Old Testament memories as well. For example, someone bringing barley loaves that are inexplicably multiplied and shared would have also reminded the people of the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 2:42-44, and this mountaintop feeding recalls the beautiful promise in Isaiah or a feast on the mountain of hosts, “a feast of rich food” (25:6). In Jesus God is providing the Bread of Life, manna from heaven, and delivering us even from the waters that would engulf us (The Lectionary Commentary: The Gospels).

How do you explain a miracle?

Both stories in this week’s passage obviously recount great wonders, or signs, that Jesus worked. Many have tried to explain both miracles in rational terms, and the scholars have some interesting things to say about those post-Enlightenment efforts of the modern mind. First, Douglas John Hall thinks we’re focusing on the wrong thing when we concentrate on explaining the miracles of multiplying loaves or walking on the sea, when the more remarkable miracle is the hope that Jesus inspired in the masses that followed him, by his undoubtedly compelling presence and his awesome deeds. Hall suggests that Jesus’ powerful presence and deep compassion for their suffering and need might explain the ability of “ordinary, insecure and timid persons…to walk where they feared to walk before.” In his beautiful commentary on this text, Hall urges us to not to focus so much on these miraculous incidents that we miss “the wonder of divine grace that permeates the whole of life.” He laments the skepticism of our age that seeks to provide rational explanations for everything and loses “the capacity to wonder” at “the extraordinary within the ordinary” of our everyday lives (Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 3).

Perhaps the most familiar “rational” explanation of the feeding of the five thousand is that an act of generosity inspired many in the crowd to pull out the provisions they had tucked away and to share them with others (I was taught this interpretation when I was in school). Karen Marie Yust takes rather strong objection to such a modern reading that misses the point that John is making about God at work in our midst, God’s amazing power to completely “transform human expectations”; instead, we modern, self-sufficient types think it’s up to us humans to handle things, to help ourselves. (God helps those who help themselves, right?) Yust observes the power not of God but of shame in this interpretation, that is, getting people to share out of a sense of guilt: “God is no longer a miracle-worker unbounded by human laws, but a social manipulator who reminds people to share. Behavioral modification replaces amazing grace as the core of the story…” (Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 3). Just when we thought we had a nice, neat explanation for something beyond our understanding!

Worried people, worried congregations, God’s abundance

The scholars then apply John’s teaching about the power of God to the life of the congregation, our expectations for our shared life, and the need for those expectations to be transformed. What hope do we have in spite of perceived shortage and scarcity? Do we worry about whether we are being true to the gospel, speaking courageously, and acting boldly on behalf of all those who suffer, or are we worried about whether our church will be able to pay its bills? This is an especially pressing question during difficult economic times (that seem to go on and on, at least for some folks if not for all), when the temptation to concentrate on survival and maintenance might distract us from our true mission.

After many years in stewardship ministry, I understand that these questions are not necessarily and completely opposed to each other. We want our church to survive so that it can minister to the suffering and speak a prophetic word in a world that has often wandered from compassion and justice to hoarding and aggressively defensive self-interest. It’s understandable that we worry about shrinking endowments and offerings in the face of rising costs. However, Yust challenges us to focus not just on the “reasonable,” not just on “basic needs,” but on “multiplying resources,” so that we might experience “a revelation of amazing grace” (Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 3). There are those words again: grace, and amazing, both of which belong in a discussion of miracles and wonders. Have you ever witnessed such sharing, such wonders, such grace? Generosity itself is a miracle to me, and it expresses a power – God’s power – to completely transform lives. And I don’t mean the lives of those who receive as much as those who give.

Overwhelmed by the need

Speaking of those who give: the disciples of Jesus were overwhelmed by the need before them. If they didn’t feel a responsibility to meet that need, Jesus certainly raised their consciousness. They tried to assess the situation, measure their resources, and figure out a solution, but they seemed to feel powerless in the face of so many hungry people. Cheryl Bridges Johns draws a contrast between the power of God that was about to burst forth and the power that we think we have today: the power of knowledge. However, the better word she uses for today’s knowledge is “information,” and perhaps information dis-empowers us by discouraging us with the “objective reality” of what lies before us, the statistics and hard, cold facts (is it any wonder they’re called hard and cold?). It’s almost as if all the bad news around us about scarcity and overwhelming need make us feel the power draining from us.

On the other hand, Johns observes that John’s Gospel approaches “knowledge as power,” not the knowledge-as-information that inundates us but “love’s knowledge” which can take what appears to be little and indeed multiply it, just as Jesus could bless and multiply those few loaves and fishes. Imagine, Johns suggests, God responding to our prayers for the world’s needs with the question, “What do you have?” (Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol. 3). Think of the abundance many of us enjoy, even in the midst of economically challenging times: can we trust in God’s generosity, and find ways to share with one another? (This is not coming from shame/guilt, but from faith in God’s goodness and from delight in giving, and even more, delight in sharing as well. After all, we do this, as church, together.)

I found Cheryl Johns’ commentary quite thought-provoking, because I often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems and the needs of the world. And yet, what would happen if we trusted in the power of God to multiply in amazing ways the resources we have, and what would happen if we saw this as a communal question, not simply a personal one? What if we looked around and saw the extravagant generosity with which God has provided an abundance for us all, and marveled at this great wonder? Would we be moved not by guilt but by sheer joy to be part of a dazzling work of God to re-create our shared life in justice and compassion? My mother often spoke of God’s providence, which I’ve come to understand as more than just “enough for me,” or even better, “lots for me, just when it need it.” Perhaps our sense of community has been lost in an over-emphasis on the individual, and balancing the two would provide enough for all, with plenty, as the story says, left over, “twelve baskets.”

The larger story of John’s Gospel

Not only does this story recall themes and images from the ancient texts of Israel, but it also relates to the larger Gospel of John, and to the other Gospels as well. For example, when we hear familiar echoes in the way Jesus takes, gives thanks, and distributes the bread, we’re reminded of the Last Supper, when he would do the same thing at a meal in an upper room, just before his death. However, John’s Gospel is the one that doesn’t recount a Eucharistic meal in the upper room, so Fred Craddock calls this story “John’s theological equivalent of ‘the last supper'” (Preaching Through the Christian Year B). What follows the sharing of loaves is important, too, because John, unlike the other Gospel writers, draws political meaning when the people start talking about Jesus as their new king. John also follows a pattern that’s found elsewhere in his Gospel: Karoline M. Lewis writes that Jesus first performs a “sign,” then discusses it with those who witness it (a “dialogue”), and then uses it as a teaching moment (a “discourse”) with his followers as he interprets its meaning (New Proclamation 2009 Year B). That’s John’s approach to teaching us about the power of God, and about who this Jesus really is.

Next week, we’ll read this dialogue and discourse, and continue our reflection on the Bread of Life. For now, we can consider questions that may arise from this text about our theology of the Eucharist, with its emphasis on the Last Supper rather than on the feeding of the masses. Jesus’ work of wonder in this reading springs from compassion toward the crowds who come to him both physically and spiritually hungry, and it is an all-inclusive kind of response, not one that sorts folks out into two groups, “acceptable – you may come forward” or “you need to find someplace else to get fed.” I love to connect this story with the celebration of Communion, and recall that Jesus does not command his disciples to exclude the pickpockets, the spies from the Temple or the Empire, the merely curious, or the hangers-on, none of whom could presumably declare their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Jesus simply responds to human need, as he so often does, above all other considerations. How well does this mirror our celebration today?

And then there is the storm on the water…

The second story within the lectionary passage is much more closely related to the first than we might assume. Jesus resists, or more accurately, escapes the crowd that would have him as their king even if they have to force him to accept the position. He so often does this: drawing away by himself, presumably to pray, to listen and to rest. Perhaps that’s why he’s able to say so often, “Do not be afraid,” which is exactly what he says to the frightened disciples here. Jesus comes out to meet the disciples when they are, in a sense, in over their heads, right in the midst of the storm that rocks their boat, and he leads them to the safety of the shore.

There seems to be a growing sense of our individual need for rest and reflection (for “self-care”), whether we do well at it or not. But do congregations understand that they need the same thing? Having come from the Catholic tradition where a retreat meant drawing away to pray, be silent, reflect, and perhaps share on a deep level with others, I found that “retreat” in Protestant practice often means “to go somewhere else and work more productively.” This is my own experience, of course, but most Protestants nod knowingly when I share that impression with them. (Writers like Diana Butler Bass, Anthony B. Robinson and N. Graham Standish, among others, have provided reflections and resources for congregations interested in spiritual practice and revitalization.) Perhaps this text from John provides an opportunity for a pastor to invite church members to consider participation in a church retreat, time away to rest and reflect even, or especially, when we feel our boat rocking, and when our souls feel hungry for the More that is so much better than the “more, more, more” of our consumerist culture.

Not just “an intellectual matter for the philosophically curious”

Additional notes on the way John tells the story: yes, this is a comforting Jesus who feed the hungry and calms the frightened, but the greater significance is in the words, “It is I.” Haven’t we, and the disciples, been trying to understand more deeply who this Jesus is? Do the disciples, and do we, recognize him as the One who says, “I am”? Charles Cousar notes the different ways John uses the word “darkness,” not only for nighttime but for the lack of understanding on the part of the disciples. In this dramatic little story, Cousar sees a revelation of Jesus’ identity that is more than an “intellectual” question – for the disciples in that boat, it “makes the difference between darkness and light, terror and peace, death and life” (Texts for Preaching Year B).

Isn’t it an amazing experience to read this passage from John as we keep in mind the waters of baptism and the bread shared in a sacred meal? Is it any wonder that we speak of “mountaintop experiences,” when Jesus goes up to a mountain and teaches and feeds the people? And yet how often, like the disciples, we suffer from short-sightedness and fear. How often we take Jesus’ grace, Gail R. O’Day writes, “and twist it to conform to pre-existent systems of power and authority,” reducing Jesus to human standards of glory instead of “God’s glory.” Ironically, this glory is a tender response to basic human need – to hunger and fear, or, as O’Day describes it, “grace-filled pastoral care” (“John,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible). (As I read this text again this year, it occurs to me that the story is about the basic human experiences of hunger, fear, and fatigue – not a dry intellectual discourse to teach us about concepts, but a story to address our deepest needs, our deepest fears, and our weariness and need for rest.)  Perhaps we might hesitate to claim God’s approval for our glory-seeking and success, and turn our attention and gratitude toward God’s own glory and grace in Jesus by responding more fully to the suffering and need around us.

What is the “success” we hope for in our life of faith, as individuals and as congregations? What makes a church “great”? One approach to today’s text might recognize the abundance that is powerfully evident throughout, which appropriately leads to Jesus’ later words, “I am the bread of life.” Abundance everywhere: so many signs Jesus is doing, so many people following him, so many fragments left over, and not a one of them is to be lost. Where the disciples see scarcity, Jesus sees possibility and abundance. Twelve baskets left over, much more than enough for all, and yet nothing (no one?) should be lost.

What are we hungry for?

The crowds came out from their homes, their towns, seeking something from Jesus. What are crowds looking for today? When we see traffic streaming into places like malls and athletic centers, what hunger are they seeking to fill? What is the difference between abundance and excess? Perhaps these readings have something to teach us about fear, too, and fear is certainly the driving force underneath scarcity thinking. Fear measures the scarcity carefully (it doesn’t take long, after all) and says that there is never enough, and certainly not enough for everyone. Fear makes us feel like we’re sinking, sinking in debt, sinking in despair, sinking in depression and addiction and loss. Fear makes us grab onto the wrong things to protect and even save us, to pull us out of the stormy seas. Fear makes us arm ourselves to the teeth and then miss the hand that is held out to us, telling us not to fear, not to struggle, but to recognize that God is God, and we are not, and that we can float, in trust, on top of the water, resting, as Sören Kierkegaard said, on the buoyancy of God.

The Rev. Kathryn Matthews (Huey) serves as dean of Amistad Chapel at the national offices of the United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio (https://www.facebook.com/AmistadChapel).

You’re invited to share your reflections on this text on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at http://www.ucc.org/weekly_seeds.

For further reflection:

C.S. Lewis, 20th century
“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”

Chinese Proverb
“The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water; but to walk on the earth.”

Augustine, 5th century
“Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.”

Sue Monk Kidd, 21st century
“I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don’t even know it.”

Frederick Buechner, 21st century
“A miracle is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A miracle is when one plus one equals a thousand.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”

Walt Whitman, 19th century
“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”

G.K. Chesterton, 20th century
“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.” 

Lectionary texts

2 Samuel 11:1-15

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”

Psalm 14

Fools say in their hearts,
   “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
   there is no one who does good.

God looks down from heaven
   on humankind
to see if there are any who are wise,
   who seek after God.

They have all gone astray,
   they are all alike perverse;
there is no one who does good,
   no, not one.

Have they no knowledge,
   all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
   and do not call upon the Lord?

There they shall be in great terror,
   for God is with the company of the righteous.

You would confound the plans of the poor,
   but the Lord is their refuge.

O that deliverance for Israel
   would come from Zion!

When God restores the fortunes
   of God’s people,
Jacob will rejoice;
   Israel will be glad.

or

2 Kings 4:42-44

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.'” He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

Psalm 145:10-18

All your works shall give thanks
   to you, O God,
and all your faithful
   shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory
   of your dominion,
and tell of your power,

to make known to all people
   your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendor of your dominion.

Your reign is an everlasting reign,
   and your dominion endures
throughout all generations.

God is faithful in every word,
   and gracious in all every deed.

God upholds all
   who are falling,
and raises up all
   who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you,
   and you give them their food in due season.

You open your hand to all,
  satisfying the desire of every living thing.

In every way God is just,
   and kind in every action

God is near to all who call,
  to all who call on God in truth.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

John 6:1-21

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Liturgical notes on the Readings

In ecumenical liturgical practice, there are normally three readings and one psalm at each Sunday service, in this order:

First Reading: Hebrew Scripture
Response: Psalm (or Canticle) from the Bible
Second Reading: Epistle (or Acts or Revelation)
Third Reading: Gospel

The first two lessons are normally read by laypeople, the Gospel by a Minister of the Word or a layperson. In Roman Catholic, Anglican and liturgical Protestant churches, it is uncommon for an ordained minister to read all of the lessons.

The psalm is not a reading but a congregational response following the lesson from Hebrew Scripture: it is normally sung with a refrain or recited by the congregation as poetry. Occasionally, a canticle is appointed in place of a psalm; it is sung or recited in the same way. The New Century Hymnal provides a complete liturgical psalter with refrains and music.

A hymn may be sung as an introduction to the proclamation of the Gospel.

During Ordinary Time (seasons after Epiphany and Pentecost) two alternative sets of OT readings with responsorial psalms are provided. The first option is a semi-continuous reading through a book of Hebrew Scripture; the second is thematically related to the other readings.