“God’s Abundance” Colchester Federated Church, July 28, 2024, Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (John 6:1-21)

Today’s Gospel stories are familiar—the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on water.  Though there are nuances in the way the Gospel writers tell these stories, and we are exploring John’s version.  John tells us that Jesus is back in Galilee and has been followed by a large crowd.  The crowd had followed Jesus because they had witnessed the miraculous signs that Jesus had performed to heal those who were sick.  Folks wanted to see more signs and wonders.

Meanwhile Jesus goes up a mountain and sat there with his disciples.  John tells us that it was nearly time for Passover.  While on the mountain, Jesus sees the large crowd coming toward him.  Jesus asks Philip, “Where will we buy food to feed these people?”[1]  Now apparently Jesus already knew what he was going to do, but he wanted to test Philip and see what he would say.  Philip responds, “More than a half year’s salary worth of food wouldn’t be enough for each person to have even a little bit.”[2]  Philip is about to be surprised.  Andrew informs Jesus that a youth has five barley loaves and two fish.  But that’s not going to do much to feed all these people, right?  Jesus responds, “Have the people sit down” because there was plenty of grass there.[3]  The people sat down—about five thousand of them.  John tells us, “Then Jesus took the bread. When he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, each getting as much as they wanted.”[4] 

Some of the debates about this Gospel story revolve around how many people were present.  When Matthew tells the story he specified “about five thousand men plus women and children had eaten.”[5]  You know, women and children—do they even count?  Anyway!  “The feeding of the five thousand” was probably more than five thousand people if the only people who were “counted” by the Gospel writers were the men in the crowd.  (The irony being that the child who was generous enough to share their bread and fish in the first place may not have even counted as having been fed by this miracle of multiplication)!

Another debate revolves around how we are to understand this miracle—what is the nature of the feeding of the five thousand?  Did Jesus miraculously take five loaves of bread and two fish, give thanks, distribute the blessed food among the crowd, and everyone had plenty to eat?  Did Jesus perform this sign (with the help of God, of course) on his own?  Or did people sit down on the grass and observe Jesus giving thanks with the bread and fish given by that child, and the crowd felt moved by that sharing from scarcity.  Moved enough that folks scrounged around for whatever food they had to share with one another to feed everyone gathered.  And that’s the miracle of multiplication?  In this interpretation, it all begins with that child who shared their fish and bread in the first place.  This sharing was so inspirational that other people couldn’t help but share what they had, and on it goes.

The point of these wonderings is to be willing to ask the question—is the multiplication miracle in our Gospel story about Jesus alone feeding all these folks?  Or is the feeding of the five thousand about ordinary people sharing with one another and the miracle that results from generosity multiplying?  Both interpretations are good, and both interpretations are about miracles in a way. 

Now after this miracle (however we understand it), John tells us that Jesus walked on water.  After the feast, Jesus took refuge again alone on a mountain.  Evening came and the disciples went to the Sea of Galilee.  They got into a boat intent on crossing to Capernaum.  Darkness descended and Jesus still had not come to join them.  Strong winds are blowing and the water is rough.  The wind drove them out in their boat for miles and suddenly “they saw Jesus walking on the water.”[6]  Jesus approached the boat and the disciples were afraid.  Jesus tells them, “I Am.  Don’t be afraid.”[7]

Taking these two Gospel stories together, we can be amazed by Jesus’ power and compassion.  Whether Jesus multiplied those bread and fish alone (with God’s help) or whether people shared with one another from their scarcity resulting in abundance, hungry people were fed.  Jesus met up with his disciples to go back to healing those in need and reassured his disciples in the midst of a storm to not be afraid.  Jesus’ frightened followers heard his words of loving-kindness on that stormy sea.  Hungry people were fed.  Frightened people were comforted.

These Gospel stories reminded me of an insightful article by Old Testament Professor Walter Brueggemann: “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity.”[8]  Brueggemann wrote about how the Bible begins with a liturgy of abundance in Genesis.  That the story of our faith begins with, “It is good, it is good, it is good, it is very good.”  In the beginning, God blesses (endows with vitality) plants and animals, birds and fish, and humanity.  It’s an image of overflowing goodness, and creation ends in Sabbath (what we explored together last Sunday).  God ends up tired from all that creating, all that overflowing goodness, all that fruitfulness, and needs to take a break.  The image is an affirmation of generosity and a denial of scarcity.

Then things go awry.  We have the story of Exodus and Moses and Aaron eventually leading God’s people out of slavery and into the wilderness (and eventually the people make it to the Promised Land).  God provides manna from heaven to feed those hungry people in the wilderness.  Brueggemann writes, “In answer to the people’s fears and complaints, something extraordinary happens.  God’s love comes trickling down in the form of bread . . . the meaning of this strange narrative is that the gifts of life are indeed given by a generous God.  It’s a wonder, it’s a miracle, it’s an embarrassment, it’s irrational, but God’s abundance transcends the market economy.”  In the world that the people had just left behind bread was not free.  Brueggemann reflects that there is no record that Pharaoh ever took a day off because “people who think their lives consist of struggling to get more and more can never slow down because they won’t ever have enough.”

Eventually we come to these beautiful stories about the surprising abundance of God in the New Testament.  Because everywhere Jesus goes, the world as the people knew it got rearranged.  The blind could see.  The lame could walk.  The lepers were healed.  The deaf could hear.  Even the dead got raised.  The poor were freed from their debts.  Brueggemann points out that the feeding of the multitudes “is an example of the new world coming into being through God . . . When the disciples, charged with feeding the hungry crowd, found a child with five loaves and two fishes, Jesus took, blessed, broke and gave the bread.  These are the four decisive verbs of our sacramental existence.  Jesus conducted a Eucharist, a gratitude.  He demonstrated that the world is filled with abundance and freighted with generosity.  If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all.  Jesus is engaged in the sacramental, subversive reordering of public reality . . . Jesus transforms the economy by blessing it and breaking it beyond self-interest.”

This is really powerful, and it can still be read as sacramental and subversive.  These are the kinds of stories that can change your whole life if we allow ourselves to sit with the implications of God’s abundance versus the scarcity mindset we often have in our culture.  Because don’t we get constant messages that there is never enough?  We don’t have enough time.  We don’t have enough money.  We are never enough.  We need more and newer and better of just about everything!?  It can be rough out there. 

In the end, we can hear these Gospel stories of Jesus’ signs and wonders and believe that our Savior is amazing, compassionate, and a hero.  Though you know who else is a hero?  That child who was willing to share their five loaves of bread and two fish with the rest of the crowd that had gathered before Jesus.  Because whether Jesus took those elements and multiplied them or that act of generosity inspired others to give, God’s abundance would not have been displayed without that child’s generosity.  What a miracle.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] John 6:5, CEB.
[2] John 6:7.
[3] John 6:10.
[4] John 6:11.
[5] Matthew 14:21.
[6] John 6:19.
[7] John 6:20.
[8] Walter Brueggemann, “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity,” https://www.religion-online.org/article/the-liturgy-of-abundance-the-myth-of-scarcity/

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash