Reading, Sermon and Prayers for 25 July 2021 Feeding the Five Thousand

READING John Ch 6 v 1 –15

Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

SERMON

I wish this morning for us to look at the story from our gospel reading, the story of feeding the 5000.

Andrew said to Jesus, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; how far will they go among so many.” But how far will they go among so many? Isn’t that the age old question.

When we look at what we have we are able to see the many who need more than we can possibility give so we ask how far will they go among so many?

The boy didn’t realize how much he had until he gave it over to the Lord. He saw in his pack up that his mum had probably sent him out with, that he only had 5 loaves and 2 fish, but the Lord saw it as a gift to be used to feed the hungry people. The Lord made much of the little that the boy was willing to give. I mean, it was probably his packed lunch that his mum had sent him out with. But let us pause a while and notice, who did the action in this lesson!

Jesus and the boy. It is an interesting lesson because it shows the faith of a boy and the power of Jesus to use our gifts to a great purpose. Notice how this all begins. The crowds had gathered and it was time to eat. The crowds numbered about 5,000 men not counting the women and children.

So the figures quoted were actually far greater than the 5,000. Jesus says to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip probably responded by looking in the moneybag and coppering up to see that they have only two hundred denarii and says there is little that can be done because they don’t have enough money. No money to nip down to the chippy for a huge chippy supper!

Philip never once asks Jesus what he can do about the situation. Philip never turns to Jesus and asks him to do something, he relies on his own resources and because of that he fails.

Philip is like many of us, we rely on our own resources we rely on me, myself and I so that when the tough situations in life come along we tend to have a difficult time coping with them. Philip viewed the situation so hopeless that even though Jesus was right there in front of him, he didn’t turn to him for help.

Philip could not see that Jesus could have helped this situation. Philip could not see beyond his own power to do something with the physical resources he had. And it was because Philip could not see beyond his own power, that he could not help in this situation.

Many times you and I are like Philip. We see need, we look at our resources, and we decide that we are powerless to help, so we don’t do anything.

We never think of turning our resources over to Jesus, we never think that maybe he can do something with our little gifts in a way we would never think of doing.

Our faith as Philip’s faith in the power of Jesus to change situations can often be found to be lacking. We would rather trust our own resources, our own power, our own pride and maybe even fail, instead of turning everything over to Jesus and letting him be in charge.

Let us now look at the disciple Andrew. Andrew saw the same problem as Philip, he saw all the hungry people and he knew there wasn’t enough money to buy food. So Andrew went out among the crowd to see what could be done. He found the boy who had a picnic lunch.

It was only enough food to feed one hungry, growing boy, but Andrew decides instead of this being a hopeless situation, he goes and tells Jesus what he had found.

I would imagine Andrew might have had thoughts similar to this: “Well, this boy has only a limited amount of food but maybe Jesus can do something with it. Yes, I will tell Jesus, I mean if he can calm an angry sea? And can heal people, and turn water into wine, surely he can do something with this bread and with this fish.”

So, Andrew takes his knowledge, his resources to Jesus. He turns over to Jesus what he has found out. He lets Jesus be in control of his resources.

Now let us look again at what Jesus does with the resources that were brought to him, how he turned the little into much. Jesus takes the 5 loaves and 2 fish and he turns it into enough food to feed 5,000 men, women and children with 12 baskets of food left over. Andrew knew that Jesus could do something very special with the limited resources that were present.

Jesus took a few fish, some loaves of bread and turned it into a feast for over 5,000 people.

There was a man in England during the early 1900’s who also saw the power of Jesus to feed a group of people. The man’s name was George Muller and he was the founder of several orphanages, which cared for as many as 2,000 children.

One night, Muller was informed that the supply of food was gone at one of the orphanages. The next morning he joined the children at the breakfast table. There was a bowl, and plate and glass in front of each of the several hundred children, but all were empty.

Mr. Muller asked the children to bow their heads as he prayed.

His words included “Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”

After he ended the prayer there was a knock at the door. A baker was standing there who said, “I couldn’t sleep last night. I felt you didn’t have any bread and the Lord wanted me to send you some, so I got up at 2:00 this morning and baked some fresh bread for you.”

George Muller not only thanked the baker, but also said a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Within a few minutes there was a second knock at the door.

There was a milkman standing at the door. He explained that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the home. The milk had to be unloaded and he wanted to give it to the home for the children. “Could you take it?’’ he asked.

Andrew knew that Jesus could do something very special with the limited resources of bread and fish.

George Muller knew that if he would turn over to the Lord the problem of the hungry orphans, the Lord would provide.

And so there is a lesson in this for each and every one of us. When we turn over to the Lord the resources he has given us, he will use those resources to further his kingdom in ways that we cannot understand.

Andrew did not understand exactly what Jesus could do with the boy’s few loaves and few fish, because of his question, but what are they among so many.

He really wasn’t quite sure what Jesus could do, or how this could help the crowd, but it is important to note that even with his doubts, even with his wondering he still gave this resource over to Jesus, he still surrendered his own will to the will of Jesus.

You and I are called upon by Jesus to do the same thing. Even if we cannot understand what Jesus will do with our resources, even if we think what we have is very little, we must have faith that Jesus can do something special with our gifts.

He doesn’t want us to give with strings attached, with conditions, but he wants our free gifts, he wants our gifts because of the great love we have for him.

He doesn’t want them because we think we are influencing him in our lives, or because we think we will achieve a greater reward in the after life, no God wants our gifts because that is our way to respond to his great love in our lives.

We tend to look at ourselves as people who have worked to get everything we have by ourselves.

Yes, we have worked hard to reach the kind of level of living we have, but just think about those gifts, those talents, those people in our lives who were there when we needed them to maybe give a helping hand or an encouraging word, or a piece of advice, all of those kinds of things I feel are God’s hand working in our lives.

So, yes, we have made ourselves what we are, but at the same time we have not done it alone, because God’s hand was in there guiding the process along whether we were aware of it or not.

So is it not appropriate for us who have been given so much to in some way thank the provider? Is it not appropriate for us to give back to him some of what he has so generously given to us?

And that is what this lesson is all about. Giving back to God what he has given to us so that God can make out of our little offering so much more.

Philip saw the hungry and didn’t know what could be done. Andrew saw the hungry and brought a little boy to the Lord hoping that the Lord could do something.

He wasn’t sure how the Lord would use his gift, his resource, but he gave it the Lord, anyway. And finally let us look at the young boy again for just a few moments.

Here was a boy who had a picnic lunch, in it contained the poorest bread, and some pickled fish. That was to probably be his whole meal for the day. And now these men want him to turn it all over to a man named Jesus?

Can you imagine what must have gone through his mind? There must have been a lot of thought, a lot of questions, a lot of hoping that it would all work out.

But the one thing that definitely went though his heart and mind was some faith in this man Jesus not to cheat him or hurt him or let him go hungry in any way for he was willing to hand over to him the only food he had.

Here was a boy with a simple faith. He must have heard Jesus teach, he must have felt some love, some kindness, some compassion from Jesus.

He must have felt that Jesus would not let him go hungry. This little boy had faith and trust to turn over to Jesus all the resources he had at that moment.

He turned over to Jesus not only his bread and fish, but also his entire life.

He turned over to Jesus his physical resources and then himself, he turned his life over to Jesus at that moment for he trusted Jesus to take care of him, to not let him go away from there hungry.

And Jesus provided, didn’t he? He provided for this boy and for more than 5,000 people. What if all of us turned over our resources to Jesus, what if we surrendered to him our entire lives, what if we trusted him to provide for us, just imagine what he could do! Amen

PRAYERS

Bless your Church with the humility that was in Christ. Following him in poverty of spirit and lowliness of heart, may your people have grace to share the riches that he brought to fallen humanity.