SPEAKER_01: A reading from the Gospel according to John.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 6, verses 1 to 15.
SPEAKER_01: After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius, and a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
SPEAKER_01: Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?
SPEAKER_01: He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_01: Philip answered him, Two hundred deneree worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.
SPEAKER_01: 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 for so many?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Half the people sit down.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then 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.
SPEAKER_01: And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.
SPEAKER_01: So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
SPEAKER_01: When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.
SPEAKER_01: Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Praise be to you, O Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Grace, mercy, and peace are yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Finish this sentence.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not being pessimistic, I'm just being realistic.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: This is the ironclad defense behind which the pessimist hides.
SPEAKER_02: See, the pessimist likes to pass himself off as a flinty, straight shooter, someone who's willing to look the hard truth in the eye without blinking.
SPEAKER_02: He thinks his pessimism is a virtue of his strength and his character and his resolve.
SPEAKER_02: And I would counsel you to adopt a position of realism or even unabashed pessimism, if we lived in a world where there were no God, and if we did not know the Lord Jesus, and if we had not heard that the scriptures call us to walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: But because there is a God, and because you are of Christ, and because he has called you to follow him, not knowing always where he will lead you, it seems to me that we have to do a sort of gut check on ourselves when those less than optimistic reactions arise in our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: In the same way that in today's gospel, I find some of Jesus' disciples, like Philip and Andrew, being forced to undergo a gut check on a day when their eyes were filled with the enormity of the problem before them and the scarcity of the resources at their disposal.
SPEAKER_02: And for good reason.
SPEAKER_02: For late on that afternoon, Philip and Andrew were standing with Jesus and they were surveying this massive crowd of people, 5,000 plus, coming towards them on the far side of the Sea of Galilee, out in the boonies, far from any sort of sizable city or village.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus very obnoxiously turned to them and asked them to come up with a plan to serve that entire crowd dinner.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to the pessimism/slash realism in the answers that they give to Jesus when he puts questions to them.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to Philip when Jesus says to him, Where shall we buy bread?
SPEAKER_02: And you can hear him tripping over himself.
SPEAKER_02: Look, Jesus, I don't mean to be down on this whole idea of feeding the crowd.
SPEAKER_02: It sounds like a great plan, but let's be realistic here.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have nearly enough cash on hand, Jesus, to put up a buffet line and serve them all food.
SPEAKER_02: Or likewise, Andrew, who tries to pass himself off as resourceful, if at the same time also realistic.
SPEAKER_02: Saying, look, I came up with a meal, five loaves, two fish.
SPEAKER_02: But, well, realistically, that's not going to go very far, is it?
SPEAKER_02: And if you want to get the full flavor of Andrew's thoughts on this, I should point out that the word that he uses to describe the fish is a diminutive form.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, Andrew is not seeing three-foot-long salmon on ice in the grocery store case here, or a hundred-pound halibut being pulled up off the Alaskan seafloor.
SPEAKER_02: They're little fish.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Andrew sees: five little barley loaves, two small fish, and a great big crowd of mouths to feed.
SPEAKER_02: We can hardly fault Philip and Andrew for their reaction in the face of this impossible scenario.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they weren't wrong.
SPEAKER_02: It takes an awful lot of food to fill 5,000 growling stomachs.
SPEAKER_02: And you don't need to be a professional accountant to add up five and two and compare it to 5,000 and realize that it's not going to go very far indeed.
SPEAKER_02: So faced with this reality, how much was demanded, how little they had, Philip and Andrew retreated into that position of pessimism and despair.
SPEAKER_02: There's just no way Jesus is asking the impossible of us.
SPEAKER_02: Now the gospel writer John tells us that Jesus put them in this scenario because he intended to test them.
SPEAKER_02: He wanted to train them.
SPEAKER_02: He wanted to train them what to do when you are faced with impossibilities, with circumstances that are way beyond what you believe that you can handle.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus' mode of doing this is not to sit down and lecture them and give them an easy five-step plan.
SPEAKER_02: Instead, what Jesus does is to simply proceed with what he already knew that he was going to do.
SPEAKER_02: You could think of it like this Jesus already had this matter in his hands, but now he was inviting Philip and Andrew and the rest of his disciples to see it, to recognize that that was so.
SPEAKER_02: To learn that when you're facing the impossibility, if you look to Jesus, you will discover that he has already taken this matter into his own most capable hands.
SPEAKER_02: And so what Jesus does is he employs his disciples in making it so that there's no escape from this situation at all.
SPEAKER_02: He gives the command to have the people sit down.
SPEAKER_02: That would be the cue that it was about time for food to be served.
SPEAKER_02: Spread the picnic blankets, get the baskets out, it's time to eat.
SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting, isn't it, that though the disciples are frozen in this moment, Jesus isn't at all, and he forces them to overcome that frozenness and to be the very actors that make it so that this entire crowd is now waiting for a meal.
SPEAKER_02: Again, it's Jesus just operating as if it were any normal day.
SPEAKER_02: He looks at his watch, he says, Hey, it's about time for dinner, and so he goes about setting the table.
SPEAKER_02: And after you've set the table for dinner, what do you do?
SPEAKER_02: Well, you say your mealtime prayers, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus too looks down at the scarce resources at his disposal.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, he literally takes those five barley loaves into his hands.
SPEAKER_02: And likewise Andrew's two small little fish.
SPEAKER_02: But when Jesus takes them into his hands, he doesn't see how little is there.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, it must be very significant indeed that taking this lunch in his hands, it's enough for Jesus to lift up his eyes and give thanks.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, don't you think that that's significant?
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus has a single lunch box in his hand.
SPEAKER_02: And this alone is enough for him to lift his eyes and his heart in grateful gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: This is truly astounding.
SPEAKER_02: After all, his are the hands that shaped and fashioned all things.
SPEAKER_02: And it seems that he is quite pleased indeed, not at how little was returned to him, but that anything was returned to him at all.
SPEAKER_02: And so those hands that shaped and fashioned all things lift up the loaves, they give thanks, and then they hand those loaves to those same disciples to start breaking off pieces of bread and distributing it to the crowd.
SPEAKER_02: And this, of course, is where things begin to turn.
SPEAKER_02: It couldn't have taken long for those disciples who thought that there was no possible way they were ever going to be able to feed such a massive crowd, to be breathlessly astounded that no matter how much of the loaves of bread they broke off and distributed, there was always more there for them to give.
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus had taken this matter into his hands so thoroughly and so capably that everybody who had sat down there, that great big crowd that day, was going to eat.
SPEAKER_02: Now those disciples were breathless with excitement.
SPEAKER_02: And now at this point, it seems to me that if we have seen Jesus do this, well then maybe the excuse we make when we say, I'm just being realistic, is starting to sound suspiciously weak.
SPEAKER_02: Could it be that when we use that word realistic, what we really are expressing is our littleness of faith.
SPEAKER_02: I think that that could very likely be the case.
SPEAKER_02: I think that it could be the case that we retreat to our realistic slash pessimistic views because we've taken our eyes off Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And it seems to me then that this account sets a very clear pattern before us.
SPEAKER_02: If you fill your eyes with the enormity of the problem you're facing, or if you spend your days gazing at the scarcity of the resources at your disposal, you are going to despair every single time.
SPEAKER_02: But if you lift your eyes up to Jesus, if you see that he already holds all things in his most capable hands, then is there ever really any scenario or circumstance in which you would give up hope?
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't seem to me like that could possibly be the case, could it?
SPEAKER_02: Now let's be clear about this.
SPEAKER_02: I am not suggesting here that this pattern is establishing Jesus as a sort of bottomless ATM.
SPEAKER_02: Or like the people who were fed on that day thought, that Jesus is one who can be corralled and pressed into becoming an on-demand manufacturer of 3D printed food to provide meals for us out of thin air while we do nothing.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a recipe for modern alchemy where we can turn brown paper bags into crisp hundreds.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: But all the same, I wonder what Jesus is after.
SPEAKER_02: Could it be that with training us to lift our eyes and look to Him, He is teaching us to become different people.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe sometimes when we find ourselves in an impossible situation, Jesus will do what He did here by the Sea of Galilee and throw open the floodgates and do more than we could ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe sometimes the reason we don't have is because we don't ask, like James tells us.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe we do ask, but we don't ask with the sort of faith that believes that God would actually be capable of doing anything to help us or would want to or be interested in doing that.
SPEAKER_02: But maybe what happens most of the time is that Jesus is just shaping us, changing us, so that when we find ourselves in impossible situations, we face them as different persons.
SPEAKER_02: He's forming a character in us that is marked by faith and trust in him.
SPEAKER_02: Now let me flesh that out with a few actual life scenarios here, so that we can just consider what that might look like for us.
SPEAKER_02: Suppose that the impossible circumstance you find yourself facing is a financial one.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, gas prices have gone up, groceries have become quite expensive, my property tax bill this year, way up.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're facing all of that and more.
SPEAKER_02: And it's come to a crisis, a point where you aren't quite sure if you're going to be able to escape some very difficult things, like foreclosure on your home.
SPEAKER_02: In such a scenario, what might you do?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it seems to me that if you spend your days looking at the problem, adding up the numbers on the bills that keep piling up, while at the same time getting fixated by the small amount of money that is in your bank account and that seems to be decreasing day by day?
SPEAKER_02: Well, if that's what you spend your time doing, you're going to get pretty down and gloomy on this whole situation, aren't you?
SPEAKER_02: So, what would it look like to lift your eyes up, to look away from that problem for a moment and to look to Jesus, to see that he holds this matter in his hands?
SPEAKER_02: Would it mean that you begin not by seeing how little money you have in your bank account, but by giving thanks to God that there's anything there at all?
SPEAKER_02: Might it mean that when the next paycheck comes in, small though it might seem, you take it in your hands like Jesus did, and you lift it up and you give thanks to God for it?
SPEAKER_02: Might it even mean that you trust Him enough to still give your tithe from that paycheck, even in the midst of a financial crisis?
SPEAKER_02: Because you really do believe that those gifts given to the Lord bring everlasting rewards and that those who give to Him will lack nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Now that will not make all of your bills magically disappear, but it seems to me that it would make a different person of you.
SPEAKER_02: And it seems to me that it would position you to get through the crisis better if you aren't giving way to despair, but instead you are looking to Jesus and you're recognizing that He has promised your life and all you need for it clothing and shoes, house and home, food and drink, all of those things he has promised, he knows that you need and will provide for you.
SPEAKER_02: Lifting up your eyes to Jesus with thanksgiving and gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: Well, then what do you do?
SPEAKER_02: You keep going, chipping away at that problem, digging yourself out of the hole as best you know how.
SPEAKER_02: The road may be very difficult and hard indeed, but with Jesus, you don't give way to hopelessness.
SPEAKER_02: Or suppose that the challenge you face is that more is being demanded of you than you can actually accomplish.
SPEAKER_02: Every day it seems like your to-do list has 5,000 plus items on it.
SPEAKER_02: And even though in the morning you think you're gonna get a whole bunch of them ticked off by the time the day is over, you haven't made halfway through your list for the day.
SPEAKER_02: And it seems like every one of those tasks screams out for your attention, it has to get done, it has to get done now.
SPEAKER_02: You feel so inadequate to get all of what you need to get done taken care of.
SPEAKER_02: Again, if you focus on the enormity of the problem or the limited time and energy that you as a finite human being have, it seems to me that you will inevitably face burnout.
SPEAKER_02: So, what would it look like in such a scenario to turn your eyes away from the problem and turn them instead to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Might it look like beginning your day with a big long pause where you do nothing at all but simply give thanks to the Lord for another day of his grace?
SPEAKER_02: Might it be learning to appreciate the limitations that God has designed us with?
SPEAKER_02: That we are finite creatures who can only work for so long before we grow weary and need to rest.
SPEAKER_02: Might it look like recognizing that while Jesus is capable of miraculously multiplying loaves and fish, we aren't.
SPEAKER_02: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_02: He hasn't asked us to do something like that.
SPEAKER_02: He just tells us that when we work, we should bake the loaves and catch the fish and then go home and Sabbath and rest.
SPEAKER_02: It seems to me that if we were to trust Jesus in that way, it would indeed help us to avoid burning out.
SPEAKER_02: And it might even lead us to a more grateful and therefore joyful and happy life as well, as we contemplate the gifts that He has given us, the time that we have, the abilities that we are blessed with.
SPEAKER_02: So then it boils down to something like this whatever loaves we bake, whatever fish we catch, we hand them over to Jesus with gratitude and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: And then who knows what he will do with them.
SPEAKER_02: But we can go about our lives with the confidence and trust that all of these matters, that even the impossible situations, are in Jesus' most capable.
SPEAKER_02: Hands.
SPEAKER_02: And he knows how to extract us when it seems that we are between a rock and a hard place.
SPEAKER_02: And in trusting that he will do so, we don't despair or lose heart or grow bitter.
SPEAKER_02: Our realism about the world, then, is tinged with the optimism of faith and hope and trust.
SPEAKER_02: And then, well then, we might not even be all that surprised if Jesus shows up with a twinkle in his eye and even sees fit to hand us a basket of leftovers.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.