Dr. Dale Miller, July 16, 2006

It's Enough

John 6:1-14

Last week I disclosed that I spent five years of my life, from ages two through seven, in a small town in southern Indiana called Scottsburg. Our family moved to Plainfield, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, when I was going into the third grade. For the next ten years I struggled through my growing-up years from older elementary through high school.

During those years I continued to pursue piano lessons. Upon entering seventh grade I was invited by the high school choral director, Mr. Metcalf, to accompany the high school choir. Wow! I thought I was pretty hot stuff! Here I was a seventh grader hanging out with the high schoolers. I would like to say that I was rubbing shoulders with the senior guys, but my shoulders were considerably shorter at that time.

They were nice to me. I thought I was one of "them." Then I discovered they considered me more of a mascot then a member of the choir. They were all going to the local drive-in, the Burger Ranch, after school. I was sure they would take me along. I was one of "them," right? Well, wrong! They didn't want the "kid" to tag along. I could provide notes on the piano, but when it came to social inclusion I was flying solo. All of a sudden I was determined to make solo all that was necessary for day-by-day living. If they didn't want me, I didn't need them. It became a time in my life where my ability to relate to the piano was far easier than relating to people.

When we look at the Sixth Chapter of the Gospel of John we see some people who enjoyed rubbing shoulders with this guy called Jesus. They were on the south side of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus and the disciples decided they needed some time for themselves. They got in a boat and sailed the ten miles across the lake to the north shore. This crowd wasn't satisfied with his departure, so they followed him around the lake until they caught up with him.

The crowd had been having a great day hanging out with the man from Nazareth and they were not about to let go of him. By the time they found him they were hungry. The disciples panicked. Where were they going to get food to feed all of the thousands of people?

Everybody in the crowd knows the dilemma. Nobody makes a move to help. Nobody volunteers to go the Burger Ranch to pick up a few cheeseburgers to feed everyone. They all decided they are on their own, not responsible for anyone else but themselves. Then out of nowhere comes a boy with five loaves of bread and two fish.

Nobody else wants to rub shoulders with their neighbor because they don't want to have to worry about feeding their neighbor. They obviously felt like they didn't need each other. But this boy wants to help, not just himself, but everybody there.

We know the boy is poor because of the bread he is carrying - barley bread. Barley made the most coarse and dry of breads. It is also the cheapest. It is the food of the poor. The boy's meal of five barley loaves and two fish was the ancient equivalent of a few saltine crackers and a couple of sardines.

But somebody had to do something about the situation! The boy made a choice: He made a decision to give of himself, to give everything he had, no matter how small it was. He made a decision to not think of himself first, but to think of everyone else. He made a decision to trust the man from Nazareth. He did not count the cost and then make a choice.

He made a choice and placed himself at the disposal of Jesus. Guess what? What he had to offer wasn't much, but it was enough! The boy offered everything he had and it was enough. Why was it enough? Because the boy offered himself to be a channel, a conduit of God's grace and he trusted God to be God.

At Tabgha, the traditional site of the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fish on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the ruins of an ancient fourth century church were discovered in 1932. A famous mosaic depiction of the loaves and fish can still be seen there on a fragment of the original floor of the church.

If you look closely at that mosaic, you will notice a curious detail. It shows a basket of loaves of bread surrounded by two fish. The basket contains only four loaves. Remember, however, that the boy had five loaves and two fish. Where is the fifth loaf of bread? The answer lies in the location of the mosaic in that fourth century church. The mosaic is at the foot of the altar. Where is the fifth loaf of bread? It is on the altar, in the bread of thanksgiving, in which we are joined with Christ.

The bread and fish we bring are more than enough because they are more than matched by the Bread of Life - Jesus Christ, the fifth loaf.

We may think that what we have is not enough, but when we can offer all that we are to God then God says, "I can make it more than enough! I can make you more than enough!"

The call and challenge from God is not to simply be a container of God's love, not just to hold God's love in our lives, but the call is to be a channel, a conduit, an active participant in the proclamation of God's love for and to all people. We need God and we need each other.

The despair that seemed evident on that day on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee evolved from the apparent lack of food. When the boy stepped forward and acted in faith he inspired others, who inspired others, until everyone was sharing the food that was in their possession. The miracle of that day, for me, was not the appearance of a lot of food, but the discovery of the generosity of spirit that was within each person. It was an act of faith and belief that released the generosity from within each of those people on that hillside.

The simple trust of a young boy triggered the ability for people to respond to the message of Jesus. Before that meal the crowd was emotionally and mentally experiencing the same old rut that came from their daily approach to living. They were doing the same old thing in the same old way, therefore they were unknowingly asking for the same old results that were not satisfying.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review Rosabeth Moss Kanter says, "People don't want change. They just want things to get better." The people on the Galilean hillside finally came to understand that staying in the rut would never help them to get better. Staying in the rut will never help us to get better.

Too often we act like the people listening to Jesus, hoping that just hearing the message of hope and acceptance will be all that is asked of us and that life will be wonderful. We are comfortable with listening to how much we are loved without asking how we can love. The people listening to Jesus heard the message, but couldn't even share their food - until a young boy showed them the way.

A young man entering his last semester of his senior year in college, decided to take as many easy courses as possible. One easy class that many seniors had taken in the past was a religion course. The professor never gave any homework, except for the reading assignments. The final exam was a one-question test that always contained the same question: "Tell me about the journeys and wanderings of St. Paul."

The young man took the class, but he never attended class. He came to the final exam prepared to do his best on the question that he knew was coming. This year, however, the professor went to the board and wrote a new exam question: "Critique the Sermon on the Mount." There was a moan from the class. Many students threw up their hands. Some students wrote as furiously as possible. Our young man wrote and wrote and wrote.

When the exams were returned, most of the students failed; some made "D's" or "C's". Our young man received an "A+". He started out his answer by writing, "Who am I to criticize the Sermon on the Mount? What I would like to do is to talk about the wanderings and journeys of St. Paul."

Too many followers of Christ want to take easy short cuts where they can simply fill their own souls with God's love, without sharing that love in concrete, tangible ways with real flesh-and-blood people, dealing with the difficult questions of life.

We can see change happening all around us at a rapid rate. We can literally feel the pulse of change and the pain it often brings; the cry for food, the loneliness of living, the emotional and spiritual walls being built around people, the tragedy of separation, the increasing cultural narcissism, the confusion about the worth of life itself. No wonder we ache for a clearer understanding and experience of our faith.

Yet standing in front of us, offering hope, is this man from Nazareth. Jurgen Moltmann has written: "In a lop-sided world we need a lop-sided savior."

We need to understand with great clarity the good news of Jesus Christ.
We need to be a steady message of caring in our neighborhoods.
We need to work for a new world that God is creating around us.
We need to make a decision that we are going to be a part of God's blessing for the world in
which we live.

Bob Fannin is a retired United Methodist Bishop. I heard him tell about a trip he made to Africa. He entered a village where he was going to be greeted by a woman who was a leader in the local church. As he moved toward her he could see that she was a leper; tips of her fingers were missing and her face was scarred. Bob grew up in a time when cleanliness was practiced as a way of combating disease. All he kept thinking as he approached her was, "I hope she won't want to shake hands." She didn't shake hands. She grabbed him and hugged him with all her might.

She whispered to Bishop Fannin, "In the name of Jesus Christ, welcome to my village." Then she led him into a hut where a dinner had been set. They sat down together. Finger bowls of a paste were brought out. The leper and the Bishop shared the same bowl, eating the same food. Bishop Fannin said, "I could not have done that by myself. The presence of God helped me to do something that I could have not done alone."

Jesus Christ is present. We are in the crowd. People are hungry, both body and soul. What do you offer? One fish? Two fish? One loaf? Five loaves? Yourself? It's enough. Amen.