A Drop in the Bucket 7-29-12

The Reading— Ephesians 3:14-21

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

The Gospel Reading: John 6: 1-21

After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (some call it Tiberias). A huge crowd followed him, attracted by the miracles they had seen him do among the sick. When he got to the other side, he climbed a hill and sat down, surrounded by his disciples. It was nearly time for the Feast of Passover, kept annually by the Jews. When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered, "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece." One of the disciples—it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter—said, "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this."
Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted.
When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.
The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done. They said, "This is the Prophet for sure, God's Prophet right here in Galilee!" Jesus saw that in their enthusiasm, they were about to grab him and make him king, so he slipped off and went back up the mountain to be by himself.
In the evening his disciples went down to the sea, got in the boat, and headed back across the water to Capernaum. It had grown quite dark and Jesus had not yet returned. A huge wind blew up, churning the sea. They were maybe three or four miles out when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, quite near the boat. They were scared senseless, but he reassured them, "It's me. It's all right. Don't be afraid." So they took him on board. In no time they reached land—the exact spot they were headed to.

A Drop in the Bucket 7-29-12
God, who creates and sustains us, teach us anew of your grace and beauty. Lead us to the table, the table of welcome and abundance. May all that I say and all that we share together be holy in your sight. Amen
There are a hundred different ways one can go with the two stories that we heard in our Gospel lesson. Here on our summer walk we come to a crucial theme in John’s telling of the Jesus story. He places great emphasis on Jesus as the bread of life, the one—the only one—who can end the hunger that rises up in us from our souls. So, we must not ignore the context. This is not merely a miracle—this is an introduction to God’s abundance.
What are you hungry for today? And where do you turn to end that hunger? I’ll be honest with you—as I always am—this has been a hard week. It began with a tearful call early Monday morning from my cousin telling me that my uncle had died and ended with trying to support my dear Terri from afar as she buried her very special grandmother yesterday. And, in between, were all the usual tasks—phone calls, visits, trips to the new campus, study and meditation. It was a week packed full and I came to the point where I wondered if I had anything left to give. I felt indeed like the proverbial “drop in the bucket” that Andrew talks about in our story today. So many things to do and the energy I had was a “drop in the bucket” compared to what I needed.
This, of course, led to thinking, oddly enough about buckets and the drops that go into making them full. Let’s look at Andrew’s situation once again. Masses of people have followed Jesus and the disciples out to a hill. Jesus sits down, perhaps to rest or meditate in the midst of the crowd that was demanding so much of him. After a while, Jesus looks out at the crowd. You can almost see him, surveying the people, perhaps doing a quick headcount, or praying for those who sat at his feet. Out of this looking around, Jesus suddenly says, “Where can we buy bread for these people”? John, in his telling of the story has a crucial difference from the other Gospel writers. In this Gospel, Jesus asks the question of the disciples. In the other Gospels, the disciples ask the question of Jesus. So John tells us that Jesus already has a plan, but he wants to hear what the disciples have to say. Philip, a realist, says to Jesus, “we’re out of our league here—it would take more money than we could make in 6 months to feed this many people”. You can hear the undertone—what Philip wishes he could say to Jesus: “what are you nuts? This ministry runs on a shoestring and we certainly don’t have enough to feed a crowd of this size”. Philip thinks like most of us would—particularly those of you who are good with numbers and calculations.
But Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, thinks a little outside the box and says, "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this." He almost gets it and then he belittles his own idea. But Jesus is on a roll. He tells the disciples to invite everyone to sit down on the lovely carpet of grass there on the hillside. Jesus takes the bread and gave thanks, just as we do every Sunday, and he does the same with the fish. The food was passed to all who were there and the Gospel writer records that “All ate as much as they wanted.” After this feast, Jesus commands his disciples to gather up the leftovers so that nothing is wasted. And, in a clear acknowledgement of the abundance of God, there are twelve baskets of food leftover. From a small boy’s meal that seemed a “drop in the bucket” when compared to the need, Jesus had transformed the one drop into hundreds of drops which filled the bucket to full and overflowing.
John records that “the people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done”. And that stopped me in my tracks. On a week such as the one I just finished, did I realize that it was God who took the only drop of emotional and physical energy I had and transformed it so that I not only finished the tasks that truly needed finishing, but also managed to squeeze in a moment or two for playing with the dogs or sitting under one of the shade trees on our new campus. What I do, I do through the sustaining love and power that comes from God through the grace of Jesus Christ.
In our story, Jesus sees that the crowd, in their enthusiasm, is about to get out of control, so he slips away and goes further up the mountain to be alone. The disciples, for reasons we don’t know, got in their boats when evening came to head back to Capernaum. They left Jesus behind since they did not know where he was. When they got to about the middle of the lake, there was suddenly a huge storm. I imagine it to be like one of our summer storms that comes suddenly and violently out of nowhere. John records that they were three or four miles out in the boat. Suddenly they see Jesus walking on the water coming toward them. They were, “scared senseless”, our reading notes. Jesus says to them, "It's me. It's all right. Don't be afraid." They then took him in the boat and quickly reached the other side to the exact spot they had intended to get to.
The reason we study a book in sequence is that we can get a better understanding of what was important to these early writers and take a look at whether or not, we should take the hint, and see the importance for ourselves. Our narrative today links these two stories; and, I believe that there is a good reason for that.
What do you hunger for—really hunger for? We know that we are physical creatures and that we need daily sustenance, so whether it is bread or rice cakes, our bodies require food if they are to remain healthy and full of life. So, on the mountainside, Jesus fulfills that basic need—freely from the everlasting abundance of God. The message is that there is enough food for everyone with plenty left over. This is, of course, a very political story—we know, we all know that there is plenty of food generated by the earth to feed the whole world. The fact that there are hungry people everywhere is not due to God’s lack of care or the abundance of the creation of food. The fact that there are hungry people everywhere is due, and only due, to the unwillingness of all peoples to share. This is, of course, another whole sermon, but I could not leave this point unsaid. Nevertheless, obviously important to the early church, this story is the only miracle story of Jesus told in every one of the four Gospels-–the only one. So, as a church, we must never forget that, as we are blessed with food and drink, we must reach out to those who are not.
Jesus, then in the beginning of this narrative, asks and answers his own question. You remember that it was Jesus in John’s version, who asks about feeding the people. He, then, by simple blessing and gratitude, feeds a hillside of people and then slips away to be alone. The disciples apparently either tire of waiting for him to return or, perhaps, follow directions that are unrecorded to travel by boat to the other side of the lake. The lake is calm and they are unafraid, much like we are when all is well. I will admit that while I have discovered the importance of being grateful when life is uncluttered by fear or failure, anxiety or stress and I treasure a quiet moment with God while on the shore of a vast ocean or under a simple shade tree gazing at the amazing patterns the sun makes coming through the leaves; I also know that when life gets tough, when people are angry with me, or I am facing grief or pain or death, I have a different hunger indeed. It is at those times that I cry out for God. In my fearful tears there is always an unspoken hunger and it goes like this: “I need you, God, and I need you right now—not later—right now.” And John reminds us, in this well-known story, that when we are afraid, Jesus walks out to us and offers us the reassurance that all will be well.
The letter-writer and apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians and for us. His prayer is that we will understand the abundance of the Gospel and the willingness of Christ to live within us as living bread. And in a prayer I take from Paul and pray for every one of you every day, I ask God that you will be able to take in the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love—that you will reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God because God can do anything—far more than you could ever imagine or ask for in your wildest dreams, not by manipulating our lives but by working within us, by the Holy Spirit—deeply and gently within us”. Amen and Amen.