John 6:-13 (Common English Bible)

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, “A youth here has five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that for a crowd like this?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”

There was plenty of grass there. They sat down, about five thousand of them.

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.

When they had plenty to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces, so that nothing will be wasted.”

So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves that had been left over by those who had eaten.

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May I share with you my take on the story Judi and Carey read to you a moment ago. You don’t have to agree with my hermeneutical perspective (most people don’t). You may not like the way I understand the story, but I find it rich with meaning and wonderfully fascinating.

Let’s go back to the early morning hours on the day this event occurs, and imagine. Imagine the boy, who is the hero of the story, wakes up.

Since he is nameless in the scripture, let’s name him Jacob.

Jacob wakes up as the sunrise prompts his eyes to open. He sits up, stretches, rolls up his mat and sets it in the corner. He walks to the edge of the flat roof which is his sleeping area and climbs down the ladder. As he climbs down, he smells the fish and fresh bread as his mother has breakfast prepared.

He sits down to eat at the table in the outdoor kitchen. Mom has been cooking tilapia freshly caught in the sea. She breads it and cooks it on the open fire. It is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside- delicious. Along with the fish, she has baked fresh bread this morning.

While Jacob is devouring his breakfast, two friends, Joshua and Naomi, come strolling into his yard. “Hey Jacob, that healer guy who tells the great stories is going to be speaking to a crowd on the other side of the mountain today. We should go over there.”

“Mom, can I go with my friends to hear the Teacher.”

‘Yes, you can go, but make sure you are home before it gets dark.”

As Jacob starts out with his friends, his mom calls out “Jacob, do something about your hair, and don’t leave without taking some food with you.” While she’s talking she is wrapping two fairly large pieces of fish and five small loaves of bread in a large palm leaf.

As Jacob returns he pats down his bed head and says, “Mom I don’t need that much food.”

“Take it anyway. You can share it with your friends.”

Jacob slides the palm leaf into his bag, and his bag over his shoulder, and the kids run off across the yard, across the field, and up the hill toward the mountain trail.

They scamper to the top the mountain. In this area, on the eastern coast of the sea, the mountains are bald, very few trees, lots of rocks and mountain grass. The kids look out from the mountain top and see that a crowd has already assembled below. It is the biggest group of people they have ever seen in their lives. As they look over the crowd, they see, a fair distance away, a person whom they assume to be the Teacher, surrounded by a group of people.

So down the mountain side they go, winding their way through groups of people trying to get as close to the Teacher as they can. And when they get within a few yards, they discover that other kids have wiggled their way through the crowd to the front so they can be see and hear the goings-on.

And the goings-on are something. There’s some singing, the Teacher teaches, it is lively and energetic. There is some more singing, there’s a break in the action and then the whole thing happens again.

When the Teacher speaks, he really focuses on loving one’s neighbor. He tells the crowd that when they see their neighbor in distress they should help them out, he tells the crowd that loving their neighbor is as important as loving themselves. He tells the crowd that if they are mistreated, they should not mistreat in return but be kind to those who mistreated them. He tells the crowd to share with one another, he tells the crowd to want for others what they want for themselves.

And he backs up all the things he says with some great stories, some are side-splitting funny, some are serious, some bring a tear to the eye, others cause people to think deeply.

As the afternoon moves toward evening, Jacob is close enough to the front to hear the members of the Teacher’s entourage having a discussion about food. Its been a long day without food and the crowd is so massive that they can not possibly supply enough food for them.

Feeling that they may have made a tactical mistake in keeping this huge crowd together in this place, the teacher’s helpers suggest to the Teacher that they send everybody home, to which the Teacher replies “go head and feed them yourselves.”

“It would be impossible,” comes the response.

While the conversation unfolds,

Jacob, followed closely by Naomi and Joshua, boldly walks up to one of the people in the Teacher’s entourage, tugs on his sleeve, and says to him when, “You may have my food if it will help. My friends and I haven’t eaten any of it.”

The man chuckles, rubs Jacob on the head, takes the boy’s palm leaf filled with food and calls over to the Teacher somewhat sarcastically, “this young lad has given us his lunch. Will that help?”

The others, look at the Fish and Bread on the palm leaf and then look over the massive crowd before them, and laugh.

But the Teacher looks at Jacob, winks at him, and says “this is perfect.”

The Teacher tells his helpers to gather up some empty baskets, the kind people carry bread or fruit in and has the helpers place the palm leaf with fish and bread in one of the baskets.

And then the Teacher, with the baskets in front of him, waves to the crowd and everyone grows silent. He encourages people to sit down.

And then the Teacher, in loud voice, asks the crowd to pray with him.

“Oh Lord,” says the Teacher, “Thank you for this food that has been delivered to us this day through your generosity. May God bless our stomachs and our hearts.” That is just the beginning of the prayer as the Teacher continues to pray and pray and pray. It is a long prayer.

While he is praying, he occasionally opens one eye to see what is happening. A smile comes across his face as he notices the children upfront, follow the actions of Jacob, Naomi, and Joshua, and take pouches from their bags and from in between the folds of their robes and carry the pouches up to the baskets and place the food from those pouches in the baskets. And when the adults directly behind the kids in the crowd see what they are doing, they begin to do the same.

Perhaps the prayer is so long to allow the people to put their food in the baskets.

After the Teacher is through praying, he tells his helpers to pick up the baskets and start passing them through the crowd so people can get food to eat.

The helpers, many of whom had kept their eyes closed during the prayer, are surprised to see that there is now food in every basket.

But, even so, there isn’t nearly enough food to feed even a portion of this crowd.

Surprise becomes amazement as the helpers pass the baskets through groups of people, and the baskets return to them as full as when they are passed out.

The perceptive helpers notice that as the baskets are passed around, many are taking food out, while others are putting food in, food they had brought with them, and the baskets get fuller rather than emptier as they are passed through the crowd.

It is reported that everybody eats until they are full, and there is still enough food left over to fill the baskets.

I have been told that to understand this story this way down plays the miraculous. I disagree.

I believe it accentuates a miracle of love, and kindness, and sharing and community.

I think it is a beautiful example of Jesus’ words in action.

Amen.

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Pastoral Prayer

God of our hopes and dreams,

we are empty, and long to be filled;

we are hungry, and long to be fed;

we are lost, and long to be found.

Gather us into your love,

and pick up the pieces of our lives,

just as Jesus gathered up the fragments

of the five loaves and two fish

that remained after feeding the five thousand.

Call us anew to eat our fill

and to find our true nourishment in Jesus,

the bread of heaven.

Amen.