Sermon: 9th Sunday after Pentecost
25 July 2021 –
Archdeacon Mark Long
Ephesians 3:14-21 ;
Psalm 14; and John 6:1-21; NRSV
As you may already have realised, the Gospel of Mark is this year’s Lectionary focus. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke alternate within our three year Lectionary cycle and they are known as the Synoptic Gospels, which is a Greek phrase meaning in essence that these three Gospels contain many of the same stories often in a similar sequence and with similar wording, although their individual focus and audiences are different. Occasionally – as we do today – we break away from the “Gospel of the Year” to spend some time with a contrasting perspective from John’s Gospel, this time a five week focus on John chapter 6.
We launch into this diversion with one of the few stories in John’s Gospel that is also found in the other three Gospels: the feeding of the five thousand. I invite you to take a moment to bring to mind what you know about this event {silence} … a number of aspects may have come to mind … hungry crowds … a few loaves and fish … Jesus blessing these … food shared and people fed … lots left over. Now think back to the Gospel reading as you heard it read this morning … while it has probably melded in with your general awareness of the story there are some significant differences to the way it is told in comparison to the other three Gospels. In the Synoptic narratives Jesus’ compassion for the crowd is a highlight, the disciples handing out the bread and fish to the crowds, left over food being collected afterwards doubtless to be shared again with others. It’s big picture stuff, painting a broad overview of the purpose of God’s kingdom in the world. In John’s Gospel the focus is a little different, and a little more intimate and a little more specific, and focused on Jesus rather than the hungry crowd, and it’s context is in relation to the upcoming Passover celebration. The bread is not just bread, it is Barley bread; the fish are dried fish [this is lost in the English translation]; it is not the disciples that distribute the bread, it is Jesus; the edge is not just taken off the crowd’s hunger, their hunger is satisfied. The testing question Jesus asks of Philip is not an exam question with a pre-decided answer, but one that requires Philip and the other disciples and ourselves as we hear the story again today to see more than just the feeding of this crowd; it is for us to acknowledge Jesus as the Bread of Life, to recognise God in Jesus giving God’s-self to us, intimately, personally, satisfyingly.
And just in case we missed all this, John immediately follows up with the Jesus walking on water … a wonderful insight I think into John’s sense of humour!
In John’s Gospel the feeding of the five thousand is a sign[1], an activity not just to be celebrated for the wonder of a God who cares deeply for the physically hungry, but of a God who cares for the fullness of creation; a God who has power over the elements and an ability to multiply these as Jesus does with the Barley bread and dried fish, or to use them differently as Jesus does in walking on the water. Our humanity responds to these physical events, and – certainly speaking for myself – longs for similar power. However John also comments on the nature of this power and we need to heed his insight: this power is not used to control. Jesus uses this power to serve, and does so intimately, demonstrating the depth and wholeness of his humanity in this moment. John underlines this commitment by noting that when the crowds having had their hunger satisfied move to make him King, Jesus hot-foots it into the distance. The English translation politely says he ‘withdrew’; the Greek word would better be translated as ‘fled’! John makes it abundantly clear that Jesus’ did not seek to hold political or economic power. The reference to the upcoming Passover Festival accentuates this, a reminder that God is committed to our physical liberation from all that seeks to hold us captive in this life, and to resource us for the journey. However, the power that God exercises – an power in essence is the ability to act – is one that seeks at all times to make space for and to build wholeness in community, and where those spaces are constricted in any form, especially with the purpose of exercising power to control and even oppress others, God acts to liberate. Too often we trip over our ideas of what that liberation may look like, and miss the salvation God is offering.
In 1994 we experienced and celebrated the political liberation of South Africa, and while we knew there was work ahead we too easily accepted the miracle of 1994 as essentially sufficient. In recent years many, and most notably those born after the birth of Democracy in South Africa, highlight for us that political liberation was never meaningfully translated into the economic and social spheres of the South African experience. The #FeesMustFall movement speaks to the ongoing economic oppression of the poor in our country, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement speaks to the social inequalities that continue to ravage our Nation. While we are realising these issues are not endemic to Southern Africa, nonetheless we need to acknowledge the need for ongoing social and economic renewal and transformation, and awaken afresh to this being a legitimate focus for people of Faith. Whatever your interpretation of recent social unrest in KZN and Gauteng may be, we cannot deny the underlying frustration of South Africans with the present status quo. Just as Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand in John’s Gospel is a sign, so these events are one of the signs in our time; and while we like Jesus need to flee any attempt to become politically and economically aligned – and clearly we don’t control the political, economic, and social arenas – we are not without influence and agency.
My question this morning is how do we as people of Faith apply the lessons of today’s Gospel message in our broader context? As described in all four Gospels, responding to and meeting the immediate needs of the people is unquestionably legitimate, but not sufficient. John reminds us of the importance of ensuring our action doesn’t just touch on the problem, but meets the need in such a manner that people are content. Jesus exercised his agency in this, and the structures of his day sought to limit his influence, and failed. Our lives are embraced by the same Spirit that filled Jesus, and we need to trust that while the signs of our times often appear to ask more of us than is possible, God knows what he is going to do. In response to Jesus question, while Philip saw all the difficulties, Andrew looked around to see what resources they had. Their resources were woefully lacking, but in Gods hands they proved not only fruitful, but satisfyingly so.
We all have agency; let us offer that to God. We all have resources of some form; let us offer these to God. We often feel overwhelmed – at least I do – by our situation, be it personal or societal, and the disciples clearly felt overwhelmed by the needs of the crowds before them. Let us take heart that God acted then, and will act now. Let us trust that God supplies us with sufficient resilience to act in the present, and that no matter how limited we perceive our agency or resources to be, in God’s hands they are abundant!
Let us pray,
I pray that, according to the
riches of his glory, [God] may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner
being with power through [the] Spirit, and … that you may be filled with all
the fullness of God.[2]
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