This
is a revised, expanded version of a sermon at Northside Presbyterian Church,
July 26, 2015. It is a little longer post than I prefer.
John’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 is a power-filled account. It has some direct guidance for
how we might go about supporting Christian social justice and how easy it is to stumble in either direction when our
quest for that justice becomes and exercise in human power. The principal stumbling block for many who choose to wear
the label, “Prophets of Social Justice,” and for those who oppose change in the name of justice, is the idea that we can rely on the laws of institutions to enforce justice or morality. Justice is found singularly through living in
the only kingdom that matters. Justice comes from those whose faith guides personal (individual) action towards those who are in need. Those actions model citizenship
in the only kingdom that matters.
The Gospel of John has a dramatically different perspective than the
“synoptic gospels” (Mark, Matthew and Luke). As you know, my leaning is that
Mark is the earliest gospel and Mathew and Luke derive much of their content
from Mark that considering Mark and John suffices for now. The view of miracles and signs
between Mark and John are quite different. Mark tells us miracles follow from
faith. John tells us signs of Divine presence cause faith. But John and Mark both proclaim grace comes to us from
continued Divine presence. Both tell us the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, not waiting for us in some future time, or able to be precipitated by our own effort. Both tell the story of the Good News through a
conversation with scripture, the Hebrew Bible.
Understanding this conversation is perhaps the best way to put the
message of the good news in perspective.
I prepared this reflection in the unfolding aftermath of the shootings by
a young man at the military recruiting station here in Chattanooga that
resulted in six deaths. I read much of the ensuing public reaction. Much of it reinforces
a viewpoint quite similar to that in the congregational world of John. Those sectarian
congregations were under attack in the synagogues, by the Rome, and by much of
the Greek world at large, perhaps even by other Christians.
Today many look at the chaos and uncertainty in the world for the church in
the same stark terms of light and darkness, good and evil, us versus them.
Many feel under attack by the forces of evil in the world and point to the
Islamic State of the Levant, the Supreme Court, China, Iran, or the widespread
decay of what we consider “appropriate public morality.” Some self-appointed judges actually have created a new litmus test for Christianity than the good
news offers.
The irony of it, whether a reactionary conservative or a liberal advocate
of social justice, is reflected in the 1 Samuel passage - we want the
government and its leader(s) to fix it with human laws.
Why can’t Jesus come now and fix it?
I heard media reports, the less objectionable ones say, “Why does the
President let all these Muslims in?” and “Why doesn’t he just send the Armed
Forces to wipe them out?” The newspaper reports acts of vandalism against
mosques in Virginia and threats of them in Tennessee by outraged “Christians.”
I heard also of an African American student at the Hope House at UTC with
his Muslim student friends struggling to come to terms with their fear of unjustified
reprisals because the deaths were by the hand of a Muslim student that many
knew well. The focus of the conversation of the African-American student quickly
turned to his present experience as an African-American person living in our
modern society.
A particular remark struck me, “It does not seem like things are getting
any better, why doesn’t Jesus just come now?” In other words, “With all this
chaos around us now, why doesn’t Jesus just come back and fix it all?”
As I reread the closing of John’s account of feeding the 5,000, that student’s
dismay and hope kept leaping out of my memory along with Israel’s desire for a
king.
Let me explain what I think may be an answer without drawing on my
experience of positive change from the days of the 1950’s.
Things that help
understand significance: 4 accounts - one conversation
If one person comes up to you with an account of an event that sounds
unbelievable, you may, or may not, react to it seriously, depending on how
unbelievable it is and the reliability of the person bringing the news.
However, when you hear the news of an event from four different persons,
regardless of its believability and the fact there are slight differences in
the account, wouldn’t you probably tend to take notice that something significant
has happened that deserved investigating?
The account of the feeding of the 5,000 is reported in all four Gospels
(the others are Matthew 14:14-20,
Mark 6: 30-52, Luke 9:10-17). Understanding
this feeding account is important for everyone who claims to have faith.
(Remember the African-American’s lament? It also is worth pointing out
that many other African-Americans will tell you a similar story about the
difficulty of living in our modern society – let the reader understand.)
The conversation
with scripture in John’s account of the feeding of 5,000
Especially both John and Mark present this miracle (Mark) or sign (John)
as a conversation with scripture, the Hebrew Bible.
Mark relates the event to the humanity of Jesus and the proper behavior a
person of faith should demonstrate. He tells us when Jesus got out of the boat
and gazed upon the crowd of 5,000 men (at least as many women and children?)
that he felt an overpowering compassion coming from the depth of his soul for
this throng seeking Him. Jesus saw the crowd to be like sheep without a shepherd
(a topic for another sermon) and begins to teach and heal with divine
compassion, neither he nor the disciples
taking the time from work to eat themselves.
John however, is all about the divinity of Jesus. John only tells us Jesus sees 5,000 people in need
of food to eat as an opportunity for a sign to them of his Divinity that they
may believe.
Mosses and
manna, and Elijah and a jar of meal – Two conversations
The feeding of the 5,000 recalls at least two events in the presence of
God. Any Jewish congregant who knew his scripture and experienced this feeding,
or Christian who reads the account of it today knows the story of Moses and the hungry,
complaining mass of Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness. Taking
the liberty to paraphrase, they essentially cursed the Lord and said “So much
for freedom, we are worse off now and will die of hunger. We should have stayed
in Egypt as slaves, at least we had food to eat until we died.”
The Lord sent manna for their bread and quail for their meat and told
Moses to tell all Israel, “The Lord has heard your complaint against Him and at
twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of
bread; then you shall know that I AM the LORD your God.”(v11) The message? The Lord is with you in a continuing
presence as he promised.
Such a congregant would recall also Elijah and the widow’s jar of grain
meal and her son dying in the famine brought by The Lord against Israel for
their king’s malfeasance. (irony unintended.)
Elijah ordered her to bring him a glass of water to drink and to bake a
little cake from the meager meal and oil she possessed. She protested she
intended to use it to bake a little cake for her and her son to eat so they
could sit down and die with a bit of food in their stomach. Elijah said, “Do not
be afraid. The jar of meal and oil will not be emptied until the famine
ceases.” So too, it happened.
Do you see the significance of the feeding by Jesus now? The Lord is
present and he will sustain those who have faith.
Later in John, Jesus will have a far more blunt conversation with
scripture, saying he is the “Bread of Heaven” and those who partake gain it eternal
life.”
Mark’s
conversation - Feed My Sheep
Mark reported at the beginning of this feast on the green grass of
springtime in Palestine that when asked by the disciples, “Who is going to feed
this large crowd?,” Jesus replied simply,
“You feed them.” In other words, “Feed
my sheep, yourself.” Mark is evoking Isaiah 40:11, “He will feed his flock like a
shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”
Not only is he evoking the image that The Lord is present as a shepherd about
to feed his sheep, he is making an imperative demand of the faithful to do as
he does, to see persons in distress with His heartfelt compassion so they are
moved directly to aid them with their own
two hands.
By now, these scriptural conversations
evoked by the action of Jesus feeding the entire crowd should convince you and
them that the Lord’s presence is about us.
In Mark miracles happen to those who
have faith (remember his visit to Nazareth where no one believes and he could
do no miracles?). John gives us seven signs as a manifestation of the Divine Lord
that opens one to faith.
By now, one would think the crowd feasting on the
green, spring grass of Palestine before Passover, and you, dear reader, should recognize
that Divine power is present among us and at work bringing a new kind of manna
to God’s children.
The crowd thinks
a prophet may be at hand
The crowd thinks Jesus is only a prophet from God
(v14) so they want to seize Him and make him their worldly King. Jesus realizes
this lack of understanding and flees to the mountain to avoid being named the
very thing he says he is not.
Any good rabbinical student connects the desire to
make Jesus king with our first scripture reading when all Israel rejected God,
deciding having God for a King was not good enough and demanded they wanted a
real human king - much to their future distress.
The
lesson for those who want to rely on the government, not themselves, to provide
justice to the naked, hungry and imprisoned is to rethink their focus.
I AM - The
disciples do not understand
It isn’t just the well-fed crowd who miss the
boat. While all this is happening with Jesus, the disciples decide to get in
their boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee setting up another
conversation with scripture over a new sign of God’s presence.
The disciples find themselves alone in a
wind-blown storm. Wind on the water – even Bob Dylan gets it (“Spirit on the Water”) that
this is another obvious conversation with scripture evoking the creation story
of Genesis 1:1-5. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the
earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let
there be light”; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from
the darkness. God called the light Day,
and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning,
the first day.”
Go back and read the first four lines
of John’s gospel. “In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came into
being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come
into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not overcome it.”
Do you think John is giving us a message here
about God’s presence among us in the here and now?
In this divinely wind-blown storm, who comes
walking towards the disciples by God Himself? Jesus is walking towards them on
the water and they are terrified. And Jesus says, “It is I, do not be afraid.” Most bible translations fail here for
the actual Greek words are the marker of self-identify of the Lord, “I AM, do
not be afraid.”
We recall at first the Lord’s instruction to
Moses after he had called Moses into his service (listen up all you pastors) to
tell the Pharaoh “I AM who I AM..this is my name forever, and my title for all
generations.” (Exodus 3:13-15)
“It is I,
do not be afraid (only believe)”
Do you remember the story of Gideon? Gideon,
the youngest and weakest son from the smallest clan of Israel was up in the
hills threshing wheat in an empty wine vat hiding from and lamenting the
oppression of the Midianites who the Lord has sent to Israel for another
transgression. Gideon realized in terror he was confronted by the Lord’s
presence telling him to defeat the Midianites. Gideon demanded a sign from the
“Angel of the Lord” (a euphemism for God) who instructed Gideon to put meat and
bread on a rock that the Lord touched with his staff igniting a fire that consumed
the food. Gideon thought surely I will die looking on the face of the Lord. but
the Lord responded, “Peace be with you, do not be afraid, you shall not die.”
Do you think John is giving us a
message here about God’s presence among us in the here and now?
But we have
to save God(!?)
After this divine self-identification amid a
wind-driven storm the disciples try to “save” Jesus by getting him in the boat,
akin to the crowd wanting to seize Him to make him their king. Again Jesus resists and they find themselves instantly
at the shore.
The message
for Today
The Feeding of the five thousand is a sign that
Jesus is the bread of Heaven, the assurance
“I AM, do not be afraid” as he walked on water is a sign they are in the
Lord’s Divine presence.” The crowd and the disciples have yet to fully grasp
one other sure thing, that the selfless Divine compassion of Jesus to feed his
sheep, and the “I AM” claim all point to the fact that Jesus has already brought
the Kingdom of Heaven to earth for all who have faith. “I AM, do not be afraid….”
“Take this bread and have eternal life.” “Do not fear, only believe...”
So what does this have to do with our UTC student
and all of us who feel the world crashing down around our heads?
Faith
while under attack
John and his community of believers clung to
faith while under attack. His community, perhaps the worshipping Jewish
contingent of Christianity, seems to have disappeared into the shroud of time.
But no, they did not. They live on in their
testimony and as saints. That itself is a sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is
here for us today. The conversation with God goes on.
Yes there
is a world out there full of good and evil, light and darkness, love and bigotry,
justice and injustice. One is shrinking, the other growing, but not by our
hands.
There is that bread from heaven, that living
water, and the Promised Land. Here among us across time is the proclamation The
Lord spoke to Gideon, “Do not be afraid, only have faith.” But John’s words
also linger, “many will not believe the light and eat the bread, but will cling
to darkness and starve.”
A further
word on Justice – It is a matter of personal action
In a great way, many self-proclaimed Christian
advocates of social justice have come to the conclusion that the human king or
institution they choose shall be a just advocate. I wonder if they have
forgotten that the Lord sent an Advocate, or do they doubt that power of faith?
They alone can speak to this by their words and action.
It is difficult for a Christian to eschew their faith
in the power that feeds and sustains the soul, in favor of the government’s
power. Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4-5 tell us Jesus
said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear
him who can destroy both soul and body.”
But
aren’t you saying just rollover and take injustice??
It is easy to turn this into an excuse to accept or
inflict abuse, or condone injustice. It is not, although people have done this
in the name of religion across the ages.
It is a proscription of violence but it is not an
excuse to forego attending to those who cannot defend themselves. John is
telling us to have a conversation with scripture and discover how faithful
people behave now that we live now in the Kingdom of God - now that we live in
the world but not of the world. Why? How do we do it?
One more
conversation with scripture
Do you remember the conversation between Jesus
and the scribe over the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-34)? Jesus loosely quotes
the Shema found in every synagogue. [Hear
O Israel, you shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul and might.] “Then the scribe
said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘The Lord is
one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart,
and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s
neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt
offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to
him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
You are not far from the kingdom
where we “Love the Lord the way the Lord loves us, and love our neighbor the
way the Lord loves us.” I leave it to you to answer the next question, “Who is
my neighbor?”
You are not far from the Kingdom of God
These signs of John, feeding of the
5,000, and walking on water are scriptural assurances we can accept or deny that
we can take comfort in times of fear, trial and uncertainty, because we have faith
in a power without equal to any earthy king or ruler. Let that comfort empower
you to live and walk in your faith, spreading the grace of the King that you receive with your
own two hands, and do not spread judgment that closes the mind of those you hope to change, whether it is by verbally attacking those you judge as unjust, or doing it physically by shooting them with a gun.
“Feed His sheep” with your time, wealth and with the Word that is the Bread of
Heaven. Let it be said of you, even in times of fear and anger over injustice,
“You are not far from the kingdom of
God.”
Amen.
