sixth Sunday After Trinity

I‘d like to invite you to come with me and try to imagine yourself in this story of the Feeding of the Five thousand in  today’s gospel reading. It’s the only recorded miracle of Jesus to be told in all four gospels and is perhaps the best known.

Can you remember a time when you felt great sadness, perhaps after the death of someone you loved, the job you interviewed for but didn’t get, the relationship you longed for but didn’t happen, the home you had to leave. If you’re like me, what you needed most then was to be quiet, to be alone for a while, to be still, without people hassling you.  Imagine the place you choose to be quiet was suddenly over-run by people out for the day, seeking your company. How would you feel?

Jesus’ reaction is remarkable. At the beginning of chapter fourteen John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and fellow preacher and teacher has just been murdered, on hearing this Jesus had slipped away quietly to be alone … only to find a hillside full of people who have come to find him and seeking his help.

I think at best I would have felt frustrated, maybe anger that my space had been invaded. Yet Jesus’ reaction is compassion. Jesus’ sorrow is translated into sorrow for the people who came to him. Before showing his power by healing people who came to him, an inward healing is taking place, transforming Jesus’ own feelings of sadness into love for those who sought him out. 

Imagine you are there, perhaps you’re one of the disciples or one of the women who served and cared for Jesus, maybe you’re a child out for the day with your parents, or maybe you’ve just been caught up in the crowd and have come to see what’s happening. You see what Jesus is doing, how he cares and cures the sick and seeing this you too want to care for these people too. It’s late, and obviously the best ay to show you care for these people is to send them off to buy some food for supper.

Now I believe Jesus is always pleased when we think of others and try to help them but this isn’t what Jesus’ had in mind to help these hungry people. Jesus takes the disciples idea and alters it, “they need not go away”, he says, “You give them something to eat”. And here is a lesson about vocation; the way God calls all of us to serve him. God takes our small idea about how we might care for people and bounces it back to us and it seems a huge and impossible task.

After much prayer, I remember going to speak to my vicar over fourteen years ago and offering to help in church. God took my offering to care for others and gave me the seemingly huge and impossible task of being a priest.  I protested, I can’t God, I’ve trained as a Speech and Language Therapist and am working full time, I’m not good enough to do it, I can’t go away to college and train, I have a husband and two very small children. All I have is …

And that’s how God works. By being close to Jesus and following him, you get an idea, then God takes that idea and transforms it into something that does work. It’s like when I’m bird watching, I look through the lens of the binoculars, but I don’t see the bird clearly, it’s not quite in focus, so I adjust the lens slightly and there it is, sharp and clear.

The disciple’s idea to feed the people on the hillside was right, but slightly out of focus. Jesus suggests feeding them in a different way. They just can’t see it, “we have nothing here but five loaves and two fish” but they go with it, they take the little offered and give it to Jesus. Of course it means someone will go hungry if the lunch is offered but hey, they’re in this now and can’t pull out.

Jesus takes what he is given and something wonderful, powerful and life changing occurs. Imagine being there on the hillside that evening. You see a tiny peasant’s picnic of fish and bread for one, being offered for the entire crowd. Jesus takes it from you, he thanks God for it, he breaks it and shares it with you and the vast crowd present. Imagine how you would have felt if it was you who had offered your picnic to Jesus!

Why did you do it? You were close to Jesus, and being close to him you wondered about offering to help, Jesus you’re your offer and turns it upside down, he offers you a challenge. So you give what you have. It is given, with cost, you had to give up your meal, and Yet Jesus takes it, blesses the gift, breaks it and gives it back to you to give to everybody else and miraculously, all those people are fed.

Friends, this is how service as a follower of Jesus works. You get close to Jesus and glimpse what he is doing in the world, in your town, in your church. And you wonder what can I do? You offer what you think you can and Jesus takes our loaves and fishes: our time, money, sense of humour, our music, ability to listen, to make people feel welcome, to care for children, teach, clean, make cakes, sweep the path, serve coffee, pray, and Jesus takes what we offer and offers it to God in prayer, and blesses the gift. Jesus breaks it and gives it back to us, ready to use for those who need it.

Now that gift offered is yours but not yours, it’s what you had in mind, but not what you thought it would be. Amazing what God does with the tiny offerings we give him. That is what Christian service is all about. Offering what we have to God, allowing him to take it, bless it , break it and give it back to us transformed and useful for the needs of others.

I thank God for the many, many followers of Jesus worshiping here today who have offered themselves and give to us as a community.  And there are many and they are a gift to us. If you are one of these people here today – thank you, thank you for standing close to Jesus and offering what you have to serve him, because the rest of us are blessed through you.

I’ve noticed though, that each week there’s always something on the notice sheet, encouraging us to offer ourselves: servers, nurturing children in church, filling boxes for Rumania, money for famine relief. And outside church, there are plenty of requests too.

My prayer after reading the gospel this morning together, is that I, we, would be standing sufficiently close enough to Jesus to want to offer whatever we feel able to, however small, to allow Jesus to take our offering , to transform it, by blessing it, breaking it and offering it back to us to share with others. You see, that’s God’s way. He gave Jesus, he blessed Jesus yet broke him on the cross, but the glorious good news for all people is that through offering Jesus we might have life and life in abundance. Amen.