ABUNDANCE

A Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
by Pastor Laura Gentry

John 6:1-21 & Ephesians 4:14-21


Oh no! How are we going to feed all these people? That is the serious concern in today’s gospel lesson. At this point in his ministry, Jesus is attracting a huge crowd wherever he goes. Word has spread about the healing power he posesses. And in this passage, they are on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, up on the mountain and Jesus is surrounded a fantastic-sized audience. So he tests Philip by asking him where they can buy bread for all these people.

Philip kind of freaks out here. He has no idea how they could afford to buy bread for them all. He says that even six months’ wages wouldn’t be enough. It seems totally impossible.

As people of faith, we know that nothing is impossible for God. With God, everything is infinitely possible. God’s power is "far more than all we can ask or imagine," as we read in our lesson for today from Ephesians.

This is certainly the case in this story. It is discovered that a little boy in the crowd has packed a sack lunch and presumably is generously offering it for the group. The only problem, however, is that his lunch consists of five loaves of barley bread and two little fish and the crowd is 5,000 men plus women and children. Impossible? Absolutely. But Jesus blesses the lunch and it is distributed. Shockingly, there is enough for everyone and so many leftovers that it takes 12 baskets just to gather them!

It is much more than they could ask or imagine. Truly this feeding is miraculous, but in John’s gospel these events are called signs rather than miracles. They are signs because they point to deeper truths about who Jesus is and what he has come to do. This sign cannot be taken at face value—we must probe deeper. It is not about Jesus being a guy who magically makes bread and fish multiply. It is about the fact that Jesus is himself the bread of life, the one who will soon nourish them with his own body and blood. Bread satisfies hunger for the moment but he satisfies spiritual hunger for all time. Jesus made a similar statement to the woman at the well—calling himself living water. Still, the crowd doesn’t seem to understand this sign and instead, they want to seize him and make him king because of the free lunch program they are sure he will institute. They had come to this mountain searching for Jesus and even after this marvelous sign, they still don’t find what they are looking for.

And you are here this morning—why, I don’t know. But I can assume that it is because you too, are seeking Jesus. You are trying to find the one who offers the opportunity to live an everlasting and meaningful life. You are clamoring after the God who makes the impossible is possible. You are looking around this world where of despair and fear and scarcity and you know that there has got to be more—there must be abundance if you can just tap into the power of Jesus that can feed a multitude with just five loaves and two fish.

Well, if that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place. That’s what our life of faith is all about: seeking and finding the abundance of our God. Yet as humans it is difficult to accept such lavish love and care. In our New Testament lesson for today, we are offered a prayer. Paul writes:

“I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Yes, the God who feeds the multitude with one boy’s lunch is the God of abundance. That’s the sign Jesus wants for us to get. He is the bread of life. And he feeds us with the unfathomable love of God—the fullness of God. And because this power is in us through the Holy Spirit, there is nothing we can’t do. This Spirit can accomplish far more through us than seems possible. And we are called to live in that believe in the possible, to stake our lives on it.

The theologian Soren Kierkegaard said faith is like floating in a deep ocean. If you struggle and thrash about, you will eventually tire and sink. But if you relax and trust, you will float. Faith, you see is trusting in the bouyancy of God to keep you safe. It is allowing God to be your everything: the ground in which you live and move and have your being. You have to let go of your fears and trust in the abundance of God and how much it can be present in your everyday life. That’s the sign that Jesus was pointing to in this miraculous act.

To close, I share with you a famous quote by Marianne Williamson.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.



May the God of all possibility bless you with the peace of Christ which passes all understanding. Amen.