A Fine Dining Experience

Sermon for March 22, 2009 The Fourth Sunday of Lent Text:  John 6:4-15 Title:  "A Fine Dining Experience" A.  This story has been around for quite awhile, but it's still fun to tell and it makes a powerful point: The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance.  Immediately he told his signalman to send a message:  "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received:  "Alter your course 10 degrees north." The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message:  "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!" Soon another message was received:  "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones." Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke:  "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship." Then the reply came:  "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse." Big Dog leadership is as old as the cavemen.  Whoever is the biggest dog is boss.  Or, failing in that, whoever has the biggest stick wins, or the deadliest knife, or the best weapon's system, or the most powerful army.   Things were no different in Jesus' day.  The Romans were the big dogs.  And the people were tired of Roman rule.  They wanted their own nation again, like in the days of King David.  The prophecies from centuries before had assured the people – had even sunk into their cultural milieu – that a Messiah, or anointed One of God, would come and set up a new Davidic Kingdom. Expectation was running high as the people looked for a hero to unite them and throw off the yoke of Roman oppression.  There were lots of pretenders to the throne running around first-century Israel, promising liberation from Roman rule.  The people tended to move from one to the other, until their promises dried up like so much desert sand.  Into this climate of chaos and hope came Jesus, who did and said things that led the people to believe that He was the one who would fill their bellies and fulfill their national dreams.  John tells us that the people wanted to try and make Jesus king "by force".  But Jesus refused the crown and slipped off by himself into the wilderness.  Rather than choose the roar of the crowd, Jesus knew that His Lordship would require a cross for a coronation.  The prophecies of old were right – the Messiah would come and had come.  But like the illusionists ball-under-the-cup trick, the people had their eyes focused on the wrong place.  God's Kingdom would not come in by force, but by the power of God through Jesus Christ. B.   That power is demonstrated in this morning's passage of Scripture.  The story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 men (even more when you count women and children) is the only miracle outside of the Crucifixion and Resurrection that is narrated in all four gospels.       The passage opens with Jesus and his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  A large crowd had followed Jesus, hoping that he might perform miracles for them such as he had for other sick people.  Jesus withdrew to "the mountain" with the disciples – a large hill, actually, if the traditional site where this miracle is purported to have taken place is correct.  Jesus assumes a seated posture in this beautiful spot, indicating that He intended to teach the crowds.  And He does exactly that, until it gets late and the people get hungry.   So Jesus asked Philip how they might be able to buy bread for the throng.  The Gospel writer is quick to note that Jesus, who already has a plan in mind, was "testing" Philip. This question for Philip is unique to John; in the other Gospel accounts, Jesus responded to the disciples' concerns about the masses of hungry people by charging them to give the people "something to eat" themselves.  The correct answer to Jesus' test would have been some sort of expression of trust in His ability to solve the problem, but instead Philip pointed to the significant cash outlay it would take (200 denarii, the equivalent of a day's wage for 200 laborers) to feed such a crowd.  Andrew called a young boy to their attention; he had five loaves and two small fish.  But this is a terribly inadequate lunch for so large a crowd.  Obviously, conventional approaches to the problem wouldn't solve anything.  The Master alone knows how to meet the crowd's needs.  Jesus instructed the disciples to make everyone sit down.   He took the food, blessed it, and distributed it to the people.  From so small an amount of food, all present were able to eat their fill, and even 12 basketfuls were left over, which were gathered up by the disciples at Jesus' command.   Jesus' desire to leave no scraps behind echoes Moses' instructions to the Israelites in the Wilderness not to try to save the manna for more than one day at a time.  Otherwise the scraps would spoil.  In response to this miraculous "sign," the people decided that Jesus is "the prophet who is to come into the world".   The episode ends with Jesus fleeing farther up the mountain because the people wanted to draft Him to be king.  Here it is clear that the people have misunderstood what they just saw.  Rather than responding by listening to Jesus in obedience and understanding the nature and purpose of his mission, the crowd fell back on the assumption that Jesus is poised to set himself up as the earthly King who could lead Israel to military victory over her enemies.   Jesus, however, rejected this vision of the Kingdom, leaving full understanding of what the Kingdom of God is until after His death and Resurrection.   C.   Now we need to notice a couple of places where the theological "rubber" of this passage meets the road of our lives.   First of all, let's recall something we said last week about the Gospel of John, namely, that it is a missionary document.  It was intentionally written by picking certain stories about Jesus over certain other stories to show that He is the Son of God, Who has come into the world to bring salvation for all people through faith.  How do we know this?  Simple.  John tells us:  "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name." (20:30).  John was written so the expanding Church could take it into the pagan world as a missionary document, that others could come to know and believe in Jesus.  Some of these new converts were Jews.  So John takes pains to tell the Jewish convert community that Jesus both reflects and supercedes what God did through Moses, the prophets, and others.  For example, John lets us know that this morning's passage of Scripture takes place during Passover.  Just say the word, and the person steeped in OT history thinks of Moses leading the people out of Egypt, the Red Sea waters swallowing up the Egyptian army, and the people wandering in the Wilderness.  On one occasion, the people complained about hunger, just like the people on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  Moses prayed to God, and they got manna to eat.  But manna only holds the body together for one day.  Even if the people tried to save manna for a rainy day (and they did try), it would spoil.  By contrast, Jesus is the spiritual food that lasts into eternity.  John explains it later in chapter 6, when Jesus says:  "I am the Bread of Life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never thirst."  Notice that in John, Jesus "takes" the bread, "gives thanks," and "gives" the bread to the people. This vocabulary very clearly echoes by the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, as found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which were retained in the early church's liturgy of the Lord's Supper.  Indeed, if this passage sounds a lot like the sacrament, it should.  This is John's Last Supper passage.  Jesus' final night with His disciples in John doesn't even have a Last Supper – it has a last foot washing.  By having Jesus directly feed the masses, John is saying that eternal life is open to all who believe, through the death and Resurrection of the Master.   There is no question that something powerful goes on when we receive Holy Communion.  In a spiritual sense, the host and wine become the Body and blood of Christ.  In a very real way, the Lord is present with us at the Table.  God's forgiving and sustaining grace is channeled in the Sacrament.  We receive, but God gives the believer grace through the sacrament, grace that can work miracles. A friend of mine who was serving as a PT chaplain in a local hospital was making his rounds one morning when he was called to visit a patient admitted with an undiagnosed ailment.   The patient, a man in his sixties, had not responded to any treatment; medical tests showed nothing; psychological tests were inconclusive.  Yet he was wasting away; he had not even been able to swallow for two weeks.  Finally they called the chaplain's office. When my friend walked into the room, John was sitting limply in his bed, strung with IV tubes, staring listlessly at the wall.  He was a tall, grandfatherly man, balding a little, but his sallow skin hung loosely on his face, neck, and arms where the weight had dropped from his frame.  John seemed to brighten a bit as soon as he saw the chaplain badge and invited him to sit down.  As they talked, my friend said he sensed that God was urging him to ask John if he wanted to take Communion.  At that John broke down. "I can't!" he cried. "I've sinned and can't be forgiven."  With words my friend said were not his, he asked John if he wanted to confess his sin.  John nodded gratefully.  That sin had been draining the life from this man.  John wept as he confessed, and the chaplain told him his sins were forgiven.  My friend excused himself, saying he'd be back with elements for communion.  Going to the hospital cafeteria, he wrapped piece of bread in a napkin and borrowed a coffee cup from the cafeteria. He ran out to a shop a few blocks away and bought a container of grape juice. Then he returned to John's room with the elements and celebrated Communion with him. John took the bread and chewed it slowly. It was the first time in weeks he had been able to take solid food in his mouth.  He took the cup and swallowed. He had been set free.  A few days thereafter he left the hospital. 2.  There is something else this passage tells us that we need to remember.  Amazing things can happen through faith in Christ!  Something incredible happened that day along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  It started out fairly typically.  The crowds gathered on a hillside.  They listened to the teacher teaching.  They got hungry by the end of the day.  But then Jesus blessed the loaves and the fish, and they were distributed, and distributed, and distributed.  And by the end of the meal, there were more scraps left over than pieces of food when they started!  How is that possible?  It isn't – for you and me.  But Jesus intervened.  Christ got involved in the lives of those people, and the miraculous happened. Now I don't know about you, but I've never seen a miracle such as this.  But I've seen a lot of amazing things happen when Jesus is in the mix of our lives.  Something a few of us were talking about at our 0-dark-thirty men's Bible study on Friday bears repeating here.  Jesus is in charge of the normal ebb and flow of our lives far more than we give Him credit for.  Paul tells us this, when in Romans, chapter 8, he says, "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."  Not that God directs our steps like a puppet master pulling the strings on a marionette.  We have free will.  We can choose much of what happens to us in life, both good and bad.  But in some mysterious way, God can take even the messes we make of our lives and shape them into a moment in time that actually makes us better off.  It may take a while.  It may not be apparent until months or years later.  There is no question that the best way to see God's grace is through the vision of hindsight.  But God is unquestionably in charge, especially when God seems to be the furthest away.  Consider Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery, who traveled to the far country of Egypt, who was accused falsely of a heinous crime, who languished for years in prison, and who eventually became vice-Pharaoh of Egypt.  All because at the right time and in the right place, Joseph spared God's people from famine by bringing them en masse to Egypt.  As he notes in the 50th chapter of the Book of Genesis: "You," (his brothers) "intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  Obviously, God can even hold His grace in our lives, until the right time and the right place. My friends, this is a miracle, just as sure as the multiplication of the loaves, if not quite as showy.  God calls us to believe in Him, and He will see us through.  Sometimes its not easy to believe.  But through faith God refines us to His purposes. Olympic gold medallist Darrel Pace was to give an archery exhibition in New York City's Central Park, and the event received coverage by all the news stations. Shooting steel- tipped hunting arrows, Pace punctured bull's-eyes without a miss. Then he called for a volunteer. "All you have to do," said Pace, "Is hold this apple in your hand, waist-high." ABC correspondent Josh Howell took a bold step forward. He stood there, a small apple in his hand, a larger one in his throat. Pace took aim from 30 yards away as we all held our breath. Then THWACK-a clean hit that exploded the apple before striking the target behind. Everybody applauded Howell, who was all smiles--until his cameraman approached with a hangdog look. "I'm sorry, Josh," he said. "I didn't get it. Had a problem with my viewfinder. Could you do it again?" Sometimes faith has to be persistent.  But God will never let us go.  This Lent, may we rededicate our lives to the Lord, and to even greater trust in Him, through good times, and especially in not so good times.  AMEN.               Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA  20177 703-344-3569 almond_keith@yahoo.com