Sunday, 26^th July, 2009. John 6 v 1 – 21

Let Us Eradicate Spiritual Poverty

How many of us, here today have panicked over a dinner party, would we have enough food, would people like it would it look nice on the plate. How different from the account we have just heard, the biggest and best known of meals, and yet the host, Christ, remained calm.

This miracle as you may know is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, and the version from Mark was part of the filling of the sandwich which was the Gospel reading last Sunday, the bit in the middle they missed out, which is why last weeks readings sounded rather disjointed. And as we know both Mark and Matthew have this miracle twice in their Gospel but with different numbers, four thousand, and seven loaves in the second miracle, so why did the Gospel writers think it was so important, what did they see as the meaning – obviously it must be something more than providing a large picnic for a group of hungry people.

We read how they gathered up all the leftovers from the five loaves and had enough to fill twelve baskets. What a mystery what a sign of divine power. Jesus can feed thousands and still there is food left over, no one who came to him, or indeed comes to him to be fed goes away hungry. Interestingly enough there is no mention of any fish being left over, just the bread.

It is widely believed that the two different accounts in Mark and Matthew are there as two separate messages, a message to the Jews and a message to the Gentiles. Slightly different wording for each but the same, undeniable meaning.

One of the problems with miracles is that we can get so bogged down in trying to work out how Jesus did it, that we miss the meaning, we spend too much time thinking on the physical aspect and end up missing the spiritual. We can easily spend time thinking if we could only feed all those people with five loaves we could solve all the world’s hunger problem. But of course the message is that we can solve the world’s hunger problem but it isn’t just the physical hunger caused by too little food, but the spiritual hunger by not accepting Christ as Saviour, of concentrating on the physical and not the spiritual.

In his book, ‘The meaning of Miracles’ Jeffrey John reminds us of the similarity with the Exodus story. Like Moses Jesus crosses the water into the desert, like Moses he sits the crowds down in groups and appoints helpers to distribute the food, then feeds them with such miraculous quantities of bread that there are basketfuls left over.

Jesus would have known the symbolic connection with the Exodus story; so what was the meaning, indeed what is still the meaning. And the Rabbis had already interpreted the manna in the Exodus story as God’s word, which he was sending to the Jews to feed them. Moses had warned the people that ‘God had fed them with manna in the desert in order to make them understand that no one lives by bread alone’.

So what is important about this miracle the feeding of the 5000 is what it tells us about Jesus, who he is, and what that has to do with us, and how we relate, today in Redhill, to this Gospel story. It also has to do with how we relate to the person of Jesus, and how this fits into our worshipping community here and throughout the world.

I suspect that the crowds hadn’t truly understood that Jesus wanted them to see the meal as much more than physical food. For he wanted them to be fed not just with something physical, he wanted them to be fed with spiritual food: to know the truth about the kingdom of God, the truth about the God who sent him, and the truth about what it truly meant to be his disciples.

Jesus, the teacher, knew people needed to experience the truth as well as hear it. They needed to be filled with the word and to experience what this life with God is all about. In the previous chapter, Jesus explains who he is. He describes who God is and exactly why God has sent him. He also explains how the people will fit into the life of God if they listen to his words and what the consequences will be if they don’t.

So as well as learning that we all need to be spiritually fed, we learn how we, the Church, will fit into the life of God. What we are being called to do.

This week in the Church Times Christian Aid has placed a large advert (which I have put on the Mission Board) challenging us how big a task it would be to eradicate poverty. Please go and read it but two of the statements are – ‘it’s no bigger than putting a man on the moon’ it’s the 40 anniversary of that event this week, or its no bigger than bailing out the banks, although I suspect that the very poor would have also suffered much if the banks hadn’t been bailed out. But it is a statement of where our priorities are. I think the response that it’s not worth giving money to third world countries because their governments will squander it is rather a cop out because recognised agencies are very careful where they put their money.

When money becomes scarce, and without a doubt

resources are scarce. When there is not enough to go around, it is easy to feel it is not the time to share, but the time to hoard. But is that Jesus’ message, does he have a different view of the situation? Jesus operates out of abundance, if we trust in him not only is there always enough, but there is more than enough.

So what is Jesus saying to us? We’re asked to listen to the scriptures, examine our lives, and take seriously our response to God’s invitation. Just like the Israelites, we are nourished with the word as well as with the bread and that should be pretty filling. If we receive it we’ll be well satisfied.

But we have to think beyond ourselves. We have to think whether or not we’re coming to receive life. We have to remember that our lives are bound up with the whole people of God as well as with our family and friends. We are called by our baptism to continue spreading God’s message through our faithfulness to God’s word.

So as we prepare to share the Eucharist, share Christ’s body broken for us, we have to remember what it means to be Christ’s body here on earth now. We have to think what Jesus’ priorities would be, is he asking us what we are doing to eradicate poverty? And it’s not just the poverty of earthly food but also the poverty of spiritual food. Perhaps if we could eradicate spiritual hunger in our land we would be well on the way to eradicating the poverty which Christian Aid is calling us to eradicate.

Now I suspect many of you will think ‘she’s getting on her high horse again, but wouldn’t it be good if the Church instead of attracting publicity, using up energy, arguing over sexuality and women priests responded to Jesus’ message, to Moses’ message, to God’s eternal message, and used all its energy working to eradicate not only physical poverty, ensuring that everyone has clean water and pure food to eat, but perhaps even more importantly spiritual poverty both in this country and round the world. Amen