LESSONS IN A LAD'S LUNCH

(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/6/11)

John 6:1-13

Over the ages, a large part of the human predicament has seemed to relate to economy, and whether we as humans have all that we need to survive. The perennial concern here is really whether or not God will provide for our needs. Note here, that this matter of economy relates not simply to the things that we want, but the things that we need.

History shows that God is a God of provision. God is in the business of providing for our needs. Some have declared that God is an on-time God. Others have framed it with words of affirmation that God will make ways out of no way. Others have declared time and again that God is good all the time. And still others have spoken of the great faithfulness of the Lord – the song-writer declared, “All I have needed, thy hand has provided.” Indeed God specializes in providing for our needs.

The challenge comes in the fact that many people are apt to forget about all the ways that God provides. Many fail to acknowledge that God is actually in the business of providing for all our needs – whether spiritual, physical or social. This forgetfulness – this form of spiritual amnesia - is often couched in doubt about the presence and power of God, or in complaining about the things that we don’t have, the ways that have not yet been made for us, and the things that we have not yet achieved.

Instead of looking with eyes of faith, trust and appreciation at the many blessings that are already present in our lives, many are like the Israelites who despite how God blesses, will complain and fuss – even about the things that God has blessed us with.

And we should be concerned not only with our own provision, but with the needs of our sisters and brothers. In Africa today, famine and malnutrition threaten the lives of over 11 million people from Kenya to Somalia. Many people in cities like Baltimore and Washington, DC – mostly women and children – will go to bed tonight without adequate nutrition, housing and healthcare. In the “Occupy” movement that has spread from Wall Street to cities across our nation, our awareness has been raised to the fact that 1% of our nation’s population holds about 50% of the nation’s accumulated wealth. That leaves 99% of us to make due on the other 50% of our collective resources. Indeed, the rich seem to be getting richer among us.

And in the event that we need more evidence of how God blesses us, and what we can learn within the context of our blessing, we can turn again to Scripture. In the Gospel of John, we find lessons for how to recognize and appreciate our blessings. Here, we find Jesus trying to get some rest having been busy ministering to the masses. But everywhere Jesus went, large crowds of people followed him. And so, Jesus and his disciples decided to get in a boat to get away from the crowds, but when the boat docked, Jesus found that people had rushed to the other side of the river and were waiting there for him.

The Lord knew that the people who had followed him had needs and wanted to be blessed. He knew that they were in need of physical and spiritual healing, in need of being taught about the ways of God, and also in need of physical nourishment (they were hungry). And so Jesus decided not only to heal and teach the people, but he knew that needed to feed those who had come, as well.

In this story of the feeding of 5000, Jesus took the lunch of a boy in the crowd - 5 loaves and 2 fish - and lifted them up toward heaven and asked God to bless the lad’s lunch. The Lord then began breaking the fish and bread into pieces and the disciples passed it out to all the people who had gathered.

The word says that everyone had all they wanted to eat, and everybody was satisfied. When they had finished eating the disciples picked up the leftover food. They collected 12 baskets of leftovers.

There are several lessons that we can glean from this story.

First, we have evidence again that God will provide for all of our needs. Even when things look the most dire and desperate– even when it seems that we are in the most need, even when our money resources seem the scarcest - God is about the business of working on behalf of God’s people, and providing for our needs. The word says that all of the people were satisfied after having eaten the meal provided for them.

Second, we find that our blessings will often come to us in unexpected ways, through unexpected people. Of all the people in the crowd (5000 men, plus women and children), it was a lad who had the blessing in his hands. So often we look for our blessings in what seem to be the obvious places, among the people who we think are most able and likely to be a blessing to us. But God used a lad and his lunch to bless the people. Maybe God is trying to tell us to look around us and see God’s blessings in all the people around us.

Third, we learn that God will not only provide what we need, but God is in the business of providing more than enough. The word says that Jesus took the lad’s two fish and five loaves of bread and he fed all of the people there. But it’s good that the story doesn’t stop there. It says that there was more than enough - there were leftovers. God not only provides for our needs, but God offers us blessings in abundance.

The good news is that God provides for all of our needs, and God provides more than enough!

Great is thy faithfulness,
Lord God our father…
Great is thy faithfulness
Great is thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning
New mercies I see.
All I have needed
Thy hand has provided
Great I they faithfulness
Lord unto me.