Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
July 26, 2009
John 6:1-21
Marcus Borg, in his book the Heart of Christianity, speaks of "thin places." You have heard me speak of this before. It's an idea that comes from Celtic Christianity. Says Borg, "There are minimally two layers or dimensions of reality: the visible world of our ordinary experience and God, the sacred, Spirit. Thin places are places where these two levels of reality meet or intersect. They are places where the boundary between the two levels becomes very soft, porous, permeable. Thin places are where the veil momentarily lifts, and we behold God, experience the one in whom we live and move and have our being...A thin place is anywhere our hearts are opened and the sacred becomes present to us."
A thin place can be anywhere - Thomas Merton once experienced God on a street corner in downtown Louisville - and it can be anyone. I suspect each of us knows one or two people through whom we have experienced the Spirit at some point in our lives. I share this with you because, returning to our text, I have to wonder if perhaps this story, the feeding of the five thousand, might not be a thin place. Some bread and fish are passed around and we find ourselves face to face with the Holy.
Now, what should we do with this story? What are we going to make of it? As you know, each of the four Gospel writers recorded the life of Jesus in a different way. Picking and choosing from all the stories they knew about him, the sayings attributed to him, each came up with a different combination. But one thing all four included in their Gospels is this story of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, the only story in all four Gospels. For some reason it was seen as central, more central than the birth narrative… just too important to leave out. I wonder why?
Of course, it's a story that carries echoes of other stories, such as the story from Exodus of manna from the sky that fed the children of Israel in the wilderness just at that moment they were beginning to fear and worry about where their next meal might come from. In the book of II Kings, there's a story in which the prophet Elisha fed a hundred hungry men with twenty barley loaves. His disciples, much like those of Jesus, protested that it would not be nearly enough, but Elisha insisted and the Lord provided. Everyone ate his fill and there were leftovers besides.
And so it is we encounter another bread miracle today and an impressive one at that. This time, five thousand are fed with just a little bread and fish, a meal that multiplies until all are fed and there is enough left to fill twelve baskets - twelve tribes of Israel, twelve disciples - there is that number yet again.
And yet, how do we, good children of the Enlightenment, possibly wrap our brains around a story like this. We wonder how did it happen exactly? Did it really happen that way? Did it really happen at all? It appears to be an impossible situation. On the mountainside there is an overwhelming need and few resources. Surveying the great crowd, Jesus asks a question that tests the limits of the disciples' knowledge - "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" When faced with this situation, the disciples speak the despairing truth. Philip insists they will never be able to find enough bread. Andrew says it wouldn't matter if they were next door to a bread factory because they will never find enough money: "Six months wages wouldn't buy enough bread to feed these people." He insists that there is too much need, too few resources. A meal for 5000 just isn't in the budget this year.
Reflecting on this text, theologian, Karen Marie Yust, writes, "Imagine that Jesus asked his question in a contemporary congregation. One might expect the trustees to echo Phillip's money-management concern, pointing out that the congregation does not take in enough revenue to support such a project. The outreach committee might reinforce Andrew's position, stating that the congregation has earmarked only a small percentage of its income for mission giving and the proposed project's needs far exceed the allocated amount. The building and grounds committee may assist with seating everyone on the lawn, although some members might worry about the effects of this event on the property's landscaping. It is likely that none of the congregation's boards or committees would expect to participate in a miracle. They do not view their work as a venue for God's glory and mercy to break forth in the world, but rather as a means to facilitate the congregation's survival as an organization." We just don't do miracles around here. And then, Jesus shows up. And, darn it, he just doesn't worry about the budget. He never seems to doubt God's ability to act in surprising ways and to transform our often very limited expectations.
Have you heard this story? Two ministers stood by the side of a road holding up a sign that read, "THE END IS NEAR! Turn around before it's too late!" Along came a young man who clearly had no use for the church or clergy. He slowed his car down and yelled at the clergymen, "Leave us alone, you religious nuts!" Then, with tires screeching, he sped off. He had hardly left the scene when the ministers heard a terrible noise that ended in a loud splash. One pastor turned to the other and said, "I don't know, do you think we should change our sign to read simply, 'BRIDGE OUT'?" It's all about sending the right message.
Well, when it comes to our faith, what message are we sending? What does the world hear from us? Charles Hoffman, a United Methodist minister, suggests that too often the message sent by the church and church people reflects the faith of Andrew and Phillip, especially in these challenging financial times. In his words, "We tend to base our living on our own scarcity or even on our own fears of insufficiency. So we hoard and worry and end up living life in small and safe measure. We pull back when we should push forward. We give in to our fear of a shortfall rather than exercising faith in God's abundance." It seems that we are so fearful all the time, so cautious, there's this conflict between our faith, which proclaims the good news of God's abundance and the power of the fear of scarcity. As Nietzsche once said, "Christians will have to look more redeemed if people are going to believe in their Redeemer." Again, just what message are we sending about that which most nourishes and enriches our lives?
"There's a boy here who has five barley loaves," Says Andrew. "Make the people sit down," Jesus says. A meal is blessed, served, then eaten...and there's more than enough. Jesus sees abundance, is the source of abundance, when those all around him can only see scarcity. Did it really happen this way? To tell the truth, I don't know, I wasn't there, and I really don't know if I care that much. But I think I know why we find this story in all four Gospels. Because here, in this thin place, it opens up. We don't see the Christian faith as a set of moral directives, a list of positive values to be affirmed or a collection of noble philosophical platitudes. No, we meet one who comes to us, takes our meager resources, blesses and breaks them, and, wonder of wonders, there is miraculous abundance. We are encountered, blessed, reassured and fed. What are we modern, scientific, empirically minded folk to think about such a wonder? Well, quite simply this. The power of the future lies in the hands, not of those who believe in scarcity, but in those who trust God's abundance, who dare to live into a grace-filled inheritance, who take seriously God's generous offer of life.
In 1976 when Millard and Linda Fuller began Habitat for Humanity International, there were few resources and a great need for affordable and decent housing for the working poor throughout the world. With few tools, less money and a few volunteers, it would have been easy to ask, with Phillip and Andrew, "There is so little. How can we possibly make a difference?" But the passion for justice, and faith in the abundant grace of Christ, compelled them to move forward. Today, thousands of homes and transformed lives later, Habitat stands as a clear testimony to the multiplying power of God's abundance grace.
Says Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann, "The feeding of the multitudes is an example of a new world coming into being through God...Jesus demonstrated that the world is filled with abundance and freighted with generosity. If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all...The market ideology wants us to believe that life consists of buying and selling, weighing, measuring and trading. But Jesus presents an entirely different kind of economy, one infused with the mystery of abundance and generosity. Five thousand are fed. Jesus transforms the economy by blessing it and breaking it beyond self-interest. People do not grasp, hoard, resent or act selfishly; they watch as the juices of heaven multiply the bread of earth. The closer we stay to Jesus the more we will bring with us a new economy of abundance...Our world absolutely requires this news. The creation is infused with the Creators' generosity, and we can find practices, procedures and institutions that allow that generosity to work. Our faith, our ministry, our hope are that the Creator will empower us to trust this generosity so that bread may abound." In the hands of Jesus, what seems so little can become more than enough, the few become many, the weak become strong. And we discover, in the words of that noted theologian, Paul Simon, that we all, all will be received in Graceland.
"You know why I keep coming to this church?" a new church member asked in a meeting of the church's evangelism committee. The committee thought she might mention the warmth of the fellowship, the pastor hoped she'd mention the power of the sermons. But no, what she said was this: "I keep coming to this church because it is here that I meet Jesus. Not every Sunday, but enough to keep me coming. He comes to me, embraces me, and I go on. Without that, why bother?"
She has a point. For with this Jew from Nazareth, we gather together, break bread, share a cup, and much to our amazement we find ourselves in a thin place. We find ourselves in the loving, generous, abundant presence of God. And folks, without that, why bother indeed?