New Solutions

Ephesians 3:14–21 ESV

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength 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, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

John 6:1–21 ESV

1 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

New Solutions

Recently, the lectionary has been leading us through the Gospel of Mark, but for some reason known only to those who organized the lectionary, there is a 6 week break now where we wander off into the Gospel of John. We enter in partway through the gospel of John with a story that is pretty familiar to many people.

Recently, the lectionary has been leading us through the Gospel of Mark, but for some reason known only to those who organized the lectionary, there is a 6 week break now where we wander off into the Gospel of John. We enter in partway through the gospel of John with a story that is pretty familiar to many people.

John 6:10 ESV

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

“There was much grass in the place.”

So what?

These familiar stories can be hard because we feel like we know them so well that there is nothing new we can learn from them. We know the problem: not enough bread to feed the people. We know the solution: Jesus feeds them with a miracle. It has already been boiled down and solved for us.

The disciples too, thought they knew the problem and it’s prescribed solution.

Hungry people? Buy them bread. Not enough money? Unsolvable problem.

The great thinkers of human history are the people who do the opposite of this. They are the ones who see a problem and try to figure out a new solution - not work harder at implementing the old solutions. . . EVEN if the old solutions worked in their time. They have an attitude of optimism and creativity.

As children, we’re taught that there are prescribed solutions to certain problems. My husband is a mathematician by degree and this drives him nuts. You want to know the length of the side of a particular triangle? Plug the numbers you know into a particular equation and solve it. Viola! There’s your answer. But we wait until kids are in late high school college (if ever) to begin teaching why this equation works. So many (if not most) kids think math is dumb and boring. And they get frustrated when a new problem is put in front of them or they have a different set of information than they were used to. If you know why the equation works to solve the problem, however, you can figure out a whole host of new solutions to new problems.

The disciples didn’t see a way to solve the problem in the way they’d always solved the problem before, so they lost heart and settled into an attitude of defeat. The traditional solution wasn’t something they could afford to do, so they assumed the people would just have to go hungry.

When you can’t see what you think is the solution (attitude of the disciples).

It’s easy to settle into that sort of discouragement or defeat. The disciples weren’t bad people. They weren’t dumb people. They were just human. There was the way they’d always done it or expected it to be done, and that way wasn’t possible.

It’s easy to settle into that sort of discouragement or defeat. The disciples weren’t bad people. They weren’t dumb people. They were just human. There was the way they’d always done it or expected it to be done, and that way wasn’t possible.

John 6:10 ESV

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

But there is this one boy who brought a lunch. As a mom, I want to know why the rest of these people didn’t bring lunches. They probably didn’t bring their coats either. But there is one boy who listened to his mom and brought his lunch. I imagine this boy couldn’t have been too old, because he sees this problem in a whole different way than anyone else seems to be seeing it. He figures there are hungry people and he has food, so he should offer it. Even though this tiny offering is clearly not enough to feed all the people, he gives it.

“There was much grass in the place.”

Grass.

So many things we wish the gospel writers would have included and here is John telling us how much grass there was.

When you offer what you have (attitude of the boy).

And here’s where the disciples do something really important: they have no idea what Jesus’ plan is to feed all these people. But they know he has a plan. So when he asks them to do something ludicrous - they do it. He doesn’t make the money appear so they can solve the problem in the prescribed manner. He doesn’t even multiply the bread and fish before starting to pass it out. He just starts passing it out and then tells them to pick up the leftovers.

And it is enough.

When you take what is offered and start working (attitude of Christ).

Not only is there enough, there is so much, there are leftovers.

That is so hard to believe. It’s hard to believe because we just don’t see many leftovers these days.

Where are the miracles today?

Where are the miracles today?

Where is the powerful moving of God in the world around us?

Why are there so many hungry people around us today?

Why are there so many little churches struggling to get by?

It’s easy to read passages like this and get frustrated and disheartened that we don’t see Jesus multiplying the things around us.

Trouble in the Text

Grace in the Text

Here’s Jesus feeding thousands of people with nothing and walking on water and we are living in a world where children are starving and we feel like our bucket is empty.

We know that as the church and as followers of Christ, we are supposed to care about hunger and injustice. We know that worship is important and gathering together regularly is vital to Christian growth. But the old solutions to those problems aren’t working like they used to.

When I was growing up in a small Presbyterian church back in. . . just back in the day . . . it was all about the programs. You had to have a youth group and a Sunday school program and a vacation bible school and a big choir, and a hand-bell choir, and all that other stuff. You had to keep people busy. Small church? Church plant? The solution was MORE PROGRAMS!

That doesn’t work any more. I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it’s because we’re all really busy. Maybe it’s because we’re all already so programmed that we just want to hang out together with people who love us.

And even if more programs did work, not many churches have the time, energy, and other resources to start a bunch of programs. We’re like the disciples turning out our empty pockets. I can just see the moths fluttering out of their pockets like in a cartoon.

“We just don’t have enough money to buy bread for all these people, Jesus.”

“We just don’t have enough.”

If our faith depends on seeing great big miracles like the ones in this morning’s passage, we’ve rested our faith on very shaky ground.

That’s not to say we’ll never see big miracles. What it is to say is that it’s more important to pay attention to the so-called everyday miracles.

This is the attitude of the disciples.

Not having enough to carry out the old prescribed solution to the problem doesn’t mean we don’t have anything. It means we have to put alot more on the line to make a difference, because when you have little, every scrap matters. It’s easy to share 5 loaves and 2 fish when you own the bakery and a fishing boat. It’s terrifying to put our few little items of lunch on the table and offer to share them. Especially when we don’t generally see Jesus literally walking on water these days.

Not having enough to carry out the old prescribed solution to the problem doesn’t mean we don’t have anything. It means we have to put alot more on the line to make a difference, because when you have little, every scrap matters. It’s easy to share 5 loaves and 2 fish when you own the bakery and a fishing boat. It’s terrifying to put our few little items of lunch on the table and offer to share them. Especially when we don’t generally see Jesus literally walking on water these days.

Shoot - we have all we need! We have Jesus right here in our midst today!

But it’s not about the spectacular miracles and whether they happen or not, it’s about the fact that the miracle worker, the powerful one, the Messiah, GOD WITH US, comes down to be with us and cares for us! We matter to God! We matter to God just as the hungry people on the hill mattered.

When the disciples said, “We don’t have enough.” Jesus could have said, “Yeah. You’re right. Pack it up, let’s roll out and let them fend for themselves.” But he didn’t. He took the meager offering that one little kid had and did something wonderful with it!

Emsworth and St. Andrew’s have been partnered in this sharing a pastor thing for about a year and a half now. I am, of course, biased, but I think it’s been a pretty great year and a half and I’m looking forward to the next year and a half. It’s been fun because there is no real prescribed answer to the problem. We have to look around and see who remembered to bring their lunch. It’s fun being a pioneer in what the new solutions to the problems are in today’s church.

Then as a community - the body of Christ - we must take those resources offered and begin the work of feeding and healing and caring for others.

CARED enough to DO THAT!

It’s hard to break out of old patterns of solving problems, to really understand why the old solutions worked and why they don’t work now. But it is so FUN and rewarding when you get past that!

This Jesus who was able to walk on water came down to walk on earth with plain old people.

We have been given the permission to say,

It’s important for us to keep doing things like the joint Bible study we did with Mt. Nebo church this past year or inviting our friends from another church to worship with us as they are trying to figure all this out too.

We may not be able to miraculously feed 5000 families with a couple of fish and some loaves of bread, but when we offer up the little that we DO HAVE for the sake of others, it has a way of multiplying. when we give God everything we brought with us to the table, we will begin to see new ways into the future - new solutions to the problems around us.

The Message Chapter 6

BREAD AND FISH FOR ALL

1–4  6 After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (some call it Tiberias). A huge crowd followed him, attracted by the miracles they had seen him do among the sick. When he got to the other side, he climbed a hill and sat down, surrounded by his disciples. It was nearly time for the Feast of Passover, kept annually by the Jews.

5–6  When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread to feed these people?” He said this to stretch Philip’s faith. He already knew what he was going to do.

7  Philip answered, “Two hundred silver pieces wouldn’t be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece.”

8–9  One of the disciples—it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter—said, “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.”

10–11  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted.

12–13  When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted.” They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.

1 After this, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee (some call it Tiberias). 2 A huge crowd followed him, attracted by the miracles they had seen him do among the sick. 3 When he got to the other side, he climbed a hill and sat down, surrounded by his disciples. 4 It was nearly time for the Feast of Passover, kept annually by the Jews. 5 When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread to feed these people?” 6 He said this to stretch Philip’s faith. He already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered, “Two hundred silver pieces wouldn’t be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece.” 8 One of the disciples—it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter—said, 9 “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. They sat down, about five thousand of them. 11 Then Jesus took the bread and, having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish. All ate as much as they wanted. 12 When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted.” 13 They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.