Feasting on the Fragments

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July 26, 2015

John 6:1-15

¹After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. ⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." ⁸One 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 among so many people?" ¹⁰Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹Then Jesus 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. ¹²When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." ¹³So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. ¹⁴When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

¹⁵When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Sermon: “Feasting on the Fragments”

I think about that kid a lot.  The one with the lunch to share in our story.  How did he get there?  Was he just swept along in the crowd on a boat across the Sea of Galilee, following this powerful teacher?  Did he set out on one of those childhood adventures, packing a couple of fish and some bread and maybe his favorite slingshot, deciding to explore on his own?  Did his parents know where he was?  However it was he got there, this little boy is the heart of the story of feeding the five thousand. 

Without him, people would have been hungry.  Of course, if everyone had shared what they had, that might have been another sort of miracle. 

But as it is, we have one dreamer of a little boy, who brings his lunch to Andrew, offering it freely if it will help.  He just wanted to help.  Kids often do.  But like frequently happens, Andrew doubted how much that little boy could do.  He assumed it wasn’t enough, and perhaps he told the little boy like he told Jesus that there was no way this would be enough food.  An adult would know that.  But this story didn’t need an adult.  It needed a kid.

We adults often sell kids short.  We tend to assume they don’t understand how the world works, and see it as our job to enlighten them on how hard a place it is.  We push them to fit into our understanding of what success is, testing them mercilessly, categorizing them as “achievers” and “underachievers,” often before they even reach elementary school. 

There are lots of miracles in this story in John, but chief among them is that God in Jesus Christ took that kid seriously.  He freely accepted what that boy had to offer, whether it made sense or not.  It’s sad that this has to be a miracle, but so many kids don’t have this.

I met lots of kids at Camp Monroe last week as the Camp Pastor.  Some were from supportive families, others felt alone at home.  Some were struggling with parents or grandparents going through cancer treatment.  Some had just lost pets, and gravitated toward my dog Fifi (okay, they ALL did that).  Some resented being away from their video games for a week, while others were return campers who reveled in the actual games, crafts and activities. 

But all these kids had something in common, something I think all children have in common: they wanted to be treated like they mattered.  They wanted to know they were important, and not just an afterthought who only gets attention when they do something wrong.

That’s why camp is so very important.  It’s also why this story from John is so important.  You’ll notice that Jesus didn’t let anything go to waste: not the boy’s generous idea, not the fragments of bread leftover.  Everything was valuable.  But the crowd saw Jesus as the most valuable.  When the people experienced the miracle of all being fed, they immediately wanted to make him king.

Isn’t that how we grown-ups work?  Give us what we want, and we’ll follow you, until you don’t.  But Jesus withdrew from the crowd before they could do this.  I think he did this for lots of reasons.  He never came to be the king of any earthly kingdom.  He didn’t want the tribute lowly citizens pay to a king; he wanted the worship children of God freely give to their Creator.  But perhaps most importantly, I think Jesus didn’t want the focus to be on himself.  I think Jesus knew the kid was the star of that story, even if no one else realized it.  

I believe Jesus is calling us to recognize what kids offer, in ways that we grown ups simply can’t.  We’re too caught up in our agendas and egos and logic to share ourselves as freely as that little boy did. 

At Camp Monroe, more than anything else, I wanted those kids to know, deep in their hearts, that they mattered.  For our last evening worship together, I decided to share with them the Top 10 Things I Wanted Them to Know.  I’ll share them with you now, because I think they apply to kids of all ages.  But I also share them in hopes that they will inspire you to take the dreams of children seriously.  When we do, there is more blessing than we could imagine, even fragments leftover to feast upon.

So, here are This Preacher Lady’s Top 10 Things to Know:

10.  You matter.  Sometimes adults and definitely other people your age are going to try to suggest to you that you don’t.  You might have someone laugh at your idea, or ignore you entirely.  You might have someone tell you you’re stupid or fat or annoying or too quiet.  Their words don’t matter.  YOU DO.  God made you to do something with your life, not in some astrophysicist sort of way (though, maybe), but in an everyday way.  To be kind.  To be forgiving.  To treat other people like they matter, even when they don’t return the favor.  You matter.

9.   God matters.    It’s completely impossible to narrow down who God is into a few words, but I’ll give you this much:  God is love, wants you to love, and showers love on you in ways you’ll probably never understand.  I still don’t, though I happen to think it’s a lot of fun to try to understand God.  But you don’t have to have God figured out, you don’t even have to talk about God using the same words other people do.  You just have to know that you didn’t create yourself.  God did.  And that same God who made you will always be there, whether you realize it or not. 

8.  Doubts are the heart of faith.   Faith is not certainty.  Faith is not trusting that when you’re in a sinking boat, God’s going to scoop you out of that ocean, fast.  Faith is crying out to whoever might be out there for help.  Faith is most found when we feel most lost.  When we doubt God for allowing some things to happen.  When we see suffering and suffer ourselves.  When we don’t know where to turn.  Don’t be afraid to question God.  Don’t be afraid to question the church.  Don’t be afraid to question yourself.  Doubts are the heart of faith.

7.  Eat chocolate as much as possible.  Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for it.  Guilt is a really bad way to live your life. 

6.  You’re going to hurt someone.  Sometimes you’ll do it on purpose.  Often, you won’t even realize you’ve done it until they get all weird and distant.  But you will hurt someone.  And when you do, it doesn’t matter whether you thought you were right to do so, or whether they hurt you first.  You say you’re sorry, every single time.  Whether you even mean it or not.  Those two words are magic – they can make you into who you want to be.

5.  Someone’s going to hurt you.  They probably won’t do it on purpose, either.  They may not say they’re sorry.  But you have to let go of that hurt the best way you can.  Talk to someone about it.  Pray about it.  Draw or dance or scream until you feel better.  Just don’t hold onto it.  Someone wise (maybe Buddha?) once said, “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”  Don’t do that.

4.  Hang out with animals as much as you can.  They are pure souls, not caught up in worrying about the color of someone’s fur or how fancy their leash is.  They just love and trust implicitly.  They’ll teach you how to do that.

3.  Find (or make) community.  You can’t live this life without your people. Find them. Practice forgiveness and kindness with them.  And when someone seems a bit lost, be wide open to welcoming them.  We all need people.  I hope church can be that for you, but if it isn’t, find some community.  You'll need it to survive.

2.  Sit under a tree, as often as possible.  The screen of your phone or tablet or laptop is fun and shiny and numbs you from whatever you’re worried about.  But, y’all, that stuff is addictive.  Be careful you don’t let it keep you from really living.  Get outside and touch something real, like a tree.  Something that grows and changes and lives.  It will help you do the same.

1.  You are loved more fully and completely than you will ever realize.  You’ll spend so much time and energy and mistakes trying to convince people to love you.  You’ll buy things, and study things, and worship things to try to get love.  But you don’t need to, because that's not really love.   God loves you exactly as you are.  Always has.  Always will.  You can’t buy or earn it. It’s called grace.  And it’s yours.  But not just yours – it’s everyone’s.  So we have to try to love others as fully and completely as we can.  It’s not easy.  But easy is boring.  Y’all are loved.  If you forget the other 9, never forget that.

May we have faith in Jesus.  But may we also have faith in children like he did.  Look how many were fed because he took that little boy’s offering seriously.  Look how much was leftover.  He didn’t just say, “let the little children come to me.”  He meant it.  So should we.

Thanks be to the God who created us with delight, to the Spirit who gives us the courage to dream and to the Son who works wonders with the gifts of children.  Amen.