Year B
2 Kings 4:42-44
Psalm 145:10-19
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21

May the words of my mouth, O God, speak your truth…

The Passover…  the festival of the Jews was near…  and why is Passover relevant in this story…  because it reminds us that on the night of the last plague in Egypt…  the Angel of Death passed over the Israelites’ homes…  it reminds us of their release from bondage…  but particularly…  it reminds us of how God provided for them during their wilderness journey…  gave them food to eat…  manna…  and quails…  and those who had much did not have too much…  and those who had little did not have too little…

And speaking of eating…  I wonder…  when you go out for a few errands…  do you think about where you’ll be at lunch time…  and whether you’ll need to stop and get something to eat…  if you’re invited to someone’s home “at around” dinner time…  do you wonder about whether you’re going to be fed…  or not…  if you’re planning an all-day-drive to visit relatives…  do you bring food to eat in the car…  or just plan to get off the highway when you get hungry and find a drive-through somewhere…  when you fly somewhere …  do you eat airport food…  if you go to a convention center for a workshop…  do they ask whether you have any dietary restrictions…  you see…  eating accompanies so many of our activities…  it’s almost impossible to separate the two…

And our story from 2 Kings gives us a foretaste of God’s abundance…  Elisha the prophet served in a time of great strife…  during a time of war between Syria and Israel…  when scarcity was the rule of the day…  and there were many reasons to live in fear…  Elisha’s name means…  God has granted salvation…  but it was difficult for the people to hear this in the midst of their troubles…  but in a demonstration of great faithfulness…  a man came from Baal-shalishah…  a region fifteen [ Roman ] miles north of Lydda…  bearing an offering of first fruits…  Elisha chose not to receive them himself…  as was his right…  but he instructs his servant to give it to the people so they may eat…  the servant balks…  because it won’t be enough…  so Elisha invokes the Word of the Lord…  that they shall eat and have some left over…

There’s no effort to explain the mechanics of how this happened…  but what is clear is that in the midst of human need…  a man generously offers the best of what he has…  and the prophet offers it instead to God’s people…  the result is beyond expectation…  and that is the point…  God is at work beyond our expectation…

In the Gospel…  this large crowd…  these five thousand men…  plus uncounted women and children…  saw what Jesus was doing for the sick…  and they kept following him…  and he went up the mountain because speaking from an elevated place was not only a way to improve the acoustics…  but it was also the place from which to seek God’s word…  as in Exodus 19:3a…  The Lord called to Moses from the mountain…  and he went up to God…

And being drawn to the mountain may be the fulfillment of what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in 4:21…  Jesus told her that the time was coming when they would no longer worship in Jerusalem…  and because John’s Gospel was written after the destruction of the Temple…  that may be why the narrative tells us that the crowds are no longer seeking him in the Temple…  but on the side of a mountain…

But the crowds follow…  and Jesus asks Philip…  Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat…  intending to test him…  and we don’t know for certain…  the text doesn’t say whether the boy held out his hands offering up the food he had…  which is so like what a child would do…  or it may be that Andrew just happened to see what he had…  but Jesus had in mind what he was going to do…  and all the text says…  is that he took the loaves and fish…  and gave thanks…

Again…  there’s no effort to explain the mechanics of how this happened…  we’re not privy to the cosmic apparatus with which Jesus did this…  though John 1:3a affirms that…  all things came into being through him…  and without him…  not one thing came into being…  and everyone ate as much as they wanted…

The number twelve…  a number of completion…  occurs 187 times in the Bible…  it’s the number of Jacob’s sons…  who became the twelve fathers of the twelve tribes…  Jesus chose twelve disciples…  and Revelation…  written by John at about the same time…  tells that the New Jerusalem has twelve gates guarded by twelve angels…  its walls are 144 cubits high…  which is 12 squared…  and the walls are adorned with twelve jewels…

And this is where John may have taken contemporaneous scriptural truths…  to tell another kind of truth…  the truth of God’s abundance…  because even everyone ate and was satisfied…  the left overs filled twelve baskets… 

St. John Chrysostom…  the fourth-century archbishop of Constantinople…  is known to have said that feeding the hungry…  is greater work…  than raising the dead…  which opens another way to understand this story…  and which makes it no less a miracle…

Perhaps the women in the group knew that they were headed out into the middle of nowhere…  knew they’d be away from home…  but not for how long…  and so they brought provisions…  much like we do…  maybe good Jewish mothers said…  Look…  if we’re going to follow this Jesus fellow who knows where…  wait a minute while I pack something for us to eat…  and maybe enough women did this…  and when Jesus had everyone sit down…  where there was a great deal of grass…  it brought to mind that verse in the 23rd Psalm which says…  you make me lie down in green pastures…

And it may be why…  when Jesus took the loaves and fishes and gave thanks…  he did what he often did…  he embodied the deeply spiritual truth of the heavenly banquet…  and it touched something within the people…  who thought…  Well…  I wasn’t going to share…  I don’t have enough for all these people…  but I brought a little extra…  and so I’ll share with those right around me…   and before you know it…  everyone who had too much…  shared with everyone who had too little…  and everyone ate as much as they wanted…  and it’s another reminder of the 23rd Psalm verse which says…  you spread a table before me…  and my cup is running over…

But however we understand this story…  Fr. John Shea writes…  we acknowledge our spiritual selves as gifts from our Source…  we are not our own…  but we are sustained at each moment by the Spirit who is beyond us…  this fills us with gratitude…  and our gratitude overflows to others…  and it is in this distribution that growth occurs…  but the physical law of scarcity can understand “giving away” only as a process which leads to having nothing…  while the spiritual law of abundance understands “giving away” as a process which leads to a sacred fullness…  so the test that Jesus set up…  was to see whether the people were able to gather up that abundance…  or whether they would be controlled by a consciousness of physical scarcity…  but the crowds of people…  even though they shared what they physically had…  did not receive this spiritual teaching…  they saw the sign…  but could not follow it to its Source…  and so it’s no wonder that they tried to use force and make Jesus king…  so he could be like the goose that laid the golden egg…  so they wouldn’t need to change…

But the Gospel continues…  so Jesus is up on the mountain…  and we’re not told why…  but the disciples can’t wait any longer…  and they get in a boat and start rowing…  and a strong wind blew…  and the sea became rough…  and quite a ways out…  Jesus walks out to them…  and says…  do not be afraid…  it is I AM…  and it’s almost as though someone whispers another line from the 23rd Psalm…  you lead me beside still waters…  but however we take truth from these stories…  however we understand that Jesus feeds us…  with bread and wine…  or with his very Being…  we can agree…  that when Jesus is with us…  really…   truly…   fully with us…  in the boat with us…  we immediately get where we’re going…