Sermon for July 25, 2021 Pentecost 9 B House of Prayer Lutheran Church
John 6:1-21 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
One of the more astounding experiences I felt I’ve had in my years as a pastor happened pretty early on. I was one of the chaperones for my church’s high school kids as we went to the ELCA National Youth Gathering. This was either in Atlanta or San Antonio, I don’t remember which city because I went to both of them for a youth gathering, but in any case it was hot. Much hotter than even the weather we’ve been having lately. Hot enough that we had to make sure to drink plenty of fluids every day.
As part of the youth gathering, we got to hear all kinds of speakers in the air conditioned comfort of a domed football arena. And one of the speakers educated us about something that was important, tragic, and preventable. The speaker had us snap our fingers every three seconds, and then let us know that tragically every three seconds a child dies somewhere in the world because they lack access to clean water. This news hit me like a ton of bricks. And here we were, never having to worry about having plenty of water to drink in one of the hottest cities in the country.
Well, this news planted a seed in me, and I decided to share what I learned in a sermon at my church back in Pennsylvania. I did the same thing as the speaker, snapping my fingers every three seconds, and the news of a child dying for lack of clean water hit my congregation like a ton of bricks, too. Then I said, “I’m not sure what to do about this, or even if there is anything we as a church can do. But I thought it was something that’s important for us to know and pray about.”
A few weeks later, a member of my church got an email from a friend of hers from college days, whom she had not seen in many years. He served as a missionary in Haiti, and was coming back to Pennsylvania for a visit. His job as a missionary? To build wells in remote communities in Haiti, so that people would have access to clean water!
He came up to visit our church, and told everyone about how, dollar for dollar, building wells in the developing world does more to save lives than maybe anything else. So the church decided to support the missionary to build wells in Haiti.
This, to me, was a modern continuation of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Because as we started out, we didn’t have a plan--Jesus did. All we had were seeds that had been planted by the Holy Spirit in various people, at various points, over the course of several weeks. We listened to those nudges of the Holy Spirit, even though they made us face uncomfortable truths, and even though we initially weren’t sure what we were going to do about it. Yet still, despite our lack of a plan, the Holy Spirit was preparing us to follow Jesus, and to join him in the thing he was doing and leading us to.
So, like I said, I saw this as a modern continuation of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. It wasn’t bread and fish this time, or course. It was clean water; but the effect was similar. Jesus was able to take the little bit we offered (in this case our new knowledge about a deadly world-wide problem), and Jesus was able to provide more than enough water for people in a Haitian community.
In addition to that similarity, there is also the similarity with the disciples of learning the difference between planning and preparation. If you look through this story in John’s gospel, you’ll notice that Jesus is the one who makes plans work. That’s because his plans come from God. On the other hand, the plans or lack of plans made by the disciples and the crowd are ineffectual at best, or destructive at worst.
When Jesus sees the large crowds, he asks Philip to test him, “Where are we to buy bread for all these people to eat?” Philip essentially says, “I don’t know, and I don’t have a plan. I guess we are not going to feed them.”
Soon we see two more people, Andrew and a little boy. They don’t have a plan either--BUT they are prepared to follow Jesus by offering what little they have; five barley loaves and two dried fish. Even though they are unable to see the outcome, they still follow Jesus’ lead, and Jesus ends up blessing, distributing, and multiplying the loaves and fishes.
Jesus is the one with the plan, and he asks us to follow his lead, and to open our hearts and minds enough to join him in the things he is doing, even if we can’t quite see the outcome ahead of time.
Or what about the crowd of 5,000 who are able to eat their fill? They didn’t know what the plan was either, but their hearts and minds were prepared for Jesus to be up to something. Yet when they finally do make a plan, it is to take Jesus by force and make him king. Jesus realized this, and sneaks away to a mountain to be by himself. If the crowd had followed through on their plan, it would have thrown a wrench in God’s plan of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection in Jerusalem.
Now, all of this doesn’t mean that planning is bad and that you should never do it. That’s not what I’m saying, and I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying, either. But this story does teach us that we can become so attached to our own plans, and with trying to carry them out at all costs, that we can easily lose sight of God’s bigger plan. God is always bigger than us, and we can never fully understand his plans. Very often we make our plans and then ask Jesus to bless them. On the other hand, Jesus teaches us through this miracle of the loaves and fishes to hold our own plans lightly, and to always be ready, when God opens the opportunity, to shift our plans so that we can take part in the thing Jesus is blessing and wants us to do instead.
This is what it means to live by faith. And I know, it might make us feel uncomfortable. But just as Jesus said to the disciples, he also promises us: “I AM your God. I am right here beside you. Do not be afraid.” Amen.