Sunday, July 28, 2024
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Miracles of Abundance

The Rev. Mark Wilkinson, Rector
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Katy TX

Click here to watch the sermon

Miracles. I have heard the word miracle bounced around a lot in the last few weeks. The theology around miracles can be problematic. I want to start this morning with a caution about miracles.

When applied to a large group like our feeding of the 5000 or even a small group like Jesus coming out to the disciples it isn’t as much a problem. But when it is said about an individual or the miracle comes at the cost of others it does become problematic. What do you say to the person or group who experiences not a miracle but a disaster. Hurricane Beryl brought this to mind last week. The example I often turn to is when some religious leader and remember I lived in Virginia Beach home of Pat Robertson claims they prayed a disaster away. So what does that say to the people who for example experienced the hurricane, tornado or other disaster that missed the favored ones. Those impacted may retort so what about us. Why didn’t my loved one, our community deserve God’s protection. Now I’m not saying we can’t believe in God’s protection in fact I pray for protection but I’m always mindful of how that protection can manifest itself.

It’s the famous story of the man faced with a storm and potential flood. The sheriff came by and told him that there was a mandatory evacuation order. The man said, “No I’m fine, God will protect me.” As the water rose a person came by with a boat and offered to take him to safety.  He replied, “No I have faith that God will protect me.” Finally as he was sitting on his roof the national guard came by with a helicopter but again the man said, “No, God will protect.” After he drowned and arrived at the gates of Heaven he asked God, “Why didn’t you save me.” God answered, “Look my son, I sent the sheriff, then a person in a boat and finally a helicopter. I gave you three chances to save yourself and you didn’t take them. What did you expect.” I was in Biloxi after Katrina and the number of people who ignored the warnings were truly tragic so I know this happens. As a pilot I know that I can’t plan a flight without enough fuel in the tanks, God isn’t magically going to give me the extra gas.

Those of you who experienced Harvey and other hurricanes know the mindless destruction that these storms can bring. You may have prayed for the healing of a loved one who died and may know that feeling. I’ve seen people leave religion and turn their back on God when faced with this dilemma so please be careful when we talk miracles in terms of God favoring one person or group over another. Remember my question from last week, what image of God does this represent.

Now the challenge of the miracles in today’s gospel is a different one. Miracles have been viewed quite differently since the Enlightenment. Ones like the ones we have today defy rational explanation. Richard Rohr taught me something fundamental about miracles like the feeding of the 5000 or walking on water. They are not something to be explained because we cannot explain or truly grasp God’s way of operating in our world; what theologian express as God’s economy. Miracles are to be explored and wondered at.

That leads to the famous Godly Play I wonder question. I wonder what the message is for us today in the feeding of the 5000. I believe it is a message of the abundance of God. Some have said that the miracles is that the 5000 all had at least some food with them and as Jesus went thought the crowd everyone was inspired to share.

Yet these signs in the Gospel of John all point to who Jesus is and that’s the real point of them. I believe this is why we have the feeding from John rather than in Mark, because it is a sign to teach us who Jesus is for that is the point of John. Faith in Jesus is the critical element in the Gospel of John. All the signs point to the answer to the question of who Jesus is. For John the answer is that he is the Messiah, the eternal Christ.

One of my friends suggested that the 5 loaves and 2 fish stand for the five books of the Torah and the 2 fish as the old and new covenant with God. The twelve baskets might represent the 12 tribes or possibly the abundance that the 12 disciples will be given to take out to the people. This is classic Johannine metaphor. Remember in John metaphor and symbol are more important than fact.

As I mediated on this I kept coming back to the centrality of Jesus to this story. He is known in the breaking of the bread. In fact, he does the four-fold action of the Eucharist. He takes the bread, blesses the bread, breaks the bread and finally gives the bread of life to his flock. This is at the heart of the Eucharistic service and prayer that we do each week. We see in some respects the first Eucharistic meal here rather than at the Last Supper which has foot washing but no bread and wine in John.

However, in all this the focus is on Jesus. Jesus is the one who feeds the crowd and walks on the water. Over the next few weeks we are going to hear a series of passages about bread and it is critical for John that we understand Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is giving of himself as he goes through the crowd. Now stop and think for a moment the magnitude of going one by one to feed this huge crowd. That is a miracle in and of itself, but this is also the power of Christ’s love, of his willingness to give of himself for all.

This story, no matter which gospel you read, is about abundance. In both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, we read about God providing an abundance for his children. Whether it is mana in the wilderness or bread and fish for the 5000 there is always enough. Often there is more than enough because like those 5000 what we have is shared. We are never diminished when we share what God has given us. Rather we are enriched. We are enriched when we share God’s blessings with others.

We live in a world that has for a large part has a view of scarcity. We have an economy that promotes more is better and there is never enough. This feeds into a world view of fear and we have enough to be afraid of in today’s world we don’t need to add to the fear level.

Every year that I have been here we have faced challenges in this parish. If you will remember I was here just 6 months before everything shut down with Covid. Yet we came through that financially thanks to the diocese and your generosity and spiritually in terms of when we reopened, we opened to new possibilities and new ministries. To a new way of interacting with the community. Last Sunday we had an almost pre-covid in person attendance for the summer with over 115 between the two services. And that does not count the 25-30 views that the service will have on YouTube. Add those together and our attendance works out to about 150.

Do we still face challenges, absolutely. For the past two years we’ve hit a tough financial spot each year sometime between May and September and once again we are needing to address finance and Senior Warden John Johnston is going to talk about that in just a minute. But each year we have pulled it together and I am confident that this year will be no different because I know this parish and this parish always comes through.

I want to close with the Message translation of part of Ephesians:

Eph. 3:20 ¶ God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Let the Spirit guide you as you listen to John. God has great plans for us and God will provide.