The Reverend Carolyn Estrada

Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? Jesus asks.

You can feel the disciples’ anxiety rising… maybe even overhear some sotto voce whispering with one with another

"What does he mean: where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?"

"What is he thinking? We’re hungry, too! And we don’t even have enough for ourselves!"

"If we give them what we have, what’ll we eat tomorrow?"

"They should have planned ahead and brought something with them!"

"Since when are they our responsibility?! We have enough to worry about already!"

…until Philip finally gets the courage to respond:

The need is great, and our resources are limited.

It reminds me of the current budget crisis in Sacramento: Where are we going to get enough money to…

maintain public safety?

Educate our children?

Take care of the poor and the needy?

Provide necessary emergency health care?

Address concerns of public health?

Keep our infrastructure intact?

The need is great, and our resources are limited.

Our anxiety is palpable, and we worry among ourselves: What’s going to happen? How will we be caught up in the "ripple effect" of the decisions being made – or not made!

Our assumptions of abundance have turned into a feeling of scarcity.

We need a miracle!

Of course, this morning we get not one, but TWO miracles: the feeding of the five thousand, from one small basket of food; and, Jesus’ walking on water – an expression which has taken on a life of its own and has come to mean any doing-of-the-impossible, as in "Who do you think I am? Do I look like I can walk on water?!"

One thing about Jesus’ disciples: they are a lot like us.

They worry. They sometimes "don’t get it." They get caught up in their "this-world" thinking, and it limits their vision; they can’t see the bigger picture – even when they get a miracle or two!

And we can identify with the hungry multitude: the need is great, and our resources are limited.

That should be the end of this morning’s story: No money. No food.

"I’m sorry. No can do."

But it’s not the end.

If we believe John, Jesus already has a plan: what is needed to feed the multitude, five thousand in number, is right there, within the crowd itself.

There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.

We have within ourselves the resources to do what needs to be done.

We often refer to these days of "ordinary time" – the long green season stretching from Pentecost to Advent – as Jesus’ "School for Disciples." Sunday after Sunday we hear Jesus teach US, ordinary people with ordinary lives, how to follow in his Way, how to live as his disciples.

The Kingdom of Heaven is here! Jesus keeps telling us, over and over again.

Here – among you! Within reach! Claim it!

And then he shows us how – he reveals to us the possibilities we carry within ourselves to live in the kingdom today, now, here!

It’s a simple formula: we each have gifts, resources. We acknowledge them. We give thanks, and we share.

We do it every Sunday, of course, in our Liturgy of the Table: the gifts of the people are brought forward at the offertory; we give thanks; we break the bread; and we share it.

But Jesus takes it one step further:

He challenges us to live it, every day.

Yet how often our anxieties blind us!

Like the disciples, we fear that what we have is not enough. We "circle the wagons" – pull in on ourselves, protecting what we have, distancing ourselves from the need of others:

No can do.

Sorry, Jesus. This basket of loaves and fishes is mine.

It isn’t enough to feed everybody – and besides, if I give it to you – there won’t be enough for me…

I have to watch out for myself, you know. Charity begins at home and all that…

Jesus challenges us to think differently.

He challenges us to think outside of ourselves.

The world is bigger than we are.

He challenges us to be the miracle we need.

He challenges us to open our hands and our hearts – and our baskets.

Give thanks – and share.

"Live," Jesus tells us, "not with a fear of scarcity, but with a feeling of abundance."

Jesus knows that the concepts of "scarcity" and "abundance" can be mindsets, and he challenges us to live in abundance.

I am reminded of Isabel Allende’s powerful description of living in both worlds – that world of plenty, and that world of not-enough: her own father was quite wealthy; however, mealtimes with him were quite parsimonious, ending with a small bite-sized dessert set in splendid isolation in the middle of a large plate. Her step-father, on the other hand, was a man of much more modest means – but life with him was extravagant, involving picnics on the grass and, for dessert, as many figs as you could pick and eat from the nearby trees.

And Greg Mortenson is not the first, or the only, person to report the sacramental nature of sharing a cup of tea and a cracker on the dirt floor of a hut with an impoverished family. Somewhere in the hospitality and the sharing, the meager offering is transformed into a feast.

Scarcity or abundance?

It’s as much how we see, live, experience our lives as it is what we have.

We hear in Ephesians this morning the words of the benediction: "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…"

… the power at work within us…

…the power to share our resources – and have "left overs" of far more than we started with.

…the power to do the impossible – to walk on water…

Frederick Buechner comments that we do not believe in the resurrection because of the empty tomb, because Jesus’ BODY was not there. We believe in the resurrection because Jesus’ PRESENCE is still here, it is still with us.

Imagine!

Take hold of the idea: Jesus’ presence is STILL HERE! In you and you and me…

Jesus’ presence is right here, in this community.

The kingdom of God is in our midst.

Knowing that, we are each challenged to look at our own baskets: What is it that we each carry, what gifts do we each have, that we can bless, break, give?

For each of us, carrying that Jesus-presence within, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can see, ask, imagine.

With God’s help, we, too, can feed five thousand; we, too, can do the impossible, and walk on water.

Amen.