5000 and counting

It's one of the stories that folk remember from the Bible:  how 5 loaves and 2 fish were sufficient to feed 5000 men plus women and children.....with leftovers....12 baskets of leftovers.

It is the perfect story to parallel our celebration of our Lord's Supper.  Jesus performs the 4 fold action:  he took the (fish) offering, blessed it, broke it, and then gave it to the disciples to distribute.  So they did, and everyone ate and was satisfied and there were leftovers.....12 baskets of leftovers. In the hands of God,  a little can become a lot.

If that is the only lesson you see or hear in this story, it is sufficient.  You can spend a lifetime living out that one line: in the hands of God, a little can become a lot.  You can apply it to your relationships, your parenting, your giving, your spiritual health.  Put it in the hands of God and wait and watch to see what God is going to do.

But for a moment let's parse that a little deeper.  First, there were a lot of people who had followed Jesus to receive a healing, a blessing, a little comfort.  There was no need to look far and wide for people in need: there were 5000 of them right in front of Jesus.  Regular people.  Ordinary people.  Hurting people.

Jesus paused in this story because of their need.  He stopped to minister to them because he was filled with compassion: a word which means 'to suffer with'.  That is, Jesus was moved to suffer with the suffering people he saw.  A touch of healing, a word of comfort, a new found hope were the blessings he bestowed.  And I am sure folks were grateful, but after a couple of hours, they were also growing hungry.

Now Jesus turns towards the disciples who are worried about the hungry crowd (and the lack of any good concession stands in the neighborhood).  Jesus says: 'You feed them.'  'With what?' they ask.  'We only have 5 loaves and 2 fish.'

At this point, what could be simply a miraculous feeding event turns into an object lesson for the disciples:  What do you have to do the Lord's work?  How much of it are you willing to give to meet these needs?  Are you willing to 'suffer with' these suffering people?

Someone gave up their supper.  5 loaves and 2 fish.  In the end, they saw God at work, they became workers in God's kingdom, and they were equipped (12 baskets of leftovers/one for each disciple) for tomorrow's work as well.  This is what disciples do; this is how disciples are formed.

Lots of questions to ponder.  What are you offering up to God so that God's work can be accomplished?  What resources has God put in your hands for the work that needs to be done?  Who are the suffering people right in front of you?

If it were you, would you have given all 5 loaves and both fish?  Not such a simple story at all.

....but without the traffic jams

It is hard to hold onto a belief in a kingdom to come.....a world that is divinely formed by, in and with the Spirit.....a community of grace.  It is just hard to believe that it just might be so some day.

Most of the time we think of the kingdom of God as this world minus the traffic jams, and cancer, and probably wars and child abuse.  But the kingdom that Jesus keeps talking about where the meek will be blessed and the hungry full is too good to be true.  It is beyond....beyond here, beyond our imagination, and beyond our ability to bring it into being.

Which, I guess, is a good place to start.  We cannot bring this kingdom into being.  Jesus did.  In his body, among us, and for our sake.  Jesus was the opening.  God hides in, with and under Jesus and together they break into the world we know and begin to bring into being the kingdom where God's way is the only way.

So we 'watch' as Jesus feeds 5000 with a meager lunch and heals a man born blind and walks on water (why not?  If you can heal a man born blind, what is walking on water?).  We certainly know we can't do these things and so we are faced with at least two possibilities:  the stories are exaggerations because nothing like that can occur in the world as we know it.....OR.....Jesus has access to a world beyond this one.  It is a world where God's rule is absolute: not in a power hungry sense but rather in an 'absolutely best case scenario' sense.  Or as the Bible is wont to say, a place and time where we will live in God's glory.

My guess is that you have (at one time in your life) experienced this time and place where the demands and brokenness and rejections and hurts of this world fall away and you are infused with the power of life and light.  For a moment you glimpse the better you and a purity of oneness with the world or your family or possibly even your God.  For a moment you don't even need to breathe.  For a moment you experienced God and the kingdom God invites you into.

Then we move back into this time and this place and seek to see the Lord's face again, to taste the power of God's presence, to be the better you that you glimpsed.  It is here that believing in a kingdom to come is so difficult.

Don't let go of the vision, the hope, the promise that Christ brings to us.  Seek after the face of God like you'd seek after a great deal on a new car...because in the end the car will rust and the kingdom will be yours forever.