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The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): John 6:1-21
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
John 6:1-21
✛
Make the people sit down. Then give thanks and feed them.
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I grew up in Europe during the late 60’s and 70’s at the time of the so-called ‘iron-curtain’ between East and West. One of the memories I have of that time is of the regular instruction we received from the government and at school about what to do in the event of a nuclear war. One of the more absurd bits of advice was the suggestion to take a door off its hinges, lean it against a wall in the inside of the house and drag a heavy mattress from a bed to cover it, thus making a makeshift shelter. As my dad once said, if dragging your mattress downstairs wasn’t enough to kill you, the radioactive fallout certainly would. It was a time of anxiety not only about the morals of that kind of warfare but also the ethics of spending vast sums on weapons that were, paradoxically, designed never to be used.
When I went to University in 1978, Liberation Theology was becoming very important; systematic and biblical theologians turned to issues such as just war, wealth and poverty, power and control, prejudice and injustice. My own Divinity school was hardly known for its radical views and more for being the only school left in Britain that insisted its students take two final exams in New Testament Greek, but the faculty were worried about nuclear war and they invited Professor Dorothy Sölle, who was at that time teaching at the Union Theological Seminary here in New York, to come and talk to us about nuclear disarmament and the Christian tradition of just war.
She focused on the consequences of the arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Her words have stayed with me ever since as she spoke about the theory of nuclear deterrent and its appropriate acronym MAD (mutually assured destruction) as the justification for stockpiling weapons. Her words have stayed with me ever since: “The bombs are falling already,” she said, and then she led us in a little bible study of Mark 14. Just before his betrayal, at Bethany, Jesus was anointed with costly perfume and people grumbled because of the waste of money. His response was to say “You always have the poor with you; you will not always have me.” (Mark 14:7) Sölle repeated the phrase “you always have the poor with you.” And then she paused and she looked around the room at those of us who were spending years studying the scriptures and said, “Jesus did not say you always have the hungry with you. “The bombs are falling already,” she repeated, “because of famine, starvation, and lack of clean water are things that can be prevented but we choose to spend money on weapons”
‘The fool hath said in his heart, * There is no God. Have they no knowledge, that they are all such workers of mischief, * eating up my people as it were bread?’ (Psalm 14:1, 5 and sung at the mass)
With those sentiments in our minds, let us move to our Gospel reading. Jesus looked at the crowd – and oh yes, it was quite a crowd but his thoughts were not about how successful he was being in his ministry, in fact, John goes on to tell us that he hid from the crowd to prevent them from making him a King. His kingship and his kingdom were not of this world; he saw with the eyes of his heavenly Father; he looked on humanity and he was moved with compassion. ‘Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”’ The disciples must have been perplexed; his mission was really going somewhere – what a rally he had before him and yet he was fussing about picnic hampers! “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little,” says Philip. But still, Jesus insisted. Perhaps in desperation, Andrew brought the little boy with the five barley loaves and the two fish; you can almost imagine the embarrassment as what he was suggesting dawned on him “Look, here are five barley loaves and two small fish…oh…yup, sorry. That was pretty pathetic!”
“Make the people sit down.”
And what was it that Jesus did? He gave thanks. He stopped. He gave thanks. He made Eucharist. And then, and only then, he shared his meal with those sitting around him; and he fed them first.
“You always have the poor with you. He did not say, you always have the hungry with you.”
He set an example of sharing the little he had and he found a way for all to be fed and to have enough. Echoing Elisha in our Old Testament lesson, there was plenty to go around and lots left over: “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” He set another example – not to be wasteful. And yet, in the 21st century, so many in our world and our community go without. If you think this is something that only affects Africa then visit our soup kitchen volunteers on a Saturday and talk to them.
How significant that John chooses to share this story at the time of the Passover – the celebration of the liberation of God’s chosen people; a celebration that began and, to this day, is commemorated in a sacred meal. The Book of Exodus makes it clear: Passover is a communal meal and families are to join together and, even more importantly, to take in and share their meal with people on their own or who are poor. Jesus takes the five barley loaves and the two small fish from a little boy – symbols of powerlessness and poverty – and turns the gesture on its head and into a banquet for 5000 people. His concern for the hungry is rooted in Passover, which is liberation, remembered through liturgical action.
The feeding of the five thousand is the beginning of a section of John’s Gospel that will take us deep into the mystery of the Eucharist. Over the coming weeks we will read the discourses on the Bread of Life. In a few moments, we will take bread and wine – staple food – and do what the Lord commanded us to do to re-member him. It is only little wafer bread and a sip of wine, but it was only five barley loaves and two small fish.
When we come to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, may it make a difference to our lives and open our eyes to the need of others. May this Eucharist help our faith grow deeper and deeper but may that faith be put into action to make a difference, or, as Dorothy Sölle used to say, “We should eat more at the Eucharist and we should pray more when eating.”
