St. Luke’s is a very biblical congregation. Why? Because St. Luke’s, on both of our campuses, loves to eat. Throughout the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, people are breaking bread. In fact, eating and drinking is not merely feeding our faces, but is a sharing in the grace and provision of God. John’s account of Jesus feeding the five thousand is one of the most well-known miracles of Jesus. And each time that people see the food getting low at a church gathering, someone will say to me, “Preacher, come over here and do your thing. We’re needing some help here.” I laughingly say back, “You have confused me with Jesus and I am not confused about that.” My way of multiplying is to do like Tom Cruise’s character did in Rain Man. You may remember that Dustin Hoffman’s character had to have 4 fish sticks. There were only two left, so Tom Cruise’s character cut them in half and said, “There. Now you have four.” This miracle is mentioned in all four gospels and there is even another account of Jesus feeding 4,000. So there seems to be no doubt that Jesus did it. Most of the other miracles of Jesus have been repeated by other followers: people by prayer see, hear, walk, talk and on very rare occasions even raise from the dead. But I have never seen or read of a literal multiplication of food. So what do we do with this passage?

Part of the answer comes from a question I asked my Master’s Program class a few weeks ago. I asked, “Do you believe in miracles?” And as many nodded their heads “yes,” I said, “The bible doesn’t.” It’s important for us to see the miracles of Jesus in the way the Bible saw them. The word “miracle” literally means “sign.” Jesus said in exasperation one day, “Cursed is the generation that seeks a sign.” A sign points to something...or better to someone. Biblically, I can tell you that I don’t believe in miracles. I believe in the Christ of miracles. A miracle was never meant to be an end in itself. But if my faith and your faith is in the Christ who is able to do more than you and I can imagine, then whether I get my miracle or not, my faith remains. Jesus is more than our “fair weather friend” or our “sugar daddy.” As impressive as this miracle is, the miracle is not the point. This miracle says something about Jesus, our bread of life, and about us as we share of ourselves in faith and help others to do the same. Today, I invite you to look at the “feeding of the 5,000” from three different angles represented by the experience of three characters: the little boy, the disciple Phillip, and the disciple Andrew.

The question the little boy was asked by Andrew is, “What do you have in your bag?” The boy had five loaves and two fish, enough to keep with him to snack on. It would have held in something similar to a “fanny pack.” The barley loaves of bread would have been small and hard and the fish would have been dried out. Because Andrew was an adult, the little boy, especially in that day and time, would have felt obliged to give up his lunch. He certainly must have wondered why he needed to do it. But what he didn’t realize was that Jesus was about to use what he had to bless thousands of other people, as many as 15,000 (counting women and children). The little boy did not know that in the mind of Jesus the people around him had a claim on what he had. In that way, we are like the little boy. We think that what we have is just for us and we prepare just for us. We choose a career so that we can make money and have the good life. We prepare buy and prepare food so that we can sustain ourselves. But Christ sees that all very differently. Growing disciples learn that the people around us have a claim on our talents, our time and our money. And that claim is actually made on their behalf by Jesus. A key principle about who we are and what we earn and have as followers of Jesus Christ is that there really is nothing that is “mine.”

But how absurd this must have been to the boy. He brought his snack. He was the smart one. Why should he give his food away to people who didn’t have enough sense to bring some for themselves? The boy must have thought, “If I give away this snack of mine, then I will have nothing to eat, and they won’t get much either.” Elijah, in the Old Testament, asked a woman to give him something to eat from her last bit of meal, grain she had set aside for herself and her son’s last meal. After some persuading, she did so and the meal ended up multiplying and the woman and the boy were taken care of not just for that day but also for the rest of the days of the famine. There is a biblical principle from both the Old and New Testaments that it is what we give away that we keep. For us survivalist human beings, it is counter-intuitive, but it works. The boy gives away his snack and it becomes a feast that feeds thousands. Not everything multiplies so dramatically, but Jesus is the great multiplier. We sing so easily, “God will take care of you,” but do we believe it?

But perhaps the boy was not intimidated into sharing his lunch. Maybe he was just a generous kid. More often than not, a child who has a candy bar will say to me, “Want some?” In fact, it seems that the older we get that generosity becomes less and less. The child is so dependent on others to feed him or her and care for him or her that he/she doesn’t worry that sharing will result in being deprived. No wonder that the bible calls us to childlike faith. God is the one who provides. If we trust that fact, then generosity is much easier. For another biblical principle is “we cannot outgive God.” One of the ways we reflect God is when we choose generosity as a way of life. We rejoice in the opportunity to give ourselves and what we have away.

A second character is Phillip. Phillip was the “show me” disciple, a bottom-line kind of guy. John writes that Jesus was trying to test him, when he asked him, “Where will we get enough bread for these people to eat?” Phillip’s response is understandable. “Eight months wages wouldn’t be enough to give each one a bite.” Sometimes the Lord wants to test us. Eight months wages is not enough, but Jesus is. In Luke’s version of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus tells Phillip, “You give them something to eat.” The “you” is emphatic, meaning “you yourself give them something to eat.” Clearly, Jesus pushes Phillip to the very edge. What is possible? A beautiful song called “Ordinary People,” sings “Little becomes much, when you place it in the Master’s hand.” Next week, you will be invited to make a financial commitment for the coming year. It will be used to guide how we will do ministry in the coming year. But that is really just a side issue. The real question is how each one of us will decide to be part of the greater possibilities of God. God would wish to do much more through us then we allow him to. What if our overwhelming challenges are not necessarily sent by the Lord but are used by the Lord to test what we are willing to believe God for. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Phillip, you have no clue as to what I am about to do. I am going to blow your mind and I’m going to have fun doing it.” Phillip, the “show me” disciple, is about to be schooled like he has never been before, along with the rest of the disciples.

Then Andrew comes on the scene. He brings the little boy with his snack forward. Andrew quickly asks, “How far will these go (the five barley loaves and two fish) among so many?” Andrew is such an exciting disciple. He’s the one who brings people and Jesus together. He is the one who said to brother Simon, “Come and see.” Quietly he moves about and changes the world. But he, too, can’t help but wonder. Sometimes all Jesus needs is a little to work with. He says to the leprous man, “Stretch forth your hand,” and he is made whole. We can picture the conversation between Jesus and the boy. “Son, is it OK to use your lunch?” “Sure,” the boy says. Jesus says, “Have them all sit down.” According to Luke, Jesus has the disciples seat the people in groups of 50.

A question comes to mind. “Who are you connecting with Jesus so that he can do great things in them and through them?” For when we make that connection, Christ is quite able to do the rest.

So who are you in the story: the little boy with the sack lunch that Jesus uses to feed the world around him, the disciple with the blown mind that stretches with Jesus and discovers possibilities in life yet unseen, or the disciple who connects people and Jesus?

Whoever you are, now focus on the Jesus of miracles and expanded possibilities in your life. Jesus looks up to heaven and gives thanks: thanks to God for the opportunity to show the power and provision of God to people, thanks for using the seemingly inadequate gifts of people to change the world. And John writes that not only were the people well fed, there was an overflow. Can you imagine what happened when the people got back home?

The message from God’s word is that beginning next Sunday, opportunity will be knocking. I invite you to come ready to make your best commitment and that what you offer will be done without guilt or any sense of obligation. I invite you to come with joy in your heart for you are indeed about to follow Christ further into the possibilities of your life when you offer your sacrificial best to God. We will be on holy ground, on holy ground with a holy God.