July 26, 2009 Message

Psalm 14; John 6:1-21
“No God”

When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” (John 6:5) On the surface, this verse seems to be about hungry people, about bread, and about what the disciples might do to feed them. Anyway, if our thinking is “inside the box” that may be what we would conclude. Applying it, then, to our lives we might start looking at ways we might feed those who are hungry. But isn’t this verse really about more than Jesus’ feeding a whole lot of people? Sure it is, if we would just get outside of the box.

So, making our way up over the edge of that box, listen once again to Psalm 14, verse 1, as it provides some helpful thoughts: “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God...”” In other words fools don’t really believe what they say. We have got it all wrong if we don’t trust God to do what God intends to be done.

Pastor Ken Erickson told of his wife cleaning out leftovers from the refrigerator one Saturday. She gave the one remaining portion of pasta to their 6-year-old son, Jeremy. His 8-year-old brother, Matthew, also wanted some of what Jeremy got, so they began arguing. After several unsuccessful attempts to mediate the dispute, Ken decided on a theological approach. Hoping to convince Jeremy to share his portion with Matthew, he said, “Jeremy, what would Jesus do in this situation?”

Jeremy immediately responded, “Oh, Dad, He would just make more!”

Wouldn’t that be a good attitude to have? When it seems like there isn’t enough to go around – enough money at the beginning of the week, enough love in the middle of an argument, enough patience at the end of the day, we would have the faith – to believe, to know, and to trust – that Jesus “would just make more!”

Perhaps the biggest problem facing the church today is a lack of trust? In John 10:10, Jesus says, “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” Christ calls us to a fullness of life– a life of abundance, but our mind, fearing there is will not enough to go around, thinks scarcity instead. Still inside the box, there just isn’t any way.

When Jesus asks Philip, “where?” he isn’t asking about where to go to get bread. He is asking us all, “Where do you go when faced with the impossible? When it seems like there just isn’t enough of what is needed to get the job done, what do you do? Where do you go? When we hear ourselves asking, “Where’s the money coming from?” where do we turn? We say we believe in God. We say that, “with God all things are possible.” We say all sorts of things about God. But do we really believe them in our heart? Do we really trust that God can get things done? The psalmist says it is foolish not to. And yet when the Lord looks down to see how we are doing, God sees way too many fools. We still don’t have it right, do we? Where is our trust?

Imagine what that trust might look like. Trusting Jesus to lead this church and provide all that is needed, we could feed the hungry… we could bring people together… we could comfort the lonely, we could free the prisoner, and provide hope… in this community. And, together with churches in other communities, we could be in servant ministry to the whole world. The psalmist speaks, though, of people who are fools because they don’t seem to understand, their trust is not in God but in themselves. And so, their resources are wasted.

What is it that Christ said? “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20-21) The problem is not our lack of resources, but our lack of trust – which makes us fools, saying one thing but believing another.

In today’s lesson from the Gospel of John, Jesus is on a hillside with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast is only weeks away. He looks up and sees all these people coming up the mountain. Jesus and his disciples are unexpectedly facing five thousand men, and an untold number of women and children dropping in at mealtime. The disciples were ‘beside themselves.’ Suppose we were having a church supper and everyone in town showed up? We would be hurrying around, probably in a panic too, wouldn’t we? But Jesus doesn’t panic. He leans over and says, “Philip, how are we going to buy enough food to feed these people?” It is a test. And Philip, who represents the church, replies the way the church often replies to a crisis or need: “Oh my, we can’t do that – we would have to spend everything we have, and then some, and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, speaks up, “Here is a boy with five small loaves of bread and two small fish, but it’s not near enough. As far as the disciples were concerned, the problem was resources. They didn’t have enough. Jesus knew better. The issue wasn’t a lack of resources, the issue was a lack of trust.

Jesus tells his disciples to have the people sit down. The meal – a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread - is blessed, served and eaten (by over five thousand people), and when everyone has had enough to eat, there are leftovers to fill 12 baskets. God provides what is needed and more! Trust God! John tells other stories of Jesus’ abundant grace: when water is turned into wine (and the jars are filled to the brim) at the wedding in Cana; when at the community well in Samaria, Jesus tells a women about living water gushing up to eternal life; or in Jesus’ departure speech when he tells the disciples, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” Jesus message seems always to be one of abundance, of there always being enough when Jesus is in the doing. Whether it is wine at a wedding or rooms in the Father’s house or food at a picnic, there is always more than enough, always an abundant supply of God’s grace to nourish and enrich our lives. It’s not a matter of resources then, is it – it is a matter of trust?

The challenging question the story asks of the church is this, “Do we believe God will provide what is needed to do the ministry God wants done?” Or, “Do we live with an attitude of scarcity? Do we live life in small and safe measures, hoarding, and saving and worrying about what we have or don’t have? Do we pull back when we should push forward? Do we give in to our fear of not having enough rather than exercising faith in God’s abundance? Thinking in terms of abundance brings generosity and hope; thinking in terms of scarcity brings nothing but anxiety and resentment. As Christians we are constantly on call to go places where we have never been, to do things we have not attempted, and to be things we have never envisioned. Such a calling requires faith. It requires trusting God, and doing so abundantly.

The message today isn’t that five thousand people were fed from a few fish and loaves of bread, the message is that we never have to worry about whether what we have — food or energy or money or faith — is enough. We are to trust God that we do. We would be foolish not to.

The psalmist says, “O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people…” God will deliver God’s people and God’s church. Believe it, but most importantly trust it will happen.

Thanks be to God! AMEN