“Surrender”
John 6:1-21
Todd Buegler
June 29, 30 & 31, 2006
Lord of Life
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from Jesus, the Son of God, who is the Bread of Life! Amen.
We all have old stories that we love to share with our family and friends. When you get together with these people, at a holiday, or an event, you can count on the fact that sooner or later the conversation will get around to an old, favorite story which begins with “Do you remember when we…” and people will immediately start to groan or to laugh. We all have these stories…they never get old…no matter how many times we’ve heard them, we love to tell them, we love to hear them…
For example, when I get together with my college friends, we inevitably get around to the “sod story.” We lived in a dorm with 6 small, single rooms, surrounding a living room and a bathroom. Groups of friends would get one of these “sections” together. One weekend in the spring, one of our sections mates left for the weekend and forgot to lock the door to his room. That’s like an invitation for trouble. The college was finishing up a large construction project on campus right around then and laying sod in front of the building next door to our dorm. There were hundreds of rolls of sod just lying around. Mistake. When our friend returned to campus, he opened his room to find that his room had been completely sodded with beautiful new green turf, complete with a small sign that said “please keep off the grass. That story gets told over and over again. Why? Because this story makes us laugh. But even more, because the story captures the essence of our friendships.
Well, the gospel story for today is just this kind of story. It is an old favorite about Jesus and his disciples, which has been told over and over again. There are many of these kind of Bible stories. They are all told only one time in the gospels. The story of the Good Samaritan: told only once; the story of the Prodigal Son: told only once. The story of the Sheep and the Goats: told only once. These are favorite, great stories, but they are told only once in our Gospel.
But our story for today, about the five loaves and two fish, is told four times in the Bible. In fact, it is the only Gospel miracle which is told in its fullness in all four Gospels.
Now, why is this story told over and over again? I believe it is because this story captures the truth, the essence of all the people involved; the essential truth about Jesus and the essential truth about the disciples and the essential truth about God.
So I would like to tell you this story again, but this time, include elements from the other Gospel versions of the story and some other local history.
It was springtime in Israel. The rains of March and April had come and the land was now fresh and green. The brown hills had soaked up the spring rains and the flowers were blooming and the hills were green again.
It was Passover time in Israel. Passover was their great religious feast, like Easter is for us. That meant a holiday from school, and a holiday from work. That meant that people were taking trips, packing their donkeys and going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was a time of religious aliveness, of fasting and feasting and traveling.
It was popularity time for Jesus. Jesus had healed people of their diseases, had spoken before thousands, and his popularity was becoming enormous. Though he didn’t seek the limelight, he was like a rock star, and thousands would gather wherever he was.
But it was also tragedy time in Israel. According to the Gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist had just been beheaded by king Herod. John the Baptist was the greatest moral and spiritual force, and the greatest prophet the land of Israel had experienced for four hundred years. Everyone was stunned by this tragedy and grieved the loss. This included Jesus, who was John’s cousin, and who John had baptized.
Jesus wanted to get away by himself to grieve, to pray, to remember. He wanted to get away to a lonely place and so he got into a boat to sail across The Sea of Galilee to a remote point, some four miles away, in order to get away from the massive crowds who were following him, to be alone, and grieve the loss of John the Baptist.
But the crowds could see from the shore where he was sailing to. And so the crowds, like “groupies”, followed along the shoreline, keeping an eye on his boat, and so when Jesus’ boat landed, many of the crowd had already arrived.
And what was Jesus’ reaction to the thousands who had shown up? Irritated? Angry? Imposed upon? No, he looked on the massive crowd with compassion, like they were sheep without a shepherd, like people who were in need of feeding for their spiritual hungers inside. And so he taught them, and he healed them.
The day quickly passed. One of the disciples said “Lord, the hour is late and the people don’t have any food and we are a long way from any villages. Maybe you should send them home now.” According to John’s version of the story, Jesus said to Philip, “How are we going to buy bread, so that the people can eat?” Jesus knew the answer. He asked this in order to test Philip. Philip replied “It would take more than two hundered denari, more than two hundred days of wages, and even that wouldn’t be enough bread to feed all these people.” Jesus said, “Look around the crowd and see what you can find.” Andrew found a young boy with five loaves of bread and two fish. The boy gave the fish and bread to Jesus. Jesus invited everyone to be seated on the green grass. Jesus took the bread…looked up into heaven…gave thanks…broke it…gave it to his disciples…who gave it to the crowds. And they all ate and were all satisfied…and…there were twelve baskets of bread left over. The number who ate were five thousand men, plus women and children.
This story was told over and over again in the gospels. But there is a sequel: A few days later, Jesus was again out in the wilderness, again with a large crowd of four thousand men plus women and children and the same story happens again. This time seven loaves and a few fish were found. And everyone ate and everyone was satisfied…and…there were seven baskets of bread left over.
And then comes the final twist to the story. Jesus and his disciples got into a boat and sailed back again across The Sea of Galilee. As they arrived in the boat, the disciples began discussing quietly among themselves, out of earshot of Jesus, “Who brought the bread? Did anyone bring any bread for lunch?” And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, asked them: “Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand? Are you so hard headed? Are you so hard hearted? You just saw the feeding of the five thousand and twelve baskets of bread were left over. You just saw the feeding of the four thousand and seven baskets of bread were left over. Don’t you get it about who I am? Don’t you get the abundant generosity of God? Don’t you get it that God will take care of you in your needs? Don’t you understand what is possible? Don’t you get it, even after you have personally seen these miracles?
This story captures the essence of all of the people involved. That’s why it was told over and over again. This story captures the very essence of Jesus as the wondrous Son of God. It captures the very essence of God, in God’s abundant and extravagant generosity and grace. And it captures the very essence of his disciples, who don’t get it, even after we have seen first hand, God’s miraculous work in our lives.
At the heart of the story is a little boy who brought his meager gifts to Jesus, his five loaves and two fish, and look what mighty miracles God did with them. And God wants to do the same with us; that we bring our meager gifts to God, our meager and ordinary talents and gifts, we bring the simplicity of who we are to God, and look what mighty miracles God can do with our little lives.
The Greek word John used when the boy gave the fish and bread to Jesus translates to “surrendered.” This is the key to the story for me. The little boy surrendered his meager gifts to Christ. At the heart of the story for us is the implied invitation for us to surrender our little gifts, the gift of our lives to Christ and then to see what mighty miracles God can do in and through us. That’s what God wants from you and me, to surrender, to give the gifts of our meager lives to him.
This story is a story of transformation, of change. Jesus changed the attitude and understanding of the disciples. And in this story, God is working to change something in ourselves. To be honest, we are people who want to be in control of our own lives. We want to own…we want to possess…we want to set the agenda. But God asks us to allow the Holy Spirit to change us; to surrender ourselves to God.
To surrender literally means to give up or give back something that has been granted. God calls us to take our simple, meager gifts and to give them back to Him. God calls on us to trust that His grace really is sufficient for us.
The last twist the story is what really speaks to me: The disciples personally witnessed the feeding of the five thousand, then witnessed the feeding of the four thousand, and then when they were alone, facing their own need, they asked the question among themselves: “Who brought stuff for lunch? Who brought bread?” They didn’t get it. They saw miracles for others but didn’t understand it for themselves.
So often, I am just like that. I see the miracles of God first hand. I saw the attic where a family survived Hurricane Katrina…it was, quite simply, a miracle. I have seen people who lived in complete poverty, living in shacks on garbage heaps, lifted out of poverty by the Grace of God through the work of volunteers. I see God’s miracles. I see signs of God working and intervening in the world…in your lives, and then I still question God’s existence and intervention in my own life. Does this ring a bell in you? Do you do the same? Seeing miracle after miracles in the lives of others but then when it comes to you and your own life, you question and doubt God’s miraculous goodness to you? How human we are.
Today, we are like the people on the hillside, seeking out and listening to God’s word. With the simple gifts that we surrender, God will do mighty things to transform the lives of others, and to transform our own hearts.
God promises that there will be enough. God promises that his grace, his love, his forgiveness is sufficient, and it is for each one of you. Surrender your will, your desire to be in control. Surrender the gifts that you have been given…offer them back to God. Allow God to make you be the miracle that can change the world. And when you doubt and question, remember the story we love to tell and to hear, and rest in the promises of the living God who is the Bread of life.
Amen.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
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