One Saturday Ken Erickson’s wife cleaned out leftovers from the refrigerator. She gave the one remaining portion of tortellini to their 6-year-old son, Jeremy. Their 8-year-old son, Matthew, also wanted some, so bickering ensued. 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!” (1)
Yes, that is exactly what Jesus would do. Jesus would just make more!
Would you agree with me that the biggest problem facing the church today is lack of faith? It’s not lack of resources. We think it is, but it’s not. The first question someone will ask when a necessary expense is brought up here at the church, “Where’s the money coming from?” But that’s the wrong question. The only question we should ask is: Is this God’s will for our church? We may not realize it, but we are rich in terms of both financial strength and talent. We only scratch the surface in our giving of either. What we lack is faith.
We could feed the world’s hungry. Not by ourselves, of course, but with the help of other caring people. Remember, there are two billion Christians on this earth. We could heal conflicts between the nations of the world. We could give comfort to the lonely, freedom to the captive, hope to the desperate. We have the resources. All we lack is faith.
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, dear friends, is not our lack of resources, but our lack of faith.
In today’s lesson from the Gospel, Jesus is on a mountainside with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast is near. He looks up and sees a great crowd coming up the mountain. A small army really. Five thousand men, and an untold number of women and children. That’s kind of scary. Suppose we were having a church supper and ten thousand people showed up? We would be scurrying around, probably in a panic. Jesus didn’t panic. He turns to his disciple Philip and asks, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” The writer of John says that he asked this only to test Philip, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” As far as the disciples were concerned, the problem was resources. They didn’t have enough. Jesus knew better. What they had was not a resource problem, but a faith problem.
I. It Is Not a Resource Problem.
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and so they sat down. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. Sounds a little like Holy Communion, doesn’t it? The phrase “give thanks” translates eucharisteo, a verb often associated with the Lord’s Supper. In fact, we’re told that some people in the early church ate the Lord’s Supper with bread and fish.
When they all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
So, was there enough? Sure. There wasn’t a resource problem. There was a faith problem. Get Jesus involved and resources will be found. That’s true in the church. We don’t have a resource problem. We have a faith problem. It is amazing what people can do when they are full of faith.
A church that has inspired many people through the years is The Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. under the leadership of Gordon Cosby. This is a group of people who know about acting on faith. For example, many years ago, when they were first getting started, this church made what many would regard as an “irrational decision”--to buy a piece of property now known as Dayspring Farm. From a rational standpoint they couldn’t have done a sillier thing. They had just bought their church building on Massachusetts Avenue. At the time they only had 15 or 20 members. Only half of them were employed in paying jobs. And they owed $100,000 on their building.
But the Spirit was moving within the members of this congregation, in ways mysterious and unsettling. Individual members began coming forward with checks, small but sacrificial, urging the pastor to begin the search for an out-of-town location for a prayer and retreat ministry. Against his better judgment, Gordon Cosby appointed a committee and they began searching for property.
They found a farm for something like $37,000 for 180 acres in MontgomeryCounty. (This was many years ago when land in that very expensive county was still cheap!) They prayed and then voted unanimously to do that idiotic, irrational thing. They owed $100,000. They didn’t have a clue as to how to finance their little church. They were in a brand-new building. And they voted to spend $37,000 on a retreat farm. It was a decision bathed in prayer, beginning with the two people who gave checks. Within a year, the Atomic Energy Commission decided to relocate and move to a site one mile from Dayspring Farm. Before anyone set foot on their property, within a year it was worth $500,000. Now it’s worth much, much more. “Had we waited until it made fiscal sense,” asks Gordon Cosby, “would we ever have had Dayspring? Of course not.”
“Sometimes, if the prayer life is deep enough,” Cosby continues, “decisions which seem irrational are bathed with a kind of wonder. This is true for individuals. It is certainly true with churches.” (2)
II. Living by Faith, Not by Fear.
This is what the feeding of the five thousand is about. It is about living by faith, not fear. It is about asking, what is the need? Not what are our resources? It is about so bathing ourselves in prayer that we are not afraid of attempting the seemingly impossible for God. Because with God, nothing is impossible.
I’m sure you have noticed the rapid growth of so-called mega-churches in our land. Going to church today is somewhat like going to the supermarket. Few people go to the little corner grocery. They prefer driving miles to the mega-mart. It’s difficult for the small store or the small church to compete. One key reason these mega-churches have grown as they have is that they are not afraid to step out on faith. Their pastors are no more dedicated, their leadership is no more spiritual, their prayers are no more sincere. What they are willing to do is to put wings to their faith by daring great things for God. And God has rewarded their faith.
We need to be asking what God needs from us. What unique ministry could we have to our community and to our world? What great dream has God planted within our hearts? And then we need to begin gathering our resources to do what God has called us to do in the knowledge that God will provide the means to accomplish what God has called us to do. What could possibly be more tragic than hearing God’s call and not responding?
In the 1988 Olympics, the world assumed that the United States would be victorious in the 400-meter relay. They simply were the best. The gun cracked and they were off and running. After the last curve the unthinkable happened. The United States was ahead by 10 meters with no real competition in sight. And then, with victory in their grasp, it happened. They dropped the baton. The thousands in the stands gasped in disbelief. The United States team--sleek, muscular, and fast as leopards, lost the race. Why? Someone dropped the baton. (3)
I would hate for us as a church to be the people who dropped the baton. What is God calling us to be and to do as God’s people in this time and this place? It’s not a question of resources but a question of faith.
Jesus had the people sit down. Then he took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. That’s what happens when Jesus is involved in any project.
The Rev. Wendy Neff was leading a mission trip to Mexico. On the last day of the mission she took stock of their water situation. Water in Mexico is a precious commodity. You have to buy all of your water to drink, to cook, to brush your teeth. Ingesting even small amounts of the local water is to risk a very uncomfortable illness. And so they bought two large containers of water each day.
On the last morning when they returned from work, Rev. Neff checked their water supply. The cooler was ¾ full; there were enough water bottles in the refrigerator for everyone to have one with a few left over. They were going out to eat that night so they didn’t need water for cooking. By experience of days past, she assumed they had plenty of water to get them through until the next morning when they would leave.
Lunch came and everyone was told they could have one bottle of cold water from the fridge. The afternoon passed, then, as they were leaving for the restaurant where they were to eat that last night, one of the group reported they had no more water. Rev. Neff thought that couldn’t be so--they had plenty before lunch. She checked the cooler: empty. She checked the refrigerator: empty. Not even the extra bottles were left. She contemplated their predicament, but only briefly, since they were on their way to the restaurant. Her thoughts returned to their water dilemma as they drove back from dinner. They were stuck. They couldn’t get any more bottled water. Then she remembered that she had ½ a bottle left in her room as well as ½ a bottle from dinner. So she came up with a plan.
When they returned they were to have a devotional. As they all prepared, Rev. Neff was bombarded with the complaint that there was NO water. How were they going to brush their teeth? What would they drink? What was she going to do about it? Why wouldn’t she just go buy more? All she said in response was, “We’ll work it out.”
Following devotion, Rev. Neff placed her two half-full water bottles on the table. She explained that they were now in the situation of most Mexicans. They had no water in the cooler and even the extra bottles which were not to have been taken were gone. She offered her two half-filled bottles to the group and said they would have to look around, see what water they had in any half-full bottles they could find and pool it together.
She asked them to put whatever bottles they had on the table and they would share them to brush their teeth. Everyone began to pack their stuff for leaving the next day. One person handed her a bottle that had been in her luggage. Another found a bottle in her travel bag. Other bottles were found on the floor, under chairs, behind beds. By the time they were ready to brush their teeth, there were 35 bottles of water on the table. Everyone brushed their teeth, had a drink and brushed their teeth the next morning. When they loaded up the vans to leave, there was enough water left over for nearly everyone to take a bottle with them. (4)
Is that how Jesus fed the 5,000? Did people discover food they did not know they had and then share it with others? We’re not told. Some scholars think so. All we know is this, when Jesus is around, the problem is not resources, it is faith. It’s commitment. We can always do what he called us to do.
St. Paul put it like this in our lesson from Ephesians: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”
St. Paul knew. We can do anything God has called us to do. We have the resources. Do we have the faith?
1. Paul Decker in “Do We Have Enough for Dinner?”
2. From “Mary’s Teaching,” Ministry of Money Newsletter (Washington, D.C., October 1993). Cited in Homiletics.
3. Adapted from USA Today, April 22, 1998. Great Stories, Jan/Mar 1999, p. 7.
4. Sermon preached by Rev. Wendy Neff, http://www.fpcknox.org/sermons/2Yjul2003.htm.