Possibilities

 

John 6:1-21

Proper 12 / Year B

This morning we find Jesus is a familiar setting doing something completely different.  The setting – he is beside the Sea of Galilee and he is completely mobbed by people from all over the region.  What does he do that is different?  He administers a test to his disciples.  He asked them to figure how all these people – some 5,000 folks – are going to find food to eat. 

Philip responds first.  His mind is wrapped around the challenges involved.  “We could spend half of our yearly budget on bread and still not have enough for everyone to get just a little.”  No Vestry is going to authorize a plan like this, you can be sure. 

Then Andrew speaks up, “Here is a boy who has five barely loaves and two fish, but what good will this do when the need is so overwhelming?”  As a side note, barely loaves are the cheapest, least nutritious kind of bread at the time.  It is safe to assume the two fish are not the best of the catch either. 

Jesus tests them because, as the text tells us, he himself knows what he is going to do.  Philip is overwhelmed.  He can’t even think of a first step to take to address the situation.  Interestingly, Andrew has the solution right in his hands, but he does not see it.  His is a failure of imagination.  It is a failure of faith.

Here is the important thing about this story: while the disciples focus on the challenges, Jesus focuses on the possibilities.  Shel Silverstein, the decorated children’s author, wrote this famous poem about the ‘mustn’t’:

Listen to the mustn’s, child.  Listen to the don’ts.

Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossible, the won’ts.

Listen to the never haves, then listen to me close...

Anything can happen, child.  Anything can be.

Jesus sees the potential in some seemingly insignificant things.  First, there is the boy and his willingness to give what he has.  Next, there is the grass.  When I visited the Holy Land it was struck with how a good deal of the region is a rocky wasteland; difficult to describe and difficult to imagine until you see it for yourself.  But where Jesus is and where these people are gathered there is grass.  We might say it is a comfortable place to have a picnic.  So Jesus instructs the disciples to have the people to sit down.

He understands one more thing about possibilities.  If you move toward God, God will move miles and mountains to get to you.  When offered in faith, God uses even our most meager efforts to make things happen.  Thomas Merton wrote,

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going.  What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.”

Which is exactly what Jesus does.  In language reminiscent of our Eucharist liturgy, he takes the bread, gives thanks, and distributes it.  And, miraculously, everyone is satisfied.  Now when Jesus converted water into wine at the wedding in Cana, the chief steward pronounces it the best wine served at the party.  Here, on the mountainside, we are not told Jesus serves up a five-star meal, only that everyone gets enough.

And notice how the role of the disciples changes.  In the beginning they are being tested.  Disciples, by definition, are learners.  They sit at the feet of a master and soak up all that person has to say.  But a shift happens.  It begins when Jesus tells the disciples to have the people sit down.  Now they have a role to play in this moment, be it ever so minor.  All though the text doesn’t say so explicitly, it seems natural to assume the disciples managed the distribution of the bread and fish.  We are told Jesus instructs them to pick up all the leftovers – twelve baskets full in all. 

This is not just a command to clean up the park after everyone has left.  It is a gathering a valuable resources.  The detail about there being twelve baskets seems a bit odd until you realize there are twelve disciples.  Each one receives a full basket of leftovers.  Imagine what each might do with what is entrusted to him.  Imagine the possibilities.  They come to the mountainside as disciples – as learners – but the leave as Apostles, as those sent out. 

So where are you in all of this?  Are you more inclined to focus on the problems and to be overcome by the challenges in your life, or do you see the possibilities and act on them?  In what areas of your life are you more passive – a learner – and in what areas are you more apostolic – sent out as one empowered by God to minister to the world?