Sermon for the 28th of July - Ninth Sunday after Trinity

I wonder how many times you’ve heard the feeding of the 5000 gospel passage. It can be so familiar that it’s difficult to hear it with fresh ears. To help see things anew, I would like to recommend a book by the former Dean of St Alban’s, Jeffrey John. It’s called The Meaning in the Miracles.

He describes the first teaching he received on the feeding of the 5000, from two very different RE teachers. The first teacher, a Mr Davies, was an old fashioned Welsh non-conformist who took his Bible in its plainest and most literal sense. The second, Miss Tomkins, was an Anglican with a desperate desire to interpret the Bible in a way relevant to young people. For Mr Davies the purpose of miracles was to demonstrate the supernatural and to prove Jesus’ divine nature. For Miss Tomkins, miracles were explained away in this-worldly terms. For her, what really happened was that Jesus and the disciple shared their packed lunch, and others, inspired by this generosity, did the same, so there was enough to go round everyone.

These are two stark ways of viewing miracles, and we probably have a tendency to lean towards one or the other. Or try to find a middle path.

But is there a way beyond these two interpretations? Because the danger when reading these miracle accounts is that we place them in some amazing Jesus history lesson but don’t make the connection with our spiritual journey today.

In the 4th century, St Augustine complained that many people never got beyond understanding miracles as more than magic tricks. Instead, he said, ‘The miracle which we admire on the outside also has something inside which must be understood.”

So, what might we learn from a deeper, inside view?  Well, to start with the context. The Hebrew scriptures were the primary background for the Gospel writers and today’s Gospel is full of allusions to them. The feeding occurs near the time of Passover.

Jesus’ question to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat’? is reminiscent of Moses’ dilemma in the wilderness, when the Israelites were hungry, had no food and were fed with manna, ‘bread from heaven’.  These are Exodus memories, memories of liberation and freedom, memories of promise and new life.

Jesus multiplied loaves of bread, just as our first reading reminds us, Elisha tells his servant to feed a hundred people with twenty loaves. Both Elisha’s servant and Philip protest that the few loaves are not enough, and both stories end with food left over.

The Gospel reveals that Jesus is both a new Moses and a new Elisha, and that his coming fulfils the Law and the Prophets. Just as Moses fed people with bread in the desert, the Messiah would feed his people with living eternal bread.

Then there is the main symbolic meaning of bread. In Deuteronomy, bread is used to stand for the scriptures, the message of salvation. So, reading and thinking on our readings each Sunday we are fed by the bread of God’s word, and we are inspired, challenged, encouraged by this bread.

Lastly, a deeper look into this miracle story points to the eucharist. To early Christians, the whole story was a clear link with their Eucharistic worship. The bread of the Eucharist is the way in which we are joined or united with God. In Mark’s Gospel, he uses exactly the same words as those used in the gospel at Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist. John's Gospel is the only one that doesn’t include a Eucharistic meal in the upper room… So ch.6 is John’s theological equivalent of the last supper. V.11 tells us that Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks and distributes them. It’s exactly what we will be doing shortly…. Taking break, giving thanks and distributing this food for the soul.

The real significance of these miraculous accounts is for us to look deeper into the stories. We certainly aren’t meant to write them off as supernatural fantasies for the gullible first century uneducated audience. No, we are to look deeper to discover a richer, nuance reality of the way they and we may experience the divine in the ordinary.

As we do so, we are invited to participate in the divine life, to encounter the reality and presence of God in Christ. And today, in simple gifts of bread and wine we are invited into communion with Christ.

The God whom the disciples meet in the breaking of the bread on the hillside is the God who meets them on the rough seas, in their times of deepest doubt, and will strengthen them again and again to serve him.

”I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”