Loving God, you are always ready to reveal your abundance to us, as you wait for us to share what we have and step out in faith.  Empower us by your Holy Spirit, and strengthen us in your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Imagine that 9 or 10 busloads of people show up here for worship one Sunday, and they’re all hungry.  They’ve been on the road for a long time, and they are hungry and tired and out of money.  What would we do?  Would we say, “We can’t afford to buy food for all these people -- besides, it’s not in the budget!”?  Would we send them off toward Siloam Mission or the Salvation Army?  Would we tell them that Winnipeg Harvest will be open tomorrow?  Would we form a committee in order to come up with an action plan for how to feed large groups of people?  Would we initiate a study on hunger?  Or, would everybody offer what they have (and even go home to get it!) and put it all together in order to feed everybody?

    It’s an interesting question, isn’t it?  The question is not just what we would do, but also what response would be foolish and what would be faith-filled.  Would we be avoiding reality if we believed we could feed all those people, or would it be an act of faith, trusting in God to provide?  How do we know what is foolish and what is faithful?

    One pastor in the U.S. writes about a congregation that adopted a “faith-based” budget (Stoffregen - http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john6x1.htm).  They believed that God would provide all that was needed.  However, the pastor who served there was often only partially paid because apparently faith hadn’t brought in enough money.  Were they being faithful or foolish in adopting a budget based on the faith that God would provide?

    Biblically speaking, there are a number of occasions where God does, indeed, provide.  In the stories where people are miraculously fed, usually there are people involved who willingly share what they have.  When Elisha feeds a hundred people, a man willingly shares the first fruits from the harvest, and it is made clear that God will make it into enough (2 Ki. 4).  When Elijah is sent to a poor widow, she willingly shares her last bit of oil and meal, and God promises that there will be enough for many days to come – and there is (1 Ki. 17)!  And when Jesus feeds a large crowd of people, like in today’s gospel, a young boy willingly shares some small loaves and a bit of fish, and it happens in such a way that people know that God provided for them (Jn. 6).

    In each case, people willingly share what they have, they give thanks to God, and it happens in such a way that they know that God has done the providing.  In the case mentioned earlier where a bunch of people show up and are hungry, I don’t expect that it would have much effect to stand here and say, “Okay God, we’re waiting.  We know that you can provide food for these people.  Now, make your power known!”  That doesn’t tend to be how God works, unless there are no other options – like in the middle of the desert.  Instead, God would be expecting us to willingly share what we have.

    In the same way, a faith-based budget isn’t necessarily going to work unless a) people are willingly sharing what they have and b) God is truly directing what is happening in that congregation.  God does not step in and provide when people are either pursuing their own agenda, or hanging on tightly to what they have, or sitting around doing nothing, expecting God to do it all.  God certainly can provide, but we are expected to participate in that providing through sharing what we have and stepping out in faith.

    There is a saying that keeps coming to mind that I believe comes from one of Walter Wangerin’s stories.  He says, “Little is large, O people of God!”  It is a truth that is taught time and again in the Scriptures.  In story after story, a small number of people defeat a whole army, or a tiny mustard seed grows into a large bush, or a mere boy defeats a great warrior, or a few loaves and some fish feed over 5000 people.  In every case, it is through faith in God and the power of God that these things happen.

    Yet, how often are we sort of like Philip in today’s gospel or the servant in the first reading?  The servant says, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” (2 Ki. 4:43).  In other words, it won’t be enough.  And Philip says, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little” (Jn. 6:7).  In other words, we can’t afford to feed them!  And how often do we focus on what we can’t do or what we can’t afford or what we don’t have enough of?

    Now, granted, there are always people who have less than others, and there are always congregations that have less in some areas than others.  Yet, biblically speaking, this is exactly where God likes to start – where things look small and hopeless and where it is absolutely obvious that God has given the growth.  Biblically speaking, how much you have is not usually the issue, but rather what you do with what you have.

    And so, small numbers need not prevent a group from either starting or continuing, as long as it is serving a good purpose and drawing people closer to God and to one another.  When a group is approached with much prayer and seeks the direction of the Holy Spirit, God will give the growth.

    At the same time, small groups of people can do things together that have great impact.  I think of the small congregation in Saskatchewan that ended up providing $500,000 worth of grain to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for international aid.  I think of the youth group at Sherwood Park that started with 5 or 6 youth and grew to 30 people.  I think of the 3 or 4 people who get together every week in order to make sandwiches to distribute to the hungry.  “Little is large, O people of God!”

    Our tendency is to focus on scarcity, but with God there is always abundance.  Did you notice in today’s gospel that the people didn’t simply receive enough to eat, but as much as they wanted?  There were twelve baskets full of leftovers – surplus bread that they couldn’t eat!  This is the God who “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20).

    God does this by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us and through us.  God does this when Jesus lives in our hearts through faith and roots us and grounds us in love.  God does this when we step forward in faith and offer whatever we have for the work of the kingdom.  God does this when we share and cooperate with one another in order to multiply what we are able to do together.  God accomplishes abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine!

    In closing, I invite you to spend some time with the Second Reading for today from Ephesians.  It is a very rich prayer, which Paul prays for all of us.  “Strengthened in your inner being... rooted and grounded in love... filled with all the fullness of God... far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:14-21).  The abundance of God begins in our hearts, and overflows from there.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Lectionary 17 (B)                                John 6:1-21
July 26, 2009                                    2 Kings 4:42-44
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church                        Ephesians 3:14-21
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2009 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved