The
rest sit round it and pluck blackberries, …
From
‘Aurora Leigh’
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
When
you look around at the world, what do you see? We think that we always see
clearly. We think that what we observe is plain and obvious. Scientific
reasoning can blind us to the truth of other realities. It’s not that science
is wrong – it just doesn’t answer everything. Did you see any of the pictures
from Pluto? Planet or not, we are seeing new things – or are we? Didn’t that
round rock always look as it did? We have simply found a new perspective.
Jesus
is teaching and healing. It is the end of the day and no one wants to go home.
It’s time to eat. Jesus asks, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these
people?” It’s a simple question that is at the back of our own minds much of
the time. We might ask, “What’s for dinner?” We might also ask more generally,
“How will I get what I need?” or, “How will we get through the month?” or,
“Who’s going to pay for all of this?” In providing for the day or planning for
the future we try to be prudent and careful. We make our plans based on past
experience. We make a budget. We try to guess what the future will bring.
In
our determination to be careful we may miss the evidence outside our usual
experience. We may live as if everyday is much the same as any other. We can
miss truth that lies beneath what we can see.
Jesus
asks about lunch and there are a number of responses. Philip adds up the cost
and it’s way over budget. Andrew finds a boy who has a few loaves and fish and
he is willing to share – nice, but not enough. Jesus organizes the crowd, he
thanks God for the food, and then he makes the disciples pass it around.
Everyone has as much as they want and the disciples gather up twelve baskets of
leftovers (twelve because there were twelve of them.) The crowd believes this
is a miracle. It is a sign of God’s miraculous provision of food in the
wilderness. They want to elect Jesus the next king.
This
is not what Jesus wants so he withdraws and sends the disciples away across the
Sea of Galilee. In the night, there is a storm, and the disciples see Jesus
walking on the water. They are terrified (maybe he is a ghost) but Jesus calls
to them and stills the storm and they end up safely on the other side.
We
call these works miraculous. The things Jesus does are outside the laws of
nature. He makes a small amount of food feed a huge crowd. He walks across a
lake and quiets a storm. Jesus doesn’t seem to have to follow the agreed-upon
rules that limit us. Jesus performs some powerful acts, but I wonder why? I
think part of the reason he did all these wonderful and strange things is that
he wants us to see him as he is and to be open to a world that is larger than
the one we think we know. The miracle is that the disciples are able to see him
as more than a carpenter – he is God’s son.
We
are always being tempted to turn away from the God who is present in our lives.
We are tempted to turn away from the sacredness in all things and settle for
utility. We reduce the simple things of life into merely simple things –
instead of seeing the hand of God in the good earth we have been given. We reduce
virtue into mere efficiency. We equate worth with wealth. We want to know,
“What’s in it for me.” Instead of asking, “How is God at work in me in this
moment.”
The
feeding of the crowd has many Eucharistic implications. Jesus feeds the world
with his very body. He nourishes us and makes us God’s children by eating holy
food. Today we are invited to see the sacred in everything. We are urged to
accept God’s miraculous gifts as a sign that God is always providing for us. We
are also invited to see the world with the new perspective that Jesus gives the
disciples. Jesus is more than a carpenter. He is God’s son and he gives us
life. We are not gathered to make the world work for God. God has called us to
work salvation in us. It’s right beneath the surface of what we see. It’s
happening all the time. It’s happening right now.
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