Gone Fishing: Feeding 5,000
Matthew 14:13-21
July 28, 2014
Mark S. Bollwinkel
This is the second sermon in a
series exploring how the Bible uses the images of fishing and fish to
illustrate the spiritual journey. This
is summertime and “the livin is easy, fish are jumping and the cotton is high…”
so sings Bess in Gershwin’s wonderful musical “Porgy and Bess”. This is the time of year we hang up the sign
“Gone Fishing” at home or office. We go
to the beach, take in a movie or have a picnic with family and friends. This is the time we take a break from the
routine to recharge our batteries.
Ever notice bummer sticker
wars? When people start to argue with
each other by the bummer stickers on their cars? Years ago it became popular for certain Christians
to put a fish sign on their car to make a public statement about their
faith. Then came the scientists’ retort
with the fish sign with feet and “Darwin” in the middle for their support of
evolution. Then some Hebrew folk put up
the fish sign with “Gefilta” in the middle for the tasty food of their
traditional “gefiltafish”.
In the ancient early church, one
of the common baptismal vows was “Jesus Christ Son of God”. When the initiate was willing and able to
make such a public confession of faith they were ready for the sacrament of
baptism. Taking the first letters of
each word in that confession spells out the word “fish” in the original;
“ichthus”. During the periods of
persecution against the early church, Christians would identify themselves by
making the fish sign in the dust as they greeted each other on the road or in
the market place. They would adorn the
doorways of their homes with fish symbols.
They would have artisans do beautiful mosaic and tapestry fish for their
residences and meeting places. For the
initiated, the fish symbol was an immediate identification of the Christian
faith. Its significance went back to the
story of Jesus’ feeding the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two
fish, the text we have this morning for our worship.
Such miracle stories are
problematic for North American people such as us, oriented to science and
rationality. We cringe at the notion
that God would suspend natural law as we hear suggested in the gospel miracle stories.
Not all people of faith reject
science as an affront to God, neither have all scientists rejected the
existence of realities beyond what we can observe, measure and reproduce. Since John Wesley, founder of the Methodist
movement, began experimenting with electricity in the 18th century Methodists,
in general, embrace the possibilities of science and do not fear critical
thought.
This approach has been most
helpful when we explore the miracle stories in the Bible, such as ours this
morning.
Each
of the New Testament gospels has a version of the miracle of the feeding of
five thousand (Mark 6:32-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-13) in which Jesus blesses
five loaves of bread and two fish to feed a huge crowd of people. They followed Jesus and the disciples out to
a secluded place to hear him preach and ask him to do healings. Both Mark and Matthew report a second such
miracle in the feeding of the four thousand as well (Matthew 15:32-39, Mark
8:1-10).
In
each version Jesus has compassion on the people knowing that they will go
hungry out in the desert. He asks the
disciples to give them something to eat.
In each version of the story the "council of disciples"
complains to Jesus that they can't feed the crowd of people because they don't
have enough money.
Please
note, Jesus and his disciples didn’t have enough money. And two thousand years later I don’t know a
church, large or small, that can say they have enough money to do all the
things they want to do. Church budget crises are nothing new. Neither is Jesus' insistence that ministry is
never about the money. It’s about
faith. The disciples already have enough
to do miracles! They just don’t know it or chose not to.
In
John's version of the story a little boy comes forward to share five barley
loaves....the poorest form of bread one can find....and two fish that he and
his family brought along with them out into the desert to hear Jesus preach
(John 6:9-f), implying that his act of sharing inspired the rest of the crowd
to share what they had brought with them resulting in more than enough to feed
five thousand! We have more than enough
to do miracles when we work together...even if we don't have a lot to share!
Ironically
in the Pixar movie "Finding Nemo" the fish find this out
themselves. Only can brilliant animation
let us imagine what would happen if the fish figured it out. Humans rely on panic and fear by these huge
schools of fish to harvest them with nets.
What would happen if in such circumstance the fish worked together?
In
this scene from "Finding Nemo": Dory, a beautiful blue regal tang
tropical fish that struggles with memory loss is one of the heroes of the
movie; the comedian Ellen Degeneres is the voice of Dory. Dory is captured in a fishing net along with
a school of panicky fish being hauled to the surface and certain doom. In the scene Nemo and his father are able to
organize the frighten school to all push together in the same direction which
overwhelms the net and the fishermen, which eventually leads the fish and Dory
to freedom. Warning, the scene is a
little intense and can be scary for youngsters…..
[Finding Nemo: Swim Together
scene]
The
scene illustrates a universal truth even from a fish perspective. "We" is stronger than
"me". We can accomplish
amazing things when community has common purpose and meaning. And that’s true of spiritual as well.
Addicts
find their most successful opportunity for recovery from alcohol, drugs, food
or gambling addiction in 12 Step communities with others facing the same
disease. They need each other for the
journey of healing.
Most
of feel an overwhelming sense of powerlessness when we come across a homeless
person in the street. But when we work
together in community programs such as Join Hands here in Carmel or Habitat for
Humanity we find we can make an enormous difference in a person’s life.
When
we share what we have with each other, even when it’s not much, we will find
that it is more than enough.
Scholars
suggest that the feeding miracles are literary references to God's feeding of
the Israelites at the urging of Moses in the Exodus (Ex 16, Num. 11:1-35, Neh.
9:15, Ps. 78:19-20, Isa. 49:8-13), to the prophets Elijah feeding the widow at
Sidon (1 Kings 17:8-16) and Elisha's feeding of one hundred (2 Kings 4:42-44). There is clearly a reference to the early
church practice of Holy Communion...."Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and
gives" (Luke 22:19). And the
feeding miracles allude to the Jewish expectations that at the End of Time
there will be a heavenly feast. Jesus is
the Messiah of such hope and the feasting began in his ministry (Isa. 25:6-8,
Mt. 22:1-14, Luke 14:15-24).
All
this is to say that if we are sitting here dismissing the Bible’s story as a
fable we are missing the point entirely.
If we are so convinced that it is scientifically impossible to feed five
thousand people with five loaves and two fish, we are missing the point. The gospels writers were not worried about
the material facts of their miracle stories so much as they were invested in
its truth:
-don't let our fears about the material
world get in the way of our compassion
-there will always be enough if we share
-the power of faith can move us to participate
in good beyond our wildest dreams (Ephesians 3:20)
It may have been Jesus'
association with the Sea of Galilee and its fishing industry that led him to
call fishermen as disciples. It might
seem odd for an inland carpenter to consistently use the metaphors of fishing
to illustrate his "good news" but fish and fishing are such a perfect
examples of the awesome abundance of creation.
Is
the miracle of the feeding of five thousand with five loaves and two fish the
suspension of natural law or a metaphor for the possibility within the human
community? And who is to say these
choices are mutually exclusive?
There are only two ways to live your
life. One is as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle. (Albert
Einstein)
Amen.
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