Church anniversary - Proper 12 (Feeding 5,000)

 Ephesians 3:14-21

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection 1

What a lovely reading – Paul writes it in his letter as a prayer for the church at Ephesus. On bended knee he prays:

“that you may be strengthened in your inner being through the Spirit

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by love

That you may have the power to comprehend

And to know the love of Christ

To grasp the length and height and depth of Christ’s love, that surpasses all knowledge

So that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Look at a box.

How do you describe the box. Height and width and depth… measurements – the whole thing.

What could we put in the box to show people what God’s love means – draw?? Or choose things in chapel.  (if children ask them to do this - adults may prefer to imagine what they would put in!)

What a fantastic prayer.

And what makes it even better is that in the Greek in which the letter is written the “you” is plural – it’s for the whole church – that all of you may know these things.

It’s a great prayer for a church anniversary too.

That we may be strengthened by the Spirit

That we may both understand with our heads and know in our hearts the multi-dimensional love of God shown in Jesus

At the end of the next reflection we'll look at what’s in the box!

John 6:1-13

Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

This is perhaps the most famous picnic in history.

We might realise that the story encourages us to ask three questions:

What’s here? 

What’s the need?

What is God going to do?

What’s here?

Jesus feeds 5,000 people with just 5 barley loaves and two fish.

And we’re not talking great big loaves of bread and lovely big fish, either – barley loaves were the cheapest sort of bread -  they would have been what we would call rolls; and the fish would have been dried fish, something easy for a young boy to take for his meal for the day. 

When I visited a Palestinian Olive Wood carving workshop I couldn’t resist this little reminder of the five loaves and two fish… The loaves would be a bit bigger than this in real life – but you could probably hold the whole of this lad’s food in two hands. It’s not much, is it?

Jesus has asked Philip ‘where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’. The answer is ‘nowhere!’ – they are in the middle of nowhere. All they’ve got is two handfuls of food – 5 loaves and 2 fish.

Meanwhile, What’s the need?

The crowd is huge. The need is great. Everyone is hungry and what can Jesus possibly do?

Philip has pointed out that even 6 month’s wages wouldn’t buy enough for all this need…

What is God going to do?

We need to watch Jesus.

He takes the bread, he gives thanks and he gives it to the people as they sit and wait.

And everyone doesn’t just have a tiny bit to eat – they eat until they are satisfied and there are even 12 basketfuls of left-overs.

The disciples don’t have much.

The number and the need of the people is vast.

But through Jesus God works a miracle and everyone is fed.

In this part of John’s gospel, John goes on to tell us that Jesus says he is the bread of life. Jesus can provide whatever people need – not just bread to eat, but healing from illness, peace where there’s torment, life itself for everyone – life which is worth living and everlasting.

So as we read and hear this story on this church anniversary Sunday, we can ask ourselves the same three questions that come out of the story:

What’s here? 

What’s the need?

What is God going to do?

What’s here? 

A beautiful place, and .. just us.

We’re not many in number. We’re not as full of energy as we would like to be.

We might feel like we just have two handfuls of resources. But we offer what we have and what we are to God.

What’s the need?

A world around us that needs 

- to know love where people feel loneliness.

- peace where people experience conflict, or see violence around them.

- life in all its fulness thanks to the presence of Jesus Christ.

What is God going to do?

What God always does. What Jesus does when he feeds the 5,000: take what little we have to offer and through his power use the little we give to offer abundant blessing to whoever around us is in need.

What we need to help us do this is God’s love.

So let's look at what’s in the box - what children have put in or adults have imagined they would put in!

... so may God's grace bless us as God's people in God's world. Amen.