(Preached on Sunday, July 26, 2009)
God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! -Ephesians 3:20
Several years ago a generous family member treated a pastor and his wife to a trip to Antigua. When they stepped off the plane from the Midwest their winter-weary souls instantly embraced the warm winds and colors of that Caribbean island. Intrigued to see more, they hired a driver to guide them through that tropical retreat. Almost immediately, the car left the flat coastal road and began a breathtaking, circuitous drive up into the inland hills. The view which opened before them as they rounded the first hairpin curve was unforgettable: an astonishingly vivid blue expanse of water framed above by a pastel sky and below by the lush green hillside. Instinctively the man called to the drive to stop. “Oh, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet,” the driver proudly chirped. He was right. For the next hour, he coaxed his middle-aged car around bend after bend until they reached the summit. There, he brought the car to a halt, stretched out his arms and declared knowledgeably, “Now you have it… panorama and perspective!” The gentleman knew his island. The cyclorama of sky, sea and land which encircled them made the view of an hour before pale in comparison. Had they stopped there and gone no further, they would have been cheated out of one of nature’s more memorable spectacles.
“You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!” is pretty much what Paul is trying to state with some difficulty in this passage to the Ephesians: “… the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” Superlative piled upon superlative. Paul is reminding us that we too often underestimate the power and the glory, the love and the generosity of God. Paul is telling us, “You think God has blessed you in the past? You think God has been good to you? You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet! God will bless you beyond your wildest dreams!”
The crowd in the gospel story today needed to be reminded of this truth. They had just witnessed an amazing miracle, more than 5,000 people fed by Jesus, in a wilderness area, far from any McDonalds or Burger King. He takes what meager resources are offered, five barley loaves and two fish, gives thanks for them, then distributes them to the crowd. Lo and behold, everyone has enough to eat, with leftovers. The tragedy is what happens next. The crowd gets caught up in this present moment. Instead of remaining open to learning from Jesus what this meant and about his true identity, they let their own agendas take over. They look for manna, for free loaves of bread. Jesus seems able to provide, so they seek to crown him king, set him up to meet their needs according to their agenda.
We should not judge the crowd too harshly, though, for how often do we fall into the same trap. How often are we willing to accept Jesus as messiah – as long as he squares with our own personal concepts of morality, politics, or spirituality? How often do we look to God primarily for earthly blessings for ourselves? A loved one is healed of a terrible disease, and we expect God to do that always. We find a job at just the right time, and we expect God to always pull the strings of the marketplace to our benefit. We live a good life, follow the commandments, are good to our spouse and children, and expect that we will be blessed. It is not that anything is all that terrible with these desires. They are perfectly normal and necessary. The problem for the crowd, and far too often for us, is that we aim too low in our desires. For the crowd to suggest that Jesus was a prophet or could serve as an earthly king was to aim too low. It suggested that his true identity and calling were less than they were.
We live in a world of diminished expectations. We are surprised when we receive friendly, prompt service, even though this should be the norm. We are surprised when some piece of equipment works well and lasts a long time. We’re surprised when a manufacturer actually repairs something for a reasonable cost when it breaks. All these should be standard operating procedures, but we know it isn’t that way. Those of us who are parents even do this with our own kids. Robin Williams, the actor and comedian, once said, “Our kids embody our greatest fantasies and our worst nightmares. On the one hand, I see my kid standing before the cameras saying, ‘I’d like to thank the Nobel Committee…’ On the other hand, I see him saying, ‘you want fries with that?’”
Far too often we in the church live in the company of the disciples of Jesus, struggling to find the answer to his request to feed the huge crowd. As Philip said, 200 silver pieces wouldn’t buy enough to feed everyone, about six months’ wages back then. Or Andrew, who said, “Well, there’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but that’s a drop in the bucket for this crowd!” All we can see are the practicalities and the often too limited resources on the horizon. There’s not enough money in the church’s bank account. The investments have lost money and our reserves are too low. The stewardship isn’t very good.
But the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 asks us the question: “Do you believe God will provide what you need to do the ministry God wants done?” Note the essential qualifiers – what we need, not want, and the ministry God wants, not necessarily the ministry we’ve planned. Another way to ask the question: Do you operate according to a mind-set of abundance or of scarcity? A mind-set of abundance engenders generosity and hope. A mind-set of scarcity brings anxiety and competition.
The feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle recorded in each of the four Gospels. Some suggest that means we should take it literally, at face value. Others suggest that the crowd following Jesus would not have done so into that wilderness without bringing food and thus the miracle was the sharing of that food. What’s important, however, is this: Whatever is brought to Jesus becomes enough. That is the sort of thing Jesus does. It is one of his specialties. With a blessing from his hands the little becomes large, the weak become strong, the blind begin to see, the poor become rich, the losers become winners, and the nobodies become the first citizens in the realm of God. If we offer to God whatever small gifts we have, it will surprise us what God can do with them. It is as simple, yet as profound, as that.
If we are to really experience the truth which threads through this story we must first be open to it. We must allow God to become hands on. We must, like that boy long ago, put our resources into the hands of Jesus. There is no way around it. There are thousands of wistful, religious folk, who have never experienced what the apostle Paul described: “full lives, full in the fullness of God.” Why? Because they have never thrust all hesitation aside and committed all they have and are at the disposal of God. All, I say, nothing held back. The cautious folk might protest: “But only those who fully believe can commit.” That is not as true as it sounds. What is truer is this: “Only those who will commit will fully believe.” Repeat: “Only those who will commit will fully believe.”
Jason was in the third grade when he learned that one of his friends was seriously ill and would need money for an operation and treatment. Jason’s family had a five-gallon glass water jar that they would put their pocket change into all year. The money would be spent during the family’s summer vacation. Jason wanted to help his friend, so he set a goal of collecting one million pennies. He learned in school that one million was a lot. He knew that most people pay little attention to pennies. Classmates began saving their pennies. Jason made posters on his computer and distributed them throughout his neighborhood and at church. The school newsletter wrote an article on Jason’s project. Word spread. Before too long, the local television station interviewed him and his friend, Kyle. After that interview, the pennies really began rolling in. By summer, Jason had jars and jars full of pennies, over one million in total. It was difficult to find places to keep so much change. Jason invited his class to his house where they would spend the afternoon counting and wrapping the pennies. His parents would take him to the bank. A third grader involved the community and together was able to raise enough money for his friends’ treatment. So many people wanted to get involved who donated more than just pennies.
By the grace of God, what was true is still true. The equivalent of a small boy’s five barley loaves and two fishes feeding a large crowd still happens. Time after time it takes place in the experience of those who are prepared to deposit all that they have and are with Jesus. Please, if you are one of the hesitant ones, take the plunge. Dare to trust God. With God, life becomes a celebration. We can dare to laugh, even in hardship. We dare to celebrate, even in the valley of the shadow of death. We can become more than we ever were, and grow personally in ways we would not have planned for ourselves. As the apostle Paul reminds us: “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!” “God can do anything, you know – far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!”