Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
July 27, 2003
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

How To Solve All Your Problems
The Rev. Dr. Robert R. Hansel

Gospel: John 6:1-21

If I had to name the favorite story in the Bible--at least in the minds of those who wrote it, I would think my candidate would be the one you just heard. This morning’s Gospel--the so-called Feeding of the Multitude--is told and retold in the New Testament SIX times! And this is the only story that’s reported in all four of the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all contain a version of this particular incident. Judging just by the frequency of its telling, we must conclude that this story contains some pretty important ideas--ideas that are very close to the heart of our Christian Faith. We might think of it as a lesson in problem solving, how to deal with any challenge or obstacle. In this one 2000 year old story we are provided with a fascinating and fool-proof procedure for attacking any problem--large or small--in a way that is fully consistent with what Jesus came to tell us about how best to live our life.

Certainly during this past week, most of us have had plenty of problems that we had to solve. Tuesday’s ferocious storm left 350,000 Memphians without electrical power. Gas stations weren’t open to fill our tanks. Air conditioners stopped and the indoor heat became stifling. The contents of freezers melted and had to be thrown away. Traffic lights stopped functioning. Fallen trees crushed buildings and blocked roadways. We have a big problem right here in River City!

At my house, there’s a huge tree covering the entire roof and there are three holes, through which you can see the great outdoors--openings, I guess to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! I’ve heard all sorts of stories of narrow escapes and people have shown me bruises and cuts from hauling logs and tree branches. Most of the stories have to do with the discomfort, dislocation, confusion and frustration of just trying to cope. I guess my favorite is about the guy who, in trying to save a couple of refrigerators and a freezer, scoured all over town buying bags of ice. He dragged home hundreds of pounds of ice, carted the heavy sacks into his garage and kitchen, only to have the electrical service suddenly spring into life! He went up and down the street, letting some neighbors who still had no electricity know that they were welcome to come get ice. The ice was totally gone in an hour. He likes to think of that adventure as an “Unintentional Random Act of Kindness.”

The problem that Jesus and his disciples are faced with is this: they had tried hard to get off by themselves, to give the crowd “the slip” by heading out to a deserted, out-of-the-way-place. But the multitude wasn’t so easily fooled. They had spotted them, followed doggedly along, and were listening, spell-bound to every word that Jesus said. The dinner hour had come and gone, so the simple, practical problem was how do you feed 5000 hungry people out in the wilderness when there's no marketplace anywhere around?

The first thing Jesus does is to put the question directly to his disciples. He asks the twelve how they would solve the problem. From them Jesus received three answers:

ANSWER NUMBER ONE: “It can’t be done. Send them away so they can spread out into the whole region, find some village market, and buy themselves something to eat.”

ANSWER NUMBER TWO: “It can’t be done. It would cost over a hundred twenty dollars to buy even enough bread for all these people just to have a bite. We don’t have that kind of money even if there were a market right here on this spot.” This answer is probably very accurate. (We can be sure they didn’t have a hundred and twenty dollars or they wouldn’t have been following Jesus!)

ANSWER NUMBER THREE: “It can’t be done. These people are worn out and the nearest place is miles and miles away. There’s no place for them to find food.”

So much for the ideas of the Apostles. They responded to the challenge the same way most of us respond to problems--by giving up. Challenge us with a tough issue and we know all the words that provide us with an excuse: “It’s impossible, it’s impractical, it’s imprudent.” We’re good at concluding that “It can’t be done.”

Jesus, on the other had, also has three answers too. But his responses are of quite a different sort. Let’s see what his suggestions are, in contrast to just giving up:

ANSWER NUMBER ONE: “Make them all sit down.” Why do you suppose Jesus said that? Well, it probably because whatever else you might say about Jesus, he was (if we can believe the biblical tradition) a practical person who had grown up in a carpenter’s business-place. He knew the importance of getting organized. You may remember how, just a few pages earlier in the Gospel narrative, a similar overly enthusiastic crowd had been so eager to hear him that they also pushed him off the beach and into the water. He knew full well what might happen in a hungry crowd at the mere mention of food. He also knew that very few people get pushed around or jostled or crushed by a stampede by a multitude, however large, if its members are sitting down. Here’s an important lesson then and now. The first step in attacking any problem is a strategic analysis that organizes the task. What Jesus is seeking to avoid is stirring up emotions. He’s looking for a calming response, one that will lead to a resolution of threats and dangers rather than contributing to an ever greater problem. That certainly was a real possibility here. Had Jesus moved immediately to talking about loaves and fishes, four to five thousand people would almost certainly have reacted in panic, generating an ugly, pushing and shoving food riot. Jesus doesn’t do that. I think that he did such a sound thing because I have never heard of a riot involving people who are sitting down. His first answer is a calm effort to get things organized. He says to his disciples, “Make them all sit down.”

ANSWER NUMBER TWO: “How may loaves of bread do you have?” Jesus inquires of the disciples. Isn’t it interesting that not one of the apostles had thought to take stock of the resources that they already had. They were so overwhelmed by what they didn’t have that it simply never occurred to them to take a look at what they did have. How often all of us fall into a similar way of thinking. Instead of considered the many gifts and opportunities we have, we get into a frantic despair about all our needs and deficits. We tend to think that we can’t do anything until we have more time, more money, more information. Our focus is on the outcome and we think that the distance from where we are to where we want to be there’s no point in even trying to get there. If we could just focus on what we already have and how far the use of that will move us along, the task is not hopeless at all. Jesus is saying to his disciples and to each of us: Count your blessings, focus on the gifts you already have, use them to make a positive difference, and it may turn out to be enough--maybe even with some left over.

ANSWER NUMBER THREE: You know the rest of the story. When the disciples carry out a search, they discover a small child who had probably been too excited to eat his lunch and probably had forgotten all about it. In a sack he had some fish and some bread. It consisted, depending on whose Gospel you read, of either five or seven loaves of bread and two small fish. That sounds like a pretty sizable lunch for a small boy but, still, not much for a huge crowd. Jesus simply says, “Bring it to me.” What follows is an account of how Jesus receives the food, blessing it and breaking it before them. In the hands of the Son of God that little lunch became not only sufficient to feed 5000 but to have more left over than when they first sat down to eat. The key, of course, is the command, “Bring it to me.” Our gifts, no matter how sizable or impressive are nothing at all until they are offered in the service of their Creator. Our human answers are all limited, partial, inadequate unless we see that everything we are and all that we have is a gift of God--a gift to be used for one purpose only: to say “Thank you.”

Three steps: Calmly organizing the situation: “Make them sit down.”

Evaluating the resources: “How many loaves do you have?”

Offering our gifts to be used for God’s purposes: “Bring them to me.”

This feeding of the 5000 is called a miracle--and, indeed, it is. I have never had much sympathy for those Bible scholars and theologians who want to explain it away. It is a miracle, and yet it is also a positive process or a formula for how to approach any challenge or obstacle--one that I have seen happen time and time again. If you will learn from it and seek to approach your own problems, large or small, in this same calm and faithful way, you will find (as I have found) that miracles happen every day. This is how God works--not with magic or spiritually supernatural whimsy, but with practical, pragmatic realism. The principle here is that of Co-Creation. God calls us to bring the best that we as human beings have and to offer it in the service of the One from whom all blessings flow, promising if we will do that in faith we will be met with power.

Think about this wonderful old church here in the midst of Central City Memphis. Are there hundreds of street people who need to be fed? Have we lost our Rector and wonder where in the world we’re going to find new clergy leadership for the future? Does a HABITAT house cost $40,000 that we don’t have? Are there socially undesirable “outcasts” who aren’t welcome in other congregations? Is our organ in danger of ruin unless we repair it at a cost of half a million dollars? Does our Waffle Shop risk financial disaster if it tries to pay the workers a fair wage?

See what I’m getting at here? All these impossible tasks and obstacles that might lead others to wring their hands and decide that “It can’t be done” can be addressed and, in fact, they are right here and now being transformed into opportunities--all because, here at Calvary, we believe that miracles happen whenever the People of God take each thing calmly, respond faithfully, and share generously.

It’s right there in this one remarkable story. Jesus gives us a clear, reliable plan:

“Sit down.” “What do you already have?” “Bring it to me.”

Copyright 2003 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel: John 6:1-21
After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee,
also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following
him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the
sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his
disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 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?’ 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10 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. 11 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. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 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.’ 15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain
by himself. 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. NRSV

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