A Sermon preached at St Mary’s (Iffley, Rose Hill and Donnington) by Clare Hayns on 28th July 2024
Trinity 9B

2 Kings 4. 42-end, Ephesians 3.14-end, John 6. 1-21

A poll was done of the three WhatsApp messages people most like to hear. The first one is, ‘I love you’, the second one, is ‘I forgive you’, the third one is ‘Dinner is Ready’. It strikes me that these three are a pretty good distillation of the good news of Jesus. I love you. I forgive you. Dinner is ready

Food is a large part of my life. As a mother of 3 boys, now 4 men, preparing food, cooking food and clearing up food has taken up quite a bit of my time for many years. When they were little there was an inverse correlation between the amount of time spent on a meal to the amount that was eaten. An elaborate meal would be discarded in disgust and pasta and pesto devoured within seconds. Now, in my family, when the house is full, it’s all about quantity. It’s pretty much impossible to cook too much, they are always hungry, and worst thing is do is not provide enough.

Hunger and God’s provision is a thread in all our three bible readings today.

In the short reading from Kings, our Old Testament reading, the man from Baal-shalishah brings food from his harvest as an offering and is challenged by Elisha to share this food with the hundred hungry people around him. He doesn’t think there’s going to be enough: ‘how can I set THIS before a hundred people?’ he asks. But he does, and there is plenty for all, with food left over.

The Bible is full of stories like this, of God providing for hungry people. We remember the Israelites wandering in the desert after being freed from slavery. They are hungry, and God provides them with manna (bread) from heaven. They are given just enough for each day, with double to get them through the sabbath.

But more often, provision comes through the generosity of others, rather than by food raining down from above. There is a wonderful story of the widow of Zarephath who is starving, and she comes across the prophet Elijah and is challenged by him to share what she has, and when she does the oil jar keeps on giving, and the food doesn’t run out. (1 Kings 17). (You can read this story here)

The gospel reading takes this thread. Jesus mirrors what has gone before, and goes even further. Jesus and his disciples are on a mountainside without enough food for all the five thousand people who had come to be hear him, and be healed by him.  Jesus tests his disciples, ‘where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’

Philip and Andrew are convinced it’s impossible, all they have is a little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Not nearly enough to go round.  And, as we heard, Jesus takes the little boy’s picnic, and transforms the little they have, and everyone is fed.

John sets this scene near the ‘Festival of Passover’ and so those hearing this gospel would then remember God’s provision for his people during the years of wandering in the desert, when manna rained down from heaven. On the mountain top, there wasn’t just enough to go round. There was an abundance. There were 12 baskets of food left over.

Jesus, after he feeds the crowds, takes the provision of food further. He teaches them not to be focussed just on ‘food that perishes’, but on ‘food that endures for eternal life’ (John 6. 27). We can be filled with physical food, but we’ll soon be hungry again. We need more than food to sustain us.

Jesus calls himself ‘the bread of life’ and tells them that:

“whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6. 35).

In the second reading from Ephesians, we don’t get physical hunger, but a different type of hunger. It is a prayer from the heart to be filled, but not with food:

“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 the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3. 19).

Here we have a spiritual hunger, a yearning to be filled with the fullness of God, to know the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of God.

Maybe you know this kind of hunger: for a deeper faith, the yearning for a closer relationship with Jesus, maybe we long for sustenance after a long time feeling depleted or weary in our faith.

Church Father Augustine of Hippo alludes to this longing when he wrote:

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Mother Teresa said “the hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread”.

We are so pleased that Kanta, Sasha and Sia have chosen to be baptised during the service today. God has been drawing them into this deeper faith, and baptism is the beginning of this new phase of their journey.

We know that the journey of faith can be exciting and comforting, but it can also be challenging.  After witnessing the feeding the 5000 the disciples got into a stormy boat where they were afraid. Life throws storms at us along the way, and we need one another. In Baptism we are joined into this new family of faith, a new community where we gain brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are not alone on this journey. The Christian faith is not a solo sport, but a team sport, to use an Olympic analogy! In baptism we belong to God, and also to one another. Each one of us is called to support one another, to help one another grow in wisdom and faith.

Jesus could have fed the 5000 without the help of the little boy, but that’s not the way God works. He uses us to build up his kingdom of love, joy, peace, hope. Each one of us is called to offer up our own meagre offering to the other. We all have our own loaves and fish to offer, be that our time, our friendship, our money, our hospitality, our prayers.

Remember that whatsApp message I began with. ‘I love you’, ‘I forgive you’, ‘dinner’s ready’.  This is what is happening today.

In baptism we are remembering the abundant love of God to each one of you. May we dwell in that love and be rooted and grounded in it.

In baptism our sins are washed away and we are forgiven, and we can come into that relationship of love with the divine with pure hearts.

And we are fed with the ‘bread of life’, with the food that never perishes. To Kanta, Sasha and Sia (but also to each and everyone here) – You are loved. You are forgiven. Dinner is ready.