St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

28/3/99

Food for Life Ex 16:1-18
John 6:1-21

There was a meeting here last Monday night of representatives of small Anglican Churches, to discuss ways that churches can grow. One of the things that emerged from that meeting was how hard it is for small churches to do all the things that could be done, with the small resource base they have. Most Churches reported that they'd had to limit the range of their ministry focus so they could cope with the workload without wearing out their members. It's a common problem isn't it? In fact most of us are overworked in one way or another. It's a reality of the Christian life that none of us has the resources to do everything that needs to be done. Even those things we are doing, we probably feel inadequate to do. In the passage before us today we find two such instances, when the disciples were faced with situations that were beyond their capacity to cope and we see how the intervention of Jesus changes things.

In fact this passage can be looked at on 2 different levels. There's the surface level of the events that take place and the way the issues are resolved, and there's the deeper level of the theological significance of what happens here. So what I want to do today is to first look at the actual events, then we'll spend a short time thinking about the deeper spiritual implications of what Jesus does, which might help us in a fortnight's time when we come to look at the discourse that follows.

This, by the way, is the only miracle that's mentioned in all four gospels, so the early church and the gospel writers in particular, obviously saw it as being of great significance.

The incident happens "some time later." In other words the timing is indeterminate, except that it's during the time Jesus was in Galilee. Mark actually adds to these details the fact that Jesus was so pressed by the demands of the crowds that he didn't even have time to eat. So he crossed to the far shore of Galilee to get some time alone for him and his disciples. But it was all to no avail. No sooner had he sat down to speak to the disciples than a great crowd arrived.

   This presented something of a logistics problem for Jesus and the disciples. If they were to host this huge crowd while Jesus taught them, how were they going to feed them? So Jesus asks Philip for advice. Philip came from the nearby town of Bethsaida so he would have had local knowledge of available food supplies. But in fact John tells us in v6 that Jesus only asks him this to test him. He already knows what he's going to do.

   This is a lived out parable of the life of the church, in a sense, isn't it? How often are we faced by dilemmas of this nature? Difficulties that seem insurmountable. And what does God do? He says "What are you going to do about it?" He looks to us to see what answers we'll come up with. That isn't because he doesn't know the best solution, but he expects us to make wise decisions for ourselves.

   Think for a moment about why Jesus asks Philip this question when he already knows what he's going to do? Is he trying to show just how clever he is? That's the sort of thing we do from time to time isn't it? Ask others what they'd do in this situation, then when they fail to come up with a good solution, tell them how to fix it; just to show how clever we are. But that's not what Jesus is doing. Rather he's giving them responsibility. He's teaching them leadership. He's encouraging them to see beyond the possible to the power of God.

   That's a lesson that's hard to learn sometimes isn't it? But the only way to learn it is to be given the responsibility in the first place. So Jesus asks Philip how they can feed the crowds. Philips answer is an interesting one. He gives an economist's answer. He adds it up and works out that you'd need 8 months wages to feed even a proportion of these people. No, in economic terms it's beyond their reach. This is the sort of discussion churches get into from time to time when they work out their budget for the year. Sometimes we can limit the work we do because on simple economic grounds we can't afford to do some things.

   But simple economic grounds, as important as they are in good church management, aren't the only considerations.

   Andrew isn't quite as pessimistic as Philip. He's one of those people who are willing to start in small ways, even if he can't see how it will solve the bigger problem. He comes up with 5 small loaves and 2 small fish. Not much, he sheepishly acknowledges, but maybe it's a start.

   In fact it's a great start. In Jesus' hands those few loaves and couple of fish will feed 5,000 people with plenty to spare.

   Now what does that say to us, here at St Theodore's, with our limited resources, and huge demands on our time and energy? Does it say something about looking to Jesus Christ for the results we're after? Does it speak to us about depending on his power and the power of the Holy Spirit who so powerfully works within us?

   There are two parts to our response here, aren't there? First we have to do our bit. We're responsible for what happens here, because God has placed us here and given us the responsibility of being his church in this particular place. But at the same time he's also with us. His Spirit is here guiding us and empowering us. His Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to do the same things as Jesus, or even greater things, Jesus says later on in John. So we can have confidence that we don't have to do it on our own. You know there's a great couple of verses in Philippians that express this well. Phil 2:12-13, says: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Isn't that great? Work out your own salvation, but as you're doing it, remember who it is who's working in you, actually enabling the work to be done.

   Well at this point the people get so excited they want to declare Jesus King on the spot. We'll come back to why that is in a moment, but for now, let's just see that Jesus withdraws by himself. And so the disciples are left on their own, and for want of something better to do, decide to go back to Capernaum.

   But as they're rowing across the lake in the dark, a strong wind comes up and they begin to find it hard going. In fact Mark tells us they've been rowing for some time. John says they've come three or three and a half miles. As they struggle at their oars, they look up and see someone walking towards them. Well, you can imagine how they feel! They're terrified. How could someone be walking out here in the middle of the lake, 3 miles or more from shore? But Jesus reassures them. He says: "It is I; don't be afraid." Now at face value, Jesus is simply saying, "don't worry, it's only me." But then, when you read through John's gospel and see how many times Jesus uses the phrase "I am" in significant discourses, you stop to wonder what he's saying here. You see the phrase that's used for "It is I" is the phrase "I am". So when you read this you may well ask whether this is another example of Jesus' self-disclosure, as he walks on the water.

   In any case they take him into the boat, and immediately find themselves at the shore they were heading for. Again we find here an acted parable of the Church. So often we find ourselves in difficulty, we find ourselves struggling to keep up (well I do anyway) and Jesus comes to us and says, "invite me into the boat and I'll go with you, and then see whether the going gets easier." It's similar to what we found in the feeding of the 5000, but in this case the task isn't beyond them, in fact it's what they're best at, but nevertheless, when they do it in Jesus' presence it becomes so much easier: immediately they find themselves at the shore they were heading for.

   Well, that's the surface level of the events that took place and something of their application to us, but what about the deeper significance of this event in the gospel of John?

   To understand that, we need to first of all notice an almost insignificant detail in the narrative, and then think about how what Jesus does fits with the wider scope of the Biblical story.

   The detail I'm talking about is in v.4. Have a look at it. These events take place, we're told, around the time of the Jewish Passover feast. But why does John throw in that detail? It doesn't seem to be particularly relevant at first sight does it? Not, that is, until you realise that what Jesus is doing is feeding his people in the wilderness, the same way Moses did (or at least God did through Moses) during the Exodus. In fact the crowd picks it up. That's why they begin to say: (John 6:14 NRSV) "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." What they're thinking about is the prophecy in Deut 18:15 where Moses, in his final words to the people of Israel, says this: (NRSV) "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet." They've recognised that this provision of bread to so many people in the desert is more than just another miracle. No, it's a sign that Jesus is the Messiah.

   So what about the walking on the water? Well in this context, this miracle following on so quickly after the other, may lead us to think about the people of Israel crossing the Red Sea on dry land. While the disciples are labouring at their oars, Jesus comes walking towards them as though he's going for a stroll on dry land, doesn't he? So again, there's an allusion here to the events of the Exodus. The conclusion John wants us to draw is that Jesus is the one Moses predicted would come after him to replace him; who does the same sorts of miracles that Moses did.

   Well, then, the question now is, what does all this mean for us? You can probably see that for the first century Jews it was important to realise that Jesus was the new Moses. It provided an explanation of how they could abandon their old Jewish practices in favour of this new religion. But what about us? Is this of any significance for us? Well, clearly, John thought so. In fact his gospel is full of references and allusions to the events of the Exodus as they relate to Jesus. Let's think about a few of them for a moment.

   John begins in chapter 1 with John the Baptist pointing Jesus out, and what does he say about him? "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." In other words, Jesus is the new Passover Lamb. It was the Passover Lamb whose death brought salvation to all the first born sons of the Israelites at the start of the Exodus. This is reinforced in ch 19:36, where John emphasises that the fact they didn't break Jesus legs was to fulfill the prophecy "Not one of his bones will be broken": a reference to Ex 12:46 where the Israelites were told this about eating the passover: "It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones."

   Similarly in the prologue in ch 1 and then in ch 2 we found that Jesus was the true tabernacle of God, the true temple. Here we find that he provides bread in the desert, he walks across the water as if on dry ground just as the people did across the Red Sea. In ch7 we'll discover in a few weeks that he offers living water just as Moses did in the Wilderness of Sin.

   So there's a strong emphasis in John's gospel on Jesus as the new Moses. So why is this important to us? Well, it's important to us because what we see here in the gospel is Jesus forming a new nation, a new kingdom of which he is the King, the Lord. It's not like the old Kingdom of Israel. That's why he withdraws when he thinks they might be about to make him king by force. No, as he says to Pilate at his trial (18:26) "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." No, he's building a spiritual kingdom, a new people of God, empowered by his own Spirit to serve God faithfully, with God's law written on their hearts so they'll know what is right, what God's will is.

   Which brings us back to the first part of this sermon. One of the great things about being in Christ's new kingdom is that Christ goes with us. When we meet obstacles that appear to be impossible he helps us past them. He provides all our needs when we find we can't provide them ourselves. When we struggle he's there to go with us, to strengthen us, to bring us to places we thought we'd never make, and may not have in our own strength.

   What we find here is that by ourselves we can do nothing. But in Jesus power, by the power of the Holy Spirit working within us, all things are possible. Why? Because we're part of the new people of God, the new kingdom established through Jesus life and death and resurrection. Because we're part of that new people of God who have been given God's Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to be with us always, even to the end of the age.


	Contact us	Preaching Program	Home		Last Week's Sermon

	Sermon of the Week
	28/3/99
	Food for Life	Ex 16:1-18 John 6:1-21

	There was a meeting here last Monday night of representatives of small Anglican Churches, to discuss ways that churches can grow. One of the things that emerged from that meeting was how hard it is for small churches to do all the things that could be done, with the small resource base they have. Most Churches reported that they'd had to limit the range of their ministry focus so they could cope with the workload without wearing out their members. It's a common problem isn't it? In fact most of us are overworked in one way or another. It's a reality of the Christian life that none of us has the resources to do everything that needs to be done. Even those things we are doing, we probably feel inadequate to do. In the passage before us today we find two such instances, when the disciples were faced with situations that were beyond their capacity to cope and we see how the intervention of Jesus changes things.
	In fact this passage can be looked at on 2 different levels. There's the surface level of the events that take place and the way the issues are resolved, and there's the deeper level of the theological significance of what happens here. So what I want to do today is to first look at the actual events, then we'll spend a short time thinking about the deeper spiritual implications of what Jesus does, which might help us in a fortnight's time when we come to look at the discourse that follows.
	This, by the way, is the only miracle that's mentioned in all four gospels, so the early church and the gospel writers in particular, obviously saw it as being of great significance.
	The incident happens "some time later." In other words the timing is indeterminate, except that it's during the time Jesus was in Galilee. Mark actually adds to these details the fact that Jesus was so pressed by the demands of the crowds that he didn't even have time to eat. So he crossed to the far shore of Galilee to get some time alone for him and his disciples. But it was all to no avail. No sooner had he sat down to speak to the disciples than a great crowd arrived.
	This presented something of a logistics problem for Jesus and the disciples. If they were to host this huge crowd while Jesus taught them, how were they going to feed them? So Jesus asks Philip for advice. Philip came from the nearby town of Bethsaida so he would have had local knowledge of available food supplies. But in fact John tells us in v6 that Jesus only asks him this to test him. He already knows what he's going to do.
	This is a lived out parable of the life of the church, in a sense, isn't it? How often are we faced by dilemmas of this nature? Difficulties that seem insurmountable. And what does God do? He says "What are you going to do about it?" He looks to us to see what answers we'll come up with. That isn't because he doesn't know the best solution, but he expects us to make wise decisions for ourselves.
	Think for a moment about why Jesus asks Philip this question when he already knows what he's going to do? Is he trying to show just how clever he is? That's the sort of thing we do from time to time isn't it? Ask others what they'd do in this situation, then when they fail to come up with a good solution, tell them how to fix it; just to show how clever we are. But that's not what Jesus is doing. Rather he's giving them responsibility. He's teaching them leadership. He's encouraging them to see beyond the possible to the power of God.
	That's a lesson that's hard to learn sometimes isn't it? But the only way to learn it is to be given the responsibility in the first place. So Jesus asks Philip how they can feed the crowds. Philips answer is an interesting one. He gives an economist's answer. He adds it up and works out that you'd need 8 months wages to feed even a proportion of these people. No, in economic terms it's beyond their reach. This is the sort of discussion churches get into from time to time when they work out their budget for the year. Sometimes we can limit the work we do because on simple economic grounds we can't afford to do some things.
	But simple economic grounds, as important as they are in good church management, aren't the only considerations.
	Andrew isn't quite as pessimistic as Philip. He's one of those people who are willing to start in small ways, even if he can't see how it will solve the bigger problem. He comes up with 5 small loaves and 2 small fish. Not much, he sheepishly acknowledges, but maybe it's a start.
	In fact it's a great start. In Jesus' hands those few loaves and couple of fish will feed 5,000 people with plenty to spare.
	Now what does that say to us, here at St Theodore's, with our limited resources, and huge demands on our time and energy? Does it say something about looking to Jesus Christ for the results we're after? Does it speak to us about depending on his power and the power of the Holy Spirit who so powerfully works within us?
	There are two parts to our response here, aren't there? First we have to do our bit. We're responsible for what happens here, because God has placed us here and given us the responsibility of being his church in this particular place. But at the same time he's also with us. His Spirit is here guiding us and empowering us. His Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to do the same things as Jesus, or even greater things, Jesus says later on in John. So we can have confidence that we don't have to do it on our own. You know there's a great couple of verses in Philippians that express this well. Phil 2:12-13, says: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Isn't that great? Work out your own salvation, but as you're doing it, remember who it is who's working in you, actually enabling the work to be done.
	Well at this point the people get so excited they want to declare Jesus King on the spot. We'll come back to why that is in a moment, but for now, let's just see that Jesus withdraws by himself. And so the disciples are left on their own, and for want of something better to do, decide to go back to Capernaum.
	But as they're rowing across the lake in the dark, a strong wind comes up and they begin to find it hard going. In fact Mark tells us they've been rowing for some time. John says they've come three or three and a half miles. As they struggle at their oars, they look up and see someone walking towards them. Well, you can imagine how they feel! They're terrified. How could someone be walking out here in the middle of the lake, 3 miles or more from shore? But Jesus reassures them. He says: "It is I; don't be afraid." Now at face value, Jesus is simply saying, "don't worry, it's only me." But then, when you read through John's gospel and see how many times Jesus uses the phrase "I am" in significant discourses, you stop to wonder what he's saying here. You see the phrase that's used for "It is I" is the phrase "I am". So when you read this you may well ask whether this is another example of Jesus' self-disclosure, as he walks on the water.
	In any case they take him into the boat, and immediately find themselves at the shore they were heading for. Again we find here an acted parable of the Church. So often we find ourselves in difficulty, we find ourselves struggling to keep up (well I do anyway) and Jesus comes to us and says, "invite me into the boat and I'll go with you, and then see whether the going gets easier." It's similar to what we found in the feeding of the 5000, but in this case the task isn't beyond them, in fact it's what they're best at, but nevertheless, when they do it in Jesus' presence it becomes so much easier: immediately they find themselves at the shore they were heading for.
	Well, that's the surface level of the events that took place and something of their application to us, but what about the deeper significance of this event in the gospel of John?
	To understand that, we need to first of all notice an almost insignificant detail in the narrative, and then think about how what Jesus does fits with the wider scope of the Biblical story.
	The detail I'm talking about is in v.4. Have a look at it. These events take place, we're told, around the time of the Jewish Passover feast. But why does John throw in that detail? It doesn't seem to be particularly relevant at first sight does it? Not, that is, until you realise that what Jesus is doing is feeding his people in the wilderness, the same way Moses did (or at least God did through Moses) during the Exodus. In fact the crowd picks it up. That's why they begin to say: (John 6:14 NRSV) "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." What they're thinking about is the prophecy in Deut 18:15 where Moses, in his final words to the people of Israel, says this: (NRSV) "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet." They've recognised that this provision of bread to so many people in the desert is more than just another miracle. No, it's a sign that Jesus is the Messiah.
	So what about the walking on the water? Well in this context, this miracle following on so quickly after the other, may lead us to think about the people of Israel crossing the Red Sea on dry land. While the disciples are labouring at their oars, Jesus comes walking towards them as though he's going for a stroll on dry land, doesn't he? So again, there's an allusion here to the events of the Exodus. The conclusion John wants us to draw is that Jesus is the one Moses predicted would come after him to replace him; who does the same sorts of miracles that Moses did.
	Well, then, the question now is, what does all this mean for us? You can probably see that for the first century Jews it was important to realise that Jesus was the new Moses. It provided an explanation of how they could abandon their old Jewish practices in favour of this new religion. But what about us? Is this of any significance for us? Well, clearly, John thought so. In fact his gospel is full of references and allusions to the events of the Exodus as they relate to Jesus. Let's think about a few of them for a moment.
	John begins in chapter 1 with John the Baptist pointing Jesus out, and what does he say about him? "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." In other words, Jesus is the new Passover Lamb. It was the Passover Lamb whose death brought salvation to all the first born sons of the Israelites at the start of the Exodus. This is reinforced in ch 19:36, where John emphasises that the fact they didn't break Jesus legs was to fulfill the prophecy "Not one of his bones will be broken": a reference to Ex 12:46 where the Israelites were told this about eating the passover: "It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the animal outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones."
	Similarly in the prologue in ch 1 and then in ch 2 we found that Jesus was the true tabernacle of God, the true temple. Here we find that he provides bread in the desert, he walks across the water as if on dry ground just as the people did across the Red Sea. In ch7 we'll discover in a few weeks that he offers living water just as Moses did in the Wilderness of Sin.
	So there's a strong emphasis in John's gospel on Jesus as the new Moses. So why is this important to us? Well, it's important to us because what we see here in the gospel is Jesus forming a new nation, a new kingdom of which he is the King, the Lord. It's not like the old Kingdom of Israel. That's why he withdraws when he thinks they might be about to make him king by force. No, as he says to Pilate at his trial (18:26) "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." No, he's building a spiritual kingdom, a new people of God, empowered by his own Spirit to serve God faithfully, with God's law written on their hearts so they'll know what is right, what God's will is.
	Which brings us back to the first part of this sermon. One of the great things about being in Christ's new kingdom is that Christ goes with us. When we meet obstacles that appear to be impossible he helps us past them. He provides all our needs when we find we can't provide them ourselves. When we struggle he's there to go with us, to strengthen us, to bring us to places we thought we'd never make, and may not have in our own strength.
	What we find here is that by ourselves we can do nothing. But in Jesus power, by the power of the Holy Spirit working within us, all things are possible. Why? Because we're part of the new people of God, the new kingdom established through Jesus life and death and resurrection. Because we're part of that new people of God who have been given God's Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to be with us always, even to the end of the age.

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