Sue's Views ...: Redefining What's Possible

Today's sermon, preached at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Ephesians 3:14-21 and John 6:1-21

Yesterday afternoon I officiated at a wedding at Sha Sha. We were worried about the weather, and everything was prepared so that the ceremony could take place indoors at the last minute if necessary. Through the windows of that large room next to Sha Sha’s bar, everyone would have had a beautiful view of Rainy Lake—except me, of course, because I would’ve had my back to it!

But by mid afternoon it looked as if the weather was going to cooperate and, in fact, by the time the service started the sun was out, most of the clouds were gone and it just got better from then on. So we stood on a rock on the east side of Sha Sha Point and friends and family sat in chairs on the grass. And there was a lake view for all.

Afterwards there were hors d’oeuvres and drinks on a couple of the decks, followed by dinner. It was a lovely picnic-type meal, actually, with fruit & veggie trays, potato salad, cole slaw, potato chips, mini croissant sandwiches and cupcakes. The food was good and everyone ate their fill.

As I gazed out over Rainy Lake and the birds and the boats, believe it or not, I thought about Jesus and the crowd by the Sea of Galilee and how everyone there had enough to eat and then some.

I’m no archaeologist or student of ancient maps and geography, but I do know that the “sea” of Galilee was really a lake. In fact it is Israel’s largest freshwater lake. It is 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. In Jesus’ day there were many settlements along the shores of Lake Galilee with much fishing and other trade and ferrying by boat going on there.[i] Rainy Lake is much bigger and has islands and pine trees, but it can certainly give us an idea of what Lake Galilee might have looked like to someone sitting near the shore.

So if we temporarily delete the Sha Sha buildings from our mental image and transport ourselves back a couple thousand years and add some warmer, drier weather, we might get a feel for the scene described in today’s reading from the gospel of John.

Imagine yourself in the crowd. This is a huge crowd—almost the entire population of International Falls in one place, on the shore of the lake! And everyone is there because they want to see this Jesus who has developed quite a reputation in the region for his healing work among the sick. Anyway, Jesus and his disciples have arrived and sat down and the crowd spots them and follows.

John tells us that it’s near the time of the Passover, which is an important feast for the Jews. Jesus is thinking about the Passover meal so he asks the disciples where they can get provisions for all these people.The disciples, being ordinary folks who haven’t yet mastered the knack of thinking outside the box, begin making calculations and inform Jesus that not even half a year’s wages would buy enough bread for everyone to have a small piece. Philip discovers that “There’s a little boy…who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.”[ii] Jesus says the people should sit down and he takes the bread, gives thanks for it and then everyone eats their fill and 12 baskets of leftovers are collected afterwards!

Is it a miracle? Is there a “sensible” explanation like everyone actually had a stash of food hidden up their sleeves—just in case—and on the inspiration of the moment they all shared with their neighbors? Does it matter?

The modern world has gotten to the point where we have very little awe and wonder left in our lives. We look askance at people who claim unexplainable things have happened to them and we’re skeptical of the paranormal or anything that can’t be scientifically explained. So we try to find a plausible explanation for how 5,000 people could be fed by five loaves of bread and 2 fish.

But that’s not what the story is about. That’s not John’s purpose for telling this story. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the crowd, John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. We learn who Jesus is by what he does, but really, Jesus is “…the One who redefines what is possible.”[iii]

We know that “for God all things are possible”[iv] and Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians tells us that God’s power is “far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

The crowd realizes that Jesus is unusual if not amazing and they think he would be perfect as the king they’ve been waiting and longing for. But even in that they are limited to thinking inside the box—to “what’s in it for us?” or “guess what?! there IS such a thing as a free lunch.” But to REALLY follow Jesus is “to open a door to a ministry of Jesus beyond the immediate wants and expectations of those who seek what he can give”[v] or do.

In today’s reading we also heard that Jesus walked on the rough water to catch up with the disciples who were in a boat. Add that to your mental image of the scene on Rainy Lake and see what you get! You’d like to see it, wouldn’t you? Sure! I know I would!

The skeptic has an explanation for—or around—everything unusual that happens in the biblical stories but as one commentator says, “we're focusing on the wrong thing when we concentrate on explaining the miracles of multiplying loaves or walking on the sea, when the more remarkable miracle is "that this (‘truly human’) human being could represent, by his words and deeds, such a sign of hope and healing that hundreds of needy people would follow him about, and feel that their hunger for ‘the bread of life’ had been assuaged....that [Jesus’] presence among ordinary, insecure, and timid persons could calm their anxieties and cause them to walk where they feared to walk before. …In a culture that has all but lost the capacity to wonder, a people grown skeptical about the extraordinary is likely to miss the extraordinary within the ordinary.”[vi]

Those who know and follow Jesus will become capable of redefining what’s possible. Is that us? Can it BE us? Can we switch from living in scarcity mode to viewing the abundance of gifts we have and taking chances by discerning what God is calling us to do and then stepping outside the box to risk doing it?

All the folks today who are talking and writing about the future of the “Mainline Church” say that the church is not what it was in the 1950s—and some say it wasn’t even then what people think they remember it was—and that in order to survive and thrive drastic changes must happen in Mainline Churches.

Change is scary for most people, but if we put our trust in God, all kinds of things can be possible. This congregation has taken one bold step by our vote to be one of the locations for the pilot project in our community to provide shelter for people without permanent homes this winter. But what other possibilities is God calling us to try?

It’s going to take all of us praying and working together to discern our direction for the future, but just remember, with God all things are possible and if we let God’s power work in us, God will be able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine! Now THAT’s exciting!

It IS time to redefine the possibilities, trust in God, follow Jesus and JUMP OUT OF THE BOX!!! AMEN.

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