Enough

10th Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
Jul 28, 2024

John 6:1-21

This morning we hear two stories of what are the most well-known miracle stories of Jesus that show up in all four Gospels. In fact, the only ones that are mentioned in all four Gospels. It also marks the first of five in what many preachers have come to know as the “The Bread Series.” So, buckle up because the rest of the summer we’re going to be talking about bread. Now I’m craving that fresh-baked smell when a new loaf comes out of the oven!

I’ve also been getting a little seasick these past few weeks with how many times Jesus and the disciples have been going back and forth across the sea. They cross the seas of Galilee once more and again a huge crowd of people follow them. Jesus and his disciples go up a mountain, grabbing some alone time so he can teach them privately, and the crowd soon arrives. Clearly these people are hungry for more than bread. I wonder what it would have been like to have sat and listened to Jesus. Clearly what he was doing and saying was so captivating they wanted to stay all day long. And these were people that to miss a day of work had significant consequences. 

Jesus takes in the crowd, and since they may have also been traveling to Jerusalem given that the Passover was soon approaching, he knows they are hungry. He sees both their hunger for God and their hunger for sustenance. So, he turns to Phillip and says basically, “Where is the local HEB so we can get them something to eat?” It’s a test, but Phillip falls for it and is incredulous. How in the world can they afford to feed everyone? But Andrew isn’t thinking about scarcity, not having enough. He’s already becoming aware that Jesus turns what seems to be, upside down and is always pointing to the abundance of God even when it appears there isn’t enough. 

Some little boy also knew people were hungry and offered to share what he had. It was a ridiculous offering. That was only enough food to satisfy one child, especially since he was a growing boy. We might be kind enough to share it with one friend, but we would look pretty foolish if we offered to share our lunch with five thousand. But the boy and Andrew don’t analyze all that and certainly don’t withhold the offering. The boy didn’t keep his lunch private and tell the others they could just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and go find their own lunch. After all, he probably had worked hard for that fish and bread. 

No, this story is about how what we think is not enough, is indeed enough in God’s economy. It may be metaphorical, but Jesus taught the people gathered and is still trying to get it through to us today that there is enough. In fact the World Food Program reported last year that there is no global food shortage because we produce more than enough food to feed everyone in the world. We produce so much food globally yet one–third of it – 1.3 billion tons – is wasted. There is enough. We’ve just forgotten we are made to be in communion with one another. We’ve neglected to distribute to everyone and throw it away instead.

There’s another side to our fear of not having enough, the fear of what if there isn’t enough tomorrow and I give away my fish today? Jesus was pretty clear about not fearing tomorrow. In fact, Jesus is consistently telling anyone who will listen, “Do not fear!”  But we’ve become so accustomed to being told we should be afraid all the time that we’ve started to believe it. So we hoard our money, we hoard our food, and then throw it out because there was so much it went bad.

I also think we too often start to believe that we are not enough. We read about folks donating huge amounts of money to help folks that are struggling. We watch shows about folks who had a big impact on changing the world to make it a better place for those who have suffered injustice. And we start to think, “I can’t do anything like that. I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t have a lot of talent, I don’t have what it takes, I don’t have enough (fill in the blank.)

And Jesus is telling you through this story of feeding the thousands that yes, you do. You do have enough. What you have, no matter how small, even if you are a young child or a retiree with only two loaves of bread and five little fish, that is enough in the kingdom of God and when you hand that over in faith to God, you can be the instrument of hope, the cause of turning a bad situation into something good.

Do any of you remember hearing the story of Stone Soup when you were young? Stone Soup is a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal. Sometimes it’s called nail soup or button soup. Regardless, the message is the same.

Some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the very hungry travelers because a) they are strangers, and b) they might not have enough for themselves if they share what little they have. So the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travelers answer that they are making “stone soup”, which tastes wonderful and which they would be delighted to share with the villager, although it still needs a little bit of garnish, which they are missing, to improve the flavor.

The villager, who anticipates enjoying a share of the soup, does not mind parting with a few carrots, so these are added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which has not yet reached its full potential. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient, like potatoes, onions, cabbages, peas, celery, tomatoes, sweetcorn, chicken, milk, butter, salt and pepper. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by travelers and villagers alike. Although the travelers have thus tricked the villagers into sharing their food with them, they have successfully transformed it into a tasty meal which they share with the donors. And here’s the thing. It’s the same lesson Jesus is trying to convey. One, we are a community, not individual silos. Even if we don’t think we have enough to make a difference, we do, especially when shared and combined together. Two, these travelers gave back. They could have easily been criticized for being foreigners and migrants begging off the people, but they actually contributed to the well-being of the entire community. 

The hero of the day in our Gospel is the insignificant child who offered what they had, which was ridiculous given how many people had to be fed, but he didn’t analyze or strategize, he just gave it up in faith. Put into the hands of the Son of God, it was more than enough. Jesus just didn’t make a point about enoughness, he made a point about God’s abundance. What if we lived like that? What if we embraced the abundance of God and quit what-iffing our budgets and plans, and what if we didn’t minimize what and who we are as being not enough, but being more than enough? 

You are not too young nor too old, you are not too busy nor too incapacitated. You are not too rich or too poor, you are not to be devalued in any way. I would love to see this loving and joyful community at St. Christopher’s live into the abundance of God and make one heck of a stone soup that we share with each other and the travelers that God brings our way. We would have so much fun cooking up a good feed and getting to know each other better and understanding each other better. We could be a beacon of hope in this community, offering ourselves and God’s love to those around us.

In the words of Psalm 50, 

“Offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving!

    Fulfill the promises you made to the Most High!”

And stand back and see what God will do when we bring ourselves and our loaves and fishes to the table. It will be olympic!