Jesus walking on the water

So you might recall that last week the gospel reading from Mark left out the stories of Jesus feeding the 5000 and Jesus walking on the water

• Well, here they are this week, only from the gospel of John
  • You might well ask, why didn’t we just read them from Mark, then?
  • And the reason is because, while in Mark they are wonderful miracles Jesus does, in John the feeding, at least, become something much more
  • John calls the miraculous things Jesus does signs, because that’s what they are, signs that point us to deeper, more accurate and more important truths about Jesus and God
  • So the feeding story become a sign that will teach us about Jesus
  • And we’ll spend the next four weeks reading through John 6 to learn what the deeper truth, the deeper reality, is
  • But for today, we have two miracles to look at
• The walking on the water really plays no part in what follows in John, it’s just there as a bridge from the feeding to the conversations that follow
  • And while there is certainly a lot of good stuff in this miracle, I want to just hold up one thing in the story that you may have missed
  • And that is – the storm, the wind, doesn’t go away
  • Jesus walks to them in the midst of the wind storm, he walks to them through the wind storm
  • He doesn’t make it go away
  • Jesus won’t always take away the storms we face in life, but, he will always come to us and be with us in the midst of those storms
  • The storm is powerful, but Jesus is more powerful
  • In the midst of our storms, Jesus is coming to us, and Jesus is saying to us, it is I, do not be afraid
  • With Jesus with is, walking towards us, and with us, we need fear no storm that life might through at us
• And on to the feeding of the 5000
  • It’s in all 4 gospels, the only miracle Jesus does that is
  • And most of us are probably pretty familiar with it – big crowd, Jesus says to the disciples let’s feed them, they are skeptical about that, a boy with some small amount of loaves and fish is found, more skepticism follows, and then Jesus blesses the seemingly meager food, hands it out, and all the folks are fed till their full
  • It’s a miracle about abundance, and about faith in God to provide that abundance
  • It tells us that, when God is involved, when Jesus is blessing what we have, what can seem like next to nothing becomes more than enough
• Let me digress a moment here to say that all churches could learn a lot about doing ministry from this story
  • Why – because most times we start by looking at the cost
  • How much do we have, and usually the answer comes back, not enough, and so we don’t do anything
  • We see little and give up
  • And maybe we ought to think differently, in light of this story
  • Maybe we ought to just think, what do we need to do
  • What is God calling us to do
  • Who in being called to do it
  • And then, seeing the apparent lack of resources, say, yeah, but God will bless this, and it will happen anyway
  • Somehow, the cost will be met
  • It’s living in trust rather than fear
  • It’s trusting God and not ourselves
  • Maybe one reason churches are struggling (and we are one of them) is because we are unwilling to put our trust in God
  • We are unwilling to believe God will bring abundance where we see only five barley loaves and two fish
  • Something to think about
• This abundance that Jesus provides, we see that in that everyone had enough to eat until they were satisfied
  • Which is amazing enough
  • But then Jesus tells the disciples to pick up the leftovers, the fragments the crowds left uneaten
  • And those fragments, those leftovers, fil 12 baskets
  • More abundance
  • For Jesus, enough isn’t enough
  • Jesus blesses, feeds, with more than enough
  • Another crowd could be fed with the leftovers
• And it’s those leftovers that really got me this week
  • Jesus won’t leave them behind
  • He won’t leave them on the ground to be lost and forgotten and unused
  • He gathers them up
  • He pays attention to what others are leaving behind, and he won’t leave it
  • What is broken, lying in pieces, is important to Jesus
  • Jesus turns towards what others are turning away from
  • Think about when you’ve felt broken, when you’ve felt like others were leaving you behind
  • Think of folks you know who are broken today
  • Folks who are fragmented, lying on the ground so to speak, being cast aside by others
  • Think of folks all over who are being lost, who are being told they’re just garbage, just some human leftover
  • Think of all the broken pieces
  • Your broken pieces, other folks’ broken pieces
  • Think of the fragments lying around, here, out there
  • Think of them, and see Jesus gathering them up
  • Gathering you up
  • Think of the fragments that God is wanting to put in our hands
  • Think of the scraps who might come to you, come to us
  • God is gathering up all the broken pieces, all the fragments, because nothing gets wasted
  • Nothing gets thrown away
  • Nothing gets left behind
  • There is abundance to be found in the scraps, in the leftovers, in the fragments, in the broken
  • Wholeness is found only when all are gathered in, when all the baskets are full, and no fragment is forgotten, or left behind
  • This is the abundance of God
  • Enough for all
  • More than enough for all
  • And all the fragments gathered in, all the broken pieces made whole
  • Amen.