The Ninth Sunday after Trinity
“Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”
Summary
The miraculous multiplication of loaves was a story as familiar to Jesus’ followers as it is to us. The disciples who worried that there would not be enough in John 6:1-21 would have known of Elisha’s disciples who also worried that there would not be enough in 2 Kings 4:42-44. In both stories the fear of scarcity is answered with abundance. There is not only enough, there is more than enough. In both, the food does not appear out of thin air, it is freely offered by someone who was usually overlooked: a child in the gospel and, in 2 Kings, a man of another faith (a follower of Baal). In both, there are left-overs. The fear of scarcity drives some of the worst of human behaviour from hoarding toilet rolls during the pandemic to wars over oil, land and water. Discovering abundance in the midst of scarcity is not about blind faith it is about changing the way we look at the world around us. The gifts offered by the overlooked not only fill the hungry they fill 12 baskets with left-overs. The magic number twelve should always make us stop and think, 12 symbolises the kingdom of God, completion, wholeness. For Jesus and for Elisha the marginalised are not a burden, a drain on resources, they are gifts that God longs to give us. When they too are gathered into the community we become whole.
First Reading
2 Kings 4:42-44
A man came bringing food from the first fruits to Elisha, the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, ‘Give it to the people and let them eat.’ But his servant said, ‘How can I set this before a hundred people?’ So he repeated, ‘Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, “They shall eat and have some left.”’ He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.
GOSPEL
John 6.1-21
Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.
