Posts Tagged ‘miracle’

Five small loaves – giving thanks for what we have

August 1, 2026

Pentecost 10 – 2026

Matthew 14:13-21

Marian Free

In the name of God in who takes what we have and multiplies it in ways that we cannot imagine. Amen.

The great advantage of our Lectionary is that preachers cannot pick and choose readings according to their own particular agenda or preferences. The great disadvantage of our Lectionary is that what we read week-by-week has been selected by a relatively small committee of people. Of necessity, this group have had to omit passages and, in places, whole chapters, and for convenience they have made the decision not to repeat stories or parables that are repeated. Selecting what is included  leads, of course, to a certain amount of bias intended or not. Furthermore, because we read only read those parts of the scripture that the lectionary writers have selected our preaching or the way in which we hear the gospel can form the same prejudice. To give just one example, we only ever hear Matthew’s account of Jesus encounter with the woman from Samaria,  with the consequence that we completely miss the fact that Mark records a quite different conversation. We do not discover that Matthew appears to disempower the woman, while Mark elevates her.

Another consequence of the selective reading of scripture is that when we hear a story out of context we may find ourselves emphasising one thing when the gospel writer probably had quite a different intention. Take this morning’s gospel. The feeding of the  5,000 – or in the case of Matthew’s version, the feeding of the many more than 5,000 – is presented as an isolated event unrelated to what came before and what follows. This can lead a preacher, and presumably the congregation to focus, not on what was going on in Jesus’ life, but on the miraculous provision of food. 

Miracles are all well and good, but they tell us very little about our core business -discipleship or more importantly about how to be in relationship with God which is surely our primary purpose.

If,  as presumably Matthew intended, we read the gospel in its context, we will understand that the account of the miraculous feeding has much to tell us about Jesus’ humanity, Jesus’ reliance on God, and Jesus’ ability to draw on resources that perhaps he did not know that he had. We will see too that Jesus didn’t carry the burden of ministry by himself but modelled a form of ministry based around delegation of responsibility. Here, as elsewhere, Jesus involved the disciples – to source and distribute the food. Finally, Jesus focussed on what he had, not what he would have like to have had. He took the resources that were available and used them rather than thinking that because he didn’t have what he needed, he should do nothing. His mind-set was one of abundance not of scarcity. He made himself and his resources open to God and trusted God with the rest. 

This is a vastly different attitude from that of the church in which I have grown up. For almost as long as I can remember the church both locally and institutionally has focussed on what it does not have rather than being grateful for what is available for it to use. 

Over at least the last sixty years there has been a great deal of navel gazing in the church. We have fretted about declining numbers and worried about how we can encourage families and youth to join our congregations. We worry so much about the future that we have forgotten to pay attention to, to give thanks for and to share with others what we do have – a faith that has sustained and inspired millions of people for generations, a scripture and a spiritual practice that is life-giving, restorative, challenging, comforting and encouraging,  hymnody and music that is inspiring and transcendental, and faithful, hard-working congregations.

Over the past fifty years, the Anglican Church of Southern Queensland has built schools, aged care facilities, and accommodation for youth. It has expanded its home nursing programme and much more besides. Individual parishes have provided facilities in which rough sleepers can find a meal and spend the night. Others have set up or supported pantries for those in need. Parishioners have collectively and individually welcomed new-comers into their communities, offered care to the sick and the grieving and in circumstances which are sometimes difficult have maintained ministries and the buildings that support those ministries. 

Instead of worrying about what we cannot do, or what we do not have, perhaps it is time to count our blessings, to look around and see how God has already resourced us and to trust that God can use whatever we have – five small loaves of bread or aging congregations – to do something miraculous. Instead of taking the burden of responsibility on ourselves, perhaps we should learn from Jesus to share the burden with others – accept what they have to give us, even if at first look it doesn’t seem to be nearly enough.

As the day draws to a close, Jesus’ disciples tell him to send the crowds away – a sensible suggestion, after all they need to eat. Jesus sees another possibility, to use what is available and to believe it will be enough. He knows that where there are generous hearts there is always enough and more. Instead of wishing that there was more food, Jesus gives thanks for what there is and enlists the disciples to distribute the food. Everyone is fed and there is more to spare.

Instead of focussing on what we do not have or what we have not done may we, as church and as individuals, open our eyes to God’s providence, to see what it is that we already have and, giving thanks, allow God to use us and our resources as God will.

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Prayer changes us

June 17, 2023

Pentecost 3 – 2023
Matthew 9:35-10:8
Marian Free

In the name of God whose faith in us is beyond our imagining. Amen.

How and for what do you pray? What do you expect from your prayers? Are you sometimes completely overwhelmed by the needs of the world? Do you sometimes feel that you are inadequate for the task – that even if you did pray hard enough there would not be enough people who cared enough to alleviate suffering? Do you worry that no matter how much you pray some situations simply remain the same? Do you wonder why God does not appear to act?

At the moment many of our prayers are focussed on the peoples of the Ukraine and Sudan, but there are conflicts all over the world that equally deserve our attention and our prayers. When I wonder did you or your church community last pray for the Khmer, the people of Syria or of the Congo or the countless other places still at war? We are rightly focussed on refugees who have fled recent conflicts and especially those who risk drowning at sea, but that means we tend to forget that there are thousands who have lived in refugee camps their entire lives or that in Palestine there are generations of families who have lived in camps. It is the same situation with victims of natural disasters – we simply cannot pray for everyone impacted by fire, flood, cyclone, and our memories tend to focus on more recent events. In 2020, COVID took our attention away from those who had lost everything in the bush fires of January that year and the floods in Northern NSW and elsewhere are, to many of us a distant memory – and yet there are hundreds, if not thousands of people (in this nation alone) who are still trying to rebuild homes and lives.

At the moment those who are impacted by the increased cost of living, rising interest rates and the rental crisis are front and centre in the minds of many of us and yet we are limited in what we can actually do. Our contribution to a Parish Pantry or other charities will not alleviate the pain for one family even for one day, and few of us can afford to purchase accommodation that could be made available for the homeless.

In the face of such mind-numbing issues, it is tempting to wish that God would wave a magic wand, end wars and alleviate poverty and suffering in the world. Yet if that were how God solved problems there would be no need to pray. God would already have responded. Why, in the face of so much anguish does God appear to stand idly by? The answer of course is complex, but God’s apparent inaction reflects God’s faith in us and God’s longing for us to be a part of the solution.

That this is how God responds is reflected in this morning’s gospel, especially in verses 36-38: ‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”’

First century Palestine had been under Roman occupation for decades. Land that once fed generations of families had been taken by the occupiers and given as a reward to Caesar’s soldiers. Everything was taxed – the roads, the crops, the right to fish. The church authorities were either Roman appointments or were people who had cow towed to the Romans. As a consequence, the vast majority of the population felt harassed, oppressed and utterly powerless to effect change.

Faced with the suffering and helplessness of the people, Jesus seems to be overwhelmed. You can almost hear him sigh with despair as he observes that they are like sheep without a shepherd. He is filled with compassion. The Greek word “splagnizothai” (compassion) refers to an emotion felt deep within one’s belly, with one’s whole self. In other words, Jesus’ inner being was overwhelmed with concern – but, like God, Jesus doesn’t wave a magic wand. Indeed, he doesn’t even enlist God’s assistance. Instead, what Jesus does is to pray that there might be enough will in enough people to bring about change.

The need is clear, the solution is not to miraculously make it go away but to send people to fill the need – people of compassion – to heal, to console, to challenge unjust structures, to work for peace.

Seen another way, Jesus prays not for the world to change, but for us to change. As long as there are greedy, selfish, power-hungry people in the world there will be wars, injustice, and inequity. As long as people put themselves first we will continue to rape the planet, change the weather patterns, and induce climate change. As long we continue to believe that it is someone else’s (God’s) problem nothing will change.

Mother Teresa said: “I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.

In the end, prayer should change us. It should open us to the ways in which we contribute to the ills of the world; reveal to us our selfishness and lack of action; and open us to the Spirit of God working within us.

We are called to be God’s co-conspirators in changing the world for the better.
We are the labourers for whom Jesus prays. Only when we change can we begin to change the world.

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