Sermon: What are you Seeking?
Today’s scripture is one of the favorites
of the gospel. The miracle of feeding
over 5000 people with just 5 loaves of bread and two fish. Did you know that this meal has such a prized
place in the gospel that for more than a century it’s possible that Christians used
fish with bread and wine in the ritual of communion?
In Rome, there is a quarry that was used
for Christian burials in the early 100’s.
It is called the Catacomb of Priscilla, and holds two popes. Some of the walls and ceilings have murals
and frescos depicting biblical scenes.
One such fresco, called the Fractio Panis, depicts the ritual of the
eucharist – our communion. There are
seven people sitting and reclining around a table – and one is a woman. On the table is a cup, with wine, and two
plates – one with 5 loaves of bread and one with 2 fish. And, on the other side of the room there is
another fresco showing 12 baskets overflowing with bread.
This is a remarkable story that captures
all our imaginations. We can imagine the
scene… a lakeside, possibly the Sea of Galilee (which
wasn’t really a Sea, but a freshwater lake). A crowd assembling, people keep
filing up. The verse tells us there were
5000 men – not counting women and children. So, although it remains unsaid, we could be
speaking about 6, 7, 10 thousand people in this one shore. A crowd like that is quite a scene.
Taken by itself, it’s fascinating. When we read it in the lectionary on Sunday
morning, we always get this snippet that we consider in isolation. But it has a
curious beginning, does it not? “Hearing
this, Jesus gets in a boat to go to a deserted place to be alone.” Does anyone have any idea what news he just
heard?
If we back up the chapter just a bit, we
learn that Herod Antipas – the son of Herod the Great who built palaces and
decadence everywhere he went – Herod Antipas, now married to his brother’s
wife, has a party and everyone who was anyone was there. And his daughter, Salome, danced so
beautifully for the crowd that Herod is moved and wants to reward her. He
pledges an oath to fulfill any wish she has.
But it is her mother who supplies the wish – to execute John the Baptist
and provide proof by presenting his head to the crowd at the party.
You see, Herod had John the Baptist in
custody, but had been unwilling to take his life up to that point. Some
scholars say that Herod was fascinated and inspired by John the Baptist. Others say that he feared the reaction of the
Jewish public if he did. But…suddenly, in this setting, in front of the entire Jewish and Roman elite,
at the whim of a child, he is caught. If
he refuses, he breaks an oath and look weak. If he agrees, then he may have a
rioting crowd of zealots on his hands.
Herod, shamed by the trap of his own public
promise, decides to keep face and therefore orders the execution. He is brought the evidence of the killing,
and John’s disciples go and retrieve the body for burial. Following that, they go and tell Jesus that
John has died at the hands of the state.
This is how we encounter our beloved Son of
God as we begin this passage; Having just heard the news that his…friend? Competition?
Colleague? Brother from another
Mother? Depending on what gospel passage
we are reading, John the Baptist may be any of these things to Jesus, and so
it’s possible that in this passage we encounter Jesus in the throws of grief,
or fear, or panic – or all three. He
withdraws to be alone, but soon the crowds hear of John’s death and they go
seeking Jesus.
Seeking is the word that comes to me here. If the crowds just lost a leader – if the
crowds thought John the Baptist was a valuable voice in the world they found
themselves in – they the crowds, too, would be grieving. Or in a panic. Or fearing for the
future. If you’ve even lost anyone… I think it’s true that you do find yourself seeking. Walking around in a sort of a daze, looking
for insight…meaning…comfort and maybe
something to help you make sense of it, or make a change from it. I feel like people often look for a message,
or for guidance. Looking for something
that satisfies the ache inside, the unanswered questions, the thought – where
do I go from here? Where do we go from
here as a people?
The prophet Isaiah challenges us about our
appetites and our desires. Isaiah asks
you; what is it that you are truly seeking?
What do you seek that will truly satisfy you? Or do you need to seek something different –
have you allowed yourself to be distracted by things that do not satisfy?
The crowd goes seeking Jesus because he’s
cut from the same cloth as John the Baptist. And, if some of these seeking
Jesus were actually John’s disciples, they know that John called himself the
messenger and pointed toward Jesus as the message – as the Messiah. So the crowds walk to him, seek him out,
looking for guidance.
What do we do now?
Great figures in history have used the
emotions of grief and pain to incite violence, vigilantism, or revolt. Wars
were sometimes begun by one death, like how the death of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand began WWI. Great tides of hate
have been created out of wider grief – The third Reich as able to rise in
Germany 25 years later because of the collective grief of the country over
their altered standing in the world after WWI. The temptation to take revenge, to salve the
pain with action, to channel the anger of injustice into some mob action is
often a pitfall for us humans.
This is the scene facing Jesus when he
brings his boat ashore. With people
numbering in the thousands, coming to him for consolation, for direction, for
guidance. And the scripture tells us he
had compassion, and cured their sick.
Whether that’s sickness in their bodies or sickness in their heart is up
to interpretation. Maybe both? Jesus perhaps
felt the pain that the crowd had.
And instead of responding with provocation
about the unfair treatment of Rome, the double standards of Herod of Antipas –
who is both a Jew and a ruler over the Jews installed by Rome – or exploiting
the emotions of the 5000 gathered to fulfill the prophetic promises of John the
Baptist; Jesus instructs for them to be fed.
I have read this in the past, and when the
disciples say ‘send them away’, heard it as heartless or selfish. But truly, the people have followed Jesus
into an area of wilderness, where there is no food to be found. The voice of the disciples are voices caring
for the well-being of crowd. But Jesus
instructs for them to be fed.
You’re crazy, say the disciples. We don’t even have a baker’s dozen of bread,
and only 2 fish.
But Jesus knows the difference between
relying on the power of this world and the power of God. Jesus takes the bread and looks up to
heaven. He gives thanks and blesses the
bread, breaks it and gives it to the disciples.
And then he engages his disciples in this work of compassion, this
sacred response to their grief. And the
food is enough. Somehow, the food is
enough.
What a contrast. A ruler, in the midst of parading all his
wealth and humanly power in front of a crowd, gets caught in a trap of ego and is
reduced to powerlessness by a little girl’s request.
And a Rabbi…a man
certain not of his own power but in that there is power greater than his,
enlisting others to trust that power.
And in one great act of sharing, multiplies their resources exponentially
and endlessly, to where they end up with more food left over than what they
started with!
This is the abundance of God. This is the demonstration of what truly is
decadence on earth; the decadence of caring and compassion multiplies with
every act. Decadence that cannot be
counted beforehand, but can always be counted on. Decadence that decorates relationships, not
palaces. The wealth of life is in
sharing that life – sharing the joys and the pain, sharing the seeking and the
discovery; sharing the anxiety and the relief.
Compassion is the currency that multiplies when spent. We do not need to live within a sense of
scarcity, but rather embrace the abundance that is always available to us –
sometimes through the hearts of others, and sometimes through our own
heart.
May we always seek that which truly
satisfies the human heart, and then be enlisted by God to offer it to others to
help it multiply in this world.
Amen and Amen.
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