Kingmakers

Sunday, July 30th, 2006
Proper 12 B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
John 6:1-15

1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10Jesus 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. 11Then 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. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When 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.”

15When 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.

Last Sunday, as well as the one before that, we moved from worship in the morning service to a celebratory meal – either at Jim and Mary’s in honor of Helen and Edythe Schools, or right here – last Sunday, for our Sunday School picnic. As things have worked out, it will be no different today either. As you know, we kick off Vacation Bible School this evening with a taco bar picnic. If you don’t like Tacos, come anyway. We’ll also have hot dogs.

It’s interesting, don’t you think, the emphasis … the importance we place on food? Have you ever looked really closely at the pictures of meals or dishes that are being discussed in homemaking magazines? We get at least a couple of them, and the pictures of the food are incredible. There’s something about zooming in on a plate loaded with food and it being lit ‘just so’ that can REALLY make my mouth water. I want to go out and try at least two recipes per issue. But somehow they never end up looking quite like the picture. Hmmm. Wonder why? I’ve grown up with jokes being made in church about how much and how often Baptists eat, but I think if we ran a poll to see what church jokes those who’ve been raised in traditions other than Baptists heard growing up, we might discover that Baptists are not alone in focusing on meals. Specifically, communal meals.

If you joined us last Sunday evening for the Sunday School picnic, you might have heard me say something in my prayer about being grateful for those meals that we share here on earth that remind us of the feast we will one day celebrate when we are in God’s presence.

I was somewhat surprised to learn from Jaime this week that, in Italy, among Baptist Churches, it is a common practice to have lunch together as a congregation every Sunday. So the fact that we had a big family picnic these past two weeks probably did more to remind our Italian brothers and sisters of home than anything else.

Now I bet you are wondering what in the world this has to do with Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes and miraculously feeding 5000 people. Isn’t this passage about the compassion Jesus had for the poor? Perhaps this sermon should be about the persisting hunger in our world that could so easily be wiped out if we only had the political will.

1 in 10 US families cannot afford to buy the food they need for good nutrition on a regular basis. That’s 11 million children and 19 million adults. 841 million suffer serious malnutrition worldwide. The UN World Development program estimates that basic health and nutrition needs can be met for about $13 Billion. Feeding the hungry is an important part of following Christ, but doing justice is not the main theme of this passage.

Isn’t it about Christ’s mysterious, miraculous power that will help us overcome the problems we face in the world? Or it could be preached as an example of teaching the disciples the power of faith. This is a great opportunity to preach about the power of faith and the need to trust God with all of our problems, but faith is not the main theme of the passage.

I’m most interested in what happens after Jesus feeds 5000 people. They want to make him King. Now that is no small desire in a little outpost ruled by the powerful Roman Empire. We might think Jesus would be happy about this. After all, we admire people who can draw a big crowd and deliver the goods, but Jesus is apparently not flattered by all this. Jesus has uneasy thoughts here, probably because of a very important spiritual experience he had in the wilderness. Remember Satan’s temptation to turn the stone into bread? The temptation was not just appealing to the hunger Jesus felt in the wilderness. Many commentators on scripture point out that it was a temptation to have a primary focus on humanity’s material needs. Here’s the bigger potential problem. When mob makes you King the mob rules you. They want Jesus to be king because of what Jesus can do for them.

The question I ask myself is this: Has our consumer culture taught us to approach God as consumers rather than disciples? In other words, are we Christians because of what we can get out of it, rather than because we want to truly know this God who created us? It has become common to hear a Gospel of health, wealth, and prosperity in our country. We may have all seen some of the more … memorable, shall we say, televangelists ask the audience to place their purses or their wallets on their television set in order for them to be healed. That isn’t exactly what I’m talking about. We can hopefully pretty easily identify those who are blatantly trying to sell us something other than the Gospel that Jesus brought to the world, yet in more subtle ways we all slip into being a Christian to get our needs met. Sometimes we think we have struck a bargain with God. We are good, then our business will prosper, or we will have career success. We will never have health problems if we just obey the 10 commandments. It becomes just another way to try purchasing inner peace.

It’s easy to fall into trap of those who are trying to make Jesus the earthly King. The crowds question is “Jesus what will you do for us?” But the first question for us is “Jesus, who are you and why are you here? What is your mission? What will that mean for my life?” That’s the problem I have with celebrities and athletes who thank God for success and touchdowns. I saw a rap star who received an award for an album where he talks about slapping women around and he thanked God for all his achievements.

We all have needs on the surface. Some are basic, such as food, clothing and shelter. You may have noticed a couple of extra cars in our driveway over the last couple of weeks. We are providing one of those basic needs to a family who is waiting for the house that they are going to rent to be ready. Being able to do that – to share the house – has been a joy. It has given us a chance to really get to know Alejandra and Daniel and their son Christian, and their friend Juan Carlos, but in all honesty, it has also been a strain. We are very aware of the fact that there is another family living in the house. It has not been an imposition on their part; they have been incredibly gracious guests. The men are away at work the better part of each day, and on weekends they have been out looking for housing, and during the week Alejandra has kept herself busy by helping with chores around the house. So even though it will be a relief in a couple of weeks when they DO move out, I know we will also miss them terribly.

Some needs are more abstract, like self-worth, security, success. Jesus knows we have these needs. He knew 5000 people were hungry and he fed them. He knows we all come to worship with unmet needs. But the miracle Jesus performed wasn’t just about feeding people bread and making their hunger go away. It was a sign that points to something greater. Later he tells his disciples, I am the Bread of life. It’s hard to preach to hungry people. They need to be fed. But feeding people isn’t the end of justice. The next step is inviting them into a community, bringing them into full participation in the life of God.

(With thanks to the Rev. Todd Weir, Bloomingcactus, for putting what I was thinking into words already in “Not Just Bread”.)

What does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

You’ve heard me talk about what an amazing thing it is when we do the youth-sponsored community meal deliveries, and it is something that I hope we never stop.

Never. I mean that.

I may have mentioned this before, and I will say it again: the Church is the only organization that exists specifically to help people who are NOT a part of it. The fact that those who ARE a part of it GET helped is a side effect, but it is NOT the primary focus of the church. We are here to introduce people to the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore our focus must by definition be OUTWARD, not inward. We spent last week watching as the two youth groups – from Virginia Beach and Italy – held sports camps here and over at Bethany. Tonight and for the next 6 days we will be engaging in what has become a tradition that is well known both in Baptist circles here in the states and especially here on the Northern Neck – Vacation Bible School.

Why have we done these things, and why do we continue to do these things? Why do we go to the trouble and expense of working out the details, or dealing with the headaches, and the logistics, and the decorations, and the painting and coloring and organizing and recruiting and all the rest?

I TRUST it isn't for our own sake. But that it is for the sake of introducing children and adults from around our community to the person of Jesus Christ. That we're not doing this and pointing to ourselves and saying "look at US! See how wonderful we are! Come be like us!" - but that we are humbly pointing to the one who has called us and made us his own -- Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.