B, Post Pentecost 10 Proper 12 - John 6:4-14 "A Poor Person’s Provision"

John 6:4–14 (ESV)  Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.  Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.  Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough 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 for so many?”  Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.  Jesus then 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.  And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”  So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.  When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

When parents pack lunches for their children, there’s an expectation that they actually eat their lunch.

How many times the kids have come home from school for a parent to find their lunch still in their lunchbox!  Or worse, a deceased pulped sandwich cocooned in gladwrap pulled from the pants pocket in the laundry!

Sometime the loot of lunchboxes is traded in the school yard.  I’ll give you this, if I can have that!  Much to the lament of families who lovingly pack lunch only to have the kids swap it for something they desire in the other kid’s lunchbox.  Familiarity breeds contempt and often the grass seems greener over the fence, in this case the loot looks like it’ll taste better from the other person’s lunchbox.  A reoccurring packet of potato chips swapped with a familiar piece of cake, a win for both parties who are sick of having the same lunch every day.  A vegemite sandwich traded for a cold piece of pizza, who’d a thought this was a fair trade!  But everyone walks back into the classroom with contented tummies!

A small boy with five barley loaves and two fish.  Who wants to trade?  No one!  Nobody has anything to trade!  We all remember the kids who come to school with nothing; with nothing to offer, but in need of a feed! 

But barley loaves were not much of an offering, and those who needed a feed, were five thousand.  This is a physical impossibility.  But this is a test!  Who was the provider for the people who had gathered?

Barley bread is the bread of a poor person, like the kid whose daily bread was a sandwich with no butter but only tomato sauce!  But at least it was something!  There were kids who came with nothing and coveted even a tomato sauce sanger.  But all our lunches made us seem like we were poor when some kids bought their lunch every day.  Like paupers, we all coveted their lunch when they returned from the tuckshop with pies, hotdogs, sausage rolls, custard and apple slices, chocolate milk and ice-creams!

Jesus takes the barley loaves and the two fish and divides them amongst the five thousand.  We have to remember here that Jesus has put aside his divinity!  So, as you or I would take the food and give thanks for it, he takes the bread and fish and prays, trusting not in his own powers, but rather those of the Holy Spirit, and God the Father in heaven.  Then he distributes it to five thousand men!  We can expect there to be more there than just men, so in all reality more than five  thousand were present. 

Feeding five thousand plus with five loaves and two fish, that seems impossible!  How could this man Jesus do this?  Those who saw the sign saw Jesus akin to the prophets who had long since appeared in a bygone era when God worked wonders through them!   

The physical sign Jesus performed making something from next to nothing, a poor boy’s provision, is miraculous to say the least.  It’s unexplainable like the jar of oil and flour that Elijah declared to the widow of Zarephath would not become empty.

There’s a temptation not to believe it, because the desire to know is just unknown.  However, what is happening here in God’s word is his desire to turn us from the sign God the Father performed through Jesus to Jesus himself!

Those who witnessed the event saw Jesus as a powerful prophet, they did not see him as the Son of God, and why should they?  They didn’t see the sign as coming from Jesus’ faithfulness in the weakness of his humanity but from his extraordinary power. 

Therefore, Jesus withdrew from them because he knew they would seek to force him to be their king. Jesus was to be enthroned as king, but not by their will or way!  He would become king in his way, under the will of God the Father, through the way of the cross!

Those of the five thousand wanted to make him king because they saw the power of the impossible sign perform, rather than the weakness in which Jesus performed the powerful sign.  It was not by his power that he broke the bread, but by his faithful submission to the power of God the Father to work through the weakness and weariness of his humanity. 

It was Jesus’ faithfulness, in his weakness, allowing God to work the miracle on a poor boy’s meagre lunch of barley bread and fish.

The distribution was far from insufficient.  Five loaves and two fish divided by five thousand is a miniscule amount.  Yet everyone ate their fill, as much as they wanted!  The size of the crowd, so many people, so little food!  A poor person’s provision is miraculously populated to provide for the five thousand plus people who came with nothing!  And nothing was left to waste!  Twelve baskets of leftover bread pieces are collected!  The poor boy’s barley bread was just as precious after the miracle as it was before.  Yet the math doesn’t add up, it doesn’t make sense.

Imagine what the boy’s mother said to him when he arrived home carrying more than what he was sent!  It sounds like a whopper of a tale to tell his mother, that he shared his lunch with five thousand people and these are the leftovers.  It does sound like the fantasies of a poor boy’s imagination!

But it wasn’t a fantasy!  It was the time of the Passover feast.  In the other Gospel records Jesus has sought to find a desolate place to rest with his disciples.  They had returned after being sent out, commanded to preach the gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons.  Yet, Jesus doesn’t pass over the people’s neediness! 

Nothingness or poverty in the face of the Passover stands out as the overwhelming theme here at the feeding of the five thousand.  The crowd have nothing to eat, the disciples have nothing to eat, having gone out to do the work of God with nothing but the bare essentials.  The boy has nothing but five loaves of barley bread, unleavened flat bread most likely made without any raising agent, and two fish.  And Jesus who has nothing to give, nothing except his faithfulness to God and the crowd!

Later on, Jesus says to his disciples, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”  (John 6:63 ESV)

It was Jesus’ nothingness in which the power of the Holy Spirit worked in him.  Jesus had put aside his divine miraculous ability as the Son of God, making the feeding of the five thousand even more incredible!  Perhaps, even more unbelievable! 

In his weakness as a human, in his submission as the Son of Man, he takes from our Father, his Father, and gives to us.  Jesus’ word is God’s word, and it faithfully gives spirit and life to all who are poor!

Our flesh is no help!  But the weakness of Jesus’ flesh, crucified and raised from the dead, is powerful.  Like children trading lunch in the playground, he takes our poverty and gives us the Holy Spirit-filled richness of his Father’s food of life!  Jesus’ word is spirit and life!  Why wouldn’t you want to trade the poverty of your spirit and life for that!  Amen.

Let us pray.  Heavenly Father thank you that Jesus has taken what we desire and deserve and gives us what he desires and deserves.  Send you Holy Spirit every day so we do not become dissatisfied with Jesus’ lunch of eternal life and desire the desserts of death.  Help us to clearly see our poverty and need, so we freely feed on the life-giving power of the resurrected Son of God’s word, body, and blood.  Amen. 

B, Post Pentecost 9 Proper 11 - Psalm 89:27-29 & Ephesians 2:13-14, 15b-16 "Second to One"

Ephesians 2:13-14,15b–16 (ESV) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

In these days we have heard and seen hostility in speech and action, especially in the United States of America.  They don’t seem to be all that united at the moment.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump and just days later his formal acceptance of nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency, have been all over the media.

Joe Biden is also receiving much attention in the media, but for different reasons.  A couple of days ago he came down with Covid.  This follows hot on the heels of successive gaffs and the calling for him to step aside in the presidential race by senior Democrats.

Be it here in Australia, or hearing the hype from the USA, it’s easy to get caught up in the political rivalries of the day.  We all have an opinion on politics and politicians and with it measure the men and women who seek our trust.

Regardless of your political persuasion, leaders today seem to polarise society more so, than at any other time in history.  Possibly, this is because of the immediacy of the media disseminating information through mainstream and social platforms.  But an even greater cause for concern, is the social mindset of people today where individual opinion appears to stand “second to none”.

This “second to none” mindset is the same stealthy modus operandi in which the politicians work.  If you wonder why this is the case, it’s because their actions are reflections of us, in order to receive our recognition to be elected.  Then once they are elected, the “second to none” attitude sees them doing “whatever it takes” to stay in office.

As we’re carried along by the daily dramas of the political contest, we become more polarised in our own position.  Our standing, like that of the politicians who promote them, becomes unbendingly “second to none”.

Being Christians there’s a danger into which we can fall, regardless of the social or political positions in which we take our stand.  Like Biden and his Australian contemporaries, who appeal to a progressive social ethic, and Trump and his right-wing equals in Australia, who seek their support from those who hold a conservative work ethic, the danger is using God to glorify ourselves and our ethical ideologies.  When this happens, God is dethroned as the penultimate in our “second to none” ultimatums!

But there’s a leader that doesn’t do this!  He places himself “second to One” rather than “second to none”, the penultimate to the ultimate authority in heaven and on earth.  That man is King David!  

King David was chosen by God after he rejected Saul, his first chosen King, after Saul offered unauthorised sacrifices and didn’t devote the enemy and the spoil to destruction.  Samuel says to Saul, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.  Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”  (1 Samuel 15:22–23 ESV)

Saul like many leaders today, stood in leadership, out from under the umbrella of God’s ultimate authority.  Even with much pleading and confession King Saul was not able to continue as king.  (Read for yourself 1 Samuel 15.)  David was eventually made king after God abandoned Saul in battle and he died with his sons.  (Read 1 Samuel 31& 2 Samuel 2:1-4a, 5:1-5)

As children of God, you and I need to be vigilant in our watch that we don’t become children of politicians, making ourselves “second to none” like them and orphan ourselves once again from our Heavenly Father.  King Saul and God’s abandonment of him stands as a warning to all of us!

However, David’s leadership was a faithful leadership “second to One”.  That One was his Heavenly Father, our Heavenly Father!

With a conservative Christian heart, you might argue that David did just as bad or worse than Saul’s sin, by committing adultery with Bathsheba, murdering her husband Uriah, and ordered a sinful census of his army.  Or with a progressive Christian heart, you might dismiss the event as David being a victim of circumstances and thereby trivialising the gravity of his sin. 

But God knew David’s heart, as he knew Saul’s heart.  God saw Saul lead as “second to none”, whereas he saw David rule as “second to One”, despite the sin both of them committed.

Far from being rejected as king, God promises David’s rule will be kept by God in his steadfast love forever.

Of him it is said,  “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.  My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.  I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.”  (Psalm 89:27–29 ESV)

David’s leadership occurs second to his submission to God’s ultimate transcendent leadership. 

The sooner leaders and their followers come to this understanding the better it will be for all who linger in their lifespan! 

David was second to One, but not only in his day as he served and wrestled with his own sinfulness.  David was second to “the One who was to come”!  And he has come in the line of David, born at Bethlehem.

This man is Jesus Christ, the son of David, the Son of Man and the Son of God. 

Where all other leaders polarise their constituents against each other’s conservatism or progressivism, Jesus polarises each of us against our own sinfulness within each of us.

Throughout the Psalms David gives us an insight into his internal battle, the polarisation against his own sinfulness.  A battle that all of us know!  A battle that only Jesus Christ wins, and continues to win within you, when you trust him and allow his winning ways.

This battle is the hostility of sin within.  When you’re confronted with someone you deem as an enemy, the old sinful self, seeks to lead you in a “second to none” mindset, known as pride!  In our polarised pride we think we’re against the enemy.  However, our pride and the pride of the enemy can become one and polarise both against God in sin.  This is the conflict fighting within David, as he battles to be without enemies.

Jesus ultimately took on David’s battles and won.  He seeks to take on your internal hostilities too.  Like David, Jesus made himself “second to One”.  He placed himself under the will of the Father.  But greater than David, in his faithfulness being penultimate to God the Father in the way of the cross, he became “second to everyone”.

Knowing this, the battle of sin still continues within us.  The call to follow Jesus and become “second to everyone” riles the polarised prideful principles and power of our human spirit against the Holy Spirit.  You all sense this within as the Holy Spirit daily seeks to kill old Adam and his human spirit.

Know that as this goes on within, the Holy Spirit is further winning the deposit placed in you at baptism.  God seeks to daily break down the violence within, so that despite the hostilities there’s a peace that only God gives to the faithful repentant recipients of his forgiveness.

Paul reminds us of this, speaking of the two being made one, the old Adam and Jesus Christ, the new Adam, so we know that despite our sin, we have the peace of God, the Son of God victorious over your sin, worked by the Holy Spirit within.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.(Ephesians 2:13-14, 15b–16 ESV)

God has won the battle within.  God is winning the battle within!  And God will win the battle within!

Let being “second to none”, like politicians, be undone!  Like King David, let the Holy Spirit place you “second to the Son”.  He gives us Jesus Christ, the Son of David, who is the peace of God within.  So, like Jesus our Lord, we can be “second to everyone” glorifying our Heavenly Father as number One.  Amen.

B, Post Pentecost 7 Proper 9 - 2 Corinthinans 12:2-10 "Super-Self"

2 Corinthians 12:2–10 (ESV)  I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.  And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—  and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.  On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—  though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.  So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he (Jesus) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul addresses those at Corinth to hang onto the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and avoid Satan who acts as an “angel of light”.  He confronts these people who teach contrary to his teaching and tempt others away from trusting God’s word.  Those who do this,  Paul calls super-apostles.  These are folk who work superiority over others, forcing folk to follow their ways, contrary to the ways of God.  These people are super-selves and encourage others to super-size their egos too!!

In our age of individualism and self-glorification of the individual, super-apostleship is arguably just as prevalent, if not more so, than when Paul addressed the Corinthians. 

How can you and I safeguard ourselves from super-apostles?  But more importantly, how does a person protect themselves from inadvertently becoming a super-apostle, or a super-self?

This is the issue Paul needed to pursue at Corinth.  He has come under attack by these super-selves, so he defends the apostleship to which he is called by God.  But he has to do it without falling into the same trap as those who have become super-apostles, false-apostles, false-teachers of God’s word.  Paul’s aim is to create true disciples, true believers, or Christians who stand under God’s word, under Jesus Christ, rather than under him.  Sub-selves of Jesus, or disciples, rather than super-selves!

This is why Paul speaks to the Corinthians in what might seem peculiar to our ears.  He refers to himself as a fool.  As one who has no mind, out of his mind, or has no understanding.  This is a very strange way to defend the faith, you might think!

He speaks of a man caught up to the third heaven or paradise of whom he will not boast.  Paul speaks here of himself, apart from himself, not to boast of the things God has done with him to prepare him for his apostleship under the cross.  But Paul boasts in his foolishness, nothingness, weakness, and the harassment of Satan in his thorn in his flesh, to stop him boasting and becoming conceited in the flesh of himself. 

To stop him from becoming a super-apostle within himself, Paul appeals to this suffering selflessness.  Rather than be a super-self, Paul proclaims his suffering-self!

But Paul even goes further by saying, “Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.  Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.”  (2 Corinthians 11:5–6 ESV)

Paul calls himself “unskilled in speaking”, this is literally an “idiot in speaking”, and ignoramus!  He goes on to question and say of the weakness and foolishness of his flesh, “To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!  But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that.  Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I.  Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.”  (2 Corinthians 11:21b–23 ESV)

What Paul is comparing himself to is the “idiotes” (id-ee-o-tace)or nothingness of Christ.  Not that Christ was nothing, but that Jesus Christ selflessly put his divinity aside and became “absolutely nothing” to save you, me, Paul, and the Corinthians.

This flies in the face of any super-apostle.  The super-self within all of us, seeks to be outstanding in position and perception, rather than understanding or being submissive and subordinate, under the knowledge of Christ.  The knowledge of a super-self will come from a glorified hyper-sense of self.   One’s knowledge is not of Jesus Christ but of what one thinks is good or evil.  Rather than submit to a fool like Saint Paul or any other “idiot” to whom Paul submits, they position themselves, second to no one, serving only if it is to benefit of the super-self.

The desire of super-apostles will always be to tempt others away from humility and faithful submission to God, to a faithfulness in other things or persons.  They use scandalous scams that lure the vainglory of the old sinful super-self, within each of us, to covet pleasure, popularity, and prosperity of various kinds.  This is emotionalism!  The super-apostle wants the person they tempt, to think like them, to be emotional, so they can control them with their "superior ways and beliefs".

With the growing rejection of Christ-centred faith in the world today, individualism and the super-self, sees the cross of Jesus Christ as a scandal.  This should not be a surprise to us, as the people of Nazareth, Jesus own kin, saw him as a scandal.  But it’s this very scandal that Paul and all Christ-centred people continue, suffer, and persevere in patience, waiting for the hope of eternal glory.

So, to protect ourselves from super-apostles, as well as becoming super-selves, we need to invoke a test, first on ourselves and then on those who come to us seeking to teach us something!  The test is simple: Test by asking, “Where is the glory going!”  “Is it going to God alone or to somewhere or someone else?”  It’s as simple as that!  

However, we need to do this, because we still need to be taught.  We are still learners, disciples! The other danger that we face in this age of individualism is to further promote the old Adam, the super-self, and cut ourselves off from true sources of teaching, that God puts in place.

Rather than be misinformed by a super-apostle, we can also cut ourselves off from God the Holy Spirit’s work, by being uninformed without the word of God, and continuing in this uninformed state, we quickly revert back to having the malformed mind of a super-self, separated from God and his word.

You and I need to be daily carried from the individualism of the super-self, back into the word of God, by the Holy Spirit.

As there were in Paul’s day, there are many today who, use the word of God in a way contrary to the way the prophets, Paul and the apostles, as well as many mum, dad, and children disciples, who have sought and continue to seek being faithful servants of God.

Rather than support you in repentance, confession of sin, and belief in Christ’s forgiveness of sin, super-selves and super-apostles who masquerade as “angels of light” under Satan, will give the sense that Christians shouldn’t struggle and suffer with sin.  They will seek subtle ways of putting themselves between God and his word.  Probably by using God and his word, just as the devil sought to do against Jesus, and countless others since.

As your pastor, I know that you all have been caught up into the third heaven, to paradise, when God baptised you into the holy priesthood of all believers.  I also know as your pastor; you have been given thorns in the flesh.  That, super-apostles and your super-self, harass you, torment and seek to tempt you, within the church, to be without the Holy Spirit and the word of God.  Or, to add laws to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But as Jesus says to Paul, he says to us all, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a ESV)

This is what God the Son promises you in his Holy Baptism.  His cross is sufficient for you.  The Holy Spirit was Jesus’ perfect power, to, and through, the scandal of the cross.  This same Holy Spirited power is sufficient for you for your forgiveness of sin, life and salvation.

Therefore, in your weaknesses let the power of Christ rest upon you, as you reject the super-apostle and daily drown the super-self within.  Amen.