Enough
John 6:1-15
July 25, 2021
Sermon preached remotely at First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco.
When is enough, enough? When visiting our son and his family last month, I was introduced to the TV show, Hoarders. For some people there is never enough!
Hoarders reminds me of one of the major tasks I accomplished while we were moving out of sheltering in place and returning to a pre-pandemic normalcy. I was able to sort through, cull out, and throw out many things that we moved from Pennsylvania to California 23 years ago. It was way overdue. Again, I realized that we have way more than enough!
As a church community, we continue to have more than enough. We are blessed with a faithful membership who cares for each other. We are blessed that even in the midst of a world-wide pandemic that none of us have ever experienced personally before, church members continue to give their offerings generously. We are blessed to have Zoom worship over these many months and now anticipating a return to in-person worship back in Chinatown. Having a church family whom we can count on is an abundance of blessings.
As you look around your home, your family and close friends, your church family, we can confidently say that we have enough abundance and blessings to remain strong and confident that whatever may be in front of us, we will like how we have, persevere as God’s people.
Enough Food
Today’s Scripture, John 6:1-15, a story of Jesus and the disciples feeding 5000 people is the only miracle story that appears in all four Gospels. Since each of the Gospels was written to a different group of people, we can say that this miracle was important. It was an important account that everyone should know about.
After leaving Jerusalem, Jesus went out to a pastoral setting on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him because they wanted to know more about the healing miracles he was doing. It’s like if you have an unresolvable medical condition, you would be searching on the internet to find any possible remedy and then you might travel to that research hospital to consult with a physician. I suspect the crowd was seeking Jesus for such answers.
When it was time to eat, Jesus asked Philip how he and the other disciples might feed the crowd of people. This was a test question. Philip, having already noticed the need, calculated that it would take more than six months’ wages to buy bread for everyone just to have a taste. Andrew was also aware of the situation and was out among the crowds taking an inventory of what kinds of resources were out there. He found a boy with five barley loaves and two dried fish—these were typical food that poor people traveled with.
Andrew then asked the critical question, “What are they (the bread and fish) among so many?” In other words, how can 5000 hungry people be satisfied with such a small offering? Andrew and Philip said, “We don’t have enough.”
Enough Love
It is without saying that we live in a materialistic world. Since we are physical beings, our existence is defined with physical things. With bodies, we need cars to get around. With stomachs, we need food to satisfy our hunger. With Covid-19, our bodies need vaccines. As physical beings with the need to relate with others, we need devices like laptops, smart watches, and smartphones to communicate and stay connected.
When Jesus saw the large crowd getting hungry while they were listening to his teaching, he knew they needed food. Like us today, we also need food. But the test that Jesus was giving to Philip and the others was not whether there was enough food or not but whether there was enough love.
Some explained the miracle of the feeding of 5000 people as people having seen that this boy offering his bread and fish led many others who also had food to become generous and started to share their once-hidden resources. Other scholars say that the boy shamed others into being generous.
The abundance of miracles in this story is clear. When Jesus blessed the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, and the disciples distributed them into the crowd, a supernatural multiplication of the food happened. Miraculously, everyone had plenty to eat, not just for a taste.
But another miracle was occurring at the same time. When the food was distributed, it unleashed compassion and generosity among the people. It may have been that people stopped being selfish and only thinking about their own survival. It may have been that some may have pulled out olive oil or butter and jam for the bread and coleslaw and French fries when the fish was distributed. All we know is that after everyone was satisfied, full from the all-you-can-eat buffet, there were twelve baskets of leftovers collected.
We’ll always worry about where to eat and what we will eat. As physical beings, we worry about if we would have enough food and things. But this story is also about Jesus’ love for us and how he won’t abandon us. And this story shows us that if Jesus won’t abandon us, we must not abandon each other as well. Jesus taught Philip and Andrew and the other disciples to not abandon the 5000 people. Jesus is teaching us to not abandon each other. Jesus is calling us to not forget or abandon the thousands of people in Chinatown, in San Francisco, in the world as we begin to return to resume our faithful ministries and mission as FCBC.
Reflecting Our Calling
After the miracle, verse 15 says, “When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain himself.” After such an amazing miracle, I too would have wanted to elevate Jesus to be king. Imagine that, there would always be enough bread and fish.
But the Scriptures say that Jesus withdrew to the mountain by himself.
It’s without saying that it’s been a long time since we have been together in-person. As our faithful church staff, the Deacons and Trustees begin to prepare the church building to reopen, we may have doubts and questions. We may wonder about our own safety or our level of confidence in re-engaging with one another after such a long and scary time. While Zoom worship has been truly a blessing and the brief moments of greeting each other on our miniature screens have been fun, are we ready to return and resume our ministries again?
While Jesus retreated to the mountain by himself because the people wanted to herald him as a king, we too may need to reflect, retreat and prepare ourselves in our respective quiet homes to discern our faithful ministries as First Chinese Baptist Church. Are you ready to reflect over the past 17 months of isolation, sheltering in place, remote worship over Zoom to discern God’s call for us today?
The Spanish priest in the 15th Century, Ignatius of Loyola developed a set of spiritual exercises to assist individuals to examine how we might learn about our purpose and how we were created to praise and serve God. We might consider modifying Ignatius’ approach, developing a congregational process of evaluation and discernment that examines our ministries for congruence with the church’s created end as a reverent and exuberant servant of God.
Let us ask ourselves these questions:
1. What do I have in abundance to share with others?
2. How might I share God’s love for me with others?
3. What can we do together that I can’t do alone?
For me, after sorting out our many relocated boxes of things, we donated them to St. Patrick’s Church’s thrift shop in Larkspur. We donated many bags of used clothes to goodwill. We put toys on Next Door for free and particularly selected a family from Marin City. We even left things near our mailbox for anyone who might want them. And people did! We can share from our abundance many things including the giving of our offerings and contributions to support our ministries and missions both locally and around the world.
I have known in my heart for a long time that God’s love for me is unconditional. When I made mistakes, God didn’t abandon me or forget me. God’s love in my life leaves me with no other choice but to love others—everyone, not just people who may look like me but everyone—even those who hate me. Since God’s abundant love for me has made me whole, I share God’s love with others so that they may be made whole too.
Serving bread and fish to 5000 people required Philip, Andrew and the other disciples. Miracles happen when people come together in the name of God. When it’s time for us to come back together and be once again reunited both in spirit and in body, we will be able to achieve God’s plans for us as a church community. We need many teachers to have Sunday school classes for all age groups. We need many lay leaders, choir members and pastors to lead corporate worship. We need both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking leaders to have Friday Night School.
We know that miracles begin when God’s people discern God’s call to become a reverent and exuberant servant of God in Chinatown and in the world.
Enough in Christ
Would “six months of wages” be enough? Would “5 loaves and 2 fish” be enough? What are they among so many people? In the end, it was never the wages or the bread and fish. Jesus is asking us if we have enough love to give.
When we offer up our “prayers of the people,” we place before the Lord the great needs of humanity. We may find echoing back the words, “What do I have?” Whatever we have is not enough. From today’s lesson, the “not enough” is not the final answer. When placed in the hands of Jesus, human weakness and finitude become more than enough. Christ is enough!
When we watch the news or read the paper or see the news on our phones, we know about human needs but we feel that we have few resources to do anything about it. There are people facing unimaginable disasters and challenges. There are people with limited income. There are those with physical and mental handicaps. There are house-less people on our streets and in freeway underpasses with physical and mental issues that stretch beyond our willingness to remedy. In the face of all of this, we look at our resources and say, we don’t have enough. It’s just a drop in the bucket.
Yet as this miracle of feeding 5000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 dried fish tells us, in the hands of Jesus, little can become much, the few can become the many, and the weak can become the strong. Christ is enough!
Let us come together, reflect again on God’s calling to us to become the loving and compassionate people we are as the faithful people of God known as the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. The 5000 people are gathering. Together, we have enough in Christ to see miracles.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, reveal to us your calling of your people to share all that we are with all the people in the world whom you love. Help us to believe that the love of Christ is abundant and freely given by you and that it is up to us as your hands and feet on earth to share your love with others. We do have enough and we believe that the more we give, the more we receive. It’s always in the giving that we also receive for it is Jesus Christ who gave sacrificially so that we may have life eternally. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.