What is This Among So Many

Scriptures: 2 Timothy 1:1-7 John 6:1-13
October 7, 2007

A large crowd of people had come to hear Jesus. The disciples, Andrew and Philip, realized that if they were going to feed these people they were going to need more food.
Jesus asked, "How much have you got?"
Just then a young boy, let's call him Daniel, is seen walking toward Andrew.
So while Jesus is questioning Philip, Andrew is looking around and sees this boy with some food.
What is Jesus asking Philip? “How are we to buy bread so these people may eat?” Jesus is setting Philip up. He knows that there is no way that they can buy bread for all of these people. He knows the answer is not in purchasing bread. He knows that the source of the food is going to come from somewhere unexpected. He knows the Exodus story, the same one we have been reviewing the past two weeks.
One of the themes one discovers in the Exodus story is that when we trust that we are cared for by God we need to expect the unexpected. We need to let go of our normal solutions to problems, such as feeding large numbers of people, and be open to new solutions.
So Jesus is asking Philip, “Philip? How are we going to feed all of these people?” It’s the same question that Moses had to answer in the wilderness. How could Jesus get the disciples to look at the people themselves, not as separate individuals, each looking out for themselves, but instead as a community, as neighbors, each looking out for one another.
Meanwhile Andrew notices this young boy. And here is what I imagine happened...
Now you see young Daniel had been asked by his mother to go to the store. It was near time for the great Jewish Festival, the Passover, and Daniel's mother had invited the entire family over for dinner. She was so busy getting the house ready that she didn't have time to go to the fish market or the bakery, so she gave her son enough money and told him to go to the store and buy some bread and some fish.
She said, "If they have any salmon just get one, otherwise get two trout. And don't get cinnamon bread like you did the last time, I need 5 barley loaves.
So off Daniel went. First to the fish market. He left there quickly for the warm sweet smell of the bakery. Then with his heavy load he headed back for home. On his way he noticed a huge crowd of people gathered on the hillside. He knew that he should go straight home but his curiosity got the better of him.
He walked up the hill, worked his way through the forest of bony knees and then found himself right hear some men talking about having to feed all of these people. He heard them say they didn't have enough money to buy enough bread. Daniel didn't know how much they needed, but he knew what he had.
He thought about his mother and the company that was going to come that night and then he thought about all of those people on the hillside and he decided to walk up to the men.
What called young Daniel forward? A young child on the edge of a crowd, and then in the center of a crowd and hearing they needed what he had. He didn't know if it was enough, but he offered what he had.
Andrew saw him and said to Jesus, "There's a boy here."
Daniel pulled on Andrew's cloak and said, "Daniel."
Andrew said, "Daniel is here and he had five barley loaves and two trout."
"They were out of salmon." whispered Daniel
But what is this among so many?
What is this? manna from heaven? water from the rock? desire born in some people hearts to work for justice, care for a sick friend, pray for a loved one, work for peace in the world?
What is this among so many?
Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and there was enough to feed everybody. In fact, there were twelve baskets of bread left over. Daniel went home with some of the leftovers and told his mother, "Mom, you won't believe what a good deal I got!"

What is this among so many? This is the question of the disciples. This is our question. It is our question as we as individuals seek to meet the challenges of our lives. It is the question we ask as a church, a small church, in a quickly growing area.
What is this among so many? It is what we have, it is where we are, it is how we are feeling, it is the questions that we are asking, it is the desire for reconciliation in our hearts, it is the gifts we have to share, it is the place where Jesus is ready to begin.
This offering of the young boy, 5 loaves for five thousand people, is the offering that the churches offer to the world on this Sunday, World Communion Sunday. Is it enough? Can the table we have set today, which is similar to tables set all over the world make any difference in the problems of today's world? Can this table and all of its global partners have any effect on the relations between nations, relations between husbands and wives, relations between parents and children? Can this table have anything to say to the problem of world hunger?
What is this among so many?
Little Daniel, didn't ask if what he had was enough, he simply offered what he had.
What this is, is the bread of life broken for you and the cup of life poured out for you and I believe it can make all of the difference in the world because I believe that peace begins with me, with each of us, and healing begins with me, and each of us, and the suffering in the world is sometimes due to individuals who have never been loved, have been broken and never put back together.
Communion puts us back together.

I believe this bread and this cup can make a difference in the world because the world is tightly interconnected- what happens in one country effects all others. What happens in one individual effects so many others- and today all over the world people are taking communion, are hearing the lifegiving word and remembering to give thanks for all that has been received.
I believe this bread and this cup can mean so much to so many because by taking it into our lives we are a part of the resurrection- we are a part of the reality of the Risen Christ- we are a part of a people who are committed to the vision of the kingdom of heaven.
I believe this bread and cup can make a difference in the world because even though we recognize that peace begins with each of us, we are not the only actors in this drama called history. There is a spirit among us, there is a God who created us and there is the word that became flesh and lived with us just long enough that we can never lose hope in our world, in our church, in ourselves.


Let me share a very different kind of story. It's about a truck driver traveling across Interstate 80, and this truck driver was mean, he was exhausted, and he was hungry. He pulled into a little diner and he said to the waitress behind the counter, "What I want is a piece of apple pie and a kind word."
The waitress got him the apple pie and then she became quiet. The truck driver looked up longingly and said, "And the kind word?" She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "If I were you, I wouldn't eat the apple pie."
The world is waiting for a kind word. A True word. And on this day the word we give to the world is communion.
As the world is waiting for a kind word, God has something to say to all of us. God is saying, "I know that I am asking a lot of you. But you must see that though I am concerned for your well-being, I care for everyone's life. I want to see an entire world in communion. And to do that I need you. I need your help. I have never acted alone before, I can't act alone now. I needed Abraham & Sarah, Mary and Jesus, and Daniel and the disciples

and I'm calling you. But I have something for you. Something that will feed you if you let it, something that will renew you if you'll accept forgiveness, something that will nourish you if you are ready for love, something that will give you so much that you'll have some left over to share with one another.
Before you go out into the world, the world that needs to hear a kind word, I want you to be fed. My kind word to you is, if I were you, I would eat this bread, and drink this cup and know that what I have asked of you can and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Each of you is a loaf of bread. Like those 5 loaves blessed by Jesus I bless you.
That is what God is saying to us.
There were many loaves of bread left over on that day. Daniel got just a few of them. I imagine that those loaves have been shared and passed around and multiplied all over the world and all over the centuries to this very day and this very spot. Imagine you are part of the crowd, not of 5,000, not of 5 million, but of an infinite number of people who have received the healing and forgiving word of life.
Come through the crowd. Offer what you have. Touch the love of God and receive the hope and the healing that you require. Receive the strength and the courage you are looking for.
What is this among so many? This cup and this load of bread. This bread and cup. This church and its people. Each one of us.
Today the word that we offer to the world is communion. And the gift that we have for the world is our Neighbors in Need Offering.
The gifts that we give to today, no matter the individual size are gathered into one large fund of compassion that supports projects all around the country. I was curious as to what kind of projects are actually funded so I went to the United Church of Christ web page, and looked up the list of agencies Neighbors in Need contributed to past year. And I found one called, Peace in the Hood.
In 2006, as part of the Faith of Our Fathers Peace Campaign, the IMANI PEACE PLEDGE has been established to engage youth to commit to non-violence and to encourage others to do the same. The reasoning is based on the proven fact that their fathers as youth were able to bring peace to the city of Philadelphia and the youth of today can do the same.
These fathers, who now are seeing their sons involved in gangs, remembered when they were young boys back in 1974 and they were able, to bring an end to gang warfare in their neighborhoods. One key tool in the “No Gang War In’74” campaign was the IMANI PACT, which was a contractual agreement between each gang member and the community that they would not fight and because they kept their word the gang warfare virtually ended.
Neighbors in Need is supporting Peace in the Hood to bring peace to the city of brotherly love.
One-third of the offering undergirds the work of the Council for American Indian Ministry (CAIM), including much-needed financial support for 20 American Indian congregations in the UCC.
Thinking about Jesus on that hillside filled with hungry people. The miracle, for me, was not in the miraculous creation of fish and bread; it was in the miraculous creation of enabling people to see themselves as neighbors in need and neighbors in blessing. The miracle was in his ability to share his vision with others, namely, to see the people, not in terms of how little they had, but instead on how much they had, if only they would stop seeing themselves as alone and instead would see themselves as intimately and intricately connected. He moved them from fear to trust, from division to community, from individuals to neighbors.
I have seen that in you, First Congregational Church, Murphys, UCC. You have been given a gift. Something given to you by God to carry with you, like Daniel and the five barley loaves and two fish. You have offered what you have, not asking if it is enough, but in gladness. In your support of the youth mission trip to Costa Rica, in support of Habitat for Humanity, the Heifer Project, and the operating budget of your church, in volunteering at everything from the Applecake booth, to the Fashion Show, to the Parish Care Board and Ministries, I have seen your Daniel like dedication. Through you and through churches around the world,the feeding of the 5,000 goes on today.
You a part of the miracle.
And may you continue to be, in familiar and in unexpected ways.
Let the people say,
Amen.