Homily for July 26, 2009

It's a shame that instead of reading the whole Gospel we get just little bits and pieces Sunday after Sunday Sometimes we lose the continuity of the story. We're going to lose it anyway, because in our lectionary we shifted from Mark’s Gospel to John’s Gospel today. We will read from Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel for the next several Sundays.
Remember tat last Sunday in Mark's Gospel Jesus got out of the boat and saw a great crowd coming toward him. His heart was moved with pity because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he taught them at great length.
Now, in Mark's Gospel, what happens is that the disciples come to Jesus and they say, "Send them all home. They've got to eat."
Jesus says, "No, you give them something to eat."
And they say, "What? Where are we going to find food for all these people?"
But the church, in its selection in the lectionary, shifts to John's Gospel, and we'll be reading from that for the next four weeks. So we have John's version of the story. You notice the difference in John's version. Jesus says to Philip, "Where are we going to get food for all these people?" John says he was doing that to test him.
I want to locate this story in the bigger picture of the whole Bible. At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, "God will raise up another prophet like me."
At the end of the Gospel today the people say, "This is undoubtedly the prophet who is to come." So that's the big picture throughout Scripture: When will God send another prophet like Moses? And who will it be? The Gospels present Jesus as that prophet who will follow Moses and who will be greater than Moses.
In the coming weeks we will see Jesus compared with Moses and what Jesus does compared with what Moses did. We will see Jesus say that he is the real meaning of what Moses did. What did Moses do for the people in the desert? I need help here. What did he do? Well, he led them, and he fed them. With what did he feed them? The manna or bread from heaven. So in the Gospels for the coming weeks, the people will say to Jesus, "Moses gave us bread from heaven."
Jesus will say, "No, it wasn't Moses, it was my Father." And Jesus will say, "I am the bread that came from heaven."
In the the teaching of the Rabbis, the bread that God fed the people came to be understood as the law and the wisdom of the law. Jesus will present himself as the new wisdom of God. So the law is now a person whom we follow. That's the big picture of the claim that the Gospel is making, and we'll unfold that in the weeks to come.
Today I want to focus on something that's both in the first reading and in the Gospel. In each case there's the instruction to feed a large number of people. The reaction of those who are told to feed the people is, “We can't do it. We don't have enough. Are you crazy? Do you expect us to feed this whole crowd with seven loaves and two fish?" In both readings there's that reaction.
And in the readings that we've had in our weekday masses over the past several months, I'm struck by a very common theme. When God calls people, do you know what they always say? "Who am I to do that?"
Do you know what God answers? "I will be with you, so go ahead."
In both readings today, the people are overwhelmed at the magnitude of the need and the scarcity of the resources. What happens? They take what they have, they make it available to God, and what results? Abundance. How much abundance? Twelve baskets full. Is 12 an important number?
By the way, one biblical scholar I know says that numbers are very important in the Bible, but they have no relationship to counting. But there are 12 tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, and it shows abundance.
Where I would link the readings with our life is in this question of being overwhelmed. How many of you have ever felt, when called upon to do something, "Who am I to do this?" Right? "Do you know who I am? Do you know how unworthy I am? Do you know what a sinner I am? Do you know how little I know? You don't know what you're talking about. Who am I to do this?"
What will God answer? Can you repeat it for me? "I will be with you."
How many of us have ever felt that what we have is insignificant in relationship to the need that is there? What does God do? "Have the people recline. I will take what you have, I will give thanks, and I will give it to the people, and a miracle will happen."
I'm not going to get into trying to explain what really happened. I've read all sorts of explanations ranging from speculation to how it could happen that Jesus would physically multiply the bread to other explanations that say they all had bread with them anyway and, when they saw him sharing his, they brought out theirs. All I really know is that whatever happened, the people saw the hand of God at work in it, so much so that they said, "This is undoubtedly the prophet who is to come into the world."
I just want to leave you with those reflections, but most important, leave you God's answer to all of the questions you might ask. Keep in mind God's answer is, "I will be with you." And God's answer is that what we have will be enough if we make it available to God and God’s purpose.