Mystery - A Sermon for Sunday July 28 2024
GOSPEL: John 6:1-21
The holy gospel according to John.
Glory to you, O Lord.
In John’s gospel, the miracles of Jesus are called “signs,” because they reveal the true character of God. As such, they remain within the mystery of God and cannot be brought under human control.
1 Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When 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?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One 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?” 10 Jesus 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. 11 Then 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. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When 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.”
15 When 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.
16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
How did Jesus walk on the water?
How did Jesus feed 5000?
How do they get the caramel
into a Caramilk bar?
I think it’s natural to want to know how.
It’s how inquisitive minds work.
When it comes to Jesus walking on water,
some have theorized that the lake could have been cold,
and could have been close to freezing,
so Jesus may have walked or surfed
on a sheet of ice on the lake.
This kinda ruins the story,
doesn’t it?
I read a fun book years ago called
“Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff,
Christ’s Childhood Pal” by Christopher Moore.
It’s a work of fiction,
a novel;
humour and satire.
According to Biff, Christ’s childhood pal,
Biff would ride on an elephant’s head
while it swam fully underwater.
So maybe Jesus learned to ride an elephant as well?
Ultimately, the quest for learning exactly “How”
Jesus walked on water
will leave us wanting.
We wont get the answer in this lifetime.
Similarly, people have wondered How Jesus fed 5000.
I heard a sermon many years ago.
It was a powerful call to care for one another,
to share what God has given us.
The pastor talked,
with sincerity and confidence,
about how the miracle happened.
The pastor was convinced that the unnamed little boy
who gave Jesus 5 loaves and 2 fish
inspired the people to share what they brought along.
The idea is that everyone had some food,
and they chose to share
so that no one went hungry.
The miracle is that people actually shared!
I concede that this is possible:
the people in the crowd
could have simply shared their bread with each other.
And that would be a miracle, indeed!
But I also feel like this explanation leaves me wanting.
I love the idea of everyone sharing what they have,
but I also feel like the story loses its power
when we try to explain the How.
Theologians have written at length
about how Jesus’ death and resurrection save us.
They’re called atonement theories.
Atonement theories help us understand the cross
but they also are incomplete.
Some examples:
Christ as sacrifice or substitute for our sins.
Christ as a moral example.
Christ as victor over Satan.
These are helpful,
but they are also incomplete.
In the words of Rev. Dr. Cam Harder,
“In the end we are forced to say that the cross
is a mystery deeper than human understanding will plumb…
(The cross) invites us into the mystery.”
(“Cam’s Notes: How Does Christ’s Death Save Us” Cameron Harder. SL210. Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon.)
When it comes to “Making Sense of the Cross”,
Theologian and preacher David Lose suggests
the answer lies less in understanding,
and more in experience.
Christ raised from death on the cross
isn’t something so much to be explained,
as it is to be experienced.
Not that we participate in Christ’s crucifixion,
but we attend to the story
each Holy Week
and every little Easter each Sunday.
Consider Holy Communion.
Theologians have written at length
explaining the “how”.
How does the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood?
Our Roman Catholic friends use the word Transubstantiation:
the bread and wine transform,
change substance,
into Christ’s literal body and blood.
Many traditions consider Communion to be a memorial
and the substance remains bread and wine.
Lutherans reject both.
Lutherans have our own word,
but we even reject that word.
The word is Consubstantiation:
it means that the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood,
but it is also bread and wine.
It makes sense.
We reject the title Consubstantiation,
even if it is what we believe happens at the Lord’s Table,
because it tries to explain the mystery.
Holy Communion is meant to be experienced.
We enter the mystery,
we find our place at the Lord’s table
and though it looks like we only receive
a morsel of bread and splash of wine
we trust and believe that
we receive an abundance of grace,
more than we could ever ask or imagine
and in the sharing of the meal
no one need leave hungry.
We can’t really explain the mystery
of how Christ’s death saves us,
or how Holy Communion works.
It is beyond our understanding.
We wont get to know “how” in this life.
Yet we need inquisitive minds;
we need scientists and doctors and mathematicians.
God has gifted us with curiosity
and good things happen
when we ask “how”
God works through our inquisitive minds.
God brings healing in and through doctors and nurses,
and their predecessors who kept asking “how”
We have learned so much
about the mystery of how the heart works
or the brain
or most any part of the body.
We have learned so much about illness and disease
we know “how” to deal with many bodily illnesses.
We know how babies are made and born
but it remains a mystery.
One person dies from the same cancer
that another person miraculously recovers from.
“How” remains a mystery.
I’ve pondered this story many times - Jesus feeding 5000.
I refuse to settle on one explanation of “how”
I love to hear the theories
and I wonder How myself
but here’s what I think the real miracle is:
Not that so many people were curious about Jesus
not that the people shared their bread
not that Jesus multiplied the loaves
(as amazing as it is)
I believe the real miracle
is that the people did what Jesus told them to do.
They sat down.
It might not seem like much
but I think it is.
We have some idea as to why all these people came to Jesus:
Some were sick
or brought their ill relatives and friends.
Some were wanting to hear Jesus talk
and some might have just been hungry.
When you’re sick and need a physician,
the hardest thing to do is wait.
When you’re hungry, hangry, famished
the hardest thing to do is wait.
I can imagine the people complaining,
stomping their feet,
pacing in circles
a hungry commotion.
Jesus, at the top of the hill,
sat down with his disciples.
This is a clue - sitting down means it’s time for teaching,
it is time for the disciples to sit at Jesus’ feet
and learn from their Rabbi.
The people had to sit.
They had to trust Jesus with their problems,
their illnesses,
their hunger.
The miracle is the crowd sitting at the feet of Jesus,
their new Rabbi.
The people were invited to do faith
and they did faith by sitting,
waiting,
learning,
trusting,
sharing.
How did this massive crowd all sit and wait and trust?
I don’t know.
How did everyone eat their fill and have 12 baskets of food leftover?
I don’t know.
How do they get the caramel into the caramilk bar?
I don’t know.
Mysteries can’t all be explained.
The mysteries of God
are meant to be experienced.
When the mysteries appear,
when Christ showed a sign,
like the wedding at Cana
or raising Lazarus,
or even feeding 5000
First, the people, the crowd,
is invited not just to experience the mystery,
but to take part in it,
to do faith.
The stewards had to listen to Jesus
and do faith
before the miracle.
Fill the water containers.
Take it to the steward.
When Lazarus died,
the people had to do faith before the miracle:
show Jesus where he lay,
roll away the stone,
remove the grave clothes.
My dear friends in Christ,
I encourage you to learn and grow in faith.
Allow your faith to seek understanding.
Ask how.
Ask why.
Be curious about the mysteries of God.
And, at the same time,
my hope is that we can find peace
and perhaps some excitement
not knowing exactly how it is that God works
but rejoicing that we are invited into
God’s mysterious work.
May we join the crowd
and sit at the feet of our Rabbi.
May we experience the mysteries of God
receiving more than we could ever ask or imagine.
And amidst the problems of the day,
May God give us courage to do faith.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
