Sermon: Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, John 6:1-21 “A Little Goes a Long Way”

July 28, 2024 
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
Pastor Jonathan Linman

Today’s gospel reading presents us with two very different versions of reality: scarcity vs. abundance. Confronted with the huge crowd of five thousand people and their need to be fed, the first version is all about scarcity. This is the view of Jesus’ disciples, Philip and Andrew. When Jesus asked where they would buy bread for the people to eat, Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii [or 6 or 7 months’ wages] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” Andrew also piped up: “There is a child here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” The view of reality on the part of Philip and Andrew, again, was focused on scarcity, of there not being enough. 

Jesus offers a very different view of reality, one focused on the just-enough-ness of the modest resources available that ultimately resulted in abundance. Think of it. To feed the 5000 with the five barley loaves, each loaf would have to have been broken into a thousand pieces. Can you get 1000 pieces out of a typical loaf of bread? If you tried it, the pieces would surely be tiny and not very filling from our typical human point of view. And yet in the gospel story everybody ended up eating as much as they wanted, and they were satisfied. In fact, because they filled 12 baskets-full of leftovers, they arguably ended up with more than what they started with! In short, Jesus’ view of reality focuses on sufficiency and abundance, of a little going a long way. 

These two views of reality – scarcity vs. abundance – are very much in play in our current society and its debates and conflicts. But most of the weight in the popular imagination and media focuses on scarcity. Think about it: why do billionaires want ever more for themselves? Somehow at a deep level, they fear that their wretched excess is not going to be enough for them. Why do white Christian nationalists want to deport immigrants who are not white? Fear of non-white immigrants is all about a sense of scarcity that there won’t be enough white people around to maintain traditional white culture. And on and on the list goes. But suffice it to say that a scarcity mentality drives a lot of our society’s current ills. (We’ll explore this in greater detail in today’s forum at coffee hour)

The fear of scarcity is part and parcel of the human condition. We see it reflected in ancient times in our reading from 2 Kings today when Elisha’s servant didn’t believe that 20 barley loaves would be enough to feed 100 people. Furthermore, the whole people of Israel didn’t believe that manna from heaven would be enough to sustain them in their wilderness journey. And on and on throughout human history, the fear of scarcity prevails. 

But the ways of God are starkly different. Elisha was confident in God’s promise that 20 barley loaves would feed 100 people. And Jesus knew exactly what he was doing in making 5 barley loaves feed 5000! The long and the short of it is that in the divine view of reality, a little goes a long way. 

Consider these features of Jesus’ life and times. A little baby in the little town of Bethlehem changed the course of human history. A little goes a long way. 

Jesus engaged in his public ministry for a mere three years, and look at the fruits of those labors still reverberating through 2000 years and more of Christian history. A little goes a long way. Jesus spent a grueling but comparatively brief three hours on the cross on a Friday afternoon and then three short days in the tomb only to rise again from the dead – brief but earth-shattering events which turned the world upside down. A little goes a long way!

Which brings us to consider the sacrament of Holy Communion. For those of you who read my pastoral message this week, you know that we have five weeks of passages from John chapter 6 which will focus on Jesus as the bread of life. So, I’m doing a rare sermon series linking these passages to the sacrament of Holy Communion, giving us occasion to delve much more deeply into our sacramental spirituality. 

When it comes to this meal that we share Sunday after Sunday, a little also goes a long way. You receive a fragment of a piece of broken bread. You get a hint of wine or grape juice, not even a shot glass full.

And yet, in this meal that barely consists of a snack, you receive the fullness of everything that Jesus Christ was, is, and ever shall be. Each Sunday, I break the bread at the table. And when I break the bread, you can’t see it from where you’re sitting, but there’s a little explosion of crumbs that land on the table. Even the tiniest crumb, we confess in faith, contains the full presence of Jesus Christ and all of his blessings to us. Think about that! Isn’t that amazing? 

The letter to the Ephesians, a portion of which we heard today, sums up well in the form of a prayer that which we receive from Christ in the Eucharist. Which is to say, in this holy meal the prayer of the author of Ephesians is answered: “I pray that, according to the riches of God’s glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19) 

The riches of God’s glory; strength in our inner being; Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith; rooting and grounding in love; the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge; being filled with the fullness of God. Friends, these are the realities conveyed by the sacred signs of a tiny piece of bread and a sip of the fruit of the vine. A little goes a long way!

Moreover, our share in Eucharistic reality eventually converts us to Jesus’ way of seeing reality: not scarcity, but God’s abundance even in the smallest, most humble, lowliest of things, and people, and circumstances. Thus, by the Spirit’s power working in this meal, we move from seeing scarcity to knowing abundance, we go from perceiving nothing to apprehending everything. And we thus move from unfaith to faith, from mistrust to trust in God and God’s merciful abundance.

And seeing and experiencing God’s abundance in faith in the sacrament has the effect of inspiring our greater generosity toward the world as the Spirit sends us forth to do our own versions of feeding the 5000 with what the world might perceive as our meager resources in the church. In our words and deeds, in the ministries of the wider church, we extend the hospitality of this table to feed others in modest ways which can have a profound impact. Once again, a little goes a long way!

And maybe our churchly example will inspire others to emerge from their bunker mentalities of scarcity to see and embrace God’s abundance, that a little goes a long way, such that they come to see the world and its resources as being half full more often than seeing it as half empty. This change in perspective can change realities on the ground! Claiming the abundant effects of even modest gifts can shape policies that make the world a fairer and more just place. Again, we’ll explore this further also in our forum conversations after worship.

And God knows our sorry world needs this change-of-perspective conversion experience! If only our leaders would lead from the point of view of sufficiency and abundance rather than a mentality of scarcity and the fear and anger and grievance that go along with it, so many of our social ills could find a cure.

For a little goes a long way, not just in spiritual terms, but in material terms, too. 

So this has been sermon number one in the coming series of five sermons on John 6 and its connections to Holy Communion. Next week my working title is: “More Than a Good Lunch”

For now, come to the table and discover anew that a little goes a long way! Amen.