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Jesus fed 5,000
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 26th July 2009
The Very Revd. Andrew Chan - The Dean of St. John's Cathedral
Dear brothers and sisters, what are you hungry for?
The Gospel reading of this morning is about Jesus feeding the Five Thousand. This is one of the familiar stories I read when I was a young kids. I love reading this story especially when I was hungry and I felt being fed after my reading.
Today, under the threat of global financial crisis, people are hungry for many things : food, safety life, stable income etc. In Jesus' time, people were hungry as well. According to the gospel reading today, we can read that the crowd that gathered that day by the Sea of Galilee was hungry. They were hungry for food. The day had been long as they followed and listened to Jesus' teaching. They were hungry for a king, a messiah, had been long as the word of the prophets were passed on from one generation to another. And so when Jesus fed them, 5000 of them, plus women and children, from so little, five barley loaves and two fish, they thought they had found their king. They thought they had found the ruler who would take care of all their physical needs and wants. They thought they had found the long-promised one who would make everything all right again : no more hungry, no more sickness, no more oppression. Perhaps the story of Prophet Elisha, who fed one hundred men from a few barley loaves, was in their minds and on their lips as they ate the meal which Jesus hosted for them.
The Scripture says that in their excitement the people were about to come and take Jesus by force to make him king. The experience of sharing that bountiful meal was quickly put behind them as they rushed to take care of their own desires and agendas. The crowd did not see that they were hungry for more than food and political leadership. The crowd did not see that they had been fed and filled by more than bread and fish.
The group that gathers in the award-winning Danish film Babette's Feast is also hungry. They are aged disciples of a sectarian religious leader long since deceased, their community dwindled, their inspiration diminished, and their unity disrupted by grudges and quarrels or long ago. They are called together to a meal, a feast of a meal, prepared as a gift by the French house-keeper Babette. The frugal Scandinavians are completely at a loss at a ten course French extravaganza. They don't know which fork to use or glass to sip from as one sumptuous course follows another. In spite of their stated intentions not to let the meal affect them, a miracle begins to unfold. One grudges and grievances are put to rest and laugh about.
Relationship – between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, friend and friend – are restored and renewed. Joy is rediscovered in place of bitterness. Decisions of the past, for better for worse, are accepted with a sense of peace. 'All is mercy – All is mercy', one man states.
As the group disperses to return to their homes the phrase repeated on everyone's lips is tak, thank you. Joining together under the stars in the town square, they form a circle with united hands and uplifted voices in a song of praise. Hungry in ways they had never imagined, they had now experienced a feast.
We are hungry people who gather in this place. In all likelihood, our stomachs are full, too full! We remember, pray for, and act to alleviate the physical hunger of others. Although our hunger goes beyond food, like those who gathered by the Sea of Galilee, like those who gathered in a remote Danish village.
We hunger for forgiveness. We hunger for reconciliation and restoration in our relationships. We hunger for joy in place of bitterness and cynicism. We hunger for peace over choices we have made. We hunger for a sense that 'all is mercy'. We hunger for unity, to be the one body, in one Spirit, that the writer of Epheaians claims we are. We hunger for God.
For what is hungry, but an emptiness, a yearning that longs to be filled? What is hunger, but a reminder of our dependency upon the gifts of a Creator and the gifts of others?
And like those gathered by the Sea of Galilee, like those gathered in a remote Danish village, we too are fed. We share a feast called Holy Communion, the eucharist. From so little, a drop of wine and a nibble of bread, God provides so much. With this meal, we receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, says Martin Luther's Small Catechism.
Often, we too get caught up in our own desires and agendas. We rush from this meal to take care of our own business : the noon meal to get on the table, the plans for the rest of the day, the errands to be run. We don't stop to acknowledge our hunger. We go on with business as usual. We forget that we have been fed! A miracle has happened. We have shared a meal together. We have been made bread-sharers, literally com-panions, by our host Jesus Christ who has fed us himself.
AS we leave this gathering, may the phrase repeated on all of our lips be tak, thank you. For, like the Israelites in ancient days, we beheld God, and ate and drank.
Dear brothers and sisters, what are you hungry for?
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