(borrowed from the St. John's weekly newsletter, thanks Fr. Chris for writing it!)
"The Gospel from this past Sunday was the familiar story of the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-21). Jesus goes up on a mountain with his disciples and a large crowd gathers around. Jesus asks Philip where they will buy bread to feed the people. Philip responds that six months wages would not buy enough bread. Andrew says there is a boy in the crowd with five loaves and two fish, adding "but what are they among so many people?" Jesus essentially celebrates a eucharist and the result is left overs. As I said in my sermon, the essential element of the story is the contrast between scarcity and abundance. To Jesus' impulse to feed the people is met with the response, "There isn't enough." It's worth noting that none of the disciples object to feeding the crown, their concern is that their isn't enough money to buy enough food nor enough food to share. How often in our lives do we echo the words of the disciples, "There isn't enough." There isn't enough time or money. We approach things from a position of scarcity, worried that using dwindling resources will lead to failure, so why even try. But Jesus looks at the same resources and decides to be as generous as possible with them. Instead of saying "there isn't enough" Jesus says, "lets share what is at hand" and the result is abundance. Jesus is not motivated by fear but by generous and abundant love."
A key figure in the passage is the boy, whom we presume has come forward to offer his five loaves and two fish. He is the one character who models the generosity to which the passage calls us. The presence of the boy offering his foods calls to mind the line from Mathew 18:3, "unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." In being generous with our time, our money, our patience, our care for others we move from a place of scarcity into the abundance of God."
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