Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Year B
Sermon Preached by Reverend Michael Hillier on Sunday, 28 July 2024.
John 6.1 – 21
Choosing hymns to accompany our worship can be challenging. The readings for the day need to be explored for themes, and then suitable hymns need to be found that reflect those themes and, in some way, enhance and highlight them.
There is also the question of whether the congregation will know the tune that accompanies the words of the hymn or if another tune will need to be found. And if so, which one? And what is the tune trying to do anyway? Is it intended to be uplifting, even rousing? Or, because of the words, is the tune meant to be more subdued, sombre, or even reflective?
There is also the issue of traditional and newer hymns, where the language, words, and themes can be more in keeping with today. There are also modern Christian songs, some of which can be beautiful, others very trite and repetitive and some not easy to sing.
Our organist’s job is rarely easy and requires a lot of work. And each of our tastes varies so much. One question asked is, ‘Will the congregation like this hymn?’ It’s a fair question. Another question no one ever asks is, ‘Will God like this hymn?’
Now that’s a scary question, if ever there was one! ‘Will God like this hymn?’ No doubt there would be different answers to that one.
But it is a scary question because many people chose to leave Jesus and His disciples rather than stay. That means Jesus had to have based his approach to ministry on something more substantial than the question, ‘Will they like what I have to say?’
And so we come to today’s Gospel reading, the Feeding of the 5000. Right at the beginning, in verse 2, we are told a large crowd kept following Him. Why? Because ‘they saw the signs that He was doing for the sick’.
By today’s standards, that is undoubtedly a sign of success. It meant Jesus was very popular. It seems that He heals and gives them what they want.
But then we have second thoughts, for Jesus leaves the crowd, goes up on the mountain, and sits down with His disciples (v.3). That probably indicates He was going to teach them.
Why leave the crowd just when you are beginning to be successful? Surely that is what God wants, isn’t it? For us to be successful? If the crowds started pouring in here on Sunday morning, I’m going to think, and no doubt you will as well, we have found the winning formula!
But no, Jesus leaves. What’s going on? Does He see it in some way as a temptation to avoid?
Getting caught in the success syndrome.
But then the stakes get raised again, and the temptation of choosing popularity and success returns as the crowds follow Him up the mountain. And He realises they are hungry.
It is a dilemma for Jesus, and yet it is not one. The crowd might be seeking Him for the wrong reasons, and He knows this and is not falling for it. He will not fall for the celebrity trap, His specialness or importance. He’s not going to think the rules don’t apply to Him. Yes, He will feed them, but He will not allow Himself to be trapped in the trap of success and popularity. He is very balanced in personality and not given to flights of fantasy about Himself.
Well, you know the story of the Feeding, so I won’t repeat it. He is filled with compassion and feeds and heals.
Deep in our hearts, are we any different from that crowd? We have come here this morning to meet Jesus. We want inner peace, healing, a sense of His presence to go with us this coming week, or something else. Nothing is wrong with this; He wants us to bring our needs to Him.
So Jesus feeds them as He does us. The crowd is delighted to the point that we are told that they want to ‘take Him by force and make him their king’ (v.15).
It is a dangerous moment that is not reflected in John’s reading. But Mark tells us (6.45) that Jesus immediately sent His disciples away in the boat before they, too, became enthusiastic about the crowd’s plan of making Him king. Then He dismissed the crowd and went up into the hills to pray. The temptations were getting too great for everyone, and the authorities would closely watch and monitor the situation. It could only end in disaster.
Jesus had experienced the temptations in the wilderness before He began His ministry, and now they had returned to haunt Him. He didn’t succumb then, and He doesn’t now. Satan had offered Him this world and the next if only He would turn stones into bread. Jesus refused then, and He refuses now. Jesus knew He could not meet all these people’s needs without denying something deep within Himself that God had given Him. He would be denying, in some way, His calling. Jesus was not going to allow Himself to be simply a wonder-worker.
Later, when the crowds catch up with Him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee (v.25), He delivers his famous discourse on the bread of Life, culminating in a number of His disciples being shocked by what he says (v.60-66) and leaving Him.
Jesus is not in the popularity stakes, and He will not give the crowd what they seek because to do so would mean denying His vocation.
I suspect most of us, if not all of us, come to Church on Sundays to meet Jesus but also to find a sense of peace, strength to go on this week, and guidance from our Scriptures. And there is nothing wrong with this. But there is more than this. Before you and I can ask Jesus, ‘What will you do for me?’ we need to ask, ‘Jesus, who are you, and what is your mission?’
We come to Church thinking primarily about ourselves and our needs, but then we find the Scriptures mainly talking about God. Perhaps this is why we are given this story: to remind us that following Jesus is not another way of helping us get what we want, as if this were a variation on the ‘prosperity gospel’.
We don’t know what we really need or want. In truth, following Jesus is how God gets what God wants, and only God knows what that is. We are like small children.
I don’t know how we can attract people to the unselfish Gospel of Jesus by appealing to their essential selfish needs. And I do not intend to be cynical or despairing. It has always been and always will be. This was that crowd, and Jesus never rejected them.
And He does not reject you or me because we get it wrong. He walks with us, loves us, and provides for our needs, always drawing us deeper, ever deeper. And slowly, ever so slowly, transforming us.
We cannot do this ourselves, for we do not understand what needs to be done to us. Be open to God, listen to His call to you, and allow yourself to be transformed. You and I are on the most wonderful of journeys.