Sunday 26 July 2009: Brenda Mosedale

Sermon preached by Rev Dr Brenda Mosedale on 26th July as heard by a member of the congregation.

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Today I do not have a flip chart with a picture of a mountain, nor are you going to be given post it notes to complete. For those of you who have not been here for the past three weeks you will not see the significance of that remark. We have been considering in recent weeks our Vision, what is our dream for this church, our Purpose, what are we here in CMK for and who are we here for. Then in the third week we considered what Pathway we would nee to take to realise this vision and purpose. Ernesto had guided us in our thinking with a picture of a mountain and indicated the vision at its peak with our current position being somewhere near the foot. (I would question whether our vision should always be for the top of the mountain, but that discussion can be for another day.)

All of our responses on the post it notes are being collated and considered, then finally distilled into a common understanding of what should be our priorities and how we move forward. It’s rather like the model for business activity of deciding what on is about and seeing if one has the right resources and how one might deploy them to achieve the objective. The theory behind the model is that if you cannot see a way to achieve the objective without undue risk then one should not waste resources starting out on the project. I work in the Health Service and quite properly we also have overall objectives and have to consider the big picture, but you cannot be doing that all of the time, for the most part you have to buckle down and get the day to day tasks completed each day without too much thought for the long term. The priority is the patient before you.

So now we come back to having a sermon based upon the bible readings, but please do not forget the thoughts about vision purpose and our pathway, they are relevant to today’s message.

Today’s readings are both about feeding a crowd of people. Elisha’s servant thought that there was insufficient food to feed a crowd of people, but Elisha had faith that with God’s help it would be sufficient. John’s gospel gives us the familiar story of the feeding of the five thousand; rather more than Elisha had to deal with. I used to worry whether the miracle was that our Lord made the bread sufficient for all of the people with no other help or if the miracle was that having portioned out a tiny single lad’s food, others who had food were moved to share what they had and so all were satisfied. I do not think it matters which way we think of the miracle.

John’s gospel has a theme of the disciples, although witnesses to Christ’s teaching and miracles, not quite getting the message. Frequently too when things get tough or problematic they would take, not one or two, but six or seven paces back and then ask Our Lord what he was going to do. This story has such an instance. I have this picture of our Lord smiling at this point and even the gospel writer recording this with a smile. You can see them at it, just like Elisha’s servant. “It would take 200 denarii to feed this many”, “It’s no good we do not have the resources.” Then Andrew comes forward with a little boy and enough for one packed lunch! Big deal!

Jesus took the bread, blessed it and broke it; then, he took the fish, blessed it and broke it. What about that poor boy seeing his food being portioned out and given away. He might not have been happy until he had received in return his portion, which proved sufficient, for we are told all were satisfied.

In looking at our vision, purpose and the pathway God is asking us to follow, we may be tempted to take a strict perspective and say, we do not have the resource, it will be too difficult for us therefore we should not try to start. Perhaps with today’s readings we are being asked to show more faith in what God can do through us and not be disheartened at the size of the task. We have put individual responses on post-it notes and there will be far too many suggestions, if we are being asked for a common way forward. Those post–it notes are our loaves and fishes and we have to be prepared to see them blessed, broken up and shared so that God’s purpose can be fulfilled and all can be satisfied.

There are records of the feeding of the five thousand in other gospels, but here in John’s gospel it is followed by the story of Our Lord walking on the Sea of Galilee to offer encouragement to the disciples who were in a boat caught in a storm. I think the reinforces the message that we should be bolder in our thinking for what we as individuals might be able to do and what we collectively as a church should take on here in CMK today and in the future. The disciples thought Our Lord was not with them when they hit the storm, but he appeared when it seemed impossible for him to be able to intervene.

I think today’s message is for us both collectively and as individuals and ask you to take it with you and think about what each of you has to offer and recognise as you do that God will take it, give thanks- maybe break it and share it- because that is what is what it may take.