God's
Abundant Presence
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Rev. Kathryn Matthews Huey serves as Dean of the Amistad Chapel at the Church House in Cleveland.
Weekly Prayer
In your compassionate love, O God, you nourish us with the words of life and bread of blessing. Grant that Jesus may calm our fears and move our hearts to praise your goodness by sharing our bread with others. Amen.
Focus Scripture
John 6:1-21
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
Reflection by Kate Matthews (Huey)
It's tempting to read this story from the Gospel of John as one more example of Jesus' compassion, with a note of communion added in, when Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, and distributes it to the hungry crowd. We would be missing so much, however, because we read from the weekly lectionary in short passages, missing the setting and the progression to what comes afterward (or from what came earlier). Yes, compassion and communion are found in these stories, but there is so much more. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the crowd, John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. Of course, we learn who Jesus is by what he does (isn't that true of everyone--don't actions speak even louder than words?), but John's powerful discourses by Jesus are not free-floating. The words Jesus said connect to these stories about what Jesus did. And so we have the disciples, down-to-earth (even up on a mountain) and overwhelmed by the crowd, computing the cost of feeding so many people. "Impossible!" they say, but we know that all things are possible with God, so this story is just as much, if not more, about the power of God in Jesus as it is about Jesus' compassion for the hungry crowd. Indeed, God's power is "far more than all we can ask or imagine," just as we read in Ephesians 3:20b.
For Further Reflection
C.S. Lewis, 20th century
"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
Chinese Proverb
"The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water; but to walk on the earth."
Sue Monk Kidd, 21st century
"I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century
"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."
Walt Whitman, 19th century
"Every moment of light and dark is a miracle."
The Rev. Kathryn Matthews Huey serves as Dean of the Amistad Chapel at the Church House in Cleveland.
Weekly Prayer
In your compassionate love, O God, you nourish us with the words of life and bread of blessing. Grant that Jesus may calm our fears and move our hearts to praise your goodness by sharing our bread with others. Amen.
Focus Scripture
John 6:1-21
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
Reflection by Kate Matthews (Huey)
It's tempting to read this story from the Gospel of John as one more example of Jesus' compassion, with a note of communion added in, when Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, and distributes it to the hungry crowd. We would be missing so much, however, because we read from the weekly lectionary in short passages, missing the setting and the progression to what comes afterward (or from what came earlier). Yes, compassion and communion are found in these stories, but there is so much more. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the crowd, John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. Of course, we learn who Jesus is by what he does (isn't that true of everyone--don't actions speak even louder than words?), but John's powerful discourses by Jesus are not free-floating. The words Jesus said connect to these stories about what Jesus did. And so we have the disciples, down-to-earth (even up on a mountain) and overwhelmed by the crowd, computing the cost of feeding so many people. "Impossible!" they say, but we know that all things are possible with God, so this story is just as much, if not more, about the power of God in Jesus as it is about Jesus' compassion for the hungry crowd. Indeed, God's power is "far more than all we can ask or imagine," just as we read in Ephesians 3:20b.
For Further Reflection
C.S. Lewis, 20th century
"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."
Chinese Proverb
"The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water; but to walk on the earth."
Sue Monk Kidd, 21st century
"I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 19th century
"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."
Walt Whitman, 19th century
"Every moment of light and dark is a miracle."
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