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Bible Reading: John Chapter 6, Verse 1-14
The theme
for the gospel reading we just heard is that out of God’s
riches, a great crowd is fed and satisfied from a small
offering of food.
If you
visit an ancient building or even simply go up the steps
here to the tower, you will find that many of the steps are
worn from the tread of hundreds and hundreds of feet passing
along. And how many of us have a much loved but very worn
teddy bear from our childhood, a toy that shows the results
of being loved and loved well. The book that I use for a
Book of Common Prayer
service is old and well worn by many owners.
Each step,
each cuddle of the teddy bear, each picking up of the book
is in itself only a slight action which we can’t imagine
will do much. But day by day, over the years, the effect of
all these little actions starts to show quite dramatically.
Little actions turn out to be very important. Even a smile
can spread wider than we might think. There’s an old rhyme
about smiles.
Smile
awhile, and when you smile another smiles, and soon there’s
miles and miles of smiles and life’s worthwhile because you
smile.
Smiling is
infectious and it uses fewer muscles than a frown!
Today we
heard the story of the boy and his packed lunch. We may well
ask ourselves the question – what was the point of him
offering that when there were so many thousands of people to
feed? Perhaps we even think that he might as well have just
eaten it himself! But then we look at what happened when,
instead of being selfish, the boy wanted to offer what he
had to share. Jesus used it. The small boy gave a quick and
willing response with the prompt offer of his lunch and that
shows us the lovely quality of children that Jesus warmed to
and longed to find in adults.
There’s a
quiz on Sky TV called ‘are you smarter than a ten year old?’
where members of the public answer questions based on the
National Curriculum for six to ten year olds and are able to
have some help from a group of ten year olds. When the time
comes to pick a helper, the children are all putting their
hands in the air and saying or shouting even, ‘pick me, pick
me’. I guess that most of us would have done that to some
extent when we were young children!
Anyway,
Jesus blessed the gift from the young boy and then all the
people were fed, with some food left over. Andrew had been
touched by the boy’s gift but had natural adult misgivings
about the actual use of it! But for Jesus, the willing
sacrifice, the spontaneous desire to sacrifice, is what
enables him to feed the vast company of people with God’s
liberality, God’s kindness, his bounty.
So what
does this story, this miracle mean to Christians today?
As soon as
we show God that we are ready to put ourselves out, God can
use us, often with far more effect than our meagre offering
on its own could achieve. We will soon notice that God is
very good at giving us more than we asked for, and giving it
in ways we hadn’t thought of! But he does need us to offer
what we have, whether that’s time, money or talents and
skills. Basically what we have to offer is ourselves. And
when we do that, God can use the rest of our life here in
ways we haven’t even thought of. If we offer ourselves at
the start of the day, then every day can be used for some
wonderful good that wouldn’t otherwise happen. Remember, a
simple smile can make other people smile too. A smile is
infectious, so is God’s love.
Mrs. Linda Frost,
Reader. |
