Multitudes and Miracles

The Reverend J. Howard Cepelak

Trinity Church

Waltham, Massachusetts
Pentecost IX – 29 July 2012

II Kings 4:42-44, Psalm 145:10-18, Ephesians 3:14-21, John 6:1-14

From the Second Book of Kings:
The prophet, Elisha commanded his servant saying,
Give [the bread] to the men, that they may eat…They shall eat and have some left.

From St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians:
The apostle wrote, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named…that he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man…and be filled with all the fullness of God.

From the Gospel According to St. John:
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee…. And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased.

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation,
Amen.

Whenever I preach about the feeding of the five thousand, I feel compelled to say that this account is an account of an actual miracle, a miracle being defined as a supernatural intervention into a natural process. Ever since I can remember, people have interpreted this as less than that – as a story of sharing between all the people who had brought some amount of food with them and simply shared it with each other having been inspired to do so by the presence of – and teaching of – Jesus.

But the account tells us that this was, indeed, an actual miracle in the true sense of the word. The sharing interpretation just did not happen. It tells us that God took five loaves and two fishes – natural things and by His supernatural power, multiplied them in order to feed the five thousand.

Those who seek to explain this – and so many of the other true miracles born witness to in Scripture – are people who do not actually believe in God’s supernatural intervention in this natural world. They just don’t believe in miracles.

What they forget is that, when you really think about it, everything derives from the one great miracle of the creation of the world, the giving of life to material substance by supernatural will and of the reality that God did that. Skeptics will, of course, challenge that, saying that the creation is just a part of a natural process that occurred as a matter of happenstance, luck or coincidence.

Believing that, they have to explain away our Lord’s miracles as something natural. Again, that’s not what Scripture proclaims.

And after forty years of ministry, I know that in most cases, those who do not believe will not believe – even though they are the beneficiaries of the miracle of life. They may be among those of whom our Lord spoke who do not have ears to hear or eyes to see. So be it.

This unbelief is dangerous. If we are saved by grace operating through faith as the Scriptures proclaim – and we do not have faith – then God’s grace will not operate in, on, over, under, around and through us. If that’s the case, eternal life – another great miracle – will not deliver those souls from natural death that all mankind experiences to supernatural, eternal life.

If salvation can come to them, it’s only by virtue of the miracle of God’s mercy. But salvation of non-believers remains speculation rather than Biblical revelation – other than those whom our Lord has designated as His sheep in other folds. Again, I can only say, So be it. All of this remains in God’s hands. He saves according to His will – not ours.

Now when the multitudes went to Jesus, having seen or heard about the signs – miraculous signs of healings – that He had already done, they came seeking the same for themselves or for their loved ones. They came seeking the true miracle.

As I said in last Sunday’s sermon when I referenced the 1969 rock opera, Tommy, one of the most touching songs in that production is See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me – That’s what we – and the multitudes who went to Jesus some two thousand years ago – want from God – that He sees us and recognizes as ourselves and as His precious children – feels us by sharing in our human condition of suffering and pain – touches us so that we know for sure that He’s there and heals us. All of us want to be healed, free from illness and affliction – healthy, vigorous and vital.

Again, that’s what drew the multitudes of five thousand people to Jesus. Throughout His ministry, Jesus healed many. But in this case, He performed another miracle – He feed them with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. All of those present had enough to eat -in fact, more than enough because there were leftovers. The whole crowd benefited from that miracle and many others from a healing miracle as well.

It’s important to remember that not all were healed. As Theodore Ferris, Rector of Trinity Church, Copley Square and one of the most important preachers of the twentieth century said – and I paraphrase, God is more concerned that we be good rather than well, that we be holy rather than whole. Being well and whole remain important but it’s more important that we be good and holy.

Furthermore, Healing miracles are not exclusive to Jesus. They occur here and there throughout the Scriptures. Even the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand has an Old Testament precedent. The prophet Elisha performed the same miracle on a much smaller scale, some eight hundred years before the coming of our Lord. We read about that this morning. In that case, not only were all fed, but they, too, had leftovers.

Furthermore, we should note that all of these miracles are signs – sings that identify those miracle workers as agents of God’s mercy, as instruments of His power and as a method to direct the recipients’ attention off of themselves and onto God. That’s most important. The more we concentrate on ourselves, the less we appreciate God. And without God, we – ourselves – are nothing.

Jesus said that whoever looses himself for my sake finds him. But if we’re always searching for ourselves, we miss God – even if God were to stand before us in the flesh as He did in Jesus Christ. Scripture testifies to the fact that consumed with our ours wants, needs and desires, we will fail to live in the fullness of life promised if we concern ourselves first and foremost with Him.

Also, these miraculous signs come as gifts – as manifestations of the divine mercy and grace – and NOT as entitlements. The entitlement mentality separates us from God. A grateful mind-set brings us closer to Him.

Those who believe themselves to be entitled before God- if they persist – will be angry with Him. They want Him to be an instrument of their wills rather than submit themselves to His will. An attitude of I want, what I want, when I want it – and you are supposed to do it for me! alienates us from God. It’s a terrible sin. They not only miss the point, they miss the Savior.

Another aspect to all of this is how we perceive and appreciate – as well as participate in – the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus took the loaves and the fishes – common, ordinary and natural food – and supernaturally transformed them into enough food to feed the multitudes.

So it is when we properly understand the Sacrament – often called the Sacrament of Christian Nurture. God takes the common, ordinary and natural foods of bread and of wine and miraculously transforms them into His body and His blood.

Even as I speak these words, many of you will say, You sound like a Roman Catholic – that’s transubstantiation – we don’t believe in that. The bread is just bread and the wine is just wine. They don’t change – just look at it. It’s still bread and it’s still wine.

I am not about to proclaim the miracle of transubstantiation – but I will boldly proclaim a miracle. And the miracle is just this. That although the bread and the wine appear the same and unchanged, in the miracle of proper institution and reception, our Lord is truly and fully present to us in, on, over, under, around and through those natural elements. The supernatural resurrected Christ offers Himself to us as a sign for sure – a sign that identifies Him as our Savior and points us in His direction – and through the symbols of the elements – a symbol being something that sands in for something else not seen – but He also comes fully present to us and for us in those elements. The elements become icons as they participate in the reality for which they sand. Although we cannot see that miracle with natural eyes, we can receive it by virtue of His supernatural grace.

A personal witness. For most of my life, I understood the Sacrament in terms of sign and symbol. But years ago, when I was attending church at the Church of he Advent, I went through a particularly difficult time. Talking about this to the Rector of that parish, he said to me that I should take the whole of that bad situation and, when he placed the bread in my hand, to simply say a silent prayer to the effect, Lord take this burden from me. I cannot handle this myself.

Well, I did. After the service, he asked me if I had done that and how I felt. I said that I had but felt pretty much the same. The miracle happened later that week – that by Wednesday the bad situation has not only resolved itself, but also left me in a better position than before with reconciliation with the others involved. The better position and the reconciliation were the unexpected but most highly valued leftovers.

St. Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians, I bow my knees before the Father – let me interrupt the quotation – try kneeling prayer – it puts one’s natural body in a position to receive the supernatural grace – very important – that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man…and be filled with all the fullness of God.

That pretty much sums it up. God’s will is that we be filled with Him rather that all filled up with ourselves- our laments, complaints, our aches and pains, our sufferings and afflictions. He wants us so alive in Him that, dead to ourselves, we can live forever – and be so much more alive as ourselves in terms of His original intention for us.

Filled with His might and acknowledging His glory, we can taste of His holiness, receive the miracle of His grace, be set free through His mercy and finally, when we have run the race set before us and receive the crown of life perfected in eternal life.

One last thought.

That perfection of eternal life comes even to our natural bodies – for at the end of time (which might have already happened but we have to catch up to it trapped as we are in space and time), He will open up our graves and raise us up – that alive in Him we may live forever in the miracle- offered to the multitudes – of resurrected life.

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, deliver us fro many claim to an entitlement and bless us with the grace to know and obey your holy will. Make us instruments of your grace, mercy and peace and finally, bring us, at last, onto eternal life.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
our only Savior,
Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord.
Amen.

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