The sportswriter for the Guardian newspaper reported on the big fight the other week saying: :
Anthony Joshua cleared his final hurdle in the ring, before he fights Tyson Fury in November, after he was knocked down twice, shockingly, in the first round of his wild and chaotic bout with Kristian Prenga. A devastating knockout in the second left Prenga crumpled in a heap on the canvas, wrapped up in the ropes, and rescued Joshua from humiliation.
After the opening three minutes Joshua pulled himself out of a dark pit streaked with defeat to salvage his career – and his much-hyped fight with his British compatriot (Tyson Fury)
I don’t really follow boxing but wherein lay the difference between Anthony Joshua’s performance in the first round of his fight the other week and the knockout he delivered his opponent in the second? What happened? Well what happened is that with the first round ended, he went to his corner, gathered himself and came out fighting. The lesson? We all need time to step back and take stock before we move on. It’s a lesson for people in business, generals on the battlefield, church leaders and for us as individuals.
Jesus knew this. Our Gospel reading this morning focusses on the feeding of the 5000 but it begins with the death of John the Baptist. As cousins John and Jesus’ lives were lived in parallel: they didn’t live in the same place but we know that Mary knew John’s mother & father, Elizabeth and Zechariah and had visited them. Jesus and John were the same age. Both proclaimed the coming Kingdom of God. John had baptised Jesus. The lives of these two men were bound together so we can imagine that news of John’s murder by Herod will have been a body blow to Jesus. It is no wonder he took himself off to a ‘deserted place by himself’: he needed to mourn but he was acutely aware that if John could be remoived so easily then so could he – perhaps he would be next on Herod’s hit list. Jesus needed time to gather himself. Time to pray.
Perhaps you know the feeling? Our lives connect as we gather in church but behind our front doors our lives can be very different. There are some for who life is good at the moment, others for whom it is a struggle. Some are living very settled lives. Others are facing times of change and transition – in their career, in their family circumstances – they are anxious about children or elderly parents. Time to take stock. Time to remind ourselves of who we are in amongst the busy-ness is essential. Do you make that time? Each day? Do you have some pattern of prayer? Some routine built into your day when you can take a few deep breaths, read the scripture, review the day that has passed or lay the coming day before God. We all need this. And sometimes we need to press pause: to withdraw (just as Jesus did). As parishes in this vacancy this time is given to you to reassess your common life, the heart of who you are as St Mary’s, St Andrews, St John’s. As individuals time walking the dog, going on pilgrimage, taking a retreat (or joining an online retreat – the Cathedral offers them) can be helpful.
Jesus sought out that time but he hardly got it: the only time he managed to carve out before others flocked around him again was the length of time he spent in the boat. Yet, by the time he climbed out of the boat he knew again deep down what he was about. He would not allow John’s murder to derail what he believed to be his calling so he stepped back into the crowd to offer healing and compassion: signs of God’s Kingdom come on earth.
But the people are in a deserted place. A lot of people: 5000 men let alone women and children. A lot of people in a desert. We have been here before. Israel spent 40 years in the desert back in the days of Moses and the Exodus. The desert is where God’s people are formed, where they learn dependence upon him. It is an uncomfortable place but an important one. And the desert is where there is no food – only the food that God supplies: quails for meat, daily bread (manna) to gather.
If we learn the importance of withdrawing to recentre ourselves from the first verses of our Gospel we are now shown the difference between our natural way of viewing the world through the lens of scarcity and God’s way, which is through recognising abundance.
‘We haven’t got enough time’ – the hour is now late. ‘We haven’t got enough food’ to feed so many people. The disciples aren’t the only believers who have looked at themselves and the challenges they have faced and thought ‘we haven’t got enough’. We don’t have enough clergy. We don’t have enough money – notice how the disciples immediately think about money and cost! We don’t have enough children’s workers. We don’t have enough volunteers. The long and the short of it is ‘We don’t have enough faith.’
For many years I was part of a group in the diocese that supported the Diocesan Missioner in awarding Micro Grants to parishes. In all those years we rarely used all the money in the budget. Not because we were unwilling to give it but because the problem in our parishes was not really money – it was vision as to what might be possible so there weren’t enough applications.
‘We haven’t got enough’ say the disciples. ‘Bring me what you have’ says Jesus. And then the miracle happens. Where do you think the miracle happen? Does it happen in Jesus’ hands as he breaks the bread and the fish?…or in the baskets as they are passed out to the people sat on the grass?…or does the miracle occur as each person reaches into the basket and finds that it miraculously refills? As with that other story of abundance – the water turned to wine at Cana- we’re left guessing, we’re not told. God (not Moses) gave the people bread to eat in the desert. Jesus feeds the 5000 – with more to spare.
The difference between these stories of miraculous feeding in the Old and the New Testaments is that Jesus involves his disciples in the miracle making: it is their gifts that are transformed and prove enough to feed the crowd.
I wonder then what your gifts are? What are the things that you have that might be offered afresh to God? Certainly, your natural gifts and abilities. For sure, your money: financial giving shapes our attitude to things and possessions let alone helps to support the ministry of our churches. But looking further afield what other ‘missional gifts’ are in your parish? Are there people in the community who (though not yet disciples) are supportive of the what your church is doing: they are a gift. How are your historic buildings being used to serve the needs of your communities? Our buildings can be a gift. And what a gift our local schools are!…and the setting of your churches (on the River, on the Way of Life, by The Green at Gainford). These are all gifts. You know your parishes better than I: community groups, common purpose shared with neighbours, that new person who has moved into the village who has an interest in…well, whatever. Gifts are all around us.
Renewed in his mission Jesus takes what we give him, he blesses it, he breaks it and gives it to his disciples to share with others. It is what He does. It is what we do every time we celebrate communion. It is meant to be ‘who we are’. Each week we take the bread, we give thanks over it, we break it and share it. It is deeply ingrained in the pattern of our service. It is a pattern that is meant be engrained in our lives as individuals and as a church. There is always enough if we offer what we have. If we let Jesus bless it and use it. No church is too small and every church has all the gifts it needs to fulfil its purpose in the economy of God. When we are anxious and we hold on to what we have, we restrict God’s generosity. When we offer those gifts to Jesus to be blessed, broken and given we find there is more than enough.
So two things this morning.
Firstly, Step back: be kind to yourself, recognise the seasons of life, make time (daily) to reflect and be grounded in who you are and what God requires of you and, if you are able try to find some extended time to do this.
But secondly, step forward: with compassion and healing, with the desire to offer your life, the life of the church, the life of your parishes to Jesus so that he might take, bless, break and give His life to others and then see the miracles unfold.
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