Readings:
2 Kgs 4:42-44
Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
Eph 4:1-6
Jn 6:1-15
I am standing next to Phlip and to Jesus as I turn and look at the crowd that is following. Jesus, too, sees the crowd coming. The sheer magnitude of it may even take his breath away as he encounters the needs of his people in the flesh. Those physical needs are held alongside the needs he knows live within them. Philip and I both hesitate – we do not have enough. What it takes is more than what I have at hand to tackle the great challenge that is heading my way.
I close my eyes and can see the mountains of laundry. The tiny socks that inevitably lose their mate. The clean sink that just invites dirty dishes to create a new mountain. The counter in my inbox, moving ever upward in the number of unread emails. Days that speed by while my to-do list refuses to shrink. The hurting of the world before my eyes. News feeds constantly populate breaking stories of violence and war. People who are hungry for food, for shelter, for safety, for a life that is full and free from danger.
I open my eyes and I still see all of it. It’s too much. How many day’s wages are needed to begin to chip away at the struggles and suffering I cannot unsee? The seemingly incessant crowds of people suffering and crying out keep my eyes seeing the crowds and the piles. They keep my mind convinced that there is not enough for my own needs, let alone the needs of God’s people.
“Have the people recline.” Jesus’ answer to the crowd of need and desire descending upon them is an invitation to rest. While I settle into worry, Jesus invites us all to rest. I see the few loaves and fishes: “What good are these for so many?” Where I see lack, Jesus creates abundance. The loaves and fishes I see become more than enough – there are fragments left over.
The invitation to rest softens what I am capable of seeing in front of me. Standing next to Philip and Jesus, I can see crowds that have moved from suffering to satisfaction of body and soul. As I imagine myself next to Jesus watching the crowds, I can choose to trust that what we have can be enough. I can choose to imagine the ways what we have can be multiplied for the good of others.
Ellen Romer Niemiec, MDiv
Director of Enrollment Management