Finding “The More” 4 Lent B

David M. Dubay
St. Philip’s Church
4 Lent B
3/26/2006

Dr. Phil looked almost concerned as he probed deeper into the psyche of his guest, a man not satisfied with his marriage. “What is it you want exactly? Queried Phil. The answer was quick and seemed rehearsed, “I want more.” Said the man in the power tie. “I want more that what I have.” Dr. Phil’s answer seemed appropriate, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

Jesus said more than once, “I am enough, more than enough.”

After all, what more is there than what we have in our hands right now? What more is there in life than breathing in and breathing out?
What is ‘the more’ that people crave at midlife, in despair, or in transition? Why do people seek solace in chemicals, why do young men join gangs, why do people have affairs?
Additionally what is ‘the more” that people say they’ve found when you notice that they’re not restless anymore…they seem to be content for some reason. They say, Oh I’m in a good place these days”. What does that mean?[1]

When I was young I heard about the Jesus shaped hole in my heart. The hole that I could try to fill with drugs or alcohol, or with material success, or with promiscuity…but really, only Jesus fit there. How disturbing might it be to realize that the only something that is seemingly intangible as the Love of Jesus is “the More” that we are seeking. The word of God, the Bible that seems to many people today to be written for the ancients and that we are told speaks to us today. A majestic and regal way of worship that would make King Charles I proud and that can make an 8 year old desperately look for the bag of crayons….
The ritual of the Eucharist which has baffled theologians for centuries even divided the church…all that going on this Sunday…and yet…what we need…what you and I really need is found within these walls, that gift of life, to be gathered...harvested… ingested… refined
and taken into the world. That one thing that can make a person feel centered, sometimes at peace, sometimes even blessed.

On a hillside near the water, the sea of Galilee to be exact, …Jesus had attracted a crowd.

He had been saying some new things concerning interpretation of Scripture, about lifestyles, and about the future of the people of God. He was so intriguing that thousands of people had come down to the lake to see what this rabbi was up to. They had all read the prophecies…and there was talk that maybe the Christ had shown up in their back yard. Was it possible that the end of the Roman oppression was about to end? They had to hear him for themselves…. In Matthew’s Gospel we find out that not only 5000 men were present but that their wives and children were there as well… thousands of people following this man and his disciples….and they were hungry….yes it was lunch time but they were hungry for that extra thing…that element of their faith lives that they had tried to embrace by following the law but it had not been enough. They were in crisis, in transition, in need of what God had to fill the hole in their hearts and in their lives.

These people were you and me. Regular, normal, burdened, rushed, people with huge schedules and calendars full and they needed an anchor….like you and I need an anchor.
The disciples realize suddenly that they might have a problem on their hands. There is nothing more formidable then 10,000 hungry people all looking to you for lunch.
I imagine that the disciples discussed it a bit between themselves before they went to the Lord with their problem.
Peter, you got any bread left? What about you James, how much money do you have? Hey kid…you with the baskets of food… come here!
It’s then that Jesus turns to our man Philip.
Philip, (says Jesus) "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" He said this to stretch Philip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered, "Two hundred silver pieces wouldn't be enough to buy bread for each person to get a piece." (that’s the same as almost a years wages, Philip was trying to say that it couldn’t be done)
Then one of the disciples--it was Andrew, brother to Simon Peter--said, "There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this."[2]

Little does that boy know that he has provided the elements that will be used in a bonafied miracle. Can you imagine that boy as a grandfather 50 years later by the fire place…
Now stop me if I’ve told you this one before….then He took my bread and my couple of fish and bam…buckets full….oh you have heard it? Well listen again…it’s important.
And the people that day were fed… and there were leftovers….what had been meager had been changed into abundance. What had been insufficient had been made overwhelmingly present in the lives of the people, on that grassy hillside on that day so long ago…

And God bless ‘em. They almost got it… the disciples almost understood…the people all around …just had a hint….about who this fellow Jesus was…but…not…quite.

Because they knew what they wanted Jesus to be. The vanquisher of the Romans, the new King…with him it would be up with Isreal and oppression would end…but what they got was a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven come to earth. What they witnessed was a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven wrapped up in a free lunch. What they were shown was more than they could comprehend without the agony of the cross and the glory of the resurrection.
Jesus knew that it all lay ahead of them up in Jerusalem. He would try to tell them again and again.
And that cloudiness, that lack of insight into who Jesus is to us and what He can do in our lives still exists. Once I heard a professor say that this was just a fine example of Holy Hospitality. Jesus wants hungry people to be fed. Well duh. Of course Jesus wants hungry people to be fed. You know that, I know that. But what that professor missed was the kingdom understanding of this passage. And so did the people that day…and so did the disciples.
Later on in the Gospel of John the people find Jesus again and say…Hey Jesus, we want more of that miracle food… we’re hungry again.. and Jesus says…that food is not as important as the nourishment I have for your soul for your time on this earth and for eternity. Bread and fish mean nothing compared to what I really have for you! the water of life…. the new life…. the life abundant that you get when you let me live in you!....
He looks right in our faces today and says that…
He says…let the other things wash away as priorities…let me LIVE in you… seek my face! He says…
And I turn to him and like Moses and Gideon and Peter and Sara and Paul and say… I do not have much that you need Lord. It would take so much more to do what you call me to do…I’m so small.
And Jesus reaches for the baskets that contain our meager gifts and talents and our failures and our shortcomings….he blesses them and he, through us, multiplies our insufficiencies and uses them to do great things…great, and wonderful things, things that make angels sing and God be glorified….
And all we need do is believe. And let it happen.
In Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth, he writes these words:

I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.
Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of how the churches are getting along. 29Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?
If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.[3]

Paul would be willing to boast of how great his Lord is….A God who took a man sworn to exterminate this Christian Cult This man who was by now infirm, and grouchy and by all accounts not very attractive and raise him up as the foremost teacher and preacher in the Church of Jesus the Christ.

How odd God is… how wonderful..

I leave you now with something amazing… and it comes from something hard that happened just last week.. something I’m hoping that I can get through while talking about it. Something that gave me..just a glimpse into the kingdom of heaven…even in my sorrow…even in my questioning…Jesus broke through and I saw the miracle.

Last week. Brenda and Brent, family friends, lost there baby.

After 9 months of a healthy pregnancy on the night before her planned delivery, the child’s umbilical chord became tangled and knotted and the day before Breadon Elizabeth was to be born, she died. I was there with them as a priest and a friend.
It was one of the most heart breaking moments of our lives. The kind of moment when even faithful people tremble in confusion and the prayers why Lord…why?

At Braedon’s funeral, her mother stepped up front and in a clear voice…and with a comforting smile on her face, she ministered to the congregation.
While we sat and listened and grieved, Jesus took the meager offering of a few spoken words and a few lines of scripture and multiplied the message into one of miraculous proportion.
One that brought the group of mourners to our knees…Catholics, Protestants, seekers, agnostics…no one left un move and un affected.

So...keep the picture of what had just transpired four days before while I leave you with this small part of what Brenda said to us that evening….

“There’s a place in 2nd Samuel that I have clung to for years. It says: He reached down from on high and took hold of me… in the day of my disaster the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because he delights in me.

The Lord delights in ME! He delights in all of us. That should give us hope in any situation because, like me, God is a planner too. He says in Jer. 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.

So right now, while it is so close in front of us we don’t understand this and it looks like an awful disaster, Brett and I stand firm on the Lord’s promises that there is a purpose, He delights in us, and our future is filled with hope because of the love of Jesus Christ.

Our hearts are broken today, but we put our trust in the Ultimate Planner and it is well with our souls.”

Can you imagine hearing that from a women who had just gone through what she had gone through?
Where could she have found that? What does she have that I so often do not!?
…it still floors me…….It still blesses me…
And in the future.
When I feel like that hole in my life and in my heart and soul, is growing bigger.
When I am discontent with who I am in Christ and I feel the urge to get my wants fulfilled instead of my needs met.
I may call Brenda and Brett and ask them to pray for me. I may search the scripture for what God has already told me over and over again. And hopefully I will receive the blessing of abundance of overflowing food for my spirit…
My prayer is that we, in the center of the gushing spring of the water of life we will not miss the miracle that extends from that grassy plain by the sea of Galilee so long ago to the wooden pews of this venerable old building…
We have Good Friday and Easter, every day a the communion table…think of that as you kneel at the Altar.

And I pray that we might be willing to except the miracle Jesus offers us in the cross and in the resurrection… a bonafide miracle…life abundant…weaknesses transformed into power.
a reality and not just a metaphor…

Because who in the world was ever saved by a metaphor?

WORKS CITED
Velvet Elvis, Repainting the Christian Faith, The Rev. Rob Bell (Zondervan, 2005)
Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. The Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT). : Tyndale House, 1996.
The Holy Bible, Contemporary English Version. : The American Bible Society, 1995.

NOTES
[1] Inspiration for this theme provided by The Rev. Rob Bell from his book Velvet Elvis, Repainting the Christian Faith: (Zondervan, 2005)
[2] The Holy Bible, Contemporary English Version (: The American Bible Society, 1995), John 6.
[3] Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, The Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT) (: Tyndale House, 1996), 2 Corinthians 11.