The Fourth Sunday in Lent - Laetare - April 3, 2011

The Church Season of Lent
The Fourth Sunday in Lent - Laetare (April 3, 2011)
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI
One Year Series

Readings:           
Psalm    132
OT    Exodus 2:-21                     
Epistle    Galatians 4:21-31
Gospel    John 6:1-15       

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

The text for today’s message is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 6th chapter of St. John.

John 6:1-15 (NIV)

1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Feast was near. 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 14 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Today’s lesson is of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the 5000 men + women and children.  But why should we really be surprised that our Lord could perform such a miracle? Think about it, the grain for the Barley loaves in Jesus’ hands and the fish themselves were created by the hands that are holding them and that same hand multiplies them.

Maybe a better question is that which we experience in our every day lives any less miraculous? Several weeks ago we discussed if miracles, that is unexpected events attributed to divine intervention, do they still occur?

For that we only have to say, look around you. Look in the mirror. Just what about your life isn't miraculous? How about the miracle of your life—we talk about the point when life becomes viable out of the womb. i.e., when one can live without the aid of the mother. But think about it, when does life really become viable without the aid of a mother, or at least other people that God has also miraculously created? Is any life possible without outside intervention and aid? And we question if God in Christ Jesus could feed 5000?

It is a miracle that there are about 7 Billion living souls today, yet the Bible has clearly stated, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. . ."(Gen 1:28)  There is the miracle of the everyday sustenance of your life. It is a miracle that one seed bearing countless fruit, all from one tree created in the first garden. It is a miracle that the very same water that flowed from the rivers in Eden, flooded the earth, rescued the Israelites, baptized our Lord, turned into wine, and quenched the thirst of the Son of God at Jacob's well is the very same water we have today, the very same water that quenches our thirst, is turned into our wine, baptizes our children, rescues people from buildings set ablaze, floods our reservoirs, and flows in our rivers. 5000 ate and they were satisfied and there was leftover bread and fish.  God provided more than they needed.

There is nothing about life in this world that is anything less than miraculous. You acknowledge that you believe in that miracle each time you confess in The First Article of the Creed—“I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, which meaning:  I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them; in addition thereto, clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and homestead, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods; that He provides me richly and daily with all that I need to support this body and life, protects me from all danger, and guards me and preserves me from all evil; and all this out of pure, fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which I owe it to Him to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him. This is most certainly true.” (SC)

You know that there is nothing about life in this world that is anything less than miraculous is also why we pray The Fourth Petition of the Lord's Prayer--Give us this day our daily bread, which means: “God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What is meant by daily bread?-- Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”(SC)

Yet in the face of all the miracles we still whine and cry that there is not enough.  Or we don’t have enough for this or for that.  We always want more of something we can’t have, or that which someone else has.  We hurt, we fear, we are stressed, and all these are from things of this world that attack us.  Some real, some self imposed, but sin is sin and all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We have looked miracles in the face and not seen them. We see the face of miracles, that is Jesus Christ and we don’t believe Him or His Word.

Repent, for the truth of the matter is that there is nothing about life, about your life, that is not miraculous, that is not an act of the divine intervention of God the Father spoken through the Word of God the Son, by the power of God the Holy Spirit. And what is true of your physical existence, this thing called life, is even more true of your eternal existence, your forever life in heaven.

Your eternal life begins with your being born again from above, by the Holy Spirit in the miracle that is Baptism—Divine intervention by water and the Word. And that eternal life that is not viable before Baptism, is no more viable for those of us who are born again without the aid of a mother and the others that make up the body of Christ on earth, His holy Christian Church, your heavenly mother on earth. Is your eternal life possible without outside intervention and aid?

Is what we have here set before us any less a miracle of the Word? All the saints are gathered with Christ and you and I today around the altar that is the very table of God the Father, from which we receive the very body and blood of Christ in the most miraculous feeding of all.  The table set before you is a miraculous feeding of not just 5000 men with their women and children, but of countless souls from all nations, throughout time. It is a miraculous feeding at which the saints in heaven who have preceded us are present with us, out of sight, but rejoicing that we who were lost and wandering about trying to fend for ourselves are now gathered here with them before God's heavenly throne.

So as we continue our Lenten journey with Christ to be crucified, buried, and raised with Him to heavenly life, repent of any of your sinful ideas or feelings or doubts that anything about this world, that anything about life in this world, that anything about your daily life, that anything about your Baptismal life is anything less than miraculous.

And pray God you never forget or take for granted that you are the recipient of miracle beyond this world: that you and I are here today to be given life and remain viable by God’s Word proclaimed by which we are born into heaven, that the Holy Spirit has penetrated our hard heads; softened our hearts of stone; and drawn us here to receive  Holy Communion, to partake of the cup of the New Testament in His blood, receive the forgiveness of our sins, and have eternal life. That is truly a miraculous feeding.  In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

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