Sermon Notes: Miracles

Father John's sermon was based on today's gospel reading from Matthew 14:13.  He started by noting that it features the only miracle reported in all four gospels.  Jesus had just heard from the disciples of John the Baptist that he had been executed by Herod and was attempting to "withdraw by boat privately to a solitary place." Father John noted that John was not only the person who announced Jesus' coming, he was also his cousin and his senseless death (see versus 6-11) clearly saddened Jesus.  Fr. John pointed out that Jesus often retreated into solitude when he needed time for reflection and renewal, but in this case, his reputation did not allow for this and he had thousands follow him.
 
In spite of his situation, Jesus had compassion (Fr. John noted that interestingly "compassion" is derived from"compassio" which means "with bread") on the crowd and healed the sick.  Then his disciples, who Fr. John reflected often seemed preoccupied with worldly things, told Jesus to send the crowds away so they can go to local villages and buy food.  Jesus responded that this wasn't necessary and asked them to gather what food they had yielding five loaves and two fish.

Father John then observed that we all have to come to our own conclusions regarding the nature of the miracle that followed, but that he knows that while God could have obviously multiplied the food to provide for the crowd, he believes that the nature of the miracle has its roots in the generosity of the people who were acknowledging gratitude to Jesus for their healing.  As the food was passed, many of the people were making net contributions to the baskets because they had likely brought food for themselves.  The miracle is manifest in the fact that it is normally our nature to take rather than give and in that situation, you might have expected a crowd this large to have taken more than they needed at the moment because food was a much more precious commodity then and they could have used what they took the next day. 

Father John reflected on how fortunate we are that so few of us have experienced literal hunger, but discussed the joy that comes from not worrying about the future, counting on and knowing that God will provide for our needs each day.  He reminded us that the Lord's Prayer requests that He "give us this day, our daily bread," and reinforced that "bread" for us is more likely not actual food.  But since we all face worldly and spiritual trials, and that if we can shift our focus in terms of what we should be seeking from God to just what we need in terms of our daily sustenance, we can all experience miraculous lives in the spirit of the fish and loaves story.   

submitted by M. White