Imagine it’s a hot day, like all the days have been recently. You’ve been out in London and you perhaps have a bottle of water with you, having taken heed of the reminders that are issues at underground stations. Despite the heat and despite the crowds of people- things that might normally irritate you and lead you to take shelter in the shade of your own home, you find yourself, making your way up to Hampstead Heath & to Parliament Hill. Lots of people are gathered there. There are people with children, with young babies and it’s drawing near to evening. Although no one knows each other, you all share a common aim, which is to listen to one man speak. You don’t know quite what it is about this man that draws people from all over London- some people having even travelled from the surrounding counties but something does.
Despite an underlying energy people are beginning to flag, to get too hot and too tired. You notice some of the younger children becoming very fractious. And then you realise food is being handed around- distributed by the group of men you like to call the inner circle’- you don’t know how much they’ve got, or where it’s come from, and you doubt there’ll be enough to go around all the crowds of people. But somehow it does. You’re grateful and have you’re fill but there’s still quite a bit remaining from what you’ve been given, so when some of the men come round again, collecting what’s left over, you return it, feeling refreshed.
You might find it hard to imagine a figure like Jesus Christ being part of 21st Century life. You might find it harder still to imagine a miracle like this one being performed. Very often it’s easy to get tangled up in the gospel miracles. Should we regard them as simply ways that a less sophisticated group of people understood and communicated the character of Jesus? Or are they literally true?
I personally don’t think it’s an either/or question. A more interesting question is what they tell us about God, about Jesus, and equally important, what they show us about ourselves.
I don’t know where you see yourself if you try to imagine this sort of event taking place today? I automatically imagined myself somewhere on the edges. It didn’t occur to me to see it from any other perspective than as an observer who perhaps got some food somewhere along the line.
But there are in fact two very distinct groups of people in this miracle. They are so distinct that we might not even notice. There is firstly the crowd; a group of people who pursue Jesus because they believe that he might be the person who will fulfil all their Messianic expectations. Jesus represents someone like a political liberator. At the end of this feeding miracle they wish to pursue him further, to make him into their king. They want to make him into something and someone he isn’t. So he withdraws.
They are, to use a very modern word, consumers’. Consumers both of the food provided by Jesus but also of what they believe him to be. They want to take and possess Jesus.
The disciples, the second group in this narrative, have a part to play in Jesus’ ministry. No doubt they received some of the food themselves but they were also especially instructed by Jesus to administer the bread and fish, and to gather up the fragments- the left overs. They are commissioned to act as stewards of the resources created and given by Jesus in this feast. They are contributors not simply consumers.
As we face some of the desperate questions of the 21st Century we might contemplate this distinction between consumer and steward. It refers fundamentally to how we relate to the people and the world around us. Obviously our global capitalist system is based on the premise that people will consume- which they- we- will and do. The more people are encouraged to believe that their happiness and satisfaction rests on consuming the next new thing; the more wealth will be created.
But we also know that this is creating environmental and human damage. The earth cannot survive the high levels of pollutants that are produced by air travel for example. We know that there is an enormous human cost to the trade rules that currently operate and which work in favour of Western societies whilst crippling some of the poorer nations.
Interestingly the crowd are not quite consumers in the way that I’ve described modern consumers of material goods. If anything they are spiritual consumers. They follow Christ because of the signs he does for the sick. For what he gives them. Are we any different today? Our entire model- at least in the public realm- for ways of being- is that of consumer. We have customers rather than passengers using our public transport. We even have consumers of education rather than students.
Politicians want us to believe they are listening to us and this is translated into increasing our consumer choice’ when we use or consume’ the services available on the national health for example.
In this age of consumerism we are encouraged to seek entertainment as the prime use of our leisure time. Documentaries that are made for television are encouraged to be entertaining as well as informative, to ensure viewers are not bored.
The Church sometimes believes it can only appeal to people by being similarly entertaining. That if we fail to entertain we will be accused of being boring. But as the Christian faith recognises, the opposite of boring isn’t entertaining. The opposite of boring is authenticity. When something, someone or some organisation has the ring of authencity about it, it is immediately attractive. This is why people flocked to hear Christ; he spoke as someone with authority, as the Pharisees recognised. This authority partly came from being authentic to who he, and to who his Father was and is. So we are called as a Church to live authentically as the body of Christ.
Instead it is very easy to let the consumerist mentality influence our spiritual and religious life. Often people are encouraged to shop around’ until they find the brand of worship or spirituality which suits them.
Among this, the idea of being called by God to participate and contribute to a particular community is easily lost.
But Jesus recognises the consumerist element of the faith of the crowd. He does not despise them for it. Instead he has compassion on them.
In the account of this miracle found in Mark’s gospel it is written “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd;” (Mk 6.34)
Jesus’ role as shepherd is alluded to in today’s reading from John when Jesus asks that the people be sat down on the grass. This is a reference to Psalm 23. “The lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he maketh me lie down in green pastures.”
Not only that, but he gives them what will be truly nourishing. The feeding of the 5,000 has clear parallels with the Eucharist where we offer to God thanksgiving for the abundant gifts he gives us and we offer our lives in his service.
The church- which is you and I are called to be the Body of Christ on earth- we are called to serve the world as Christ serves the world. We recognise this when we remember his sacrifice and consume the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Ironically we are enabled to act as Christ in the world through an act of consumption in the Eucharist.
At the end of this service we are sent out into the world to love and serve the lord. We are sent out as apostles: not as consumers but as stewards of God’s creation and the people in it. What might this mean? It means being engaged with the suffering of others, it means participating in the political processes which work to bring about change. In a culture which is so rooted in consumerism it means re-thinking our identity and to recognise ourselves as co-workers in God’s new creation. So let this be our prayer today.
Amen
Sarah Eynstone