Just One Step

John 6:1-21

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand

in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Today, Jesus takes the disciples to school.  Yeah, he also happens to feed 5000 people with divinely delicious fish sandwiches, but really, that’s NOT the point, not the main point anyway.  Feeding the 5000 is simply Jesus’ teaching tool du jour.  You see, Jesus didn’t JUST have his sights set on satisfying the bellies of those particular 5000 folks, just that one time, on top of that one hill in the middle of nowhere.  Jesus had his sights on the transformation and salvation of all of creation!  He fed 5000 people, sure, and free fish sandwiches are, without any doubt, really, really awesome, BUT he mostly fed 5000 people in order to teach the disciples then, and teach us disciples now, how we are to join in as God changes the world!  It turns out that the way you change the whole world is the EXACT same way you feed 5000 people… you see the need, you sit down, you say a prayer and then… you take one step. 

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That’s an English adaptation of a quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.  It means that even the most impossible seeming distances are crossed by beginning the journey with one step and then another and then another.  We’ve been seeing that Chinese proverb literally lived out as we sit on the edge of the field inviting hikers from the Appalachian Trail to come over for snacks, water, conversation, a chair and a little shade.  By the time those hikers get to our little corner of the hay field on West Sheffield Road, they’ve walked, one step after another for over 1500 miles!  Every single one of them began that 1500 mile journey with just one step.  Just one!  

For those hikers their journey began first by becoming aware of the Appalachian Trail.  For some they have known about it their whole lives.  One guy from Maine has intentionally NOT hiked to the top of Mt. Kathadin before because he’s been saving it for when he finishes the whole trail.  Others learned about it in the middle of their lives.  One couple started thinking about it only five years ago and then thought, “Maybe we should see if we even like hiking and camping before we start.”  They had never hiked or camped before!  

For Jesus, the feeding of the 5000 began with seeing the crowd.  How could you miss a trail that goes up the whole East Coast?  How could you miss a crowd of 5000 people?  How could I miss a business between here and Great Barrington someone told me about the other day.  How did 80% of another church miss the homeless guy camping in the woods beside their church?  How did Phillip miss the kid with the bread and fish?  Jesus’s first lesson he taught was that the disciples needed to look up and NOTICE!  To see the people around them, to see the need around them, AND to see the blessings around them. 

Phillip couldn’t even see the kid with the bread and fish, and while Andrew saw it, he immediately dismissed it.  “What’s a couple fish and some bread among so many people?”  What that was, Jesus taught them, was a GIFT!  We so often focus not on what we have but on what we don’t have.  This is perhaps one of my greatest personal difficulties.  I’m constantly fighting that voice that says there’s not enough!  But, Jesus taught the disciples then and is trying to teach us disciples now, not to underestimate the power of some small gift just sitting there right in front of you!  

Jesus then modeled for the disciples the next critical lesson.  Sit down, give thanks and begin.  Jesus had the people sit down, he took the loaves and fish and gave thanks and then began to hand out fish sandwiches.  Did they have enough for the whole crowd?  Nope.  But Jesus was teaching them that amazing things happen as you walk the Jesus Way, or as Bishop Curry calls it, The Way of Love.  Amazing things come up all along the Way.  On the Appalachian Trail it’s called “Trail Magic” and many of the people who have stopped by our little spot have said that the “Trail Magic” they’ve encountered along the way has inspired them to begin to think differently… to think of ways they too could add a little spot of kindness to the world.  Our little corner of kindness in a manure strewn hay field is doing nothing less than changing the world!  Not all of it at once, but our little corner of kindness is appreciated and it will be remembered and brought back with hikers to New Zealand, Austrailia, Ireland, Germany, Japan, and countless other places.  Five loaves and two fish did more than the disciples could imagine.  Five watermelons and two canopies have already done more than us disciples could have imagined.  All sorts of things are possible from what seems like nothing.  There’s even this local nutter who looked around and started making bird houses out of an old fence!  He's selling them for our capital campaign!  It won't top off the capital campaign, but it's a step and who knows what will happen along the way!  

So the word for today is DARE!  Dare to look up from this heads-down, push through, no eye contact life… look up and SEE… really SEE the people around you and dare to look into their eyes and see their needs, their hopes and their dreams.  And when the problem you see there seems overwhelming and when the temptation hits to look away… to look back down… to not see it, because it's just too much to bear, try to resist looking down, and instead look around.  Look around and you’ll inevitably find a little basket of five loaves and two fish, or a fence that can be turned into bird houses, or a little grant or a neighboring church, or a friend to help… because it’s there… that little thing you need to begin is right there at your feet… and then, even though it’s not any where near enough to change the world in one fail swoop, pick it up anyway... then sit down, say a prayer of thanks and then… take a step.  As the Talmud says, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.  Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now.  Walk humbly, now.  You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”  See the need, find the gift, sit down, say a prayer of thanks and then… take a step.  Amen.