On Sunday, Dr. Kent Millard shared about the importance of hope, drawing on the apostle Paul’s passage in Romans 8, where Paul writes that “hope does not disappoint us” (8:14). Kent went on to speak about hope during a time of loss in his life and how God provides even in times of darkness. Because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, we have hope.
Kent ended his sermon by sharing the famous hymn we sing to proclaim such hope and to remember where hope abides:
     My hope is built on nothing less
     Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
     I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
     But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

     On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand.
     All other ground is sinking sand.
     All other ground is sinking sand.
 
It is upon this Rock that we have Refuge, that we have Hope.
 
As we move into August, where do you see this hope? How did Dr. Millard’s words help to comfort you?
 
We have been through a time of suffering, but that suffering does not compare to the glory to come. This is our hope.

Dr. Kent Millard 
 

In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus lowers the walls and builds bridges among people who come to see him. He takes what might appear as insignificant fragments or pieces of food to feed the crowd and to create community, to bring people together. It is a story where the disciples don’t see how they are going to deal with the problems of so many people who have different expectations of Jesus and who are hungry on the one hand, and where Jesus doesn’t see a problem but an opportunity to display God’s glory on the other. 

Indeed, Jesus stands in the center of it all and he knows in his gut that this is a God-moment, even as he knows in his gut that some folks who have gathered have other ideas in their minds as to who he is (Jn. 6:11). After all, the people who have approached Jesus are there because they have witnessed him healing the sick. They are coming with a sense of expectation that he could help them. But Jesus has other things in mind, as Jesus usually does. He is about to reveal God’s abundant love for them. 

And so, as someone with good organizing skills, Jesus tells the crowd to sit down, most likely in small groups, which is itself a miracle! (Think about organizing over 5,000 people!) He then takes what Andrew and Philip give him from a small boy on the scene, five small barley loaves and two small fish, and does what any rabbis would do on the Passover: He takes the bread and blesses it and then he gives it to the people. Even the leftovers are used, the fragments and pieces, nothing is wasted. Twelve baskets full of pieces of bread! A sign of God’s abundance. 

But notice how Jesus’ instincts kick into action when the people, having been fed, try to make him king by force (Jn. 6:15). After being at the center of the crowd and all the action, Jesus withdraws from the crowd (Jn. 6:15). It is an interesting move, as Jesus instinctively knows that the people there are no longer keeping him as the true center. Instead, they are trying to use him and make him into someone he is not – no longer seeing him as the Bread of life, whom God gives to the world, but as a king who will give them what they want. The trust is gone.  In fact, the crowd becomes a kind of mob. 

Yet all but the fragments of the bread remain. And the fragments remain blessed. They are, after all, signs of God’s abundant love, but they are also signs of how Christ’s own body itself has been broken and blessed for us – acting as a bridge over troubled waters, as a center whose life is everlasting life (Jn. 3:16), and as a gut-check to what truth is really is – or better, to who truth really is. To Jesus, our Lord and God, to Jesus the Bread of Life. Amen.
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Pastor Andy Kinsey