Illustrations, Quotes and Lectionary Reflections
by Various Authors

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
Sermon Starter

John 6:1-21

Lance Armstrong. Going for his eighth Tour de France. His heart is nearly one-third larger 
than that of the average man. At resting, it beats an average of 32 times per minute, 
during peak performance, 200. He burns up about 6,500 calories every day for three weeks 
while in the race. One of the stages of the race is 120 miles long-that day he will burn 
10,000 calories. You and I burn 3,500 and that's on a good day. His lungs can take in 
twice the oxygen. His body fat level is 4 percent. Yours is 16. He has a weird femur bone. 
It's longer than the average man's. That gives him more torque when peddling his bicycle 
for 2000 miles through French mountains. This year he is older than most of the other competitors, 
yet it is as if he was built to ride. 

Looking at this man it is unbelievable that cancer struck him in September 1996. 
He went through brain surgery and later chemotherapy so aggressive that it destroyed 
some of his muscle structure, burned parts of skin, and gave him permanent kidney damage. 
And yet the best bicyclists in the world have chased him for years. He is the pacesetter. 
He is the measure by which all others gauge their success. He is the unique one. 
All others are taught by his example. 

Philip stood looking out at the masses that were now approaching. I'm not sure what was 
on his mind, perhaps thrilled by the success they were having. Jesus, watching over Philip's shoulder, 
asks, "Philip, where shall we find bread for these people to eat?" Philips gives a realistic appraisal 
of the situation: Eight months wages would not be enough to feed everyone so much as a little nibble. 
But we are let in on a little secret. Jesus is testing and I think teasing Philip a bit here. 
Jesus already knows he will feed them by multiplying five small barley loaves and two small fish. 

Jesus is ahead of Philip. He is the pacesetter. He is out in front of them all, minutes ahead sizing up 
the situation providing the solutions before we even know what the problems are. 
He is the unique one, the measure by which all others gauge their lives. 

The feeding of the five thousand is a miracle on a grand scale but if we concentrate 
too hard on the miracle we will miss the message in the background. 

 What are we to learn from a small meal? 
 What are we to learn from this big miracle? 
 What are we to learn from the long awaited messiah?




Are You a Satisfied Customer?
Sermon Starter

John 6:1-21

Did you know that neon signs can be hazardous to your health? There is one neon sign 
that is hazardous to mine. It is the one that flashes "hot" in bright red on the window of Krispy Kreme. 
If you have ever eaten, some really great, hot, Krispy Kreme doughnuts oozing with that glaze 
that is so wonderful for your cardiovascular system, you know there are always two problems 
in that box of doughnuts: (1) one is never enough (2) no matter how many you eat eventually 
you'll always want more. 

For so very many people, life is just like that. There is a never ending quest for fulfillment. 
There are so many people in this world who have found success, but they have not found significance. 

This world is filled with people who are desperately trying to find purpose and meaning, 
fulfillment and significance in their life. The truth is when it comes to living and life, 
most people are not satisfied customers. It was the great philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, 
who once said, "The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation".

People are hungry and they are hungry for two things primarily.



Partners in the Impossible
Sermon Starter

"Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?" (v. 5b)

A minister was making a home visit to one of the younger families in his parish. 
A five-year-old boy answered the front door and told the minister his mother would be there shortly. 
To make some conversation, the minister asked the little guy what he would like to be when he grows up. 
The boy immediately answered, "I'd like to be possible." 
"What do you mean by that?" the puzzled minister asked. 
"Well, you see," the boy replied, "just about every day my mom tells me I'm impossible!"

What seems to be impossible in your life these days, my friend? Some task you are facing in your personal life? 
Or maybe as you look out on our weary world and society today, you are prompted to ask, 
"Who is going to accomplish all the things that seem so impossible in our world today?"

In such times Jesus Christ is asking you and me to join with him in being partners in the impossible. 
To his friend and follower, Philip, Jesus says, "Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?" 
An impossible task, indeed!

But as we look at this question of Jesus in the Bible this morning, let's try and take hold 
of the encouraging truth that emerges, and it is this: Christ never asks us to do the impossible 
unless he himself provides the power and resources to get the job done. 
So today let us confidently answer his call, for he is our divine partner in doing the impossible.



Jesus Takes Command

Only one miracle made it into all four gospels. It transpired on the grassy hills 
by the shores of the Sea of Galilee at a time when Jesus' popularity--and also his vulnerability -- 
was cresting. Wherever he went, a throng that included many deranged and afflicted trailed behind.

The day before the big miracle, Jesus crossed the lake to elude the masses. Herod had just executed 
John the Baptist, Jesus' relative, his forerunner and friend, and Jesus needed time alone to grieve. 
Doubtless, John's death provoked somber thoughts of the fate awaiting him.

Alas, there would be no secluded retreat. A huge swarm of yesterday's multitude made 
the ten-mile journey around the lake and soon hundreds, even thousands of people 
clamored around Jesus. "He had compassion on them," says Mark, "because 
they were like sheep without a shepherd." Instead of spending the day renewing his spirit, 
Jesus spent it healing the sick, always an energy drain, and speaking to a crowd large enough 
to fill a modern basketball arena.

The issue of food came up. What to do? There are at least five thousand men, not to mention 
the women and children! Send them away, suggested one disciple. Buy them dinner, said Jesus. 
What? Is he kidding? We're talking eight months' wages!

Then Jesus took command in a way none of them had seen before. Have the people sit down 
in groups of fifty, he said. It was like a political rally--festive, orderly, hierarchical -- 
exactly what one might expect from a Messiah figure.

Unavoidably, we moderns read Jesus' life backwards, knowing how it turns out. 
That day, no one but Jesus had a clue. Murmurs rustled through the group on the packed hillside. 
Is he the one? Could it be? In the wilderness, Satan had dangled before Jesus 
the prospects of a crowd-pleasing miracle. Now, not to please a crowd but merely 
to settle their stomachs, Jesus took two salted fish and five small loaves of bread 
and performed the miracle everyone was waiting for.

Three of the Gospels leave it at that. "They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples 
picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish," reports Mark with masterful 
understatement. Only Jon tells what happened next. Jesus got his time alone, at last. 
As the disciples rowed back across the lake, fighting a storm all the way, 
Jesus spent the night on a mount, alone in prayer. Later that night he rejoined them 
by walking across the water.

(Philip Yancey from The Jesus I Never Knew, 175-176.)



Lowered Expectation

Would it surprise you to learn that everything in your life right now is pretty much 
the way you made it? That from hundreds of options you chose your responses 
to whatever situations presented themselves? Would you agree that you have exercised 
the capacity to choose what you have received? If so, doesn't it stand to reason 
that if you made the choice in the first place, you can change it?

What a powerful notion! Whatever happens to you, you can say, "I am the master of my life."

But just as the good that comes to you is a demonstration of your mastery, so is the negative. 
Consider how hopping fleas are trained. The fleas are put into a glass jar. 
As they try and jump in the jar, they bump their heads on the lid. Over time, 
they forget they can jump and, for fear of bumping their heads, never go beyond the limits 
of the jar, even though the lids have been removed. Through continued failure 
they have become conditioned to confinement. So it is with us, if we let it be. 
Our self-made limitations sometimes cause us to forget that we can fly. 
WE RESPOND LIKE THE DISCIPLES, "WE ONLY HAVE FIVE SMALL LOAVES OF BREAD 
AND TWO FISH. We often needlessly confine ourselves to glass jars.  
We may yearn to use our lives creatively, but our invisible prisons remind us: 
"You can't do that. It isn't practical. You're not smart enough. It will cost too much. 
People will laugh at you. You're too young. You're too old. Your health won't allow it. 
Your parents won't allow it. It will take too long. You don't have the education."

But suppose we could remember that we were made to achieve? SUPPOSE THAT
WE COULD REMEMBER THAT MIRACLES DO HAPPEN? Suppose we really believed 
that we are children and heirs of this magnificent universe? Would we then still allow 
our jars to limit us to hopping just so far and no further? Suppose we became aware 
that resentments, hurts, hates, grudges, illness, greed and the like are glass jars 
that have been, or can be, removed, that, indeed, we may be hampered 
by the illusion of our own self-imposed limitations? We attract to ourselves 
whatever our minds are focused upon.

Once aware, we can change and then we will no longer be confined 
to that glass jar. We will be ready and able to achieve.

(John Marks Templeton from Discovering the Laws of Life, Continuum, 1995, 242. 
Capital words added.)



We Can't Afford It

William Easum is a church leader who's dedicated his life work to helping churches thrive 
and engage in real mission. He thinks we ought to deal with things that get in the way 
of fullness of God and mission, he wrote a book called "Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers". 
The title says a lot! He begins the book's first chapter with this statement, 
"Established churches worship at the feet of the sacred cow of CONTROL." 
Personally, one of the most often used controlling statements I've heard over the years 
in any church I've served is, "We can't afford it." That is merely the echo of Philip the disciple, 
who told Jesus there simply wasn't enough money to buy food for all those people. 
We don't have enough money. Or, there isn't leadership potential. Or, we just ordinary folks. 
Or, we can't do it. Or, we like things just the way they are. Leave us alone! 
I think that's what we really mean whenever we say, "We can't afford it".

(David G. Mullen from There is a Boy Here...)



I’d Like to Be Possible

A minister was making a home visit to one of the younger families in his parish. 
A five-year-old boy answered the front door and told the minister his mother 
would be there shortly. To make some conversation, the minister asked the little guy 
what he would like to be when he grows up. The boy immediately answered, 
"I'd like to be possible." "What do you mean by that?" the puzzled minister asked. 
"Well, you see," the boy replied, "just about every day my mom tells me I'm impossible!"

What seems to be impossible in your life these days, my friend? Some task you are facing 
in your personal life? Or maybe as you look out on our weary world and society today, 
you are prompted to ask, "Who is going to accomplish all the things that seem so impossible 
in our world today?"

In such times Jesus Christ is asking you and me to join with him in being partners in the impossible. 
To his friend and follower, Philip, Jesus says, "Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?" 
An impossible task, indeed!

But as we look at this question of Jesus in the Bible this morning, let's try and take hold 
of the encouraging truth that emerges, and it is this: Christ never asks us to do the impossible 
unless he himself provides the power and resources to get the job done. 
So today let us confidently answer his call, for he is our divine partner in doing the impossible.
 
(Richard W. Patt from Partners in the Impossible, CSS Publishing Company)



Walking in Circles

You may know the famous story of Jean Henri Fabre, the French naturalist, 
and his processional caterpillars. He encountered some of these interesting creatures 
one day while walking in the woods. They were marching in a long unbroken line 
front to back, front to back. What fun it would be, Fabre thought, to make a complete ring 
with these worms and let them march in a circle.

So, Fabre captured enough caterpillars to encircle the rim of a flowerpot. 
He linked them nose to posterior and started them walking in the closed circle. 
For days they turned like a perpetual merry-go-round.

Although food was near at hand and accessible, the caterpillars starved to death 
on an endless march to nowhere.

That seems to be the story of many people today. They are on a march that leads to nowhere. 
We need to stop for a moment, and sit down in the presence of Jesus.

Then we need to receive what Christ has to offer us, just as the multitude 
received the loaves and fish.

(King Duncan from Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)



Fear Not

Our fear is a hump we have to get over, and we have to get over it 
before we can go very far with Jesus. To help an alcoholic or a drug addict, 
we must first get him or her off the stuff. That is the first step, the first lesson 
(if you will): to stop drinking or using. Only then does it make sense to talk about 
other things. Jesus knew that people, from the day they are born, are slaves to fear, 
just as much slaves as a drunkard is to his bottle or an addict to his needle. 
And, until we can stop being afraid, and trust God, nothing else works. 
We are simply too consumed by fear and worry and anxiety to think about anything else. 
For that reason Jesus spent a great deal of time telling us not to be afraid -- 
telling us directly, and acting out God's grace by feeding people who were hungry 
and rescuing those in trouble on the sea. God will be there when we need him. 
Fear not. It the first lesson in the Christian primmer, the one on which all the others build.

(William R. Boyer from Four Miles Out)



In thinking about the young boy and his lunch for Jesus, perhaps we can take a leaf 
from this encounter in Winnie-The-Pooh (p. 84.) ­

   “It is hard to  be brave” said Piglet, sniffing slightly,
   “when you’re only a Very Small Animal”.
   Rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said:
   “It is because you are a very small animal that you will be
   Useful in the adventure before us”



Someone must have told the story of Jesus feeding the multitudes to a certain nun, 
who came to her superiors with three pennies and a dream from God to build 
an orphanage in Calcutta. They tried to discourage her, saying that she could not build an orphanage ­ 
or anything else for that matter ­ with three pennies. But Mother Teresa told them that with God 
and three pennies she could do anything.  God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.



“NO HANDS BUT OURS”

And Jesus asked, “How are we to provide bread
so that these people may eat?”  - John 6: 1-15

If Christ has no hands but ours,
let us dedicate our hands to continue His work in the world:
to grow or prepare food for the hungry
to carry burdens for the weary
to write a letter to someone far from home
to bandage a wound
to soothe the broken-hearted.

If Christ has no feet but ours,
let us dedicate our feet to continue His work in the world:
to visit someone who is sick
to seek out the lonely
to befriend the homeless
to walk alongside the weak
to spread the Good News of God’s Kingdom.

If Christ has no voice but ours,
let us dedicate our voices to continue His work in the world:
to share our joys with others
to comfort those who mourn
to encourage those who feel insecure
to strengthen those who are anxious
to speak of God’s love and compassion.

   Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow human beings
   throughout the world, who live and die in poverty and hunger.
   Give them through our hands this day their daily bread,
   and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.  AMEN.

(adapted from a meditation by Mother Teresa of Calcutta)



Need Happens 24/7 

A few years ago in the city of Chicago, a crowd of community residents did something unusual. 
They picketed the churches in their community to do something other than have church. 
They picketed them to be church. They seemed to say the Christ you claim and proclaim each Sunday 
seems more than enough in the sanctuary, but never seems to get out in our neighbor-hoods. 
Why are you open only on Sunday? Need happens 24/7. There are six other days in the week, but you're closed.

(by Ozzie E. Smith, Jr. from More Than Enough)



Countering the Myth of Limited Resources 

A few years ago I served as pastor of Lavington Church in Nairobi. One day three young men came to my office. 
Although they were cheerful, they looked tired and wore out. Their tennis shoes were dusty 
and their clothes needed a wash. The first thing they asked when they came into my office 
was whether they could sing a verse of "Amazing Grace" in their language. 
They sang acappella in parts. It was so beautiful. Sounded like angel music, the kind of singing 
that tugs at the soul and brings tears to your eyes out of the blue. And then they told me their story. 
They were university students from Rwanda, 23-year olds. Two of them had been medical students. 
When war broke out in their country, they had escaped with only the clothes on their back 
and the song in their heart. They had walked for weeks without a change of clothes with no place to sleep. 
They had often gone hungry, they said, and they had no clue where any of their family members 
and friends were. They said they had learned to be grateful for their life each day 
and they had begun singing "Amazing Grace" as a prayer as they walked. They had seen so much violence 
and death and cruelty that they could not find words to pray so instead they sang "Amazing Grace" 
as they walked and they said, "God knew and that was enough."

On that afternoon in my office, these three young men had come to church asking for assistance. 
They said they had found a room to rent for eight U.S. dollars a month. They said they did not need beds; 
they would gladly sleep on the floor. They were asking our congregation to help them with a month's rent. 
Eight dollars and some money for food, a total of $12 a month. I asked the three students 
to come back in a few days so I could meet with the church leaders, and when I met my church leaders, 
they all agreed it was a great ministry. But someone talked about the budget. Someone said $8 was not a lot, 
but if you multiplied by 12 months, the next thing you know, it would be impossible. 
And someone else suggested a very Andrew-like idea. "Let's have a special project," they said. 
"Let's have a special offering. Let's tell the congregation about the situation, have these young men sing 
one Sunday morning, and whoever in the congregation is willing to help, could donate 
outside the usual tithing and offertory." The church leaders talked late into the night. 
Some were even concerned that so many refugees were in the city that the word would spread our church 
was involved in paying rent and buying groceries and we would be swamped with needs. 
Some wanted to keep church and revivals only a spiritual level. No picnics, no food, no dinner.

As I listened to my church leaders, I learned so much about the myth of limited resources. 
We often think there's just enough for some of us. Some have to go without. We're worried we'll run out, 
but guess what? God's world has enough for all of us. Someone has put it well, saying, 
"There is enough for all our needs, but there is not enough for all our greed."

(by Grace Imathiu from A Picnic on the Mountainside)



Don’t Drop the Baton 

In the 1988 Olympics, the world assumed that the United States would be victorious in the 400-meter relay. 
They simply were the best. The gun cracked and they were off and running. 
After the last curve the unthinkable happened. The United States was ahead by 10 meters with no real competition 
in sight. And then, with victory in their grasp, it happened. They dropped the baton. 
The thousands in the stands gasped in disbelief. The United States team--sleek, muscular, 
and fast as leopards, lost the race. Why? Someone dropped the baton. 

I would hate for us as a church to be the people who dropped the baton. What is God calling us to be 
and to do as God's people in this time and this place? It's not a question of resources but a question of faith. 

(by King Duncan from Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)



Stone Soup

I love the story of a Christian missionary hiking the high Andean trails to a remote village in Peru. 
He found a rock along the road, a curious geode, and put it in his backpack as a souvenir. 
That evening he strode into the village to a very unfriendly welcome. No one offered him a bed. 
No one asked him to sit by their fire. He learned that a famine had plagued the Indians for over a month. 
And the people were starving. Each was simply afraid to share amidst so much deprivation. 

Praying to Jesus how to help them, he got an idea. Calling the Indians around a campfire 
he preached God's loving care in Christ. Then he said, "I'm going to feed you by making some stone soup. 
Yummm! It's tasty! I grew up on it! And you'll like it just fine!" Then he opened his backpack 
and produced the rock he'd found that morning. 

The Indians scoffed, "Stone soup! Why that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" 

"Trust me," the missionary assured them. "See! I've brought the stone. But I'm going to need a pot to put it in." 
An Indian woman quickly volunteered her pot. 

"And I'll need about two large buckets of water to boil the stone in." A man, shaking his head, brought the water. 
So, in went the stone, in went the water, and over the fire the pot was suspended. Curious now, 
the villagers began to gather around the pot, peering into its contents. The missionary began to stir the pot 
and drool. "You know, stone soup sure is good with carrots!" To which an Indian said, "I've got six carrots!" 
He quickly fetched them and they were cut up into the pot. Then the missionary smelled deeply of the bubbly broth 
and sighed, "Some potatoes sure would add to the flavor." From pockets and other hiding places 
came dozens of spuds. They were quickly added to the soup. Soon people were bringing onions, celery, 
and bits of meat to top off the pot of stone soup. And within the hour a community was formed around that stew pot. 
All ate. And all were filled and they heard the story of Jesus Christ. 

Believe John 6:1-14 as a miracle of Jesus in multiplying the bread and fish, if you will, or believe Jesus' miracle 
in the selfish human heart causing the multitudes to share. But above all, remember this: The next time you see a need 
or feel inadequate, don't look at the hillside, look in the basket. Don't count the difficulties presented. 
Look at the resources possessed. Don't measure your problems. Measure God's power! 

(by Stephen M. Crotts from Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company) 



No One Completes the Journey Solo 

I am sure you are familiar with the amazing story of the migration of the monarch butterfly, 
a lovely little creature who blesses our gardens and forests in the summer. Every autumn, 
millions of monarchs from all over the eastern United States and Canada migrate thousands of miles 
to a small handful of sites in Mexico where they rest for the winter. Then in the spring, 
they begin their return trip to the north. The amazing thing is that no individual monarch 
ever makes the trip to Mexico and back. 

A butterfly that leaves the Adirondack Mountains in New York will fly all the way to Mexico 
and spend the winter. In March, it begins the trip northward, but after laying eggs 
in the milkweed of Texas and Florida, it will die. Those butterflies will continue northward, 
laying eggs along the way until some of them, maybe three or four generations removed from the original, 
make it back to mountains of New York. But when August comes, they will head south, 
aiming for the exact place their great grandparents visited, a place they have never been. 

Sue Halpern says: "The monarchs always migrate in community and depend on each other. 
Although a single monarch may make it from New York to Mexico, it is the next generation 
who completes the journey." 

Now here is the word for the church. She says: "No one completes the journey solo. 
It is only as a community that we discover the fullness of God's plan for us." 

(by John E. Harnish from Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com) 



You Alone

Whoever you are, there is some younger person who thinks you are perfect.
There is some work that will never be done if you don't do it.
There is someone who would miss you if you were gone.
There is a place that you alone can fill.

(by Jacob M. Braude)



Looking at God

In his excellent little book, How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?, 
Professor Lew Smedes says that one source of our salvation is to cultivate a sense of wonder. 
He reminds us that Jesus was a source of wonder to all who came into contact with Him, 
from the humble shepherds who were struck with wonder at the sight of blazing angels 
sashaying around the Judean hills to the Wise Men from the East who came 
and laid their gifts at Jesus' feet and wondered. All His life Jesus made people wonder. Smedes says:

As a boy, (Jesus) engaged in dialogue with learned men, all ripe with scholarly "ifs" and "buts"; 
but, we are told, they wondered at him. He boggled people's minds all his life. 
Common people saw him and sensed that there was more to him than met the eye. 
Common sense said, "We see only a carpenter's son." But he said, "If you see me, 
the carpenter's son, you are looking at God." And when he said it, people wondered.

(by Lew Smedes from How Can Everything Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?, 
San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982, p. 49)