October 27, 2025 • 35 mins
Hungry crowds, tired disciples, and one audacious question: where should we buy bread? We walk through John’s vivid retelling of the loaves and fish to see how Jesus moves a community from cost-counting to courageous offering. The setup is familiar—scarcity, pressure, and a crowd too big to feed—yet John’s details shift the lens: Passover timing, barley loaves fit for peasants, and a child who steps forward while adults do the math. Whether you hear this as supernatural multiplication or a cascade of shared generosity, the outcome is the same: everyone eats, and there is more than enough.
We talk about how Jesus stretches Philip’s paradigm, not by shaming doubt but by inviting participation. The question isn’t how much, but where—to whom will we entrust our resources, our fear, our hope? Taken, blessed, broken, given: these Eucharistic verbs frame a kingdom that converts hoarded wealth into shared provision, and faceless crowds into neighbors seen with compassion. Along the way, we contrast John with the synoptics, explore the social pressures of heavy taxation and hunger, and ask what it means for modern people to trade perfectionism for small, faithful action.
This conversation lands in the practical. What’s your five loaves and two fish today—time, skills, money, a network, a simple yes? We make room for community voices that name real takeaways: Jesus is enough, faith grows by doing, and miracles often start with the courage to offer what feels inadequate. If you’re weary of scarcity talk and ready for a deeper imagination of abundance, pull up a seat at the table. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs encouragement, and tell us: what small offering will you bring this week?
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
See, let's pray.
God give you thanks this morningfor your presence here with us,
and we ask that you would comeand uh yeah, inspire us and
awaken us this morning in allthe ways we need it so badly.
And do ask God that as weexplore this story that maybe
many of us have heard a fewtimes, I pray that you'd give us
fresh eyes and uh fresh ears.
And Holy Spirit, would you comeand yeah, would you make
(00:21):
yourself real to us thismorning?
Would you stretch us and stretchand grow our faith in all the
ways that we could use it?
And uh we give you thanks forthis baptism of Isaiah and Maya,
and pray you bless them thismorning as well.
And may you stretch their faith.
And uh may you give all of usthis morning a sense of awe and
wonder at this incredible story.
And bless us in Jesus' name.
(00:41):
Amen.
unknown (00:42):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
You can be seated.
Good morning, everyone.
How are we doing?
Good.
Hey, we're in the middle of oursermon series that is called
it's not this is not rhetorical.
This isn't rhetorical, and we'relooking at the questions of
Jesus.
Jesus asked over 300 questionsuh during his time in the
gospels.
Uh, by the gospels are the thefirst four books of what we call
the New Testament, Matthew,Mark, Luke, and John, and they
(01:05):
tell the stories of Jesus.
That's why it's called gospelgospel means good news.
And so he asked over 300questions.
So we're gonna unpack one eachSunday and just sort of see like
what would it mean if we wereasked the same question today?
What would our response be?
Or how would we wrestle withthis question?
How would we understand it andthat kind of thing?
So this morning, the questionis, uh, where should we buy
(01:25):
bread?
Which is actually quite aprofound question that Jesus
asks to Philip.
But I love this idea of worship.
In other words, he's sort ofasking after all these people
show up, hey, uh, what's fordinner?
You know?
And this is a deeply profound,but also a stressful question
for like me.
That question comes up almostall the time, every day around
three, four o'clock.
My wife will sometimes call mefrom my office, you know, five
(01:48):
five doors down.
Hey, Ryan, uh, what do you wantto do for dinner?
And like both of us, we both ofus love to eat, we love food,
and we like we like cooking justfine.
But man, you know, four or fiveo'clock, six o'clock rolls
around, you're getting homeafter a long day of work, and
like the last thing I often wantto do is spend like three more
hours making some dinner for sixof us or whatever the case might
(02:08):
be.
And she's kind of the same way.
And so it's like this questionlike, what are we gonna do for
dinner?
Maybe you're like us.
I don't know if that's like anyof you out there, but uh, one of
my favorite answers is we dothis on occasion where I call it
like the let's pick night.
Like we just say, hey, tonight,every man for himself.
Everyone do whatever find foodhowever you can, wherever you
can, or just pick around.
(02:29):
I say pick around in thecupboards and just find whatever
you can eat and just eat it,everyone for themselves.
It's like a modern world versionof like hunter-gatherer, you
know.
My kids, my kids come runningout of the room with their war
paint on, a loincloth and a bowand arrow, you know.
Scarlet goes running by with adead scroll in her hand.
I got dinner! Let's go.
There's a fire going in thebathroom.
What the heck happened?
What have we?
(02:50):
I love it though.
It's like, yeah, let's just hey,five, fend for yourself tonight,
because I don't feel likecooking.
She doesn't want to cook.
And that's basically whathappens in this story.
I love it.
There's a story that Jesus is onthe Sea of Galilee.
And here's the problem.
The problem right away is that alarge crowd, a really large
crowd, gathers.
And eventually, like somebodydoes when a large crowd gathers,
(03:11):
someone like finally says, Hey,uh, what's what are we doing for
dinner?
You know, what's the plan?
I mean, this is like the veryfirst ever church potluck.
But nobody brought anything toshare.
Like, no one brought anything.
It's like, what are we gonna dofor dinner?
Now, here's how we got here,because that's the problem.
Like, how can we feed thousandsof people?
And uh, here's how we got here.
They're on the Sea of Galilee,up in northern Israel.
It's also called the Sea ofTiberias.
(03:33):
There's lots of names for it soif you ever see in the
scriptures in the gospels, mostlike the sea or the sea of
Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias,these are all the same, it's a
really large lake, and they'rehanging out on the side of it.
And by the way, one quick thing,too.
Um, we're in the book of John.
John's the fourth book of theGospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John.
And if you didn't know thisabout the Gospels, three of them
are very similar (03:55):
Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
When you lay them out side byside, they're very similar.
There's lots of reasons why youcan Google it later.
But Matthew, Mark, and Luke arevery similar, a lot of the same
stories, a lot of the samethings.
John, though, comes rolling in,kicking the door down, you know,
a few decades later, like with awhole brand new gospel, not new,
but like a wildly different takeon things.
It's different.
(04:15):
It's a radically differentgospel.
One of the biggest reasons isthat by then, he really wants to
paint a picture of Jesus as thedivine son of God.
Just read John chapter one.
You'll get an image, like, oh mygosh, he is like really
portraying Jesus as theembodiment of God in the flesh.
So, whatever John does, that'sunique and different, usually
will tell us something aboutJesus as God.
(04:37):
So when you read it, a lot ofJohn's gospel stories, ask
yourself, what is John trying toteach us about Jesus?
And what might that teach usabout God?
And maybe broadly, the kingdomof God or how the world operates
according to God and his sort ofway of doing things.
Does that make sense?
So here's what I want to do onthis Reformation Sunday.
(04:59):
I want to involve you in thesermon this morning.
And here's how we're gonna doit.
We're gonna, I'm gonna, I'mgonna tell the story as John
tells it, and I want you tonotice the differences between
John's version and Matthew,Mark, and Luke's version.
And I'll point them out to youso you can kind of understand.
And like, and then ask yourself,what is John trying to teach us
about Jesus as the divine Son ofGod, God in the flesh, God
(05:21):
incarnate, and how God wants torun the world?
Does that make sense?
So at the end, I'm gonna haveyou raise your hands.
You're gonna have a couple ofyou speak out loud in front of
everybody.
It's gonna be okay, we'll beokay.
And I want to hear what youthink.
How how might this teach us whatJesus is like and what God is
like and what the kingdom of Godis up to, or what it looks like,
(05:42):
the way that God wants tooperate or uh run the world.
Okay, so be ready for that.
So put your thinking caps on orget your notebooks out or
whatever.
Uh, there will be a test at theend, too.
So I'm just kidding.
Okay, they're on the Sea ofTiberias, the Sea of Galilee.
And in Mark's gospel, here's thefirst difference.
Mark's gospel says, Hey, thedisciples and Jesus were tired.
They had a whole day ofministering and they're like
(06:04):
exhausted.
Maybe you've been there.
And they're like, let's just go,he goes, Hey, let's go over to
the other side here and we'regonna find some solitude and
relax and rest.
And the disciples are like, Yes,spa day for us.
Let's go over there.
And they on the way over there,a bunch of crowds who have been
attracted to Jesus for a longtime because he's doing all
kinds of incredible things, andthey're like, we want to be with
that guy.
They see him and they're like,let's go get him.
(06:26):
And they all rally to the spotwhere they're going, and like
thousands of people show up onthis rest day for the disciples.
And they're like, You've got tobe kidding me.
Like, we were hoping for a nicerest and relaxation day.
Maybe play around on golf, andnow suddenly we're at Costco on
free sample day.
There's people everywhere, it'slike madness, you know.
(06:46):
And um, I love it though,because Jesus says uh he sees
the crowds who need something.
The disciples see their need,like all these needy people
always asking for stuff.
They're hungry, they're this,they're and Jesus sees them and
their neediness, and he says hehas compassion on them.
(07:07):
How do you see the crowds?
How do you see them on yoursocial media feeds?
How do you see the other side ofthe aisle from you?
How do you look at them?
I'm just asking.
I asked myself the same thing.
He sees he sees them and hascompassion because they're like
sheep without a shepherd.
Meanwhile, the disciples werelike, what are we gonna do?
(07:29):
This is crazy.
There's thousands of people, wegotta feed them.
What are we gonna do?
So the ones of galley, and itsays 5,000 men showed up, which
means there were probably waymore than that in terms of
overall people.
There were women, childreninvolved.
Some scholars believe that therewere actually probably four
times that amount.
So math majors or non-mathmajors, it's about 20,000 people
show up on their rest andrelaxation day.
(07:50):
They're trying to hang out andchill.
And now you got 20,000 peoplewho show up, and all of them
show up and they're hungry.
It's a very large crowd.
And uh, like, what are we gonnado for food?
It's dinner time.
How can we feed all thesepeople?
The disciples, though, ever thesmart, sharp guys, they have an
idea, like, hey, uh, let's do anevery man for himself kind of
(08:13):
night.
Like, hey, here's what they saythey say, why don't we send them
away and uh let them go to thevillages and they can find their
own dinner?
Yes, they're like, we love thisidea.
It's every man for himself.
You pick five forage, whateveryou gotta do.
And they pull out their own warpaint and their loincloths, they
put them on and they get thebone hair out.
Send them away.
Let them figure it out on theirown.
We're not here to you know feedeverybody.
(08:34):
Now, by the way, on the Sea ofGalilee, there were all kinds of
villages around, and all thesevillages had like little markets
you could go and buy food.
The problem was this, though,there were 20,000 people
probably around that number.
And in the biggest villagearound the Sea of Galilee was
about 30,000 people.
So can you imagine 20,000 folksdescending on one single village
with a market that only thebiggest one only had 3,000
(08:56):
people?
It's like when you go toChick-fil-A on those days and
like a school full of like alike 10 buses on a field trip
show up in front of you, andyou're like, no, I'm not going
to Chick-fil-A anymore, youknow?
Like, how can they ever feed allthese?
There's 20,000 people there.
There's no way this is gonna bepossible to feed any of these,
any of these folks.
But they uh they're hungry.
And here's why they're hungry.
(09:18):
Most of the people in this dayand age were peasants, they were
poor.
And there's lots of reasons forthat.
One of which is that they weretaxed exorbitant like levels of
taxation.
Some scholars believe they wereup to 80% taxation in this time
and place.
80%.
That's illegal now.
It's so high.
(09:39):
So if you were a peasant, youhad like zero money, not a lot
of food, not a lot of means orresources.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest inthis area, including the
religious elite, they weren'timmune to it, they hoarded and
they kept all their stuff forthemselves.
So I wonder, maybe, I don'tknow, maybe John's trying to
paint a picture of how thekingdom of God operates versus
(10:00):
how the kingdom of the worldoperates.
What do we do when we collectvast amounts of resources?
What do we, what should we do?
I don't know.
Maybe the story will help usunderstand that a bit more.
But I know that the kingdom ofthe world of this day and age,
even the religious folks, theysort of hoarded all their stuff
and kept it for themselves.
Meanwhile, taxing the poorest ofthe poor.
80%, some historians believethey're poor, peasants.
(10:24):
And they show up and they'rehungry on the edge of famine.
And they're hungry.
And then Jesus asks thequestion.
He says, Hey Philip, and poorPhilip, he's probably the first
one standing there.
You know, like, yeah, Jesus.
Hey, where should we buy breadfor all these people to eat?
To which Philip responds, uhJesus, um, who's this we you
(10:46):
speak of?
I don't know what we're gonnado.
I have not I have nothing.
I don't know.
And Philip, I can imagine, I canfeel, I can sense, like he
starts to panic a little bit.
Like, there's 20,000 peoplehere.
Like he answers the question.
Here's how he answers it.
He's like, hey, uh, 200 denariior six months' wages would not
be enough bread to buy for eachof them to get a little bit.
(11:07):
So we could spend half a year'swage, Jesus, on these people.
It would not even be enough foreveryone to get a little bit.
By the way, did you notice thatthat wasn't what he asked him?
He didn't ask him how much itcosts.
Philip's counting the costsalready.
Jesus said, Where?
Where are we gonna get the foodfrom?
Philip answers with uh uh how?
(11:28):
Well, we can't.
Philip already is counting thecost.
Jesus never asks him this.
And by the way, in the Gospel ofJohn, and alone in John's
Gospel, it says that he asks himthis, Jesus does, in order to
test him.
Because he already knew what hewas gonna do.
So somehow in John's gospel,Jesus poses this question.
(11:50):
He initiates it to Philip totest Philip and everyone around.
Uh immediately, Philip's like,yo, man, this wasn't on the
syllabus, Jesus.
What are we doing?
What are we is this a multiplechoice question?
Essay question, what are wedoing?
Jesus is like, but don't worry,it's an open scroll.
You'll be fine.
Just don't worry about it, man.
You're right.
We're gonna all grade it on thecurve, it's fine, it's fine.
No chat GPT, though the answer.
(12:13):
Eugene Peterson, this greattheologian and pastor who since
died, he wrote uh his owntranslation of the of the Bible.
He calls it the message.
In the message, he writes itlike this.
I love it.
He says it's like this.
Uh, Jesus says this to stretchPhilip's faith.
Yeah.
He wants to stretch him.
Jesus initiates the questionwith a purpose.
(12:37):
He's got an idea.
He wants to take them somewhereand show him something maybe
brand new.
Because all Philip can see atthis moment is the impossibility
of the situation.
He's counted the cost.
Look, there are here ten reasonswhy this won't work, Jesus.
That's all he can see is theimpossibility of this situation.
And he has no idea.
He has no idea.
(12:57):
He he can't he doesn't knowwhere this money will come from.
That's how he answers.
He answers, that's why he'stalking about money.
But Philip can't see.
He can't quite see what Jesuswants to do, what Jesus has in
mind.
Nor can he see what might happenwhen this bread, which will come
up later in the story, so butwhen this bread passes through
Jesus, the Messiah, the thecreator of the cosmic, the whole
(13:21):
cosmos, once that bread passesthrough his hands, Philip can't
even imagine what might happenwhen that when that happens.
So Jesus, it says he wants tostretch him.
See, Philip has this paradigm, aworldview, how he sees the
world.
It's a very specific way.
And Jesus wants to change it.
Because what he will witness,what's about to happen, it will
change everything for Philip.
(13:42):
How he thought about the worldbefore that moment will change
after the moment.
What will happen in just asecond with Jesus and this fish
and these loaves, it willchange, reframe, reshape
everything and how Philip seesthe whole world.
When I was younger, I went tothis church in Denver.
I was this young, nerdy, skinnywhite boy.
(14:03):
I know it's hard to imagine, butthe white part not so much.
But uh and went to a prettydiverse youth group.
And it was like I was one of theonly handful of white kids in
this youth group.
Um, and one night we were there,I was in middle school, sixth
grade, and uh we used to doaltar calls.
You maybe know this in sometraditions to do altar calls
where you go up and you pray togive your life to Jesus, and
(14:24):
they had all these folks comeforward to give their life to
Jesus.
And they thought, Ryan, comepray for this guy.
And I walked up there to prayfor this guy, and I like looked
up at him.
He was like towering over me.
I was a little guy.
He towered over me like thisginormous dude who was scary and
uh had a bunch of red on.
I'm like, what was this?
We had a lot of gang membersthat went to our church, by the
(14:46):
way, back then.
And uh my youth pastor sincethen was like, oh right, I'm
convinced a lot of guys werelike packing heat back then,
carrying weapons, you know, backthen.
I was like, what?
So I prayed for this.
I don't know what I prayed, butI prayed for this guy and it
scared the heck out of me.
I was like, I don't know what'sgoing on.
And then later the youth groupleader came and he's like, Hey
Ryan, do you know who that was?
I go, No, I don't, but he wasscary.
(15:07):
Like, oh, he was one of theleaders of the gang called the
Bloods in Denver, you know, withthe Crips and the Bloods.
He was one of the likepredominant leaders in the
Bloods in Denver.
And I was like, what?
And you let me pray for thatguy?
How could you do that?
But I remember thinking this,I'm like, why would that guy
want anything to do with Jesus?
(15:27):
That guy's doing his thing outthere, you know, he's a tough
guy.
I'm like, oh, Jesus somehow hasmade an impact in that guy's
life.
Why would why would why would hewant anything to do this old
story?
And everything, like, oh, if ifJesus means something to that
guy, maybe Jesus means somethingto other people that I would
never have guessed.
(15:48):
Maybe there's lots of folks outthere who want something that
Jesus has to offer that.
I would have never thought.
And of course, as I've grownolder, I've seen how maybe it's
the whole world that reallycould use Jesus.
Even folks that you think theywould never be interested, or
they would never, that wouldnever make sense for them.
And it changed how I saweverything.
(16:10):
Yeah, that's what happens, it'sgonna happen to Philip.
Before this moment, Philip has acertain way of seeing the world.
And how he sees the worlddoesn't allow for possibility.
He can't, it doesn't allow forit.
It's like it's all I can see.
It doesn't allow, he doesn'thave the capacity to imagine
what Jesus might do next.
Because the box he's inheritedor the box he's living in is
(16:31):
just a bit too small.
Now, I know all of you are notthis way, all of you are mature
people of faith, and you knowwhat Reformation Day is.
You already knew that before Igave you the answers.
You know about John and all thegospels, but but maybe you today
might need to have your faithstretched a little bit.
Maybe you could hear thisquestion.
(16:52):
Hey, where will we buy the fruitfrom?
May you hear it asked of you.
Maybe the box you're in thatyou've inherited or that you've
been given or you live in, orthat you built yourself, maybe
it's just a little bit toosmall.
And Jesus might want to justmaybe just a tiny bit stretch
you.
Here's the deal (17:07):
Philip didn't know that he didn't know.
He didn't know.
How could he?
He didn't know.
You know, you and I are not thatdifferent.
We don't know what we don'tknow.
And how could you know?
You often don't know what youdon't know because you didn't
need to know what you needed toknow until you needed to know
it.
You know?
(17:29):
How do you know?
Many of us don't know anythinguntil we have these experiences
or we learn it.
We have this cognitivedissonance.
This is why, for God's sake,please read people you don't
agree with, okay?
I'm just telling you.
Find a book you don't agree withand read it and just see.
You don't never know.
How would you know?
You don't know, you don't knowuntil you need to know it.
And Philip didn't know.
(17:49):
And Jesus asks him this questionin order to help him know what
he needs to know now to changehis life.
I love this Emerson quote.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said this.
Uh he said, Life is a successionof lessons which must be lived
to be understood.
I'm sure Jesus told him thesethings a number of times, and
Philip just didn't get itbecause they're goobers.
You know these guys, I love it.
(18:09):
He had to show them.
I give lots of, I think, decentsermons.
Maybe you just, maybe though,you need to practice it on your
own in order to have yourparadigm blown open.
Maybe you need to step out infaith, not just hear what I'm
saying or your friends, or reada devotion.
Great, but maybe you need to trysomething on your own and see
what you don't know and liveinto it.
(18:30):
Remember the first week I gavethis great quote by Rilka, this
great poet.
It was longer, but at the end hesays, live the questions now,
and perhaps you will thengradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day intothe answer.
Which is funny because forPhilip, that day is today.
We're living into it now, buddy.
And what will happen in just amoment will stretch his faith,
(18:53):
blow open his box, and changehis paradigm.
And to boot, this is hilarious,and this is only in John's
gospel, to boot, he uses alittle boy to do it.
Come on now.
There's 20,000 people there.
And the hero of the story is alittle boy in a culture that
didn't value kids at all.
(19:15):
In the Greek language, the wordfor little boy, it's like the
diminutive form.
It's like the tiny little smalllittle lad, is what it says.
He's a lad.
Little guy just comes out of thewoodwork.
Where did you come from, littleguy?
They couldn't even see me sosmall, probably.
And he rolls in there with hisfive barley loaves and he's two
fish.
I love it.
(19:35):
I love it.
It's like if you some little kidwalked in here, like, I got some
food, pulls out his littleziploc bag, you have a smashed
peanut butter jelly sandwich,you know?
Dude, put that away.
That's gross, man.
Maybe a warm string cheese he'shad in his pocket all day, you
know?
No, those are too expensive.
Maybe like an off-brand granolabar.
The ones that crumble all overthe place when you eat them.
(19:57):
What are you doing, guy?
Get out of here.
And he brings five barleyloaves.
By the way, barley, this isJohn's gospel, all meat.
It says it's barley.
Uh, barley uh came to fruition.
It was harvested at this time ofPassover.
By the way, this story takesplace at Passover, John tells
us.
Passover, of course, is the oldJewish festival and celebration
when God rescues them fromslavery and saves them from
(20:20):
death.
So maybe John's using this storyas like a retelling of the
Passover story that maybe inthis story, Jesus is saving
people from death or fromslavery.
And maybe this picture he'spainting will like save them.
And barley, of course, washarvested at this time.
So like the archaeology and itfits perfectly.
So, of course, like it's anothersign.
(20:40):
This is probably when ithappened and that it was true.
Barley also is a reallyaffordable grain.
It was really uh the poor peopleate it.
And it was so uh readilyavailable they gave it to
animals.
So it was like it was like thelike the the most like you know,
uh like the smallest, tiniestlittle meal you could find that
was affordable in every way.
It's a very modest meal.
This little boy, this lad, thistiny little diminutive boy shows
(21:03):
up with barley loaves.
And of course, he brings out twofish.
Again, the Greek diminutive formof this word for fish is used.
It's tiny little fish, nottrophy fish.
And that little boy holds up hisfish, and he knows the camera
trick, so he holds the fish likethis, you know, make the fish
(21:24):
look bigger.
And the disciples are, I'm sure,like, oh great.
You've got to be kidding me.
We are doomed.
Hey, hey, buddy, get out ofhere.
That's sweet.
Get munchie move.
Where are your parents?
In fact, they say, this is whatthey say to him.
(21:45):
They say to Jesus after Jesus uhis talking about this.
If I can get my slides to workthere, and they say, hey, what
is this amongst so many people?
There's 20,000 people here.
Not five.
20,000.
In Eugene Peterson's themessage, he says it this way uh
this is barely a drop in thebucket.
(22:05):
This is not gonna help anybody.
What are you doing?
This is not gonna help.
In any way.
I love it.
Jesus, this is his response.
Oh, Jesus, Jesus, this is hisresponse.
I'll show you a picture of hisresponse.
I love this.
This is his thank you.
Nobody laugh at the 8:30.
Nobody.
(22:26):
I go, Olivia, they're not gonnaget it.
Oh, they might get it.
I don't think they will.
They did not get it.
This is a very popular meme.
Goes back to the last dance.
If you haven't seen that, it'sgreat.
Jordan, who is the greatest ofall time, I'm just telling you.
Uh Michael Jordan.
Uh, but the memes are hilarious,so I gotta show you a couple if
I can, you know, if you canindulge me.
I love this one right here.
(22:46):
The grass grows, dad's insteadof him.
I took that personally.
Dad's gonna go, Mo.
Here's another meme that thisbecame, this grew into a meme.
Water flows through a river,beavers.
I took that personally.
In the original, the last dance,Jordan, like somebody was he was
playing against him, and someonetalked trash to him, which you
should never do to the king,right?
And Jordan's like, oh, I tookthat personally.
And then he went out and likejust you know, tore the guy to
(23:08):
shreds the next game they playedhim.
And that's Jordan.
Oh, I'll have another one.
It became a meme.
Squirrels exist, dogs took thatpersonally.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is my favorite one.
Olivia found this one.
My friend told me that I takeeverything personally.
I took that personally.
Okay, thank you for indulgingme.
Yeah, there's lots of responsesthat would I've probably heard
(23:29):
that day.
I love it.
Maybe someone said, Hey, thiswon't help at all.
Let's just not do anything.
Maybe you've said that.
Maybe you've been on theprecipice or the cliff of a
miracle, and you've said, hey,this probably won't help,
though.
Let's just not do anything.
What if the boy said that?
(23:50):
Maybe you heard this one.
Hey, this won't be perfect.
So let's just forget about it.
Any perfectionists in the housethis morning?
It's confession time.
This won't be perfect.
I'm not gonna even bother.
Let's just forget about it.
Yeah, his meal was not perfect.
Five barley loaves, a smashedpeanut butter and jelly
sandwich.
(24:11):
Warm string cheese.
This is what are we doing?
Maybe you said that.
Maybe you said this one.
Hey, uh, I don't know, but um, Ican't see that any this is a
possibility.
So I'm not gonna worry about it.
I could never do that.
My boss would never allow Mykids would never go.
Um I don't have enough of whatother things you say.
(24:35):
Meanwhile, this diminutivelittle boy, this little lad
shows up and he says this.
Hey, I don't know what willhappen if I give these to Jesus.
I don't know.
But I do know what will happenif I don't give them to Jesus.
I don't know what'll happen if Ido this, I don't know.
(24:55):
But I definitely know what willhappen if I don't give them to
Jesus.
Nothing will happen.
Nothing.
Nothing.
And this lad had all kinds ofreasons to not give them up.
One, they were his.
It was his food.
It was his lunch.
Also, uh, he's hungry, I'm sure.
(25:15):
This peasant boy's hungry.
Also, there is this.
Uh, he's poor.
Undoubtedly, this little lad ispoor.
He's a peasant.
He's a kid.
He's got a lot of money.
Also, it's not enough.
This will never be the solution.
It can't be the sol why bother?
What are you doing?
This won't be the right thiswill never feed everybody, you
idiot.
(25:36):
Maybe it's because he's not incharge.
He's not an adult.
Where are his parents?
Where are the adults in theroom?
By the way, uh, watch the news.
There are no adults in the room.
Or I could say it this way.
You're the adults in the room.
Okay.
(25:56):
This kid doesn't.
He's not what are you doing,man?
You're barely 10 years old.
I'm just guessing.
I don't know how old he is.
Uh no one will listen.
They can't see him, they can'thear him, he's quiet.
I don't know, they don't know.
20,000 people, man.
Well, you don't need to do this,dude.
How about this one?
Just fill in the blank.
This kid is not blank enough,not tall enough, not smart
enough, not good enough, doesn'thave the proper solution, he's
(26:16):
not proper theology, the properthis, the proper that.
He's not blank enough.
Fill in the blank.
This will never work, dude.
See, kids, though, they havethis gift.
They can see things adults don'tsee.
Philip is already literallycounting the cost.
Not this lad.
He doesn't know how to do that.
(26:38):
It's a bit naive if you ask me.
But I'll be 20,000 people atethat day.
Yeah.
Where did we go wrong, adults?
What happened to us?
We got old and we lost ourpassion along the way.
And our paradigm shrunk.
Oh, I could never do that.
I don't know.
I love I was a youth ministerfor a long time.
(26:59):
I loved it.
The one thing I love the most isthat you tell a kid something
crazy, and they're like, okay.
Like, hey, Jesus said to sellall your things, give to the
kid, give it to the poor.
Kids are like, okay, we couldtry that.
Okay, Ryan Monahan.
I had Ryan Monahan and Mariatoo, and as when they were
little, little kids, and uh notlittle young adults in my youth
ministry.
You tell them, hey, uh, youknow, Mother Teresa went to
(27:21):
India and had a ministry inCalcutta serving the most poor
people in almost the wholeworld.
God, maybe I could do that.
I didn't, maybe I could trythat.
You tell a kid, hey, God wantsto use you to do miracles.
Well, okay, I'll pray aboutthat.
You ever talk to a kid aboutyeah, that's what they say.
They just kind of are naiveenough to think it's true.
(27:41):
Tell an adult that, well, Icould never move to India.
To play ticket alone coststhousands of dollars.
I could never do that.
Wow, what would I do with mydog?
Or what would I do with myclothes?
I don't.
What do they eat over there?
And these are things I've said.
You tell an adult, hey, maybe uhmaybe God would have you pray
for and love your enemies.
Oh, I could never do that.
I don't.
Jesus didn't really mean that.
(28:02):
He just was saying that.
It's a rhetorical.
You tell an adult, hey, maybeGod has a thing, something for
you to give and share with theworld.
No, not me.
I'm a nobody.
I don't know.
But kids, man.
Now, there's two ways to thinkabout this miracle, and I want
to hear your responses.
One way is this some folks thinkthat Jesus literally takes the
(28:23):
bread, by the way, he takes thebread and he gives thanks, and
he breaks it, and he gives itout.
And everybody eats.
Does that sound familiar?
Taking it, breaking it, givingthanks, and gives it to all to
eat.
Yeah, John is framing this as aEucharist.
It's a Eucharist meal whereeveryone's welcome.
There's enough for everyone togo around.
(28:43):
In fact, there was plenty ofbasketfuls left over.
In Roman culture, when you wouldeat a meal, you would have more
than you needed to show off yourwealth.
Jesus, like there's more thanenough.
There's basketfuls left over.
And uh, it's a miracle.
Everybody ate, they're allwelcome.
Everyone had enough.
Now, some scholars think, oh,Jesus somehow literally takes
(29:06):
the bread and multiplies it,like miraculously.
Which is awesome.
I love that idea.
I don't know what it looked likeor what it sounded like.
Maybe it sounded like that.
You know, I don't know.
He recreates the atoms of thebread.
I mean, whatever, whatever, youknow.
Others think that what happenedwas that Jesus takes this bread,
and everyone sees this littlekid who's generous when nobody
(29:27):
else would be.
And like, okay, actually, I'vegot some bread I can share.
And they share their bread.
And then this wealthy, the onewealthy guy where he's like, oh,
I've got 12 loaves.
I've been hoarding them.
I'll share those.
And they all start to share,they're all inspired by this
little lad, and they all startto share their food around.
And everybody eats.
And there's debate, and oneside's maybe more conservative,
(29:48):
one side's more liberal.
I don't care.
I don't even care what they Ilove both of them, actually.
They're both incredible, youknow, ways to think about it.
I love it.
I don't care because here's whatI know Jesus took the bread, he
gave thanks.
And he broke it and then gave itfor everybody to eat.
That's all I care about.
Everybody ate.
Now, I need your help.
(30:08):
What might this tell us aboutJesus?
And what he's doing, what he'sup to, and what might that tell
us about God?
And what God is like.
And what might that tell usabout how God wants to run the
world, the kingdom of God thatwe're a part of to this day?
And what might it say about ushere today, in this time and in
this place?
So I'm gonna have you raise yourhand and just I'll call, I'll
(30:31):
point to you.
And then I want to hear what youhave to say.
Hang on, Nick, keep your handup.
I'm going to summon the courageof this little tiny boy in the
story who walked forward infront of 20,000 people to give
this little bread and fish.
And I'm gonna have you kind ofdo something sort of similar.
Okay, Nick, what do you what doyou think?
I think that we need to utilizethe God-given challenge within
(30:53):
us to make the world a betterplace and inspire others one day
at a time.
Yeah.
So Nick said that this God-givenchallenge within us that we can
use to bless the world, make theworld better, is what you said.
Yeah, make the world a betterplace.
And uh to and what was that inthe last thing you said was one
day?
Yeah, these gifts, yeah.
To use these gifts within us tobless the world, to make the
world a better place, one day ata time.
I love that.
(31:13):
Awesome.
What else does it tell us aboutJesus?
About God, about the kingdom ofGod, about our role in it.
Yeah.
No matter what, Jesus is alwaysenough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dude, that's good.
No matter what, he said, Jesusis always enough.
Yeah.
I love it.
Couple more.
(31:34):
I don't mind awkward silences.
I worked with you from a yeah,he provides a way.
Say again.
unknown (31:41):
Have faith, he provides a way.
SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
Yes, have faith, he provides a way.
There was no way they're gonnafeed 20,000 people.
No one could see it.
I don't actually the little boysaw it.
He just thought, I'll give it atry.
Kids are, you know, yeah,Jeremy.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
God might want you to be a partof a miracle.
(32:04):
To participate in the ongoingcreation of the world, to
participate in blessing theworld.
Sure, pray for starving kidsover wherever they are.
Also, maybe you should go overthere and feed some.
I don't know.
Yes.
Trusting God.
Yeah.
Yeah, trust in God.
unknown (32:25):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (32:26):
God is never gonna challenge you any more than what
you can handle.
Okay.
God won't challenge you morethan what you can handle.
I might say, uh more than youwell, I might say He will
challenge you more than youthink you can handle.
That's what's the stretching.
It's sometimes it'suncomfortable because you don't
know until you know.
Then you know.
(32:48):
Castle.
There's no crowds overdating orspibers that's another thing.
Yeah.
Man, that's good.
Like I think that when Jesus sawthose crowds, he saw them as
individuals, which is hard todo.
It's just hard.
He had compassion on them.
And he cares for each of themindividually.
He wants to feed them.
(33:08):
What does it mean to be fed?
Or to help feed others.
Anybody else?
I'm not trying to fish, I justwant to leave room if anyone
else wants to have something forus to do.
By the way, at the 8:30, it wasa little girl raised her hand
very first.
It was so great.
I'm like, you guys, bunch, you Iloved it.
(33:29):
It was awesome.
Alright.
Keep asking this question.
Here's what we're gonna do.
I got a couple baskets.
And uh if you're here today andyou're like, man, I would love
to have my faith stretched.
And maybe it's only like 10%,maybe like 90% or like 90%.
Like, I don't want to have myfaith stretched but like maybe
10% like I do.
(33:50):
I would love to have you duringthis song, we're gonna sing a
song, I'm gonna pray, and we'llget you out of here.
But as an act of faith and as aprayer, just dig in your
pockets.
I don't need money.
I mean, like, but anything likemaybe you have like a piece of
pocket lint or a pen cap, ormaybe it's like the you know,
the the envelope.
Whatever you have on you.
(34:10):
And as a prayer, come down ifyou want to and put it in the
baskets and invite Jesus.
I'm here.
I want to just offer up whateverI've got, this little thing I
got, and maybe it's again,whatever you got.
And maybe you're like kind ofembarrassed.
Oh, I got pocket lamp, I don'tknow what to, you know, it's
fine.
Summon the courage of thatlittle boy and bring it forward
as a way of like sort of livingout this prayer of asking Jesus
(34:33):
to stretch you.
So here's what we're gonna do.
Central Lutheran Church, may youknow uh in the deepest parts of
your soul that the kingdom ofGod is a generous place of
abundance.
There's plenty to go around.
May you hear the invitation ofJesus as he asks you, where
should we buy bread from today?
And may you, as an act of faith,bring your little thing.
(34:57):
Even though you're not goodenough, you don't have enough
education, you're not smartenough, you don't have enough
money, you don't have enough ofthe doesn't matter.
Bring it to Jesus and let himhelp others.
Amen.
See, let's pray.
God give you thanks this morningfor your presence here with us,
and we ask that you would comeand uh yeah, inspire us and
awaken us this morning in allthe ways we need it so badly.
And do ask God that as weexplore this story that maybe
many of us have heard a fewtimes, I pray that you'd give us
fresh eyes and uh fresh ears.
And Holy Spirit, would you comeand yeah, would you make
(00:21):
yourself real to us thismorning?
Would you stretch us and stretchand grow our faith in all the
ways that we could use it?
And uh we give you thanks forthis baptism of Isaiah and Maya,
and pray you bless them thismorning as well.
And may you stretch their faith.
And uh may you give all of usthis morning a sense of awe and
wonder at this incredible story.
And bless us in Jesus' name.
(00:41):
Amen.
unknown (00:42):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
You can be seated.
Good morning, everyone.
How are we doing?
Good.
Hey, we're in the middle of oursermon series that is called
it's not this is not rhetorical.
This isn't rhetorical, and we'relooking at the questions of
Jesus.
Jesus asked over 300 questionsuh during his time in the
gospels.
Uh, by the gospels are the thefirst four books of what we call
the New Testament, Matthew,Mark, Luke, and John, and they
(01:05):
tell the stories of Jesus.
That's why it's called gospelgospel means good news.
And so he asked over 300questions.
So we're gonna unpack one eachSunday and just sort of see like
what would it mean if we wereasked the same question today?
What would our response be?
Or how would we wrestle withthis question?
How would we understand it andthat kind of thing?
So this morning, the questionis, uh, where should we buy
(01:25):
bread?
Which is actually quite aprofound question that Jesus
asks to Philip.
But I love this idea of worship.
In other words, he's sort ofasking after all these people
show up, hey, uh, what's fordinner?
You know?
And this is a deeply profound,but also a stressful question
for like me.
That question comes up almostall the time, every day around
three, four o'clock.
My wife will sometimes call mefrom my office, you know, five
(01:48):
five doors down.
Hey, Ryan, uh, what do you wantto do for dinner?
And like both of us, we both ofus love to eat, we love food,
and we like we like cooking justfine.
But man, you know, four or fiveo'clock, six o'clock rolls
around, you're getting homeafter a long day of work, and
like the last thing I often wantto do is spend like three more
hours making some dinner for sixof us or whatever the case might
(02:08):
be.
And she's kind of the same way.
And so it's like this questionlike, what are we gonna do for
dinner?
Maybe you're like us.
I don't know if that's like anyof you out there, but uh, one of
my favorite answers is we dothis on occasion where I call it
like the let's pick night.
Like we just say, hey, tonight,every man for himself.
Everyone do whatever find foodhowever you can, wherever you
can, or just pick around.
(02:29):
I say pick around in thecupboards and just find whatever
you can eat and just eat it,everyone for themselves.
It's like a modern world versionof like hunter-gatherer, you
know.
My kids, my kids come runningout of the room with their war
paint on, a loincloth and a bowand arrow, you know.
Scarlet goes running by with adead scroll in her hand.
I got dinner! Let's go.
There's a fire going in thebathroom.
What the heck happened?
What have we?
(02:50):
I love it though.
It's like, yeah, let's just hey,five, fend for yourself tonight,
because I don't feel likecooking.
She doesn't want to cook.
And that's basically whathappens in this story.
I love it.
There's a story that Jesus is onthe Sea of Galilee.
And here's the problem.
The problem right away is that alarge crowd, a really large
crowd, gathers.
And eventually, like somebodydoes when a large crowd gathers,
(03:11):
someone like finally says, Hey,uh, what's what are we doing for
dinner?
You know, what's the plan?
I mean, this is like the veryfirst ever church potluck.
But nobody brought anything toshare.
Like, no one brought anything.
It's like, what are we gonna dofor dinner?
Now, here's how we got here,because that's the problem.
Like, how can we feed thousandsof people?
And uh, here's how we got here.
They're on the Sea of Galilee,up in northern Israel.
It's also called the Sea ofTiberias.
(03:33):
There's lots of names for it soif you ever see in the
scriptures in the gospels, mostlike the sea or the sea of
Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias,these are all the same, it's a
really large lake, and they'rehanging out on the side of it.
And by the way, one quick thing,too.
Um, we're in the book of John.
John's the fourth book of theGospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John.
And if you didn't know thisabout the Gospels, three of them
are very similar (03:55):
Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
When you lay them out side byside, they're very similar.
There's lots of reasons why youcan Google it later.
But Matthew, Mark, and Luke arevery similar, a lot of the same
stories, a lot of the samethings.
John, though, comes rolling in,kicking the door down, you know,
a few decades later, like with awhole brand new gospel, not new,
but like a wildly different takeon things.
It's different.
(04:15):
It's a radically differentgospel.
One of the biggest reasons isthat by then, he really wants to
paint a picture of Jesus as thedivine son of God.
Just read John chapter one.
You'll get an image, like, oh mygosh, he is like really
portraying Jesus as theembodiment of God in the flesh.
So, whatever John does, that'sunique and different, usually
will tell us something aboutJesus as God.
(04:37):
So when you read it, a lot ofJohn's gospel stories, ask
yourself, what is John trying toteach us about Jesus?
And what might that teach usabout God?
And maybe broadly, the kingdomof God or how the world operates
according to God and his sort ofway of doing things.
Does that make sense?
So here's what I want to do onthis Reformation Sunday.
(04:59):
I want to involve you in thesermon this morning.
And here's how we're gonna doit.
We're gonna, I'm gonna, I'mgonna tell the story as John
tells it, and I want you tonotice the differences between
John's version and Matthew,Mark, and Luke's version.
And I'll point them out to youso you can kind of understand.
And like, and then ask yourself,what is John trying to teach us
about Jesus as the divine Son ofGod, God in the flesh, God
(05:21):
incarnate, and how God wants torun the world?
Does that make sense?
So at the end, I'm gonna haveyou raise your hands.
You're gonna have a couple ofyou speak out loud in front of
everybody.
It's gonna be okay, we'll beokay.
And I want to hear what youthink.
How how might this teach us whatJesus is like and what God is
like and what the kingdom of Godis up to, or what it looks like,
(05:42):
the way that God wants tooperate or uh run the world.
Okay, so be ready for that.
So put your thinking caps on orget your notebooks out or
whatever.
Uh, there will be a test at theend, too.
So I'm just kidding.
Okay, they're on the Sea ofTiberias, the Sea of Galilee.
And in Mark's gospel, here's thefirst difference.
Mark's gospel says, Hey, thedisciples and Jesus were tired.
They had a whole day ofministering and they're like
(06:04):
exhausted.
Maybe you've been there.
And they're like, let's just go,he goes, Hey, let's go over to
the other side here and we'regonna find some solitude and
relax and rest.
And the disciples are like, Yes,spa day for us.
Let's go over there.
And they on the way over there,a bunch of crowds who have been
attracted to Jesus for a longtime because he's doing all
kinds of incredible things, andthey're like, we want to be with
that guy.
They see him and they're like,let's go get him.
(06:26):
And they all rally to the spotwhere they're going, and like
thousands of people show up onthis rest day for the disciples.
And they're like, You've got tobe kidding me.
Like, we were hoping for a nicerest and relaxation day.
Maybe play around on golf, andnow suddenly we're at Costco on
free sample day.
There's people everywhere, it'slike madness, you know.
(06:46):
And um, I love it though,because Jesus says uh he sees
the crowds who need something.
The disciples see their need,like all these needy people
always asking for stuff.
They're hungry, they're this,they're and Jesus sees them and
their neediness, and he says hehas compassion on them.
(07:07):
How do you see the crowds?
How do you see them on yoursocial media feeds?
How do you see the other side ofthe aisle from you?
How do you look at them?
I'm just asking.
I asked myself the same thing.
He sees he sees them and hascompassion because they're like
sheep without a shepherd.
Meanwhile, the disciples werelike, what are we gonna do?
(07:29):
This is crazy.
There's thousands of people, wegotta feed them.
What are we gonna do?
So the ones of galley, and itsays 5,000 men showed up, which
means there were probably waymore than that in terms of
overall people.
There were women, childreninvolved.
Some scholars believe that therewere actually probably four
times that amount.
So math majors or non-mathmajors, it's about 20,000 people
show up on their rest andrelaxation day.
(07:50):
They're trying to hang out andchill.
And now you got 20,000 peoplewho show up, and all of them
show up and they're hungry.
It's a very large crowd.
And uh, like, what are we gonnado for food?
It's dinner time.
How can we feed all thesepeople?
The disciples, though, ever thesmart, sharp guys, they have an
idea, like, hey, uh, let's do anevery man for himself kind of
(08:13):
night.
Like, hey, here's what they saythey say, why don't we send them
away and uh let them go to thevillages and they can find their
own dinner?
Yes, they're like, we love thisidea.
It's every man for himself.
You pick five forage, whateveryou gotta do.
And they pull out their own warpaint and their loincloths, they
put them on and they get thebone hair out.
Send them away.
Let them figure it out on theirown.
We're not here to you know feedeverybody.
(08:34):
Now, by the way, on the Sea ofGalilee, there were all kinds of
villages around, and all thesevillages had like little markets
you could go and buy food.
The problem was this, though,there were 20,000 people
probably around that number.
And in the biggest villagearound the Sea of Galilee was
about 30,000 people.
So can you imagine 20,000 folksdescending on one single village
with a market that only thebiggest one only had 3,000
(08:56):
people?
It's like when you go toChick-fil-A on those days and
like a school full of like alike 10 buses on a field trip
show up in front of you, andyou're like, no, I'm not going
to Chick-fil-A anymore, youknow?
Like, how can they ever feed allthese?
There's 20,000 people there.
There's no way this is gonna bepossible to feed any of these,
any of these folks.
But they uh they're hungry.
And here's why they're hungry.
(09:18):
Most of the people in this dayand age were peasants, they were
poor.
And there's lots of reasons forthat.
One of which is that they weretaxed exorbitant like levels of
taxation.
Some scholars believe they wereup to 80% taxation in this time
and place.
80%.
That's illegal now.
It's so high.
(09:39):
So if you were a peasant, youhad like zero money, not a lot
of food, not a lot of means orresources.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest inthis area, including the
religious elite, they weren'timmune to it, they hoarded and
they kept all their stuff forthemselves.
So I wonder, maybe, I don'tknow, maybe John's trying to
paint a picture of how thekingdom of God operates versus
(10:00):
how the kingdom of the worldoperates.
What do we do when we collectvast amounts of resources?
What do we, what should we do?
I don't know.
Maybe the story will help usunderstand that a bit more.
But I know that the kingdom ofthe world of this day and age,
even the religious folks, theysort of hoarded all their stuff
and kept it for themselves.
Meanwhile, taxing the poorest ofthe poor.
80%, some historians believethey're poor, peasants.
(10:24):
And they show up and they'rehungry on the edge of famine.
And they're hungry.
And then Jesus asks thequestion.
He says, Hey Philip, and poorPhilip, he's probably the first
one standing there.
You know, like, yeah, Jesus.
Hey, where should we buy breadfor all these people to eat?
To which Philip responds, uhJesus, um, who's this we you
(10:46):
speak of?
I don't know what we're gonnado.
I have not I have nothing.
I don't know.
And Philip, I can imagine, I canfeel, I can sense, like he
starts to panic a little bit.
Like, there's 20,000 peoplehere.
Like he answers the question.
Here's how he answers it.
He's like, hey, uh, 200 denariior six months' wages would not
be enough bread to buy for eachof them to get a little bit.
(11:07):
So we could spend half a year'swage, Jesus, on these people.
It would not even be enough foreveryone to get a little bit.
By the way, did you notice thatthat wasn't what he asked him?
He didn't ask him how much itcosts.
Philip's counting the costsalready.
Jesus said, Where?
Where are we gonna get the foodfrom?
Philip answers with uh uh how?
(11:28):
Well, we can't.
Philip already is counting thecost.
Jesus never asks him this.
And by the way, in the Gospel ofJohn, and alone in John's
Gospel, it says that he asks himthis, Jesus does, in order to
test him.
Because he already knew what hewas gonna do.
So somehow in John's gospel,Jesus poses this question.
(11:50):
He initiates it to Philip totest Philip and everyone around.
Uh immediately, Philip's like,yo, man, this wasn't on the
syllabus, Jesus.
What are we doing?
What are we is this a multiplechoice question?
Essay question, what are wedoing?
Jesus is like, but don't worry,it's an open scroll.
You'll be fine.
Just don't worry about it, man.
You're right.
We're gonna all grade it on thecurve, it's fine, it's fine.
No chat GPT, though the answer.
(12:13):
Eugene Peterson, this greattheologian and pastor who since
died, he wrote uh his owntranslation of the of the Bible.
He calls it the message.
In the message, he writes itlike this.
I love it.
He says it's like this.
Uh, Jesus says this to stretchPhilip's faith.
Yeah.
He wants to stretch him.
Jesus initiates the questionwith a purpose.
(12:37):
He's got an idea.
He wants to take them somewhereand show him something maybe
brand new.
Because all Philip can see atthis moment is the impossibility
of the situation.
He's counted the cost.
Look, there are here ten reasonswhy this won't work, Jesus.
That's all he can see is theimpossibility of this situation.
And he has no idea.
He has no idea.
(12:57):
He he can't he doesn't knowwhere this money will come from.
That's how he answers.
He answers, that's why he'stalking about money.
But Philip can't see.
He can't quite see what Jesuswants to do, what Jesus has in
mind.
Nor can he see what might happenwhen this bread, which will come
up later in the story, so butwhen this bread passes through
Jesus, the Messiah, the thecreator of the cosmic, the whole
(13:21):
cosmos, once that bread passesthrough his hands, Philip can't
even imagine what might happenwhen that when that happens.
So Jesus, it says he wants tostretch him.
See, Philip has this paradigm, aworldview, how he sees the
world.
It's a very specific way.
And Jesus wants to change it.
Because what he will witness,what's about to happen, it will
change everything for Philip.
(13:42):
How he thought about the worldbefore that moment will change
after the moment.
What will happen in just asecond with Jesus and this fish
and these loaves, it willchange, reframe, reshape
everything and how Philip seesthe whole world.
When I was younger, I went tothis church in Denver.
I was this young, nerdy, skinnywhite boy.
(14:03):
I know it's hard to imagine, butthe white part not so much.
But uh and went to a prettydiverse youth group.
And it was like I was one of theonly handful of white kids in
this youth group.
Um, and one night we were there,I was in middle school, sixth
grade, and uh we used to doaltar calls.
You maybe know this in sometraditions to do altar calls
where you go up and you pray togive your life to Jesus, and
(14:24):
they had all these folks comeforward to give their life to
Jesus.
And they thought, Ryan, comepray for this guy.
And I walked up there to prayfor this guy, and I like looked
up at him.
He was like towering over me.
I was a little guy.
He towered over me like thisginormous dude who was scary and
uh had a bunch of red on.
I'm like, what was this?
We had a lot of gang membersthat went to our church, by the
(14:46):
way, back then.
And uh my youth pastor sincethen was like, oh right, I'm
convinced a lot of guys werelike packing heat back then,
carrying weapons, you know, backthen.
I was like, what?
So I prayed for this.
I don't know what I prayed, butI prayed for this guy and it
scared the heck out of me.
I was like, I don't know what'sgoing on.
And then later the youth groupleader came and he's like, Hey
Ryan, do you know who that was?
I go, No, I don't, but he wasscary.
(15:07):
Like, oh, he was one of theleaders of the gang called the
Bloods in Denver, you know, withthe Crips and the Bloods.
He was one of the likepredominant leaders in the
Bloods in Denver.
And I was like, what?
And you let me pray for thatguy?
How could you do that?
But I remember thinking this,I'm like, why would that guy
want anything to do with Jesus?
(15:27):
That guy's doing his thing outthere, you know, he's a tough
guy.
I'm like, oh, Jesus somehow hasmade an impact in that guy's
life.
Why would why would why would hewant anything to do this old
story?
And everything, like, oh, if ifJesus means something to that
guy, maybe Jesus means somethingto other people that I would
never have guessed.
(15:48):
Maybe there's lots of folks outthere who want something that
Jesus has to offer that.
I would have never thought.
And of course, as I've grownolder, I've seen how maybe it's
the whole world that reallycould use Jesus.
Even folks that you think theywould never be interested, or
they would never, that wouldnever make sense for them.
And it changed how I saweverything.
(16:10):
Yeah, that's what happens, it'sgonna happen to Philip.
Before this moment, Philip has acertain way of seeing the world.
And how he sees the worlddoesn't allow for possibility.
He can't, it doesn't allow forit.
It's like it's all I can see.
It doesn't allow, he doesn'thave the capacity to imagine
what Jesus might do next.
Because the box he's inheritedor the box he's living in is
(16:31):
just a bit too small.
Now, I know all of you are notthis way, all of you are mature
people of faith, and you knowwhat Reformation Day is.
You already knew that before Igave you the answers.
You know about John and all thegospels, but but maybe you today
might need to have your faithstretched a little bit.
Maybe you could hear thisquestion.
(16:52):
Hey, where will we buy the fruitfrom?
May you hear it asked of you.
Maybe the box you're in thatyou've inherited or that you've
been given or you live in, orthat you built yourself, maybe
it's just a little bit toosmall.
And Jesus might want to justmaybe just a tiny bit stretch
you.
Here's the deal (17:07):
Philip didn't know that he didn't know.
He didn't know.
How could he?
He didn't know.
You know, you and I are not thatdifferent.
We don't know what we don'tknow.
And how could you know?
You often don't know what youdon't know because you didn't
need to know what you needed toknow until you needed to know
it.
You know?
(17:29):
How do you know?
Many of us don't know anythinguntil we have these experiences
or we learn it.
We have this cognitivedissonance.
This is why, for God's sake,please read people you don't
agree with, okay?
I'm just telling you.
Find a book you don't agree withand read it and just see.
You don't never know.
How would you know?
You don't know, you don't knowuntil you need to know it.
And Philip didn't know.
(17:49):
And Jesus asks him this questionin order to help him know what
he needs to know now to changehis life.
I love this Emerson quote.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said this.
Uh he said, Life is a successionof lessons which must be lived
to be understood.
I'm sure Jesus told him thesethings a number of times, and
Philip just didn't get itbecause they're goobers.
You know these guys, I love it.
(18:09):
He had to show them.
I give lots of, I think, decentsermons.
Maybe you just, maybe though,you need to practice it on your
own in order to have yourparadigm blown open.
Maybe you need to step out infaith, not just hear what I'm
saying or your friends, or reada devotion.
Great, but maybe you need to trysomething on your own and see
what you don't know and liveinto it.
(18:30):
Remember the first week I gavethis great quote by Rilka, this
great poet.
It was longer, but at the end hesays, live the questions now,
and perhaps you will thengradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day intothe answer.
Which is funny because forPhilip, that day is today.
We're living into it now, buddy.
And what will happen in just amoment will stretch his faith,
(18:53):
blow open his box, and changehis paradigm.
And to boot, this is hilarious,and this is only in John's
gospel, to boot, he uses alittle boy to do it.
Come on now.
There's 20,000 people there.
And the hero of the story is alittle boy in a culture that
didn't value kids at all.
(19:15):
In the Greek language, the wordfor little boy, it's like the
diminutive form.
It's like the tiny little smalllittle lad, is what it says.
He's a lad.
Little guy just comes out of thewoodwork.
Where did you come from, littleguy?
They couldn't even see me sosmall, probably.
And he rolls in there with hisfive barley loaves and he's two
fish.
I love it.
(19:35):
I love it.
It's like if you some little kidwalked in here, like, I got some
food, pulls out his littleziploc bag, you have a smashed
peanut butter jelly sandwich,you know?
Dude, put that away.
That's gross, man.
Maybe a warm string cheese he'shad in his pocket all day, you
know?
No, those are too expensive.
Maybe like an off-brand granolabar.
The ones that crumble all overthe place when you eat them.
(19:57):
What are you doing, guy?
Get out of here.
And he brings five barleyloaves.
By the way, barley, this isJohn's gospel, all meat.
It says it's barley.
Uh, barley uh came to fruition.
It was harvested at this time ofPassover.
By the way, this story takesplace at Passover, John tells
us.
Passover, of course, is the oldJewish festival and celebration
when God rescues them fromslavery and saves them from
(20:20):
death.
So maybe John's using this storyas like a retelling of the
Passover story that maybe inthis story, Jesus is saving
people from death or fromslavery.
And maybe this picture he'spainting will like save them.
And barley, of course, washarvested at this time.
So like the archaeology and itfits perfectly.
So, of course, like it's anothersign.
(20:40):
This is probably when ithappened and that it was true.
Barley also is a reallyaffordable grain.
It was really uh the poor peopleate it.
And it was so uh readilyavailable they gave it to
animals.
So it was like it was like thelike the the most like you know,
uh like the smallest, tiniestlittle meal you could find that
was affordable in every way.
It's a very modest meal.
This little boy, this lad, thistiny little diminutive boy shows
(21:03):
up with barley loaves.
And of course, he brings out twofish.
Again, the Greek diminutive formof this word for fish is used.
It's tiny little fish, nottrophy fish.
And that little boy holds up hisfish, and he knows the camera
trick, so he holds the fish likethis, you know, make the fish
(21:24):
look bigger.
And the disciples are, I'm sure,like, oh great.
You've got to be kidding me.
We are doomed.
Hey, hey, buddy, get out ofhere.
That's sweet.
Get munchie move.
Where are your parents?
In fact, they say, this is whatthey say to him.
(21:45):
They say to Jesus after Jesus uhis talking about this.
If I can get my slides to workthere, and they say, hey, what
is this amongst so many people?
There's 20,000 people here.
Not five.
20,000.
In Eugene Peterson's themessage, he says it this way uh
this is barely a drop in thebucket.
(22:05):
This is not gonna help anybody.
What are you doing?
This is not gonna help.
In any way.
I love it.
Jesus, this is his response.
Oh, Jesus, Jesus, this is hisresponse.
I'll show you a picture of hisresponse.
I love this.
This is his thank you.
Nobody laugh at the 8:30.
Nobody.
(22:26):
I go, Olivia, they're not gonnaget it.
Oh, they might get it.
I don't think they will.
They did not get it.
This is a very popular meme.
Goes back to the last dance.
If you haven't seen that, it'sgreat.
Jordan, who is the greatest ofall time, I'm just telling you.
Uh Michael Jordan.
Uh, but the memes are hilarious,so I gotta show you a couple if
I can, you know, if you canindulge me.
I love this one right here.
(22:46):
The grass grows, dad's insteadof him.
I took that personally.
Dad's gonna go, Mo.
Here's another meme that thisbecame, this grew into a meme.
Water flows through a river,beavers.
I took that personally.
In the original, the last dance,Jordan, like somebody was he was
playing against him, and someonetalked trash to him, which you
should never do to the king,right?
And Jordan's like, oh, I tookthat personally.
And then he went out and likejust you know, tore the guy to
(23:08):
shreds the next game they playedhim.
And that's Jordan.
Oh, I'll have another one.
It became a meme.
Squirrels exist, dogs took thatpersonally.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is my favorite one.
Olivia found this one.
My friend told me that I takeeverything personally.
I took that personally.
Okay, thank you for indulgingme.
Yeah, there's lots of responsesthat would I've probably heard
(23:29):
that day.
I love it.
Maybe someone said, Hey, thiswon't help at all.
Let's just not do anything.
Maybe you've said that.
Maybe you've been on theprecipice or the cliff of a
miracle, and you've said, hey,this probably won't help,
though.
Let's just not do anything.
What if the boy said that?
(23:50):
Maybe you heard this one.
Hey, this won't be perfect.
So let's just forget about it.
Any perfectionists in the housethis morning?
It's confession time.
This won't be perfect.
I'm not gonna even bother.
Let's just forget about it.
Yeah, his meal was not perfect.
Five barley loaves, a smashedpeanut butter and jelly
sandwich.
(24:11):
Warm string cheese.
This is what are we doing?
Maybe you said that.
Maybe you said this one.
Hey, uh, I don't know, but um, Ican't see that any this is a
possibility.
So I'm not gonna worry about it.
I could never do that.
My boss would never allow Mykids would never go.
Um I don't have enough of whatother things you say.
(24:35):
Meanwhile, this diminutivelittle boy, this little lad
shows up and he says this.
Hey, I don't know what willhappen if I give these to Jesus.
I don't know.
But I do know what will happenif I don't give them to Jesus.
I don't know what'll happen if Ido this, I don't know.
(24:55):
But I definitely know what willhappen if I don't give them to
Jesus.
Nothing will happen.
Nothing.
Nothing.
And this lad had all kinds ofreasons to not give them up.
One, they were his.
It was his food.
It was his lunch.
Also, uh, he's hungry, I'm sure.
(25:15):
This peasant boy's hungry.
Also, there is this.
Uh, he's poor.
Undoubtedly, this little lad ispoor.
He's a peasant.
He's a kid.
He's got a lot of money.
Also, it's not enough.
This will never be the solution.
It can't be the sol why bother?
What are you doing?
This won't be the right thiswill never feed everybody, you
idiot.
(25:36):
Maybe it's because he's not incharge.
He's not an adult.
Where are his parents?
Where are the adults in theroom?
By the way, uh, watch the news.
There are no adults in the room.
Or I could say it this way.
You're the adults in the room.
Okay.
(25:56):
This kid doesn't.
He's not what are you doing,man?
You're barely 10 years old.
I'm just guessing.
I don't know how old he is.
Uh no one will listen.
They can't see him, they can'thear him, he's quiet.
I don't know, they don't know.
20,000 people, man.
Well, you don't need to do this,dude.
How about this one?
Just fill in the blank.
This kid is not blank enough,not tall enough, not smart
enough, not good enough, doesn'thave the proper solution, he's
(26:16):
not proper theology, the properthis, the proper that.
He's not blank enough.
Fill in the blank.
This will never work, dude.
See, kids, though, they havethis gift.
They can see things adults don'tsee.
Philip is already literallycounting the cost.
Not this lad.
He doesn't know how to do that.
(26:38):
It's a bit naive if you ask me.
But I'll be 20,000 people atethat day.
Yeah.
Where did we go wrong, adults?
What happened to us?
We got old and we lost ourpassion along the way.
And our paradigm shrunk.
Oh, I could never do that.
I don't know.
I love I was a youth ministerfor a long time.
(26:59):
I loved it.
The one thing I love the most isthat you tell a kid something
crazy, and they're like, okay.
Like, hey, Jesus said to sellall your things, give to the
kid, give it to the poor.
Kids are like, okay, we couldtry that.
Okay, Ryan Monahan.
I had Ryan Monahan and Mariatoo, and as when they were
little, little kids, and uh notlittle young adults in my youth
ministry.
You tell them, hey, uh, youknow, Mother Teresa went to
(27:21):
India and had a ministry inCalcutta serving the most poor
people in almost the wholeworld.
God, maybe I could do that.
I didn't, maybe I could trythat.
You tell a kid, hey, God wantsto use you to do miracles.
Well, okay, I'll pray aboutthat.
You ever talk to a kid aboutyeah, that's what they say.
They just kind of are naiveenough to think it's true.
(27:41):
Tell an adult that, well, Icould never move to India.
To play ticket alone coststhousands of dollars.
I could never do that.
Wow, what would I do with mydog?
Or what would I do with myclothes?
I don't.
What do they eat over there?
And these are things I've said.
You tell an adult, hey, maybe uhmaybe God would have you pray
for and love your enemies.
Oh, I could never do that.
I don't.
Jesus didn't really mean that.
(28:02):
He just was saying that.
It's a rhetorical.
You tell an adult, hey, maybeGod has a thing, something for
you to give and share with theworld.
No, not me.
I'm a nobody.
I don't know.
But kids, man.
Now, there's two ways to thinkabout this miracle, and I want
to hear your responses.
One way is this some folks thinkthat Jesus literally takes the
(28:23):
bread, by the way, he takes thebread and he gives thanks, and
he breaks it, and he gives itout.
And everybody eats.
Does that sound familiar?
Taking it, breaking it, givingthanks, and gives it to all to
eat.
Yeah, John is framing this as aEucharist.
It's a Eucharist meal whereeveryone's welcome.
There's enough for everyone togo around.
(28:43):
In fact, there was plenty ofbasketfuls left over.
In Roman culture, when you wouldeat a meal, you would have more
than you needed to show off yourwealth.
Jesus, like there's more thanenough.
There's basketfuls left over.
And uh, it's a miracle.
Everybody ate, they're allwelcome.
Everyone had enough.
Now, some scholars think, oh,Jesus somehow literally takes
(29:06):
the bread and multiplies it,like miraculously.
Which is awesome.
I love that idea.
I don't know what it looked likeor what it sounded like.
Maybe it sounded like that.
You know, I don't know.
He recreates the atoms of thebread.
I mean, whatever, whatever, youknow.
Others think that what happenedwas that Jesus takes this bread,
and everyone sees this littlekid who's generous when nobody
(29:27):
else would be.
And like, okay, actually, I'vegot some bread I can share.
And they share their bread.
And then this wealthy, the onewealthy guy where he's like, oh,
I've got 12 loaves.
I've been hoarding them.
I'll share those.
And they all start to share,they're all inspired by this
little lad, and they all startto share their food around.
And everybody eats.
And there's debate, and oneside's maybe more conservative,
(29:48):
one side's more liberal.
I don't care.
I don't even care what they Ilove both of them, actually.
They're both incredible, youknow, ways to think about it.
I love it.
I don't care because here's whatI know Jesus took the bread, he
gave thanks.
And he broke it and then gave itfor everybody to eat.
That's all I care about.
Everybody ate.
Now, I need your help.
(30:08):
What might this tell us aboutJesus?
And what he's doing, what he'sup to, and what might that tell
us about God?
And what God is like.
And what might that tell usabout how God wants to run the
world, the kingdom of God thatwe're a part of to this day?
And what might it say about ushere today, in this time and in
this place?
So I'm gonna have you raise yourhand and just I'll call, I'll
(30:31):
point to you.
And then I want to hear what youhave to say.
Hang on, Nick, keep your handup.
I'm going to summon the courageof this little tiny boy in the
story who walked forward infront of 20,000 people to give
this little bread and fish.
And I'm gonna have you kind ofdo something sort of similar.
Okay, Nick, what do you what doyou think?
I think that we need to utilizethe God-given challenge within
(30:53):
us to make the world a betterplace and inspire others one day
at a time.
Yeah.
So Nick said that this God-givenchallenge within us that we can
use to bless the world, make theworld better, is what you said.
Yeah, make the world a betterplace.
And uh to and what was that inthe last thing you said was one
day?
Yeah, these gifts, yeah.
To use these gifts within us tobless the world, to make the
world a better place, one day ata time.
I love that.
(31:13):
Awesome.
What else does it tell us aboutJesus?
About God, about the kingdom ofGod, about our role in it.
Yeah.
No matter what, Jesus is alwaysenough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dude, that's good.
No matter what, he said, Jesusis always enough.
Yeah.
I love it.
Couple more.
(31:34):
I don't mind awkward silences.
I worked with you from a yeah,he provides a way.
Say again.
unknown (31:41):
Have faith, he provides a way.
SPEAKER_00 (31:43):
Yes, have faith, he provides a way.
There was no way they're gonnafeed 20,000 people.
No one could see it.
I don't actually the little boysaw it.
He just thought, I'll give it atry.
Kids are, you know, yeah,Jeremy.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
God might want you to be a partof a miracle.
(32:04):
To participate in the ongoingcreation of the world, to
participate in blessing theworld.
Sure, pray for starving kidsover wherever they are.
Also, maybe you should go overthere and feed some.
I don't know.
Yes.
Trusting God.
Yeah.
Yeah, trust in God.
unknown (32:25):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (32:26):
God is never gonna challenge you any more than what
you can handle.
Okay.
God won't challenge you morethan what you can handle.
I might say, uh more than youwell, I might say He will
challenge you more than youthink you can handle.
That's what's the stretching.
It's sometimes it'suncomfortable because you don't
know until you know.
Then you know.
(32:48):
Castle.
There's no crowds overdating orspibers that's another thing.
Yeah.
Man, that's good.
Like I think that when Jesus sawthose crowds, he saw them as
individuals, which is hard todo.
It's just hard.
He had compassion on them.
And he cares for each of themindividually.
He wants to feed them.
(33:08):
What does it mean to be fed?
Or to help feed others.
Anybody else?
I'm not trying to fish, I justwant to leave room if anyone
else wants to have something forus to do.
By the way, at the 8:30, it wasa little girl raised her hand
very first.
It was so great.
I'm like, you guys, bunch, you Iloved it.
(33:29):
It was awesome.
Alright.
Keep asking this question.
Here's what we're gonna do.
I got a couple baskets.
And uh if you're here today andyou're like, man, I would love
to have my faith stretched.
And maybe it's only like 10%,maybe like 90% or like 90%.
Like, I don't want to have myfaith stretched but like maybe
10% like I do.
(33:50):
I would love to have you duringthis song, we're gonna sing a
song, I'm gonna pray, and we'llget you out of here.
But as an act of faith and as aprayer, just dig in your
pockets.
I don't need money.
I mean, like, but anything likemaybe you have like a piece of
pocket lint or a pen cap, ormaybe it's like the you know,
the the envelope.
Whatever you have on you.
(34:10):
And as a prayer, come down ifyou want to and put it in the
baskets and invite Jesus.
I'm here.
I want to just offer up whateverI've got, this little thing I
got, and maybe it's again,whatever you got.
And maybe you're like kind ofembarrassed.
Oh, I got pocket lamp, I don'tknow what to, you know, it's
fine.
Summon the courage of thatlittle boy and bring it forward
as a way of like sort of livingout this prayer of asking Jesus
(34:33):
to stretch you.
So here's what we're gonna do.
Central Lutheran Church, may youknow uh in the deepest parts of
your soul that the kingdom ofGod is a generous place of
abundance.
There's plenty to go around.
May you hear the invitation ofJesus as he asks you, where
should we buy bread from today?
And may you, as an act of faith,bring your little thing.
(34:57):
Even though you're not goodenough, you don't have enough
education, you're not smartenough, you don't have enough
money, you don't have enough ofthe doesn't matter.
Bring it to Jesus and let himhelp others.
Amen.
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Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.