Sermon - The Miracle of Multiplication

Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish. Jesus Mafa Project, Cameroon

A sermon given during Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Sunday 23rd July 2023. The Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Based on readings from Romans 6.19-end and Mark 8.1-9 (BCP). 

 

Saint Mark’s Gospel begins in the wilderness. After his baptism by John (the voice of the wilderness), Jesus is driven by the Spirit deeper into the desert for forty days. It is from this seemingly empty, lifeless place that Jesus begins his ministry. He emerges proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God. 

 

Straightaway he captivates his audience, who are astonished at the authority with which Jesus preaches and teaches in the synagogue. By today’s gospel reading, four thousand people have followed him through the dust and heat for three days, lapping up his every word. His voice carried great distances through the stillness of the desert air. 

 

But the people have nothing to eat - and Jesus is concerned they will not last the journey home. “From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” his disciples ask. 

 

It’s a question that our Rector posed to us yesterday at our parish retreat. 

 

How can the billions of people who now follow Jesus find nourishment - satisfaction - in the wilderness of our lives today? How can we be sustained on the journey to our eternal home? 

 

We sought answers in the great treasury of Christian tradition. Drawing, on this occasion, from the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Anchorites who withdrew to the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria. Modelling their lives on Jesus’ time in the wilderness. Finding the strength for their journey in prayer and study of the scriptures, while all the time battling with temptation. 

 

Christians would seek out their wisdom, which survives in collections of short sayings. 

 

Yesterday on our retreat, we heard from one of the most vivid characters in the desert - Abba (or Father) John the Dwarf, who attracted so many followers he dug himself further and further into a cave to maintain his solitude. In one of his surviving sayings, he states:

 

“a house is not built by beginning at the top and working down. You must begin with the foundations in order to reach the top.”

 

Much wisdom of the time echoes this sentiment. That strength and nourishment can be found by stripping back our lives to discover what is really supporting us. Letting go of the baggage of daily life - as we began to do on the retreat - we realise that less is more in order to be truly satisfied when we live our lives in Christ.  

 

From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 

 

From the great treasury of Christian tradition.

And from the Word of God. 

 

The association of bread with God’s word is rooted in the wilderness. The Book of Deuteronomy records words of Moses, stating that God fed the Israelites with the mysterious manna from heaven so that they may know that “man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceed with out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” 

 

In multiplying seven loaves and a few fish to fill 4,000 hungry mouths, Jesus’ actions recall this event - and the feeding of 100 men with twenty loaves of barley by the prophet Elisha. The gospel shows how the Living Word fulfills both the law and the prophets. It also reveals how our Lord is able to take however much we have to offer and multiply it for the benefit of all. 

 

Living and breathing the word of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures became a defining characteristic of the Desert Tradition. Phrases were repeated over and over again in prayer until they were embodied - like a heartbeat. John Cassian was the first to record this technique. Knowing that we are only able to carry a few loaves and fish with us at any time from the abundant feast of the scriptures, he recommends the use of short, easily memorisable verses. Cassian suggests starting with a verse from Psalm 70. Benedict adopted the same text as the opening verse to his Daily Office - a place it still occupies in our Prayer Book today. 

 

So every time we say “O God make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us” we are following in the tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. And in offering back these few words in prayer to the one who inspired them, we are assured that our Lord will multiply them beyond anything we can imagine. 

 

From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 

 

From the great treasury of Christian tradition. 

From the Word of God. 

And from the sacraments. 

 

In the arid heat of the desert, the fourfold actions of Jesus described by Saint Mark are the same that he later reports at the institution of Holy Communion. When we receive the only bread that can truly satisfy our hunger for the fullness of life that comes from relationship with God. Our hunger for love.

 

Much ink has been spilt trying to explain why Saint Mark and Saint Matthew’s gospels include an account of Jesus feeding five thousand as well as this later,  nearly identical but often overlooked account of feeding four thousand people. Some suggest the first account is symbolic of feeding the Jewish people and the second the Gentiles. 

 

But perhaps the duplication of these miraculous events is intended to highlight in the disciples - and also in us - an inability to fully understand or accept that perfect satisfaction that Christ has made. We need this miracle to be repeated to have any hope of beginning to comprehend the compassion, generosity and power of Jesus. 

 

The one who commanded us to perpetuate his actions - taking bread, giving thanks, breaking and distributing it - in remembrance that he gave his life for our redemption - making a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. 

 

From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness, the disciples ask. Despite having witnessed an almost identical miraculous event not that long ago!

 

Like them, we may find ourselves asking this question again and again. Where can we find nourishment - satisfaction - in the wilderness of our lives today? 

 

When we do so, just as the Desert Fathers and Mothers repeated their chants, we must return again and again to the practices of individual and corporate prayer from the depth of Christian Tradition, the treasury of the Holy Scriptures and the Prayer Book that they inspired and the gift of the sacraments. 

 

Today’s gospel reading reminds us that however little we think we are carrying with us from these great reservoirs of faith, we are carrying enough. And that when we offer it back to God in prayer, it will be multiplied by the one who is our perfect satisfaction - Jesus Christ, our Saviour. 

 

 

 

Image : Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish. Jesus Mafa Project, Cameroon