Pentecost 9 Year B

John 6:24-35

I had a bit of a problem with the sermon today. All the commentaries I read talked about how the people in the crowd were just so dense. Here they were, crowds of people who had just been fed the day before, asking Jesus for another sign. Most of the commentators questioned how the people, who had just seen a major miracle, could ask Jesus for a sign. How could these people have witnessed a major miracle but still not get it?
These commentaries caused a bit of a problem! Today’s gospel reading is a continuation of last week’s reading. In the reading last week, we had the feeding of the 5000. Last week, I discussed how this could have been a miracle of producing a whole bunch of food, or it could have been a miracle of moving people to look beyond themselves and share their belongings with others. I opted for the belief that the miracle was how Jesus helped people to move beyond thinking only of themselves and to start reaching out to those around them.
But here is where the problem comes up: We can’t talk about major miracles and people responding to major miracles when, to the people in the crowd, nothing close to a miracle happened. If you think about it, to most people in the crowd, all that happened was that some food was shared. If we look at the miracle from the perspective of last week, the people in the crowd did not see some great miracle. All that they saw was some people sitting around sharing food. It is only when we look at the whole event that we can truly realize the scope of the miracle. So, since the people didn’t see a miracle, they only saw food being shared, we cannot really get on their case for asking for a sign. This is the interesting thing about miracles; so often, when we are right in the midst of the miracle, we don’t really notice them happening.
When you look back at your life, can you find the miracles there? Can you find the miracles that at the time seemed to be just a random event? I know that when I look back, I can find all kinds of miraculous events that are only evident now. At the time, all these “everyday miracles” really didn’t register at all. At the time, they were just the events that made up my life.
To the people of Biblical times, the feeding of the 5000 was not some big event; as I said, it was just people sharing food. To them, Jesus probably didn’t seem to do anything at all. But that is the way of God. Someone wiser than I once said that coincidence is how God stays anonymous. If we look at the world, God seems to choose to work within the constraints of our world.
If we think about it, we are lucky to NOT live in a world of huge miracles. Part of what makes life livable is that life, for the most part, is predictable. The laws of physics work. We don’t have to worry about the things around us doing things they shouldn’t. We can sit here and not worry about the character of the wood suddenly changing and having the roof cave in or the floor cave in. If we lived in a truly miraculous world, that would become a problem. We don’t worry about water suddenly becoming solid. Although it may sound like fun, having water suddenly become solid would also cause a problem. Thankfully, our world is predictable.
If you think about it, the only time in our life that the world is truly miraculous is when we are babies. In order to grow and mature, we need to be able to predict life; at least somewhat. And if we think of God as a caring parent, we would know that God would want us to grow and mature. So in that sense, too, it would not be very caring for God to suddenly change the laws of physics back in Biblical times either. So although it would be easy to follow the commentators and call the people in today’s gospel reading clueless, to do this would just be harsh.
What we do have in today’s gospel is a mirror of ourselves. Like those who were fed, we float through life with miracles happening all around us. And like those who were fed, we are part of miracles without even realizing it. But, if we were one of those other people in the crowd, on of the people who went out into the wilderness without bringing food, to find someone willing to share their food would be a miracle. Finding someone willing to risk his or her own hunger to give you something to eat would be a miracle. To the world, it may just look like a chance occurrence, but to the person who received the food, it would be a miracle. Is it a coincidence? Or is it a miracle?
I guess this is where faith comes in. Faith is seeing the miraculous in the everyday. Faith is finding the hand of God in what some might consider coincidence. In looking for miracles in daily life, some may say we are creating miracles where none exists, but another way to think of this that we are recognizing the miracles that are happening every day, right under our noses. We are recognizing the people whom Christ has placed into our lives to help us when we need help. We are recognizing the people whom we are called to reach out to. We are recognizing that we have been blessed to be a blessing to others.
We have Christ in our lives. We have the Bread of Life as our Savior. The blessings we have in life come from God and we are called to share those blessings with others. The miracles of life come from God to lift us, to feed us, help us through life. We have the signs of Christ love all around us. We have family, friends, and our family of faith who constantly shower us with miracles. We are fed with the living bread, which is Christ himself, and we are called to spread that miracle to the world.
I have a challenge for you all: Over the next week, look for those miracles in your life. Look for the hand of God at work. Is a coincidence merely a coincidence? Or is it a God trying to remain hidden?