July 2025

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There is a boy here who has five loaves and two fish.... 

John 6: 1- 11

 

Watched a little girl on the sands. Filling a hole with water and it never gets full; it all soaks away to nothing. How often do you feel like the little girl  - that the little life you have is running away to waste.

If that is how you feel this story about the boy and the loaves and fishes is for you.

What have you achieved

On TV showed clip of women going onto the buses as clippies for the first time. Woman wrote in - it was me.

She looked back and remembered - it was a high spot in here life. She felt that then she had achieved something. We all do the same. Getting a prize? Playing hockey for the school? Getting your first job, or promoted? Meeting someone famous? Singing in the choir? Swimming in the sea on New Year's day? Making your first successful cake? There'll be something.

And what about this boy, when he was old. I wonder if above all his experiences he remembered this one, and would say, I gave Jesus five loaves and two fishes. 

And whatever doubts you have about what happened that Galilee day, when you look back over all the ordinary years, can you see the occasions when you can say, Jesus and me performed a miracle.

He had the opportunity

Not that he set out that day to do it. It just came along. He went to see this wonder man and took what he had in his hand with him. Pushing to the front, he happened to be there at the right time. He had the opportunity.

Have we had the opportunity? No you say, I'm not like Dr Banardo when he saw the misery of the children on the streets of London. I'm not like David Livingstone feeling the urge to go for God to deepest and darkest Africa (there's nothing deep and darkest left!!). I'm not like archbishop Warlock and David Shepherd in Liverpool working for the poor, bringing people together - I don't have that opportunity.

Just hold on. That's what Jesus pictures the good people saying at the last judgement - what me - when did I ever take the opportunity? And Jesus said You saw the hungry and fed them, you saw the sick and visited them, you saw the thirsty and you gave them to drink. All around you, he said, every day there are people in need. there's the opportunity.

He had the wherewithal

And the boy had the wherewithal to help. I'm not sure what it was- was it his packed lunch, or was he returning home with the messages? Any way he had what was needed at the time.

. What about us? Do we have the wherewithal to help? It often doesn't look like it - we can't build houses for the homeless, can't give young people jobs, can't even cure the curse of drugs and violence here in our own town.

But we do have something.

We have ears to hear, we have mouths to speak, we have hands & feet to help, and we have time. We can support what is good and fight what is bad. The boy didn't have a bakery but he had five loaves, he didn't have a fleet of fishing boats but he had two fish.

We have enough and more. We have what it takes if we are prepared to put it into the hands of God.

He took the chance to work with Jesus

Finally the boy saw the chance to help and took it. He didn't need to do anything. He wasn't part of the official party. It was in no way his responsibility. He was OK - he had something to eat.

But he was just a boy, He didn't have the cold common-sense of an adult. He didn't reckon what little he had against the huge need. If there was something he could do, however small he would do it. saw the opportunity - he was being given the chance to help Jesus - and he took it.

What are you doing with what you have - with that life as God has given to you. Are you trying to save it - holding it close to yourself. If so, then you will lose it.

Have you noticed that often people with plenty fence themselves off, afraid to lose what they have; they grow small and mean inside, life grows narrow. Thou fool, Jesus says to the man who tried to build bigger barns.

He was saddened when the rich young ruler turned away because he had too much to lose. then there was the rich man who didn't notice Lazarus at his gate. Pilate, Herod, the Pharisees all going down the miserable road of protecting their lives and all the time it was running through their hands. He that tries to save his life will lose it, he said and he never said a truer word.

The great cry of our generation is look after yourself, do your own thing, grab what you can, go for it; don't let others cramp your style. The image of a rambo sexy man with cars and wealth and a go-getting life style. The truth is in the cold facts that never have there been so many suicides and so much mental illness among young males, aged 18 to 24. It doesn't work, it's a lie - but the way of Christ does. He that loses his life for my sake will find it.

What Christ offers you is this. To take whatever you have and to use it for God's great purposes.

Close

You are standing on the fringe of the crowd. There are so many of them, and their need is so great. You have little to give, just five loaves and two fishes. So little it will, as far as you can see make no difference. Then Jesus asks the question, what are we to do? Everyday, with everyone you meet this question is asked. Someone needs a kind word or a shoulder to cry on. Someone is wrestling with huge problems of care and needs a donation. Someone needs you to listen to them; someone who needs a bunch of flowers, someone needs a smile, someone needs a small gift to show that someone cares, someone needs your time.

And Jesus asks again, what will we do? Do you skulk away, excusing yourself that you can do nothing, it is none of your affair, you can't spare anything.

 

Or do you step forward?