All the fullness of God

2 Kings 4:4-42-44; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21

Our readings start today with a little miracle story, just 3 verses in Second Kings. There are several miraculous feeding stories about Elisha, and today’s text is one of them.

A man came to offer a portion of his tithe to Elisha. Most of it went to the temple, but Elisha also received some of the tithe, in the same way that the bulk of your offerings go to the general ministries of Hope, but other offerings support special ministries like VBS and the Dade City kids and quilting and the food pantries.

The Prophet Elisha has been told by God that there will be plenty of food for this hungry group of people, even though it seemed there would never be more than a bite for each of them. It’s not clear who the hundred people are – possibly disciples of the prophet, or perhaps just a group who gathered to hear him preach.

In any case, they are hungry, and a man happens to be approaching with some food. Elisha asks that it be given to the people gathered in front of him. If we assume that the barley loaves are like loaves of pita, they certainly will not feed 100 people. However, God’s power multiplies the bread, so that all have enough to eat, and there were still some loaves left over.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus does the same thing. He takes a boy’s lunch and multiplies it to feed 5,000 people. In modern terms, the boy had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a small bag of potato chips, and a few baby carrots. This was not a lot of food! But God’s power multiplied the lunch, so that all have enough to eat, and there was still some food left over.

In the Elisha story, there is no reaction recorded, but in the Gospel story, we do get the crowd reaction. While we don’t read what the disciples thought, we do know what they were thinking before the miracle.

Jesus asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people?” Falling into the trap, Philip responds, “What are you thinking? We can’t afford to buy that much food!” Philip doesn’t think Jesus can feed hungry people, even though he has seen him turn water into wine and heal hundreds – perhaps thousands – of people by this time.

Andrew has an idea, but knows it won’t work. “There’s a boy here with his lunch, some bread and some fish. But that certainly won’t feed this many people!” He, too, doubts the ability of Jesus to feed this many people.

Probably, the disciples agreed with the crowd, and thought “Jesus is the prophet who has come into the world.” Along with the prophet came the hope of salvation – the eviction of the Romans from their land, and a return to the glorious days of King David. So, the people likely began to shout, “King Jesus! King Jesus! King Jesus!” But, that’s not what God wanted for Jesus, and he withdrew to the mountain by himself.

We all have images of who God is, what God wants from us and for us, and what God is capable of doing. Our images tend to put limits on God, describing God in human terms – because that’s what we understand. The people of Jesus’ time saw God’s salvation as it had once been, in the shape of a human hero-king named David. They could not imagine a God who ate with sinners as well as with Pharisees and scribes. They could not imagine a God who wanted to love and forgive everyone, including the crippled and the foreigner. They could not imagine a God coming in human form and dying as a message of salvation. Their images of God were shaped by their past, and by their current human perceptions.

Today, we still struggle with these same concerns. Our images of God are shaped by our human understandings. We interpret scripture in ways that still limit who is loved and forgiven by God. We analyze miracles and try to explain them in scientific terms, instead of accepting them as miracles, mysterious and gifts from God. We pray to God for healing, but we don’t really expect it.

Throughout human history, our images of God have been human-sized, which means too small. The Apostle Paul has an answer for us. He writes, “I pray that you have the power to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of God. I pray that you know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And I pray that you are filled with all the fullness of God.”

Let’s try hard to take the human limits off of God, and imagine all the fullness of God.

When we are asked to increase our giving to Hope, we say with my buddy Dick in Michigan, “I’m really having trouble trusting God that far.” Wouldn’t it be better to trust God to stretch what we have? Why can’t we expect God to multiply what we have, so that it does ministry at Hope and far beyond human expectations? Let’s give according to all the fullness of God.

When we imagine inviting someone to worship at Hope, we are usually sure they will reject us, or our words will not be just the right ones, or they already go to another church, so our invitation will be wasted. We don’t expect God to be present in the situation, to help the words come out of our mouths, and to open the heart of the one we would invite. We don’t count on all the fullness of God to bless our interaction and help it bear fruit.

When we as a congregation consider taking on a new ministry, we fear there won’t be enough money to do it, and we won’t have enough people show up to make it happen, and we don’t have the right space or the right equipment. We forget to count on all the fullness of God.

When we set our hearts on doing whatever it is God wants us to do, we can depend on all the fullness of God to make it happen. What does God want?

Of course, God wants to have a relationship with us – in prayer, in worship and in study, all ways in which we can grow to appreciate all the fullness of God.

But in response to that relationship, we are to love and serve as Jesus did. We are to feed the hungry, house the homeless, welcome the stranger, include the outcast, visit the sick and the imprisoned, and share the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Your challenge this week is to watch for ways in which you limit God, and then to imagine the same situation with all the fullness of God. If you have trouble with that, imagine Jesus in the situation with you. How would he respond? Would he heal the hurting person? Would he multiply the resources? Would he love the person you don’t care for?

Let’s lay claim to all the fullness of God and try to imagine a limitless God, one who is able to accomplish wonderful things in our midst. Amen