Readings: Ephesians 3:14-21 & John 6:1-21 

Hunger is a human experience.  In a country where food is abundant, we have seemingly insatiable appetites.  We approach a table laden with a smorgasbord of food.  “I’m just starved!” we say.           Children are always hungry.  They are born hungry.  We joke about it.  "What have you got there?" we ask?  “A hollow leg?  Where are you putting all that food?" 

It is a given to us that children are always hungry.  It is also a given that some children are starving.  It is terrifying to see the faces of starving children.  Starvation is horrible.  How many times have you opened the paper or turned on the television only to see the picture of a starving child?  How terrifying it must be to be that hungry!  Not to know whether there will be anything to eat today or tomorrow, or next week!  

Even in our own country in the midst of plenty there are people who go hungry.  We can ignore it most of the time.  Oh! There are those annoying people who stand out on street corners and ask us for a handout.  We know, of course, that if we give them money they’ll just spend it on booze.  Do we know that in our own city there are people living in inadequate conditions?  Do we know that there are people living on the streets in spite of Mayor McCallion’s assertion that we do not have a problem of homelessness in our city?  Do we know where they live and how desperate their lives are?  Do we know that there are hungry people living in Mississauga? 

Not all the hungry people around us are in need of food.  Many are hungry for spiritual nourishment in a world that has turned its back on God and the Church.  Others are hungry for human companionship, for meaningful relationships in a dehumanized world.  Still others are hungry for care and compassion. 

Let us switch time and place.  People are beginning to take note of Jesus.  There are the curiosity seekers who are looking to be witnesses to a miracle.  There are the sick hoping against hope for a cure.  There are the spiritually bereft who have experienced Jesus’ care and compassion.   All of them are still hungry.  They keep following him.  The crowd swells until there are at least five thousand people gathered.

People need to be looked after.  How do you take care of five thousand people out in the Galilean countryside?

Jesus turns to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for them to eat?"  He understands the many kinds of hunger they are experiencing.  But he knows that their physical needs must be met too.  He asks, not because he does not know what to do.  He asks as a challenge to the disciples to respond to those in need.  It is a test of their faith. 

Philip's response is very human, totally realistic.  We can all hear ourselves saying it.  "Six months' wages will not buy enough bread to feed all these people."  Philip is right.  There is not enough money in the coffers to take care of the problem of feeding five thousand people.  If it depends on wealth, the situation is hopeless. 

But it doesn’t.  It isn't.  For Jesus takes bread, simple bread, the everyday food of the poor, bread made of barley, five little loaves, provided by a little boy.  His lunch.  Jesus gives thanks.  He gives it to the people.  They eat and are satisfied.  They are no longer hungry.  They are full. 

The central act of the church is a common meal.  Sunday by Sunday we gather in communion with one another.  Together we celebrate the Eucharist.  Through that celebration we participate more fully in the life of Christ.  Bread is taken.  It is blessed, broken and distributed.  We share bread and wine with each other as a sign that in our daily lives we strive to share our bread, our blessings, and ourselves with others.   

The Scriptures are a paradox about eating.  For they tell us about eating and about not eating.  Jesus ate with outcasts and sinners.  He and his disciples were criticized for picking corn on the Sabbath.  But for forty days and forty nights Jesus went without food.  He sent his disciples out without food.  And when Jesus was confronted by five thousand hungry people he had compassion on them.  He fed them and they were satisfied.

The church is a paradox about eating and about not eating.  We eat and drink; we feast, and we fast.  The central act of the church is a common meal.  The ultimate mythical fulfillment of the Church is a heavenly banquet. 

God's action is a paradox when it comes to hunger and fulfillment.  Jesus feeds Five thousand people.  They have their hunger sated.  With a few fish, a little bread, and a word from Jesus.  Because Jesus had compassion on a few hungry people, and because a little boy has a lunch, they eat and are filled and go home.  It was not very spectacular.  It just happened.  As a sign!  No miracle!  And Jesus left it at that.  here are many hungry people in the world.  "Where are we to buy bread for them to eat?"  Surely the bridge between God's abundant provision and the world's desperate need is the sacrificial love-offering of each of us.  We may think of our giving as being insignificant.  But it is of ultimate meaning.  For it shows the meaning of the cross.  Through a sacrificial act salvation was given to each of us.  Jesus gave all that he had.  A child gave all that he had.  We offer all that we are and all that we have. 

There are many hungry people.  Hungry in many ways! Our task is to use all of our gifts to provide fulfillment for their hunger.  God acts through the real and tangible to bring about what is needed.  We may feel as insignificant as the boy with the five barley loaves and two small fish.  But we are not insignificant to God.  By God's grace we are channels of grace and love to those who hunger. 

We have so much.  For we have a God who provides more than we can ask or imagine.  We recognize that great generosity of God.  And we become bread for a hungry world. 

What a great prayer our modern liturgy ends with.  That prayer of Paul that reminds us of the abundance our God pours out on us.  As we pray it Sunday after Sunday, may we know that we are full!           

Glory to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.  Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, now and forever.  Amen.