Changemakers 2: Collaboration (Mark 6:30-44)

Last Sunday we started the Changemakers worship series which has us doing something unusual. For four weeks, we’re going to read and I’m going to preach on the same Bible passage–Mark 6:30-44, the Story of the Loaves and Fishes or the Feeding of the Multitude.

The thought behind this is rather straightforward. Since we’re opening ourselves to discern and discover ways in which we can have a positive and godly impact on the people in our lives and in our communities—to become Changemakers–perhaps changing our approach to the Word of God from which we seek guidance and being more deliberate, slower, attentive, will help us arrive at a new and transformed place of understanding.

Last week I compared this approach to the difference between taking a drive on a beautiful Autumn day versus taking a walk. Neither is inherently better than the other. Both can get you where you want to go while allowing you to take in the season’s dramatic colors and lighting, but the walk’s slower pace gives you a chance to notice things that you’d miss from the passenger seat—the shape of the leaves, the rustle and crunch they make when you walk through them, the smells of the season, the chill in the air.

This is the level of focus we intend to give the scripture, so let’s get back to the story.

Jesus and his disciples were on the emotional and spiritual high of a successful mission.

Jesus had recently sent the twelve out in groups of two ordering them to proclaim a message of repentance, to cast out demons, and cure the sick, and things had gone incredibly well.

When they came back from their mission, “the apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.”

Not that they needed to tell him. The crowds of people who pressed in around them were a good indication that the disciples had made a name for themselves.

In his wisdom, Jesus decided that, in the midst of the excitement, the disciples could benefit from a bit of rest, and some quality time with him, so “they went away on a boat to a deserted place by themselves.”

But there was a problem with Jesus’ plan. The crowds could see where the boat was heading—where Jesus and his disciples were going to land—and they raced to beat them to the place.

And so the stage was set.

Here’s how The Message describes what happened next.

When Jesus arrived, he saw this huge crowd. At the sight of them, his heart broke—like sheep with no shepherd they were. He went right to work teaching them.

When his disciples thought this had gone on long enough—it was now quite late in the day—they interrupted: “We are a long way out in the country, and it’s very late. Pronounce a benediction and send these folks off so they can get some supper.”

Jesus said, “You do it. Fix supper for them.”

Last week we focused on the compassion Jesus felt for the crowd, what’s described here as a “broken heart.”

But today we move into the action and the way Jesus involved his disciples in finding a solution to the problem they were facing.

Jesus said, “You do it. Fix supper for them.”

Can’t you just imagine the looks on the disciples’ faces—as they turn around slowly to look at the crowd? Hundreds, thousands, five thousands, maybe more, spread out before them—and they needed to be fed.

They replied, “Are you serious? You want us to go spend a fortune on food for their supper?”

“Jesus, unless you’ve got a company credit card—there’s no way we’re going to be able to feed this crowd!”

Undaunted, Jesus slowed them down to help them notice what they had previously missed, what was already in their grasp.

The Message continues,

But he was quite serious. “How many loaves of bread do you have? Take an inventory.”

That didn’t take long.

“Five,” they said, “plus two fish.”

Jesus got them all to sit down in groups of fifty or a hundred—they looked like a patchwork quilt of wildflowers spread out on the green grass! He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples, and the disciples in turn gave it to the people. He did the same with the fish. They all ate their fill. The disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. More than five thousand were at the supper.

Today our slower pace allows us to find in this passage an invitation to collaboration, an opportunity to pair our efforts with God’s intentions, and to take part in holy Changemaking.

A passage from our Call to Worship provides some context.

Did you catch it earlier in the service?

The key thing Jesus did when starting ministry was to gather a group of people, a team of disciples. He didn’t do it alone but in collaboration.

This is the continuation of one of the Bible’s underlying plotlines—the story of the supremely powerful Creator God who chooses to work with and through imperfect people.

It’s the God who spoke through a burning bush and divided the sea, choosing a stuttering name named Moses to lead God’s people.

It’s this same God choosing to make prophets out of ordinary people and blurring the lines between ordinary speech and God’s own Word.

And in this same vein, it is this same God whom Jesus did not regard equality with as something to be exploited, who didn’t exercise a power that would obliterate our free will, but chose instead to invite us to join him in the work of healing, restoring, and reconciling all things unto himself.

“As we work together with [Christ as ambassadors and minister of reconciliation],” declared Saint Paul, “we entreat you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.” (2 Cor 6:1)

Slowing down allows us to see this for ourselves in the Loaves and Fishes.

Putting ourselves in the disciples’ footsteps, seeing the situation from their point of view, shows us that, when it comes to fulfilling the mission of discipleship, Jesus can and desires to do so much with what we already have that worrying about what we lack—worrying about the supposed scarcity of resources for the work of God’s kingdom—is really a waste of time.

“Don’t tell me what you don’t have,” Jesus seemed to say. “What do you have to work with?”

This simple question is so important because it sets us free from the expectation that we have to have it all figured out, to know all the answers, to know the end of the story before it even begins.

I love to imagine the looks in the eyes of the disciples as this miracle unfolds: their brows furrowed wondering what on earth Jesus was thinking when he told the twelve of them to feed the multitude; their hopelessness as they produced a meal too meager to feed even their own small ranks; and their wide-eyed wonder as they picked up baskets of leftovers after the crowd was served.

It’s a beautiful transformation brought about by the amazing thing Jesus accomplished with their meager offering of five loaves and two fish.

And transformations like that are still happening.

Jesus still blesses humble offerings and stumbling bumbling attempts to walk and live by faith to accomplish great things.

The value of a prayer is not measured by its grammar and diction, the worth of a church is not measured by the size of its budget, and the efficacy of the faith in your heart does not depend on your ability to recite lengthy scripture passages from memory.

The beauty of the Gospel is the promise that a life can be changed, a community can be changed, you and I can be changed, when we place what we have in Jesus’ hands.

The hungry are fed and souls are nourished when the faithful recognize that, with Jesus’ help and in collaboration with his holy wisdom, we already have exactly what we need to make a difference for God’s kingdom today.

Change is within our grasp.

Today our slower pace allows us to find in the scripture an invitation to collaboration, an opportunity to pair our efforts with God’s intentions, and to take part in holy Changemaking.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Image: Moloney, Helen. Loaves and Fish, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/55894