Fish, Feast & Ferment
September 30, 2007
Rennie Regehr
It’s simply not possible to hear the stories this morning without an overwhelming sense of the extraordinary; something huge is going on here. Isn’t it almost too much? Ridiculous in fact? Almost to the point of being gross?
Just close your eyes and imagine:
1) These fishermen watching their two boats struggling to stay afloat under the weight of this remarkable catch of fish.
2) And what about all those lunches. Let’s get the picture here. A young kid brings 5 loaves, and 2 dried fish presumably enough for him to eat and, in front of everyone, something happens, goes off the charts. Think about the numbers for a second; 5000 men, plus spouses and kids. Let’s say, conservatively, there were another 2500 people there. If our young lad was going to eat 5 loaves how many loaves would 7500 people need? Close to 40,000. And then 2 x 7500? That’s15,000 fish! And then the leftovers! This is non-linear growth, to say the least.
3) Then there is the wedding. Guests should have been finished, but for whatever reason, the wine was gone. And here, all of a sudden, another 150 GALLONS (!) of wine. That’s 600 bottles!! AFTER they had too much to drink already!
4) Then the Mustard tree. Large as a house, offering the birds of the air a place to rest, shading the passersby, providing us with its unique pungency.
This is what we see in our stories this morning.
What do we see around us here and now?
We also are lavished with this same kind of over-the-top generosity. How many species of birds are there on our planet? Each different. With how many wild colours are they plumed? How many species of fish? How many different kinds of plants?
‘And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their (28,000) kinds, and all the winged birds, according to their (10,000)kinds.’
“I give you every one of (285,000) different kinds of seed-bearing plants on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. (I read Wikipedia, therefore I know!) They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.’
I have long been amazed by our body’s capacity to take this all in. We have 120 million little rods and cones in each eye to observe our visual world. Many of us, ‘grey-out’ what we actully see simply because the colours are too vibrant for our conscious mind to handle at ‘face value’. One would think that all we really need to see is the basic colour of our food, and whether or not we’re going to get run over by a bus, but we have the capacity to perceive so much more.
And what about our ability to hear? Most of our spoken and aural communication takes place within a very narrow band-width, within few hundred cycles per second which is a tiny fraction of the spectrum of 20-20,000 cycles per second of which our ears are capable.
There is just so much around us. The INCREDIBLE care in the way we are created in order for us to be able to take it ALL in, is simply astonishing. We have been given so much more than what is necessary simply for survival. Its like God has SOOOO much for us to enjoy; nuance, shading, richness of taste, colour and sound. He really outdid himself!
Back to our stories : Why did He do this?
To feed a crowd of hungry people? As a one-off?
To bail out a wedding where the host didn’t plan? – Or made the mistake of inviting a crowd of heavy drinkers?
To put some denarii in the pockets of his fisherman friends?
These events, which rank among the great stories of human history, are much bigger than that. They are signs. They give the bystanders a real, tangible, graphic, experience of Jesus Himself – the embodiment, the incarnation of the Love and Extravagance of the Father. The same wild excessiveness that God lavished on us all at the beginning of time is alive in the Person of His Son, who is announced to the world in a powerful and compelling way.
Which is exactly how John puts it. ‘This was the first of his miraculous signs. He thus revealed His glory, and his disciples put their faith in Him.’
What we don’t see
Isn’t it interesting to recognize what it is we don’t see – at first? Or what we don’t see because we see it all the time. It’s so ordinary, so mundane.
The fish, presumably, were down there the whole time, but no one knew where.
The ‘wine’ was hidden in the nearest well, then migrated to 6 unremarkable, ordinary stone jars.
Dinner for the masses was hidden in a little boy’s lunch bag.
The mustard seed is so small as to be virtually imperceptible.
Transformation
But herein is the secret. These are stories of transformation. Whereas the Sea of Galilee had confronted our fishermen with its emptiness the night before, at Christ’s command it yields a catch of fish that is overwhelming.
At Jesus’ command, the water destined for a washbasin becomes the means of joy and celebration at the wedding.
And then there is the young boy with his meagre lunch of 5 loaves and 2 dried fish. At Jesus’ word, out of this, the most elemental of life’s barest necessities – a feast for thousands – happens.
This is definitely not the same old, same old. Our way, the disciples’ way of seeing the world, is simply not prepared for the abundance mentality that Jesus seems to want his disciples to learn. “Why don’t you feed them?” “Throw your nets out on the other side.” “If you ask, there is nothing I will withhold from you. Just ask.” Even with the benefit of 2000 years of hindsight and insight, I am not sure that I am capable of thinking in His magnanimous way. I’m not sure I can think anything beyond the obvious, the linear. Sure, we can feed you, but only if we brought enough with us.
I wonder what would it might have been like to be there?
It’s one thing to read about these events. But as we try to put ourselves back there as close-range observers, I can imagine that, for these folks, there was a strong visceral response to all this. Even at a distance of 2000 years, can’t we feel it too?
Can’t we identify with the puzzled amazement of the steward, who wondered where all this wine – and of such quality – had come from? And what about the servants? They knew what they had poured into these jars. And now????? What’s THIS?
Can we get inside the skin of our stressed and frazzled disciples, running, yelling, organizing, trying to settle down this crowd of hungry, unruly Jews, distributing 7500 dinners from an impromptu Galilean version of Meals on Wheels. Experiencing that crowd energy, the force of those milling people, must have left them with a powerful reaction. How could it not?
Think about being in these sinking boats, standing thigh-deep in this mass of cold, wet, slimy, smelly, slithering fish up against your bare skin!
This is elemental, primal, visceral, powerful stuff – and – scary. Like – whoa. What is this? Isn’t Peter’s response telling? “He fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man’. For he and all his companions were astonished.”
Terrified might be closer, in fact. Had anyone ever seen anything like this before? A few hours after this event, they had another encounter with him, in the dead of night, in the middle of the lake. What was their reaction? They, his friends, colleagues, followers, believers – were petrified. How could one EVER get used to this?
Access
These stories are history. They happened back then. Why?
Was Jesus making a point? Getting their attention? Yes, He was. Are the dynamics of these events a one-time thing, an aberration, out of character, contrary to His character, out of alignment with the laws of the Cosmos? NO. And again…. NO.
I think there is, then, a relevant question for us: How do we access this generosity, claiming it for ourselves, bringing it into being, experiencing and participating in God’s generosity within the framework of our relationship with Him and His relationship with His World?
I see the answer to that question in 3 parts:
Our part – Part I
I don’t think there is any other way to read Scripture except to believe that there is much more around us than meets the eye. God’s incredible bounty is there, and He wants to share it with us. He created this incredible world in which we live in order for us to live fully inside it, and enjoy being His children. To live well, contentedly and joyfully, to have meaningful work, pursuing the Vocations that Call us, enjoying satisfying relationships, sharing love in our marriages and families, and living in peace in the world. This is His intention for all of us. All 6 Billion of us.
So, I see the first step of faith here as simply opening ourselves up so that we can receive His generosity fully, adopting His abundance mentality as our own, and living gratefully, lovingly in response.
Our part – Part II
To access this power, to bring it about, to manifest this abundance in their lives, the disciples had to act on it. They really had to exert themselves.
They had packed it in for the night. The nets were already washed. What a pain, to have to unravel them all again, schlepping them out to the boat – again – and head back out to sea.
I don’t imagine it was easy thing to settle down a mob of 7,500 hungry Jewish peasants at the end of a day with everybody’s blood sugars well depleted. This took work.
The wedding was already well under way, it was the end of the day, and the servants would have been tired. Imagine hauling 1000 lbs. of water out of a well – and those jars were not made of Kevlar! I am sure there was just a bit of grunting, heaving, sweating, cursing? I can imagine more than a few eyeballs rolling just a bit!
But they did it. And here I want to make a point. Even while rolling their eyes, they would have gone into it with a kind of openness and a sense of expectancy – however small – and, obedience. (Obedience isn’t exactly a word I like, but there it is.) They had to assent, to say yes, to working WITH Jesus in manifesting this abundance. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise. And in that step of obedience they declared their faith, however conceptualized. And, in fact, that faith, the size of a mustard seed, was planted.
Our Part – Part III
At the end of the day, this story is not really about us. The disciples did not become rich and horde what they had just pulled into the boats. Yes, we do receive this incredible bounty and generosity, but it cannot remain there, sitting in our pockets. In order to ratify God’s generosity
to us, we must pass it on. The bread and fish were for the crowd. The mustard tree is for the comfort and refreshment of birds of the air. The wine was for the guests.
Seen as symbols, these gifts are for the whole world. We are a part of Christ’s body, sustained by the bread and fish, energized by the Spirit symbolized in the wine, in order to offer sustenance, nurture, joy, and the Spirit of life for the entire world.
Paul connects into this in his letter to the Ephesians.
I paraphrase:
‘We, as various members of the body that this spirit and bread sustains, have been given all these gifts so that the body of Christ can be built up, so we can do His reconciling work in our world.’
‘We have been created in Christ Jesus – to do good works, which He has prepared, in advance, for us to do.’
The symbols
Don’t you find it enormously significant how these 4 elements of our exploration this morning have become the great symbols of the Christian faith? I believe that one of the reasons for this is because of the power inherent in these elements themselves. They are vibrant and compelling. They are NOT inert.
The bread as the body of Christ, and
The wine as the life and Spirit of Christ
are the symbols that have been at the core of Christian faith and life since the very beginning.
Mustard: The smallest seed that Jesus could think of, one that a farmer could hardly grab a hold of, becomes a huge tree. It falls into the crack of a rock and breaks it apart. It has a powerful flavour, not insipid. This stuff we get in a jar and smear on our hamburgers has got character, substance, and impact.
Yeast and leaven, which itself is the core ingredient in the baking of bread, has become, along with the tiny mustard seed, the symbol of faith itself. A little bit works its way through the bread and transforms it. It rises, gives texture, and makes it palatable. Yeast is also at the heart of the fermentation process in the production of wine. This is powerful stuff.
The sign of the fish – Ichthys – Greek for fish, but also the Greek acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God. In the time of persecution in the early church, this was the secret sign Christians would draw in the sand, on the doorways of their places of meeting, so that they would recognize each other.
The stories this morning are foundational to our faith, to the Kingdom of God, to the living body of Christ, of which we are a part.
In conclusion
The concepts of meager, miserly, stingy, and scarce are not a part of God’s world; these words will not be found in His lexicon. He is generous to excess. The words lavish, abundance, extravagant, plentiful, heap, profusion are strewn throughout the Bible with reckless abandon. I hear in these stories this morning the Call to accept in faith that God’s wonderful world, and all that is in it, is a part of our birthright simply by our being here. There are 6 Billion of us who share this birthright. And there is enough to go around. Even though many of those 6 Billion are not participating in this bounty, its NOT because God was stingy with His creation.
We too are manifestations of God’s own imagination and generosity. We are His bounty, His gifts to the world. We need to access His generosity to us, and at the same time help others access it as well. We are others’ entry point into the unfathomable richness and abundance of God. In the same way that Jesus is the Bread for the world, we as His Body also participate in being those loaves, those fish, that wine. This is powerful stuff; it is not inert, and must be handled with great care. And that means passing it on. If we don’t, the ferment and energy of God’s Kingdom will turn on us, turning rancid, devouring us from the inside.
I think its important that we recognize that we as Christ’s body are His Presence in our world. But it is He, in the end, to whom we point. God’s abundance points to Him. We worship the Giver and not the gift. He is the Vine. He is the Bread of Life.
Symbols for us
I must say that this sermon gestated around a picture I had in my mind. I had imagined a kind of communion, but an expanded one, that took into account the 4 elements of this morning. Yes, the bread and wine; but not in the usual context of a memorial. This is the bread of life, the wine of the Spirit. Life, yeast, ferment, faith, nourishment, the Spirit of God.
But also the fish, representing the life and bounty that exists, waiting to be discovered and accessed under the surface of the deep, in the darkness and stillness of the night. The fish, an embodiment of the primal, visceral, seething, overwhelming mass of subterranean life force, that is caught, and multiplied, giving sustenance and nourishment to a world that needs it so profoundly.
Mustard: Pungent. Powerful. Packing a wallop.
So I had a picture of little mini-sandwiches: bread, a morsel of fish, a dab of mustard, and a little shot of grape juice. I wanted a way to have these images, and the character of each one of them accessible to us in a tangible, even graphic way.
We have a couple of plates at the back. So if you like, please have one. I hope there are enough! (Sorry, but the wine will be represented by grape juice – that is unless Someone decides to overturn me!) So as we share a simple, small morsel, I trust that we can experience, even in a tiny way, a sense in our very beings of the confluence of the life forces that fill us as God’s people, and compel us to fill the world with the Presence and Power of the One who is inviting us to believe, to accept – and follow Him in faith. Our world – His world – is depending on it.