Aug 3 2008 sermon A miracle of Faith
I can appreciate the feeding of the 5000 after fair week
I wonder how many people we fed at the fair booth
and I gotta tell you I think it is a miracle to see that happen every year
.. And of course the whole point of a miracle
is to help you believe in God..
.and I think that happened with fair week
and Im thinking too, of all the ways that we spiritually feed people all year long
now having said that..Look at the gospel lesson
Jesus does the miracle but The disciples cooperate with it
the disciples are also part of the miracle ;
they set the stage by their act of trust and obedience as well
they give up something..to see something greater..
did you see it in there?

The disciples see this huge crowd of hungry people
Jesus says: you give them something to eat
they said
we don’t have anything here
but 5 loves and a couple o f fish
and then Jesus basically says
ok Give me all you ve got
give me your food...
share what you have
And that’s where the excitement and amazement begins
..but really
the miracle starts with the disciple giving their food to Jesus
We would have no story
if the disciple had said ‘no way...
this is our food
we need this bread
and we need this fish..
If we give you this,,
then we wont have anything..
But instead they trusted..
.they over came their natural reluctance and self centeredness
and the offered what they had
not knowing what would come next

not knowing what this would mean
that’s the lesson that I would underline this morning
as a picture e of faith and ministry
some time Christian miracle making is very much about giving up what we have
offering..
or even sacrificing up
what we have worked for
giving up
what we think we need...
Doing things
that might seem even foolish or counterintuitive
As an act of faith
giving that up
and then to see the greater vision..that really is what I see in this gospel lesson
now here a story to illustrate the lesson
maybe help it sink in..another old Jewish story
Once upon a time there was school teacher who had not seen his wife and children.
For twelve years
you see... he had to leave his home because of the debts he had back in his little village
he had been running a small inn there ;just a few rooms
but he could Not make enough money to keep ahead so he went to another town
far away where he worked as a Hebrew teacher
,,teaching young boys their alef-beit
but the teacher lived very simply
saved as much as he could
and finally
Coin by coin, through the years,
he saved up a grand total of nine hundred rubles.
Now..With his savings..
he was determined to go back home at last...
He could pay off his debt to his landlord ,the Duke,
marry off his daughters, and spend his older years in the company of his patient wife.

Now, this teacher was also a faithful Jew, Hasidic jew
and before he started out on his journey back home
he went to Berditchev,
and prayed in the synagogue of the great Rebbe Levi Yitzchak.
To his joy, the Rebbe greeted him warmly after the prayers,
and invited him to eat at his table
But all Through the meal,
the teacher kept thinking about his travels.
he decided, that as soon as he got a chance
he would ask the Rebbe's blessings
for a safe trip and speedy return home.
But then Suddenly
the Rebbe turned to the teacher,
and spoke to him

"If you wish, the rabbe said
I will tell you three words of advice."
Well this was so wonderful for th teacher to hear
..he was so proud just to have this chance
"But .the rabbi said
for each word of advice
you must pay me in full.
For the first piece of advice
you must give me three hundred rubles."
The teacher looked at the rabbi and he could hardly believe his ears

Three hundred rubles?!
But he obeyed
instantly.
After all.. Was it not written,
"Words of Torah are more precious than gold?"
So the rabbi gave him the first words

the Rebbe said
"When a man does not know which way to turn....
"he should always turn to the right, as it is written,
'All your turnings should be to the right.'
Now If you want to hear the second piece of advice
you will need to pay another three hundred."
The teacher froze in his seat, his heart was beating wildly.
For these few words he had just paid three hundred rubles?
And three hundred rubles for the next?
What about his wife his wife?
His many daughters? His debt to the landlord?
His years of labor?
But his Rebbe had spoken,
and the teacher could not refuse.

He counted the second 300 rubles on the table, and waited.
"An old man and a young wife is half death,"
spoke the Rebbe.
"If you wish to hear the last word of advice,
you must once again pay the same amount."
Torn between two impossibilities
the teacher sat paralyzed for a long moment.

Then, with trembling fingers,
he opened up his sack for the third time
and emptied out everything that was left
He was filled with a strange recklessness and elation.
It was his Rebbe speaking. Come what may,
he would obey him.
The final set of wisdom was this."Know
, my son, that you should believe only what you see with your own eyes.
This is the last advice I give you.

Now go in peace, and may the L-rd bless your journey home."

Dazed and bewildered,
the teacher wandered through the streets of the town.
His faith in the Rebbe, in the holiness of his purpose,
never wavered, not for a moment.
But how could he go back home empty-handed,

He was poorer now than the day he had left?
No, no, it was best to go back to the school,
and save up some money again.
How long? Another twelve years?The teacher walked blindly,
oblivious to his surroundings;
in fact did not notice the townsmen until they were upon him.
"Where are they?
The thieves, which way did they go?
A reward is on their heads!
To the right or to the left?"
The teacher hesitated only for a moment.
"To the right!"
he said firmly,
remembering his Rebbe's words.
A few hours later,
the teacher was on his way home,
he was walking with such joy
because In his hands
was a bundle of 600 rubles,
his share of the reward for the capture of the thieves.
In his eagerness and anticipation he could have walked all night.
But it was growing dark,
so he needed to stop
the road was deserted,
and a hard rain rain was staring to come down
. The teacher stopped at the first inn that he came to
and asked this frail old innkeeper if he could spend the night.
The old man was about to let him in
, when a beautiful young woman appeared along side of him
and, to the obvious astonishment
of her husband,
this younger woman firmly refused.
"There is no room for you here tonight!"
she said sharply.
Go Find some place else"

the teacher remember the second set of words from the rabbi
"An old man with a young wife,"
. He decided to stay there anyway so he got up under the eaves..tight against the walls
A few hours later
, the teacher was startled by the sound of wagon wheels.
He looked through the rain,
he saw two men get off the wagon and stand for a moment in front of the inn,
they were pointing to one of the darkened windows.
They knocked on the door,
and were let in right away
but In the beam of light from the doorway,
the teacher saw that one man was carrying a deadly weapon.

Now you gotta know teacher was not a reckless man,
but the wonderful events of the last few hours gave him courage.
Leaping to his feet, he started to hammer on the window of the inn
. "Help!" he shouted. "Murder! Murder!
Don't let them get away!"

The household woke up with a great noise.
Lights flashed in the windows.
There was a clatter of wheels,
and the would-be-murderers escaped.

In the morning, the teacher was once again on his way,
richer by 300 rubles.
The grateful old man, who seemed to have suspected the plot,
would have given him even more.
But the teacher had refused. After all he had his nine hundred rubles.
... After that He had no more adventures along the way
and in just a few weeks
he was in sight of his village.
H could see the old stream,,his old school..the streets
and just down the road
there was his own house
But
The teacher remembered the last warning of the Rebbe,
and he did not go right back to his home and family,
even though
every nerve in his body wanted to rush home
Instead,
he stood around on street corners,
at the front of shops,
he was like a curious stranger,
chatting with the Jews of the town.
But no one recognized him
The 12 years of exile must have aged him
But he knew all the people that the meat
Casually,
he questioned them: Does anybody know about the innkeeper
who had left the town about twelve years ago.
But what he got back was puzzling looks ..and a kind of sadness
Ah, yes,
the poor man disappeared,
not a trace of him for twelve years.

And his wife,
may the L-rd have mercy,
such a fine family!

How sad--she had left the straight path,
she had fallen in evil ways.
The teacher
listened to their words
and he was upset by What he heard

but remembered the Rebbe's dearly bought advice:
"Believe nothing you do not see with your own eyes."

That night
the teacher stood outside of his home,
in the shadow of a large oak.
In the pale light of the moon,
he saw the figure of a young man go up to his house,
and knock on the window.
The face of his wife appeared at the window
and was gone
. The door silently opened.
Hours later, the youth left, as silently as he had come.
The teacher would have turned his back, and left his home forever,
but he remembered What the rabbi had told him
so , he calmed himself and waited.
The next morning, the teacher knocked on the door of his home,
he was all dressed up in fine clothing,
his arms were full of gifts,
he was a father returning to his family.
Everything was just as he had dreamed a thousand times.
His wife ran up towards him,
her face was radiant,
"My husband, my husband!"
His children, were numerous and beautiful, they had grown beyond recognition,
they surrounded him, drowning him in kisses and tears.
But In the middle of all this teacher stood silent,
he was sick at heart.
Alone at last with his wife,
he had to say something .
"What is the use of all this?
Haven't I heard the whole town talking?
And, yes,
I have seen it with my own eyes..."

"Stop, please stop!"
His wife said
her face was so full of sorrow
"Don't say another word.
You left us for so many years,
have you forgotten everything?
Have you forgotten our youngest son?"
Then the teacher realized that in all the turmoil of his homecoming
he had not noticed that his youngest son was not there
he had been such a small boy back then 12 years ago

the wife said
"The Duke has taken him,..... when I could not pay our rent.
As security on our debt, she said, they took our son
. For months, for years, I cried, and pleaded.
But it was no use.
He has been in the Duke's house ever since.
But God has been good to us.
He is a fine boy. And Every night,
he has slipped away from the manor and come home,
and I have studied with him, a little bit of our ways
. It wasn't much,"
"But thank God, at least he knows he is a Jew.
Now do you understand?"

, the teacher nodded. ..he didn’t say a word
He understood.
And
In the days that followed,
the teacher paid the debts..got his son , and married off his daughters.

He spent the rest of his days in peaceful study,
at the side of his good wife.

But before he turned to the urgent matter of setting his house in order,

the teacher tried to share his understanding with his wife.

he said
It was not only that God had given the Rebbe this extra wisdom ;;;
that was marvelous enough.
But What seemed even more wonderful to the teacher
was the wisdom of having to pay all those rubles to hear those words from the rabbi because if he had not paid so dearly for the wisdom..he might have ignored it at the end

But the greatest of all,
and here the teacher shook his head
in humble amazement,
the greatest was how G-d
had given him--such an ordinary Jew-
-the strength to give up his last ruble
when it had seemed easier to sacrifice his life.
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Now what that’s got to do with the gospel lesson this morning
all along in that story the teacher had to trust things that he did not understand
and in the process he had to give something in faith
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as the story ...says that..That too is a miracle

In a sense we live out the feeding of the 5 thousand again and again
whenever we ordinary people
trust god enough with out work
our time ..our money ...our own needs
And our dreams
but dare to somehow give it to God
and let Jesus use it...
Ministry happen When we trust the word of God
Good things happen... that would not have happened other wise
people get fed
Physically and literally and spiritually
the ministry that we do in the church
always uses your cooperation..your commitment
it is your time
your work
your money
that is the loaves and fishes that Jesus Multiples and people get fed...

As you share communion this morning
you and I,,,,, on one hand .... we are the crowd of 5000 people
that Jesus fed .. We are being fed..in this communion food of Gods love ..forgiveness..and Gospel
but those multiplied loaves and fishes came from generations of disciples before us....
We are not the first to do this.!
And on the other hand we are also those disciple giving the loaves and fishes that will feed the multitudes to come
through the miracle of Jesus
What will you offer to Jesus this week,, and in the year to come
how are you living the miracle of faith