“FIVE BARLEY LOAVES”
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"Here is a boy with
five small barley loaves and two small fish,
but how far will they go among so many?"
(John 6:9)
Two weeks ago, Italian premier Berlusconi
was hosting the latest G8 summit in Italy.
Commenting on the event, Jeremy
Hobbs, Director of Oxfam
compared Mr Berlusconi with his predecessors, the Roman Emperors.
“In ancient Rome” he said, people got bread and circuses,
but all we got from Berlusconi’s G8 was a circus.”
Africa was virtually sidelined in the discussions.
It is estimated that the economic crisis
has cost Africa $250bn this year alone,
but the G8 are struggling to honour their previous pledges
of $25bn in aid for the next year.
Perhaps we could retell the G8 story - with apologies to
John chapter 6
And lo,
5000M people sat down to eat,
and Jesus asked how they might be fed.
And Philip
said, here are eight men and women
who have with them many many loaves and fishes
and Jesus said will you share your food and break bread with the poor?
And they said No we need to keep the bread for ourselves -
And Lo, Jesus wept, for he said -
I can do no miracle here unless you give me your loaves and your fish.
Of course the Gospel story is very different -
the story of a young lad who has only 5 loaves and 2 fishes -
But he brings them and offers them -
and gives them to Jesus to take and break and bless and share -
and they become the stuff of miracle in their breaking.
The message is clear - even if we seem to have very little
to offer -
just the equivalent of a lunch box full of sandwiches -
God still values what we have, and has need of it to work miracles.
But maybe some here feel that your life has gone so wrong
and you have nothing to offer
but crumbs and broken fragments of a life -
nothing of any value to the Lord -
Well if that is you, remember how the story ends -
When 5000 had been fed,
there were left on the grass of the hillside the scraps -
the corners of loaves and the bits of dried fish -
And if that is all you feel you are - well hear the Gospel
-
"When they were all satisfied, Jesus said to the disciples,
"Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost".
God values and seeks out even the most broken and
fractured lives -
maybe he values and seeks out especially
the most broken and fractured lives -
He waits to receive and bless and use even the scrag ends of our existence,
the dry and seemingly worthless crumbs of our life
I remember
a time 20 years ago now
when my life was in a mess and I was in despair.
I went to see Donald Eadie.
I remember saying, “I feel broken with nothing to offer” -
He said “Andrew - you may feel like a rock shattered into tiny pieces,
but maybe that is just the way to build a mosaic.”
I thought
of that last week when I was on the Isle of Patmos.
There is a cave there where St John is reputed to have written
the Book of Revelation.
In the cave is a beautiful mosaic - Look at it closely and all you see
are hundreds of tiny pieces of stone, each shaped and coloured -
but then stand back, and you see the face and the hands of Christ -
made from the shattered rock.
And if your life is in ruins,
then ask Christ to take and break and shape and reassemble it
that out of your brokenness comes the loving face and
hand of Christ -
and that is the miracle.
And if you feel you have only a few barley loaves -
or even nothing more than a pile of crumbs and scraps -
never underestimate what God can do with your gift.
And if you are just a baby boy like Isaac here -
well your day will come sooner than you think -
for it was just a boy who brought 5 barley loaves to the Lord,
and fed a multitude!
Whilst on holiday I have been reading
AN Wilson’s book on the Victorians -
One section deals with the Irish Potato Famine of 1845.
Sadly, to the shame of this country,
the famine was understood by many
including many in Government in Westminster,
as God’s judgement on the heresy of Irish Catholicism.
Thankfully that view was not universally held -
in the words of one contemporary commentator, John Mitchel,
“The Almighty indeed
sent the potato blight,
but the English created the famine.”
(Wilson
p.80).
Wilson quotes the Victorian historian Anthony Froude who
says
“An Irish Catholic
Bishop said bitterly to me,
that every death lay at England's door.
England, it seemed, was expected to work a miracle,
like the multiplication of the bread at the Sea of Galilee.
Yet what the Bishop said was true, after all.
The condition of things which made such a calamity possible
was due essentially to those
who had undertaken the government of Ireland,
and had left Ireland to her own devices”
The English in
Ireland in the Eighteenth Century by James Anthony Froude;1881.
Quoted by AN Wilson “The Victorian” p. 74)
And so back to the G8 and the
responsibility
of every nation and generation to feed the 5000.
And whether or not Governments recognize their
responsibility,
the Church must do so.
There is a
Church in Cartmel in Cumbria
where many years ago a parishioner died and left a legacy
sufficient to buy bread to be placed in the Church
for poor and needy travellers to take and eat.
So even today I understand that you can enter that Church
and find a loaf of bread on a shelf,
there for anyone who needs food.
The hunger
in modern Britain has changed -
and now as often as not the dry bread is taken
and the end of the week and thrown to the birds,
also a part of God’s needy creation.
But still
the bread is brought and placed in the Church.
Times change, needs change, Church buildings change -
but the need for physical and spiritual sustenance remains,
as do our responsibilities as God’s people.
And so to the newest baptised
member of our Church here at the Mint.
We welcome Isaac - and on a day when the Lectionary passage
is about a young boy bearing five barley loaves,
how appropriate to baptize a young boy named Baker!
Isaac
means “he who laughs” -
and the OT tells how when Isaac was born
his mother Sarah laughed with joy and said
"God has brought me laughter,
and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."
(Gen 21:6)
The birth
of a child is such a joy, such a blessing -
and here in this service we rejoice in the gift of our Isaac -
and pray God’s continuing blessing on him as he grows up -
that he may indeed be a servant of the Lord.
As he is by
name Baker, so - we pray -
by nature he may be one who shares the bread of life with all.
You will
recall that in the Book of Genesis
Isaac grows up to marry Rebekah
and they have twin boys - Jacob and Esau (Gen 25:24-6).
Esau is the elder twin and as such has special birthright privileges.
But in a famous story, Esau comes home from hunting -
he is really hungry. Jacob is cooking
stew.
Esau says “I’m famished” -
Jacob, seeing his chance, says,
I’ll swap you some stew for your birthright.
Esau carelessly agrees, and on those conditions,
Jacob gives his brother some bread and lentil stew (Gen 25:34).
How many ways are there to feed the hungry -
and how often we take more than we give!
How unlike the Lord of the mountainside who gives freely to
5000.
Let us laugh with joy at his gifts to us
and pass them on as freely from generation to generation
and from brother to brother.
Joy Mead
in her book on bread writes of a visit to rural Russia,
where traditional bread-making
still depends on the zakvasta or sourdough -
a pail of initially sloppy mixture within which natural yeasts multiply.
Each baking day a little of the zakvasta
would be kept back and refreshed with flour and water
to begin the next batch.
Joy Mead
says “In Russia it was common in peasant
households
for a young woman leaving home to get married
to smear her new breadmaking pancheon
with some of her mother’s zakvasta,
to ensure that subsequent generations of dough
would breed true and make well risen, tasty bread.”
(Joy Mead “The One
Loaf” Wild Goose, Iona, 2000 p 75)
So, as parents, godparents, Church family,
we are all called to bake for our children -
to provide for them physical and spiritual bread -
and in good time to help them make bread for generations yet unborn.
So today - in conclusion - we gather to welcome baby Isaac
Here today we offer him his birthright, which none can
take away -
the promise of God’s blessing -
and pray that as he grows he will share it with those in need -
that as he has received, so may he give,
And what we seek and pray for Isaac, we seek and ask also
for ourselves, for each other, and for every child of God -
that through Isaac and through us all
the hungry may be fed,
miracles may be worked,
and so may God and all his people laugh with joy
Order of Service
Sunday
26th July 2009
10.30 a.m. Morning Worship led by Rev Andrew Sails
with Baptism of Isaac Thomas Baker
Hymn 566
Now thank we all our God (다 감사
드리세)
Prayer
Baptism of Isaac Thomas Baker
The Declaration (Methodist
Worship Book p.88)
The Request for Baptism (p.89)
Minister: Darran and Rachel, having heard these things, how do you respond to the offer of
God's grace?
Parents: We
thank God, and ask that our
child be baptized.
Thanksgiving
over the water (p.90)
The Affirmation
of Faith (p.91)
Minister: Do you turn away
from evil & all that denies God?
Parents & Godparents: By
the grace of God, I do.
Minister: Do you turn to
God, trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and in the Holy Spirit as
Helper and Guide?
Parents & Godparents: By the grace of God, I do.
(The congregation stands)
Minister: We say
together:
People: We believe in God the Father, who made the
world.
We believe in Jesus Christ, his Son, who redeemed humankind.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the people of God.
(The congregation sits)
The Baptism (p.92)
Minister: What name
have you given this child?
Parents: Isaac Thomas
Minister: Isaac Thomas,
for you Jesus Christ came
into the world;
for you he lived and showed God's love;
for you he suffered death on the Cross;
for you he triumphed over death, rising to newness of life;
for you he prays at God's right hand:
all this for you, before you could know anything of it.
In your Baptism, the word of Scripture is fulfilled:
‘We love, because God first loved us.’
Isaac Thomas, I
baptize you in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
By Baptism, God
has received you into the Church.
Isaac Thomas, I sign
you with the cross, the sign of Christ.
Representative of the Church: Isaac Thomas, receive this light,
for you belong to Christ, the Light of the world.
Christ is your Light and your Way.
People: May
you grow and live in the faith of Christ.
Amen
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord look on you with kindness
and give you peace. Amen.
The Baptismal
promises (p.94)
Minister: Darran and Rachel, I ask you
now to respond to God’s love and grace to your child by making these promises:
Will you
love this your child committing
yourselves to care for him in body, mind and spirit?
Parents: With God's help we will.
Minister: Will you, therefore,
ensure that he is nurtured in
the faith and life of the Christian community?
Parents: With God's help we will.
Minister: Will you set before him
a Christian example,
that through your prayers, words and deeds, he may learn the way of Christ?
Parents: With God's help we will.
Minister: Keith,
Paul
and Merrion: will you help Darran and
Rachel
to nurture Isaac in
the Christian faith?
Godparents: With God's help we
will.
(The congregation stands)
Minister: Members of the body of Christ, we
rejoice that this
our brother has
been baptized.
Will you so maintain the Church's life of worship and service that she may grow in grace
and in the knowledge & love of God
and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord?
People: With God's help we
will.
Minister: Let us pray
People: Generous God,
touch us again
with the fire of your Spirit
and renew in us all
the grace of our Baptism;
that we may profess the one true faith
and live in love and unity
with all who are baptized into Christ.
Amen.
Hymn
330 “All things bright and beautiful”
The Peace
Leader: Let us share the peace
Adults: The
peace of the Lord be with you
Young People: And also with you
Leader: Go
in peace
(Young people leave for their own sessions)
Readings: Genesis
21:1-7 (p.21)
John 6: 1-13
(p.1069)
Hymn “Now we sing
to praise love’s blessing”
[©
Anna Briggs. Iona
Abbey Music Book. Tune HAP 342 (Ar Hyd Y Nos)
CCLI No 58752]
Sermon “Five Barley Loaves”
Hymn “I the Lord of sea and sky”
[CLUW 263 Dan
Schutte. © 1981 Dan Schutte / New Dawn Music. CCLI No 58752]
Collection and
Dedication of Offering
Prayers of
Intercession and Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 437
“Guide me, O Though Great Jehovah” (나그네와 같은 내가)
Korean Blessing
English Blessing