Reflection Matt 1413-21 Feeding of 5000 Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Most of us might say “no”. Some might say “well when I see the sun rise every morning or see the sun setting every evening, it’s a miracle”. Others might speak of healings of various kinds. But I want to share something that happens here in our circuit, at Willington three times a week. The day begins with empty tables set out in the church premises and miraculously cars and vans drive in to the car park and unload their cargo of food stuffs. And before long the tables are laden with all kinds of good, left over items with a short sell-by date from supermarkets or donations from the churches in Willington or other groups or individuals and then later the people arrive in their need and come to collect their box of items for the household for the week. Someone in a recent church council meeting said the experience is nothing less a manifestation of the feeding of the five thousand. Well let’s not exaggerate, it isn’t that many, but it is a foodbank and FairShare that supplies about 200 households every week and serves about 300 hot meals to people. It is a miracles and I have witnessed it with my own eyes. It’s all done in faith, with the love of Christ in the hearts of all involved. In Matt 14 Jesus draws a crowd, even when he sought peace and quiet solitude. And he spends his day with the people; healing the sick, being with the people, listening and engaging in conversation. As the day draws on towards its end, the disciples suggest Jesus sends the people away who are by now hungry and in need of food, so they can catch the Co-op Supermarket before it shuts. And Jesus says “you give them something to eat”. He invites his disciples to use their own resources, use their initiative, be entrepreneurial. And they have a scout around and find all they can rustle up is five loaves and two fish- probably what we might call bread buns and small fish probably the size of something like sardines. More like someone’s bait or packed lunch if you don’t know what bait means! A very small amount when viewed against a crowd of 5000. Yet from small, humble beginnings a great thing happens. Recently we saw the scenes of the cortege ahead of the funeral of Jack Charlton. The son of a miner from Ashington in Northumberland, who began his own working life down the mine himself and who was spotted as having talent for football. He said himself he could not play but could stop others playing (that’s what old fashioned centre halves were for in the old days!). Yet from those humble beginnings he went on to play for Leeds Utd and to be chosen for the England squad in his 30’s and to eventually play with his brother in that famous 1966 England team who won the World Cup. Now I am not suggesting all who play football will attain such glory, but I do want to say that everyone has potential. And big Jack certainly won glory but he never lost the common touch, he never lost his connection to his humble beginnings and his roots. Hence a crowd of 7000 people lined the streets of Ashington to watch his cortege pass through. If we are to truly live as disciples of Christ we are to keep our eyes and ears open to spot the reality of the situation, to see people in their need (and I don’t just mean in hunger physically) to recognise the people who are searching for meaning and purpose, and value ad affirmation, who might feel like no bodies but who are made in God’s image and are somebodies. We are as Christians people who believe in transformation. At the moment we are beginning to engage in conversation about how we can be Church in new ways. We also display that every time we take bread and wine in the eucharist, everytime we take the collection and offer the gifts God has given us back to God praying as we might do in the words of the MWB “Lord and giver of every good thing, we bring bread and wine for our communion, lives and gifts for your kingdom, all for transformation by your grace and love made known in Jesus Christ or Saviour”. It may not be a prayer you are very familiar with, and it may set the hair on the back of your neck to stand on its end, but it is there in the Methodist Conference authorised liturgy, pointing us to see that when we offer bread and wine, when we off our gifts and ourselves to God, God can transform what we offer into something more wonderful. A meagre offering of five loaves and two fish is turned into a sumptuous banquet of abundance by Jesus Christ and the hints at the connection with what he says at the Last Supper over bread and wine seem to be deliberate. This is a story for people who understand the background. And to witness to the abundance there are left overs amounting to twelve baskets full. Now twelve of course to a Jewish audience is also a deliberate metaphor for the twelve tribes of Israel. Here the crowd listening to Jesus gather as the new Israel. We are that New Israel of God, God’s people whom God feeds from the abundance of his gifts and from his grace. 35 HAP Glory, love and praise and honour For our food Now bestowed Render we the Donor. Bounteous God, we now confess thee, God, who thus Blesses us, Meet it is to bless thee. He dispels our sin and sadness Life imparts, Cheers our hearts, Fills with food and gladness. Who himself for all has given, Us he feeds, Us he leads To a feast in heaven. Charles Wesley