RCL: [RCL] 2 Samuel 11:1-1; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21 The penultimate paragraph of this sermon, which appears in brackets below, may be omitted at services where Holy Communion is not distributed. We see it from time to time. Someone performs brave deeds, enjoys great advantages, reaches a lofty position of prominence. Defeat seems…

You might be tempted to gloss over the miracle stories about Jesus that are recorded in the Gospels. Taken at face value, most of them stretch our credulity, perhaps further than we are willing to go, and for what? Is it necessary to believe that Jesus really walked on water, or magically multiplied the loaves…

The world is a hungry place. People are hungry for food, for jobs, for love, for care, for leadership that cares. The list of our hunger goes on and on. What the Bible knows is what we all know – all of our hunger centers around a spiritual void. We are hungry for God. That…

The crowd clamors after Jesus for healing. The Great Physician is healing the sick and there are many in search of his healing touch. Yet there is something more going on here than a health clinic or even a faith healing revival. The Gospel of John tells us “A large crowd kept following him, because…

Last Sunday, with the story of the feeding of the 5,000, we started a sort of Gospel mini-series. That story of Jesus providing food for the crowd was full of images of both the Last Supper and of the Eucharist; in fact, it was really about those things. The Gospel today — the account of…

Life is unpredictable. There are probably few people who need to be reminded of that. There are probably few people who have not felt the effects of an unpredictability that sometimes brings tragic consequences. No matter how well people try to plan their lives, there remains the possibility that at any moment something could happen…

“They did not understand about the loaves.” The Gospel narrative that we heard today is the conclusion to the story that began with last Sunday’s Gospel. In that narrative, Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. Immediately following the miracle of the loaves, Jesus dismissed the crowd who had just been fed,…