Mother: Jacob! Jacob, is it you?

Jacob: Mother, I tried to come back sooner, I was with the men, and, and they went ....

Mother: What’s happened, Jacob? I was worried! What’s this? You’re all wet!

Jacob: I saw him. I saw the man, the one that they call - you know ....

Mother: I was lying here all night, afraid for you, and you’re out playing at the sea? I sent you to have a look at the Healer. Where did you go? Don’t tell me any stories.

Jacob: I saw him. I did see him. The Healer! The one they call Jesus. I did. Yesterday. And he took the bread. And he took the fishes ....

Mother: Sit down, Jacob. And tell me what really happened. You didn’t go to hear him, did you? You went off to the lake shore and spent the day playing. Was that it? I sent you with food enough for you and your cousin. But your cousin couldn’t find you, he said the crowd was too big and he was too frightened. So he came home without you. So where were you? The truth!

Jacob: I took the bread and fishes, and I went to where the crowd was following after Jesus. There were so many people! In the heat, walking along behind him, and finally he climbed up the mountain away from us. There was grass all around. They were quiet, Mother, like people in a dream. I - I pushed them. I know it was rude, but I pushed through them. I wanted to be up close. Then the people were like they had just waked up. The babies were crying, and the mothers shouting at the children. The men were growling to each other, but I pushed through them all the way up to where Jesus was, with the friends he keeps close by, I heard him speak.

Mother: I wish I could believe you, just once! You were supposed to come right back.

Jacob: I know, I know. But I heard him speak. Jesus. He asked one of His friends something and this is what He said:

"Where are we going to get enough
bread to feed this crowd?"

But it was as if he already knew. The man didn’t know. The man told Jesus it would take half a year’s wages to feed them all. There were so many! Then - then the black beard one called Andrew saw my basket. I was standing right next to him!

Mother: Jacob. Such a story.

Jacob: It’s true! And this Andrew, he looks into my basket. And he tells Jesus,

"There’s a boy here with five rounds
of barley bread and two fishes,
but what does that amount do for so many?"

It’s true! It happened just like that. And then, and then Jesus told his men to have the people sit down on the grass. When they were all sitting and all quiet, Jesus took the basket from my hands, and gave a blessing over it, like this:

"Blessed are You, O Lord, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth!"

And then, he went into the crowd and passed out the food. That’ how it was. He took my bread and fishes, and passed it out to the crowd, Mother, and it was ....

Mother: And it was a good story. But I don’t believe it. Jesus blessed the bread I made here yesterday with these hands? The fishes you caught yourself, Jacob? Jacob you just tell me what you really did.

Jacob: He passed out the food. He did. And - and it was enough. Everyone ate. I swear by all the prophets. Anyone who was there can tell you the same. I know it makes no sense. But here is more. I ate one whole fish and half a round of bread all by myself, and I saw everyone eating. It took a long time but finally we were all full, sitting on the grass. I heard Jesus tell his friends to gather up the leftovers. So that nothing would go to waste. I stood up to watch. They filled up twelve baskets, Mother! They did! With what was left, that no one wanted. You can ask anyone who was there. The people wanted to make him King right then and there, I could hear them shouting. Jesus looked sad, and he hurried away from us, further up the mountain. That’s how it was.

Mother: This doesn’t explain how you got all wet. Or why it took you all night to get yourself home. Go ahead, I can’t wait to hear what happened next.

Jacob: Okay, okay. Jesus’ friends went away from the mountain, down to a fisherman’s boat. I followed them. I should’ve come home then, I know I should’ve, but I wanted to know what they were saying. It was getting dark. The black-bearded one saw me again. He put his hand on my head and I stayed with him. When they climbed into the boat, I slipped in next to him. I found a spot down at his feet. They rowed for an hour, making good way for the other side. And then a storm came. A big storm. We were halfway across the sea - don’t look like that, it happened! - it did! You shake your head at me. It all happened. The last part, the last part is even more strange.

Mother: Tell me.

Jacob: Okay

Mother: I won’t shake my head, Jacob. Tell me.

Jacob: They were so frightened, two of them were weeping. Water was splashing over the sides of the boat, and we almost tipped over. I held on to the man’s leg but we were in the middle of the sea, and we couldn’t make it across, and then ....

Mother: Tell me

Jacob: And then Jesus walked across the water. We looked up and he was walking right across the sea, toward us, toward the other side. I felt dizzy. We started moaning. They thought he was a ghost. He came up to us, across the water, and he said,

"Don’t be afraid. It’s me"

His voice was just like anybody’s. He said that, and then - we were at the shore, at Capernaum, just like that. I sat there shivering until someone lifted me out, and then I heard them saying I should go home. When it started to get light, they found a fisherman to carry me back to the other side of the sea. It’s all true, Mother, all true. I was there. I saw it. You have to believe.

Mother: You’re cold. You’re still shivering. Jacob - I do believe you, it’s all right. Now go and put on dry clothes while heat some food. And then we’ll gather the village, so you can tell it again. It’s good I baked again today; they’ll want bread while they listen.

(Drama was taken from the Common Lot, U.C.C.)

Feeding five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fishes. Walking on water to rescue his disciples in distress. Can you blame the boy’s mother for being skeptical? Truthfully, aren’t we more often like Philip and Andrew then the boy.

Jesus said to Philip,
"Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?"

Philip responded by estimating the cost of feeding such a crowd.

Andrew responded,
There is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish.
BUT what are they among so many people?"

Both Philip and Andrew gave good and accurate assessments of the situation at hand. But for Jesus their answer wasn’t acceptable. Jesus wasn’t looking for an assessment of the situation. He was looking for a remedy. He told them sit the people down, while he took the seeming insufficient supplies and blessed them.

As I reflected on the actions of Philip, Andrew and Jesus, I was reminded of a thought I recently read in God’s Little Devotional Book.

The thought focused on the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A Thermometer tells you the temperature - whether it’s cold or hot - but it does nothing about the situation it identifies. How often people are like thermometers. They readily say, "The church is unfriendly, the town is unreceptive, and the nation is sinful." They describe the atmosphere of a person, place, or institution as being ‘cold’ or ‘hot’. But they do little to change the situation.

Fortunately, other people are like thermostats. When a thermostat senses a room is cold, it quickly and quietly starts the machinery necessary to bring the cold room to an acceptable temperature. If a room is hot, a thermostat cues the system that cools the room.

Philip and Andrew were thermometers. They gave a good reading of the situation. Jesus was a thermostat. He changed the situation. He turned a hungry crowd of 5,000 people, into a well fed crowd.

If you don’t like the situation that you face today - whether at home, work, in your community, or in your church. You have a choice. You can choose to be a thermostat or thermometer. If your thinking but what I have isn’t much to offer, then remember the little boy. The boy was a thermostat. He didn’t have much, but he willing gave it to Jesus for him to use.

Jesus calls us to be thermostats. Paul echoes his call in his letter to Timothy.

"Be an example for the believers, in speech, in
conduct, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

The choice is yours,
Thermometer OR Thermostat.

AMEN

Past Sermons