Sermon: Feeding the 5000
Pittsburgh New Church
February 9, 2020
Rev. Calvin Odhner
Text: John 6:1-14
Arcana:AE 617:4
He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. (John 6:12-13)
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to the Pittsburgh New Church! We have been learning about the beginning of the Lord’s ministry—who can tell me a miracle the Lord performed? (water to wine, lame to walk, raised from the dead) good! These are all miracles the Lord can perform in our spiritual life! Today, we discover the Lord can even feed us spiritual food! Let’s read from John chapter 6.
Sermon
We are so fortunate in the New Church to know what life after death is like—to understand the system, how it works and what is required of us. Even more incredible is how much the Lord has put in place for us to succeed in our spiritual efforts and to help us along the road to becoming an angel. Our job for this short time on earth is simply to keep striving, keep evaluating, searching for truth in our lives and following the Lord’s teaching.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.
He asks each one of us: Do you believe this?”
Often when people transition to the other world it is so smooth, so complete they don’t realize they have moved from one world to the next. An important question to ask ourselves is “will you seek out the Lord in the other life when you discover you are in a different land? The answer is simple—if you sought the Lord in this life you will definitely seek Him out in the other! Your hunger for spiritual truth can guide you while you are on this earth. This was also true for the people in Lord’s time as well. Some were following Him, tracking Him, wanting to be near Him.
With the disciples, the Lord crossed the Sea of Galilee to the sunny green pastures which rise gently from the shore at the northeast corner of Lake Tiberius. As they sailed, they were not far from land so people on shore could track them. They ran on foot along the shore to follow them while others joined the company from the little towns which they passed along the way. When the boat with the Lord and the disciples touched the beach, a great multitude were already there waiting for them. We are told the Lord pitied them; they seemed to Him like sheep not having a shepherd. The Lord uses this metaphor in so many places to describe us in the Word:
• Psalm 23:1-3 ESV
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Then he led out his people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
• Psalm 79:13 ESV
But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
• Psalm 119:176 ESV
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.
• Isaiah 53:6 ESV
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—everyone—to his own way;
If you can imagine this scene on the shore of the lake from the Lord’s eyes, there are about 5000 men not including women and children in front of Him. Possibly 10,000 people altogether, waiting for Him to teach them and heal them. If the Lord looked to the left, He could see several towns with people roaming around not interested in Him, not in the fold.
Who are you following?
Once you're outside the fold its dangerous out there, isn’t it?! Where the shepherd cannot fully protect you. In the Lord’s sphere, the focus is on love to the neighbor. When we are outside of it, we immediately begin to focus on self. This leads to self- gratification and non-stop pleasure seeking, most of which gets us in trouble! Who are you following? Depression, anger, resentment, addiction, marital discord—there are so many ways the hells keep us out of the “fold”, outside the fence. They stop us from running along the shore towards the Lord! If you feel like that right now, you’re following several different masters. The Lord has a promise for you if you choose to come back:
• Ezekiel 34:11-16 ESV
Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
This is just what the Lord did this day to the 5000! For those who were willing to follow Him, He went among them and healed those that were sick. Leading them up on the grassy slopes, above the sea, He sat down and taught them. These people wanted the Lord! They wished to be cured from their sicknesses and addictions to false masters. Because He loves all people, He did to them as they wished—just as He will feed us if we ask. In Matthew we read "He saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick" - in Mark we read "He began to teach them many things," and in Luke "He spake unto them of the kingdom of God." By teaching us and talking to us of the kingdom of God, the Lord is doing something for our inner being: He is feeding our souls!
As the body corresponds to the soul, so the fish and the bread correspond to our “inside food" or the good and truth from the Lord. Here is a secret which the Lord has given to us of the New Church. Just as the soul is in the body, so the spiritual food is in the natural food. It is the kernel of which the natural food is the shell. Goodness which the Lord gives is inside the bread, and knowledge of truth which He gives is inside the fish. There could be no bread in the world if there were not goodness from the Lord, for through this the Lord creates the bread. There could be no fish in the sea if there were not truth from the Lord, for He creates the fish through this.
To see how this works —think of a walnut, see how beautifully the shell outside fits the nut inside? The two are quite distinct, right? Yet the one fits the other so closely. The Lord makes the shell to grow from the kernel to protect the kernel and also to further the growth of the kernel. Although the shell cannot be created without the kernel, yet the kernel would not develop perfectly without the shell. Everything in Nature has a shell, or a sheath, or a covering, that fits it snugly and promotes its growth and protects it. A tree has bark; a bird has feathers; the animal has fur. The muscles have a membrane; an ear of corn has a husk; fruit has skin; the seed has a covering. Everywhere, if you look for it, you will find a kernel or an inside, and a shell on the outside.
Everything in Nature, both the outside and the inside, is itself a shell. For everything in Nature is natural, or outside; and its kernel, or inside, is something spiritual, which is in the spiritual world; for the natural world outside snugly fits the spiritual world inside and protects it. And every particular natural thing is said to "correspond" to a particular spiritual thing that is inside of it. The Lord asks us to seek out this spiritual food, this good and truth, which as a shepherd, He wants to feed us with. Your challenge this week is to allow the Lord to be your shepherd! Follow Him in humility. We read:
to love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34)
11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them [b]to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” (John 6:11-12)
Amen. Let us pray.