Seventh Sunday after Trinity – Rev'd Paul Taylor, LL.M.

This is a miracle story. Consider this: There were all these people - four thousand -out there in the wilderness. They've been with Jesus, following him around, for about three days.

Jesus said, How many loaves do you
have?" They said, "Seven. But how are you going to feed all these people
with seven loaves?" That wasn't the point. He asked the question, "How
many loaves do you have? You give me what you've got and I'll work a
miracle."

That's the point of the story. "You give me what you've got and I can
transform it. I can change it. I can make it grow. I can make it
beautiful." And that's what he did. From the seven loaves handed over to
him, he fed four thousand.

Throughout Scripture, we read of event after event where God takes a
little bit and creates an abundance. I think one of the most wonderful
stories in all of the Old Testament is the story of Abraham and Sarah.
If you remember the story in the book of Genesis, God sent his angel to
talk to Abraham about being the father of a great nation. "Your
descendants will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the
stars in the sky. You're going to have a son within the year."
Abraham and Sarah were in their nineties yet the promise was kept.

In the New Testament, we have another example of God taking something
very little and making a lot. The angel Gabriel appeared to a young girl
named Mary and asked her to be the mother of God.

The most precious thing that you and I have is our will: our ability to
say "yes!" to God.
The surrender of our wills to God. That is the very
essence of our religion. This is what Jesus came into the world to do,
to give us an example. "Not as I will it, Father, but as you will it."
The same prayer is ours. "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in
heaven." The surrender of our wills is at the very core of who we are,
of our religion, of our faith. As we surrender ourselves to God, he can
take that little bit and he can bless it and multiply it. In the
fulfillment of God's will, we can see real growth, experience real joy.
That is the essence of true religion.

Surely, God can work a miracle with seven loaves of bread. But if that
fellow didn't show up with those seven loaves of bread or decided, "I'm
not going to give away these loaves of bread. I'm going to hang onto
them", four thousand people wouldn't have been fed. But that person gave
up that little bit for the sake of a miracle.

It's the same with you and me. What is most precious to us, we surrender
to our God. This morning as we offer the Eucharist, this is what we
offer - ourselves. Our bodies, our souls, our minds, our wills -
everything that we have - we surrender to our God. We ask our God to
multiply his blessings upon us. We know that he will continue to work
his miracle in us if we but surrender to him.