Come to the Party!
John 6:1-10

This familiar story is the only one, with the exception of the passion narratives, that is recorded in all of the Gospels. Raymond Brown, in his two volume commentary on John's gospel, assigns it 16 pages including a four page chart to compare the story found in the synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. The gospel writer himself devotes fifty verses (22-71) of discourse on the meaning of this sign. (John uses the word sign rather than the word miracle, an indication to go deeper into the truth the story reveals.) There are seven signs in the format of this gospel and this story is one of them. Identification of this story with Passover and Eucharist has also added to the many volumes written about this picnic. Can we separate ourselves from all we have heard and read to find new meaning for our work weary souls?

I. Listen.

Read the story aloud from several translations including a contemporary one. Read the passages in the other gospels (Mt. 14:13-21; Mk. 6:31-44; Lk. 9:11-17). Notice the words and pictures that pique your interest. They do differ, but a careful listening helps us focus and imagine the scene. Now tell the story out loud in your own words. What stands out for you as you hear this wonderful story?

II. Reflect.

Notice the time of year. Passover and grass indicate spring. Just the right time for a picnic! Think about the kinds of people who might have been there. What credentials do they need to join this party? How was the seating arranged? What would be the reaction of the crowd when the young lad offers his lunch? Notice Jesus as he gives thanks and breaks the loaves. When you told the story was there joy and excitement and fun? As you imagine this scene does it look like a picnic or a solemn occasion? Where will you be in the picture? What would happen to our economy if everyone had enough and was willing to share their lunch?

III. Connect.

In some amazing way this crowd became community! Perhaps Jesus and his disciples modeled it by sitting down and sharing. Perhaps several of them went around the hillside and indicated to the others to sit in groups. J.B. Phillips believes that the boy's sharing helped others to locate food in their packs. We don't know but this event has challenged and inspired us through the years. Perhaps all the scholarship has deadened the joy and fun of a springtime picnic on a hillside. It needn't. Put a smile on your face and join them!

To connect with this story it might be helpful to think about a time when you experienced community in a group. What made it important? Can you think of an insignificant but vulnerable sharing that broke open the dialogue and enabled others to share their "loaves and fishes"?

IV. Act.

Dick Meyer in his book One Anothering, Volume 2 says we are imprinted by God for community. Bennett Simms writes, "Contemporary science now affirms that the cosmos is essentially a pulsing interconnectedness, all entities needing relationship and intimacy for their fulfillment -- from atoms to people to stars."

The people, reflecting on their experience, asked Jesus,"How do we do the work of God?" Jesus replied, "Believe in the one whom he has sent." (vss.28-29) Our action is to believe and come to the picnic.

Can it be that as we join in small groups to share the "loaves and fishes of our lives", our joys and sorrows, our failures as well as our victories and our struggles, we are doing the work of the Kingdom? Maybe we don't need to be work weary souls seeking to earn God's approval and that of others by staying frantically busy to disguise our emptiness and loneliness? Could it be that we are invited to the party to COME AS WE ARE? Could it be that we have SOMETHING IMPORTANT to share no matter how small it seems to us?

This is the season where love comes to us in amazing, vulnerable ways, an invitation with no strings attached! Come to the Party, it's for you!!!

"...come with Christians far and near to find as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ's communion bread. As Christ breaks bread and bids us share, each proud division ends. That love that made us makes us one and strangers now are friends." (Hymn 304)

Suggested Reading:

• One Anothering, Volume 2 by Dick Meyer, Innisfree Press, 1999
• Sunday Dinner by William Willimon, The Upper Room, 1981
• Come to the Party by Karl Olsson, Word, 1972. (Available from FAW)
• "Turning Point", The Institute for Servant Leadership Newsletter, Vol 16 by Bennett Sims
• Simpler Living, Compassionate Life by Michael Schut, Living the Good News, The Morehouse Group, 1999.
• The Hymnal 1982,The Church Hymnal Corp. Hymn 304
• Bible Basics for the next generation, by Nancy Boyle, 1999 - a collection of Nancy Boyle's relational bible studies (1995-1999).

Nancy Boyle writes from Columbia SC. She is a workshop leader, teacher and Christian Education Consultant.