More Than We Can Ask or Imagine
2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145-10-18; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21
Paul writes to the Ephesians: “Now to God, who by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to this God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, amen.”
Far more than we can ask or imagine. God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.
Which, to be honest, if our imagination is as creative as the disciples of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, is really not very much. We read that Jesus saw the crowd of thousands gathered along the shore of the lake, and that he asked his disciples – to test them, John says – How are we going to feed all these people? You’ve got me, they say. We don’t have the money to buy food for this many people. We don’t have enough food here – just five loaves and two fish, for all these people. We can’t imagine any options where these people get fed. We have no idea what to do.
After dinner, Jesus leaves the disciples to their own devices, and not knowing what else to do, they got in the boat (leaving Jesus behind) and started for home. Jesus catches up with them, walking on the stormy seas, and the disciples have no idea what is happening – they are terrified. Full of fear, they can’t imagine who or what this apparition coming at them across the lake might be.
In one sense, the disciples’ lack of imagination is a surprise. Certainly if they had read their Scriptures they might have guessed the kinds of things that God can do. There’s not enough food to go around? We just read this morning how Elisha had enough food for 20 people and some people were afraid to put it in front of 100 people. Will they fight with each other over scarce resources? No, Elisha said, let’s trust in God and God’s will for the people to live in peace, and somehow there was plenty for everyone. It’s true, the situation Jesus faced was more extreme – food for 5 people when there are 5,000 people – but still. The disciples cannot imagine what could happen if they trusted that, in the kingdom of God there is enough for everyone, but the imagination of Jesus was much wider.
The crowd is fed, and they are surprised too. And their thought is – if this guy can make sure we have the bread we need, he needs to be our king. And you can understand their thinking. They are currently living until the horrible King Herod – we just read a couple weeks ago what happens when Herod throws a feast. They are gathered at the Sea of Galilee, which John points out right at the start of our reading today, is also called the Sea of Tiberius, Tiberius being the Roman Emperor at the time, Tiberius who taxed every fish that came out of the lake, who extracted all the wealth of the people and left them hungry and restless. If Jesus can feed us and make us whole, let’s make him the king – he’ll do a much better job than Herod or Tiberius, that’s for sure.
Yet Jesus rejects this. “When he realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew to the mountain by himself.” The word “he withdrew” could just as easily be translated, “he fled to the mountain by himself.” The crowd thinks it knows what it wants from Jesus – the daily bread that their kings are depriving them of. And that’s not a bad thing to want, bread for everyone instead of the hunger and oppression that they were living with every day.
But – as we will read over the next few Sundays, as Jesus will explain to the crowd when they finally catch up with him – Jesus is not going to let himself be pulled into our projects, no matter how laudable. To be sure, Jesus wants everyone to be fed, everyone to be satisifed, everyone to be included – but what Jesus has in mind is so much more than replacing one king with another. For “God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.”
So Jesus flees the crowd, and this leaves the disciples standing their with their twelve baskets of leftovers. What are they supposed to do now? If Jesus can feed five thousand with just five loaves and two fish, what might we accomplish with a dozen baskets of food? But they are aware that they failed the test Jesus put before them, and once again, their imagination fails them. “Well, that was an interesting day. I guess we should go home.” So they leave Jesus behind, get in the boat, and start back home.
And you know the story – the trip is not going well, the seas are rough and the wind is strong. Then suddenly they see something they could not have anticipated or imagined – someone coming toward them walking on the water. And the disciples’ reaction to this unimagined development? Of course, it’s fear.
Now, to be fair, seeing someone walk on water is certainly more than anyone could ask or imagine. Although you have to ask – who else do the disciples know who might be walking towards them on the water? Who else do the disciples know who won’t just let them walk away in shame, who else do the disciples know who will come after them and overcome any obstacle to find them no matter what, who else do the disciples know who can command the creative power of the God who with a word drove back the sea and created the dry land? But this is what happens when we encounter the God who “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.”
And then, when Jesus identifies himself to the disciples, what is their reaction? To ask Jesus to get into the boat with them. Jesus has just proven he doesn’t need to be in the boat to protect and provide for the disciples, but – yet again – they don’t have the imagination to ask for anything other than the most immediate comfort and security. And Jesus doesn’t get into the boat with them – before they know it, they have already arrived safely.
Throughout these stories, Jesus keeps doing things that are completely unexpected – even if, on reflection, we can see in the Scriptures that Jesus did exactly what God would do if God were here in the flesh. Throughout these stories, the disciples and the crowd react not by receiving Jesus’s provision as delightful and surprising gifts – but by trying to figure out how to use the power of Jesus to meet their own perceived needs. And it’s clear that the things they want to use the power of Jesus for are good things – feeding the hungry, traveling in safety. Yet in both cases Jesus refuses. Because he wants us to know that “God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.”
We also, I think, often lack an imagination for what God is actually up to in our lives. We ask God for things that seem important to us in the moment, and perhaps they actually are important – and yet what we ask for is so little in comparison to what God actually wants for us.
We are surrounded by troubles and problems for which we cannot imagine solutions. Viruses that won’t go away, historic injustices that we are afraid to acknowledge, a changing climate promising floods and stifling heat and unimaginable threats for future generations and even in our present, our anxiety about the present and the past, our diagnosis, our fears and the needs we wonder if anyone will ever understand or fulfill. We may not be able to imagine how God could ever bring good out of any or all of these – but Jesus can.
For if we can truly believe that “God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine” – and that God not only is able to do this but wants, more than anything, to give us more than we can ask or imagine, then whatever happens – even if we feel like we’ve failed the test, even if we are running away from God, even if what happens looks like a cross – whatever may happen to us will be the place where we will meet God. And that God desires only our good, that we have nothing to fear from God, that in the end God will surprise us with goodness and mercy we could never have asked for or imagined.
“Now to God, who by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to this God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.” And all the people said: “Amen.”