Monday, July 23, 2012

John 6:1-21


Pentecost +9 - Year B


Pentecost as surprise seems to grow out of the anti-Pentecost of foreknowing (verse 6). How this can be, I do not know. Basically I think John got it wrong — that Jesus was as surprised as anyone that water became wine, that five loaves and two fish became a feast for thousands.

Certainly hope and trust were engaged, but guarantees make this into magic, not revelation.

Either way, the validation was not the manifestation of mulitiplication, but the recognition of an experience breaking boundaries.

Again, why a response to such an experience was an attempt to force it into political meaning is a mystery to me. We do such out of lack of imagination of what simple thanks might do and resistance to rearrange our systems of gross national product into gross national happiness.

Thankfully Jesus recognized his surprise at the multiplication and at the crowd’s response and took off for parts unknown.

Now, return to the gathering of the fragments after the feast. What would you do with them? How might they be sown further? Do they represent you in your simply having been gathered in or in your being sown in people’s lives to reveal mysterious experiences of contentment and enough, again and again?

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