My thoughts (Theresa Benson):

In researching today’s passage, I found all kinds of interesting ideas we could take away from this story. Some scholars found meaning in the five loves made from barley. They theorized that the number five represented the five books of the Torah, and barley, which is difficult to harvest but rich in flavor once you get to the kernel, similar to the old laws, hard and firm, but rich in tradition.

Others discussed the differences between Philip’s and Andrew’s responses to Jesus’ question. They point out that Philip was over-thinking things a bit, and Andrew, while obedient, was ashamed of what little he’d found to offer Jesus.

Now here’s something I didn’t realize: this particular story, of all the miracles recounted in the Bible, is the only one which appears in all four Gospels. Why? Why a miracle about fish, loaves, and hungry people instead of, say, the raising of Lazarus from the dead? Why is this story so important?

Here’s what I think. This one story captures a fundamental teaching on how to relate to God and each other. It’s so basic and important that I think each of the Gospel writers included it in the hopes that we’d “get it.”

Here’s what I see in this story:

• While Andrew and Philip freak out a little that they don’t have enough for everyone, Jesus has the crowd sit down and get comfortable. (When things seem impossible, God tells us to be still and remain calm — things are still under control.)
• Then, this little boy turned over everything he had, not questioning if it was enough, or feeling embarrassed it wasn’t very much, just giving what he had. (How many times have we looked at what we’ve got and thought we didn’t have anything to offer? (I don’t know how, I can’t learn, I’m not smart enough, I’m not “x” enough…) Don’t you love little kids who haven’t yet learned insecurity, and how they give and love and imagine in a way we adults have forgotten?)
• After Jesus blessed everything, he personally didn’t hand it out to the multitude. He gave it to his disciples, who in turn handed it out. (God blesses the gifts we give, and then works though us to give spiritual nourishment to others.)
• Everyone’s fed until they’re full. (In life, there’s plenty for everyone; God isn’t a God of scarcity, but rather, a God of abundance.)
• Jesus has them pick up the leftovers to take with them. (God is a God of abundance, but not gluttony. And, no matter little or much we give for God’s purposes, we will always get more than enough in return.)

So the next time I get exasperated and don’t know how to get out of whatever pickle I’m in, I’m going to follow the example of today’s message: I’ll sit down, take a deep breath, give my faith to God, and trust that God knows there’s a solution — and in return, God will give me answers in abundance, and my faith will grow by leaps and bounds, I’m sure.

Thought for the day: It may sound trite, but it’s not: What do I need to give to Jesus today?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to begin, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Theresa Benson):

Let’s take a look at the group of people who came to see John the Baptist and what was going on in Bethany.

In many Christian interpretations, it seems that Jesus and the Pharisees are often pitted against each other; in fact, on one Christian website it says “most of the Pharisees were enemies of Christ.” I have a feeling, however, that the Pharisees Jesus was frustrated with may not have been representative of the entire group.

The word Pharisee comes from the Hebrew p’rushim, meaning “explainers.” Of the three main Jewish sects at the time (Pharisee, Sadducee, and Essene), the Pharisees had some pretty progressive ideas for their time, including one that said, “God gave all the people the heritage, the kingdom, the priesthood, and the holiness.” According to Jewish scholars, the Pharisaic position is best summed up by the statement: “A learned [outcast] takes precedence over an ignorant High Priest.”

The Pharisees tended to be middle-class, and they had the masses for their allies. They were said to hold the greatest authority over the congregations, so that everything to do with worship took place according to their instructions.

They waited for the Kingdom of God, consoling themselves in the meantime with study of the Law. “He who takes upon himself the yoke of the Torah, the yoke of the worldly kingdom and of worldly care, will be removed from him.”

So.

How appropriate that it’s this group of popular and progressive leaders that makes the trek to see what’s happening. Can’t you just see their trip almost as a metaphoric bridge between the strict Judaic traditions of the time and Jesus?

And they ask John, “Who are you?”

This is his big break — he has the ear of a group of people with tremendous influence in society, they’re expectant and trying to figure out what’s going on. What if he were to play his “politics” right and just maybe hint a little bit that he might be who they’re looking for?

Nope, not John.

He doesn’t even puff himself up a tad bit, either, instead saying he’s not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals! Now, come on! Admitting you’re not “The One” is one thing, but telling these guys, the popular ones, the powerful ones, that you’re the lowest man on the totem pole!? Why not say, “No, I’m not Him, but I’m his right-hand man — he and I go way back.”

John knew his purpose and knew how important it was that he fulfill it as God wanted him to. When they asked him, in essence, “If you’re not him, why bother with the whole water-baptism thing?” he didn’t skip a beat.

And this is the guy God chose to give first witness to Jesus — a person who was humble but confident in who he is, who chose God over fame, who knew his purpose and lived to fulfill it regardless of the personal and professional sacrifices he might have to make.

What an inspirational example of how to live and give witness to Jesus in our own lives!

Thought for the day: What can I do to be a witness to Christ like John was? How can I let God shine through my life today?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to begin, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Theresa Benson):

There it was, almost 5:00 pm, and I had 15 guests invited to a get-together at my house at 6:00. Scrambling to put the finishing touches on a quilt I’d promised to make for a friend’s granddaughter, I hadn’t started putting the food out, hadn’t walked the dog, hadn’t showered yet, and everything for the mulled wine I’d planned to make, which takes a couple hours to simmer to start to taste really good, was still in the grocery bags from my run to the store that morning. Oh, and did I mention that I still had a couple presents to wrap and needed to pack for a trip for which I was leaving bright and early the next morning?

Who planned this party tonight, anyway?!

I certainly had all the ingredients for full-blown panic to set in, culminating in a mad rush around the house trying to get everything together in time for when the doorbell rang. I needed some major help here.

I’ve recently taken the basic Discipleship classes (101 and 102) here at church, and one of the things we discussed and practiced was really cultivating a relationship with God — talking to God, asking for help, thanking God for all the blessings we receive every day.

For me, this has historically been a scary proposition, as my image of God had been damaged by my relationships with adults as a child, and I thought of God as angry, withholding, and punishing. And while I am working to improve my image of God, unlearning something many years in the making can be a tough job.

However, putting trust in the things I’d learned, and in the examples that my friends here at church have shared with me about a God who loves me and is intimately interested in creating an abundant life with me, I realized that if I’m going to be in relationship with someone, I certainly better not leave that One off the guest list to my party!

Right there, in that moment, I decided to stop panicking and talked with God, and gave a last-minute invitation:

God, I’m frantic about getting everything done in time for my party. I’m sorry I didn’t think to invite You sooner, but I need Your help. You are Infinite, and in the grand scheme of things, time means nothing to You. I need a miracle here — can You stretch out time or something so I can get done everything I need to and send Your Holy Spirit and help me be calm when my guests arrive? Please be with us tonight at this get-together. Thank You for keeping everyone safe tonight and for helping make this a lot of fun. Love You!

Shortly after this, I got a phone call that a couple folks were going to be late, and would arrive around 6:30. A couple more called to say they, too, would be delayed. Amazingly, I had my shower taken, the dog walked, the food out, the music going by five after six, and still had a few minutes to sit with the dog and relax before my guests arrived.

Thought for the day: Whenever I’m stressed, I’ll ask myself: “Did I invite God to this party?”

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to start, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

What might God be saying to me in this scripture?

My thoughts (Theresa Benson):

Being off work recovering from surgery, I’ve had the opportunity to watch a lot of “Dr. Phil.” There’s a saying of his that I like for its simplicity and truth: “You’ve got to name it before you can claim it.”

What this means to me is that before we can really address a problem area of our life, we’ve got to fully acknowledge what the real problem is.

For example: because I’ve been unable to exercise for so long, my pants and shorts are starting to get a little tight. Now, I could decide that it must be because the friends who are helping me do laundry are shrinking them in the dryer. If, while I’m sitting eating ice cream with a friend as a reward for an especially painful doctor’s appointment I tell them (and myself) that my shorts are getting tight because someone keeps shrinking them, I’m not fooling anyone, including myself.

But, if I get quiet for a moment and acknowledge it’s probably because I’m eating more calories than I should because I’m so sedentary right now, I can start addressing the “mystery of the shrinking shorts” and do something practical to change my situation for the better — and it won’t involve keeping my friends away from the clothes dryer.

Looking at the situation honestly will guide me toward right steps to make positive change. Denying it and lying to myself and others — whether the lies are believable or not — will lead me to further disappointment, embarrassment and frustration when I finally have to go buy a new pair of shorts in a larger size.

Without sincerely acknowledging where we are, we can’t map out a plan for where we’re going. It would be like trying to give directions to someone who’s gotten lost on the way to a your house without knowing where they are when they call for help. Telling them to head north two blocks and west three blocks won’t get them any closer to us if they’re on the other side of town to begin with, and may, in fact, put them in harm’s way.

Only once we begin to examine our lives with integrity can we find the guidance we need to succeed.

Thought for the day: So, where am I? Where do I want to be going?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Theresa Benson):

Sometimes I really need to be reminded not to be so hard on myself and remember just how far I’ve come. I had a conversation with my neighbor, Lynn, recently that made that really clear.

I’m off work again for my second surgery, and my neighbors have been incredible about helping me while I’m unable to get around. Lynn comes over in the morning to assist.

Usually, we’ll get in a conversation about current events, or about how my foot’s doing, or how remarkable all my friends have been. But occasionally, as this morning, we’ll go deep, and I was relating to Lynn how I’d gotten in to Duke, Purdue, and Northwestern, and passed the first round of application stuff at MIT, before my Mom announced, “Theresa, you can go anywhere you want as long as it’s Iowa State University.”

Now, I’ve told that story a zillion times, every time someone asks me why I decided to get my electrical engineering degree, and I’m so hardened to it by now that I don’t realize just how sad the story can sound. But this morning, it struck a nerve in Lynn and she started tearing up and telling me just how unfair a decision that was, and that if I was her daughter, she’d have a “Wheel of Fortune” party where my friends, family and I could spin the wheel to see what school I might end up at. What a blessing, she thought, and how terrible I wasn’t able to receive it.

And with that conversation, I got the “permission” I needed to get angry about it for myself, get frustrated about feeling stuck, and felt compassion for the scared high school senior who was so afraid of her Mom that she didn’t stand up for her future.

I am absolutely WOWED by Bath-sheba’s willingness to stand up for her son Solomon with King David. Can you imagine? All those preparations had been made, the King was ill and dying, she and her son had been slighted for the coronation. If the Theresa who made the decision to go to Iowa State were her, she probably would have turned inward, and thought perhaps King David had changed his mind, perhaps he no longer felt her son Solomon “enough” to ascend the throne, or perhaps she’d done something wrong, and without warning, Adonijah was being crowned king instead.

And she would have lived under Adonijah’s rule, feeling trapped, frustrated, sad, out of place, all because she didn’t speak up for herself and her son.

I had my “Nathans” in high school — teachers who thought highly of me and encouraged me to go to the school of my dreams and study whatever I felt I’d succeed in. But instead of listening to their wise counsel, and going to my Mom and saying, “Haven’t you taught me all my life to be myself, who I am, and do what’s best for me? Shouldn’t I go to one of these other schools instead of Iowa State, since I have the aptitude, scholarships, and opportunity?” I shied away, and while I have had a good life (as I’m sure Bath-sheba and Solomon may have had), for so long I’ve mourned the missed opportunities and questioning if I’m fulfilling my purpose.

Thought for the day: It’s my hope, today, that we might all speak up for ourselves. And for parents, to speak up for your children — that we might all surely know that we’re walking the path God has planned for us, and truly receiving the blessings God gives us.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Theresa Benson):

Back in Jesus’ day, Rabbis typically taught and resolved disputes in a way similar to how lawyers in America do things today. They would cite precedence in the Law for how something should be decided or carried out. In our legal system, there are volumes and volumes of cases that lawyers, legal assistants and paralegals will study, piecing together an argument: since Jones v Smith said this, and Benson v Simpson said that, this ruling should go down this way.

The idea is that rather than having lawyers and judges across the country making fickle and inconsistent rulings, all should follow precedent and extend their decisions logically from previous decisions, at which point, this new judgment now gets put on the books and can be used as precedent, too.

It’s almost like they abrogate their authority to past decisions: “Hey, things were decided this way in that case, so it’s not really me deciding this, it’s the way precedent is.”

But not Jesus.

He wasn’t claiming that “in a recent synagogue poll, four out of five rabbis thought [He] had the best message.” He was not quoting this teacher and that rabbi before Him as reasons why the people should listen to him. He wasn’t poring over the texts to resolve contradictory decisions; he was speaking from what he knew was right and good, and people could see a difference.

He was in there speaking His truth, because He and Truth are one and the same.

There is a profound simplicity and beauty to be found in messages from people who teach as Jesus taught. There’s a confidence and safety in knowing that when this person speaks, he or she is not flipping through notes, making sure to cite the right ‘backup knowledge’ in order to make things sound more profound, believable or sellable.

Take for example Gandhi’s message, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Or Mother Teresa’s, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”

They, too, were speaking their truth.

Thought for the day: Jesus taught in a way no rabbi before him taught — with authority — and he drew many to him. May we strive to live in a way reflective of Jesus’ style of teaching — with a greater Truth guiding our steps and our words so we, too, may confidently draw many to a life of hope and joy.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.