We have two very different stories today. In the first one, David, the anointed king of
Israel, sleeps with another man’s wife and has that man killed to cover his
sin. In the second story, Jesus Christ,
the Messiah (which means anointed), feeds five thousand people and flees so
that they will not make him king of Israel.
Two very different stories about the same thing. They are both about being blessed by
God. They are about the gifts we are
given and what we do with them.
David was blessed with great wealth and power. He was given a kingdom that he never asked
for. He went from lowly shepherd to
king. We’ve been hearing about David for
the past few weeks. We heard about how
he was chosen to be king of Israel. We
heard about how he brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. We heard about how he danced and made
sacrifices for the Lord. Today we hear
about David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. Did David
use the Lords gifts for good or did he misuse them? He messed up royally. He got what he wanted, but he did it in a way
that the Bible tells us is wrong. You
probably don’t even need to read the Bible to tell that what he did was
wrong. It is one of the laws written on
our hearts. He coveted his neighbour’s
wife. He committed adultery. He killed.
And he came awfully close to lying.
He certainly deceived Uriah when he tried to get him to sleep with
Bathsheba. One story and almost four out
of ten on the commandment list. David’s
behaviour in this story is meant to be an example of how not to use God’s
gifts. Next week we hear about how upset
God was with David and what his bad behaviour cost him.
In our gospel story, just as we have a lot of hungry people
gathered together, we have a bunch of lessons in a short space.
First, we have the writer pointing out that the Sea of
Galilee is also called the Sea of Tiberias.
Why would he do this? He does
this to let both Jews and Gentiles know where the story took place. This message is for both of them.
Second Jesus asks Philip where they would buy enough
food for everyone to eat. Jesus knows
they don’t have enough money to buy that much food. He is trying to get Philip to think in a
different way. He wants Philip to depend
on faith, do rely on God to provide what is needed.
Third, we have a boy with some bread and a couple of
fish. The fact that the bread is made
from barley identifies him as very poor.
This boy has nowhere near enough food to feed five thousand, but he is
willing to give it to Jesus. Through the
grace of God, his small gift is multiplied many times to do God’s work. In fact, what is left over is more than he
gave to start.
Finally, the crowd wants to make Jesus king over
Israel. This would be a great gift of
both wealth and power, but accepting it would not serve God.
All of these small points are about how we use the
gifts that God has given us. If we put
them all together, we can understand at least a little bit about how God
intends us to take care of the gifts that we have been given, how we can be
good stewards.
First, whatever we can give, no matter how small,
whether it is money or time or something else, whatever it is, God can do great
things with it.
Second, we will be held responsible for what we do
with God’s gifts. We need to use what we
have been given for good before personal gain.
This does not mean that we should be poor, but we should not hurt others
to become rich.
Third, when we are offered a gift that seems really
good, we need to be careful. Accepting
that gift may cost us more than the gift is worth.
Finally, God will help us use our gifts if we only
have faith. We need to be mindful of God’s
call at all times. If we do this, what
we have will go farther than we could ever imagine. By the grace of God, even our smallest gifts
can make a huge difference.
Thanks be to
God.
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