Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 6 verses 1 through 10:
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.* 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’
St. Augustine once said that there is always enough of that which was meant to be shared.
The boy’s lunch was meant to be shared, and we celebrate the story.
But there is so much more that is also meant to be shared, including wealth, prosperity, healthcare, and housing.
It is only our failure of imagination which keeps us from sharing these things. Another name for this failure of imagination is selfishness.
The faith and imagination of the little boy with the fish is an inspiration. There is enough, if we dare to share.
My mentor’s mentor Carlyle Marney used to say that property and poverty are not antonyms, they are synonyms; and their opposite is community.
The boy believed in community — the miracle of community.
And how the miracle happens is always in our hands.
Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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