Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for July 26. 2015
Jesus is portrayed with the loaves and fishes in this ancient Coptic icon.
Just about everyone knows the Gospel stories of Jesus feeding the crowds with the mysteriously multiplying loaves and fishes. It is the only miracle of Jesus that is reported in all four Gospels. This fascinating story about the Prophet Elisha, however, is a little less well-known. The prophet directs an annual harvest sacrifice to a crowd of hungry people; and here, too, a portion that seemed insufficient – only 20 loaves for 100 people! – proves more than enough, with leftovers remaining.
Psalm: Psalm 145:10-19
Like many of the Psalms, this grateful hymn of praise expresses gratitude to a God who is not merely powerful but faithful and merciful, always prepared gently to lift up those who fall and to support those who are oppressed. Echoing the bounty that God provided for the hungry people in Ezekiel and the hungry crowd on the mountainside in John, the Psalmist, too, celebrates God who gives us food; whose outstretched hands satisfy every living creature.
Second Reading: Ephesians 3:14-21
Did you hear a familiar phrase in this reading? First, we hear a prayer that the people of Ephesus would receive strength through the Holy Spirit and have Christ living in their hearts through faith. Then this selection closes with beautiful words that have been adopted as a benediction for Morning or Evening Prayer: “Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”
Gospel: John 6:1-21
We get two miracles in today’s Gospel. First, we hear John’s version of the familiar story of the loaves and the fishes. John hints at the Eucharist in his account, in which Jesus blesses the bread, then distributes five barley loaves and two fish to 5,000 people, somehow making this small portion feed everyone abundantly, with more left over than they had to start with. The crowds are so amazed that they clamor to make Jesus king, but he slips away, catching up with the startled disciples by walking miles across the water to join them in their boat.