The four Gospels credit Jesus with about three dozen miracles... Hebrew Scripture begins with the miracle of creation...

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1 July 29, 2012 How many miracles are recorded in the Bible? The four Gospels credit Jesus with about three dozen miracles... AND Hebrew Scripture begins with the miracle of creation... There is a cluster of miracles in the stories of Moses (a burning bush and staff-turning-to-snake to get his attention 10 plagues to persuade Pharaoh manna in the wilderness and water-from-rock in the desert)... Elijah called fire-from-heaven to consume the priests of Baal who were opposing God... And there are many more miracles in both Old & New Testaments. So how often would you expect to find the word miracle (or miracles ) in the Bible? I looked!... expecting hundreds! BUT... In the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) which is normative here miracle / miracles appears only 11 times! I triple-checked!!! WHY do YOU suppose that would be?... since there are so many miracles in the Bible? The reason is that the Bible uses another word to refer to what WE call miracles 167 times in the NRSV, including in verses 2 and 14 in OUR Gospel lesson today.

2 Did YOU hear it? -2- Verse 2: A large crowd kept following Him because they saw the signs that He was doing for the sick. Verse 14: When the people saw the sign that He had done... What were the SIGNS that the crowd had seen? Already in John s Gospel: - Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast (2:11); - Jesus healed a boy who had been at the point of death (4:54); - Jesus healed a man who had been crippled for 38 years (5:2-9) WE would call these miracles... John tells US that the crowd was following Jesus because they had seen these SIGNS. -?- WHY would the Bible use the word SIGNS instead of miracles? I think... it is because God had a special purpose for miracles. God intended miracles to serve as SIGNS pointing people to God, Whose power made miracles possible. Jesus intended that people would see a miracle and think GOD! Jesus intended that people would see, & say: He did that by the power of God. Jesus intended His SIGNS to make it easier for people to believe.

3 -3- A contemporary who understands the word SIGN as it is used in the Bible is... Woody Allen! Woody Allen talks about how difficult it is for him to believe... and what God might do to make it easier, and he says, If only God would give me a clear SIGN... Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank! Woody Allen understands SIGN in the Biblical sense,... as intended to help people believe. Woody Allen has a number of religious insights, appropriate {I hope} for a summertime sermon: I don t believe in an afterlife, but I m packing an extra pair of underwear just in case. The universe is merely a fleeting idea in God s mind a pretty uncomfortable thought if you ve just made a down payment on a house. I am not afraid of death, I just don t want to be there when it happens. And... If only God would give me a clear SIGN... Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank! I wonder... if Woody Allen has his eyes open to see and his heart open to believe. He has made many successful movies, written best sellers, been a professional musician... He must have a ton of money

4 -4- God has already made a large deposit in his name. If Woody Allen needs that money to reside in a Swiss bank so that he can believe in God,... why doesn t he just move it there? God has already given him the money! WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do YOU have YOUr eyes open to see? Do YOU have YOUr heart open to believe? Have YOU seen anything that helps YOU to believe? Has God answered one of YOUr prayers? Has God helped YOU make it through the night? Has God put food on YOUr table? One of the reasons WE say Grace! before meals is to remind OURselves and OUR family that every good blessing comes from God. Isn t the bread on OUR table a SIGN that God loves US? Shouldn t OUR meat and potatoes make it easier for US to believe?

5 -5- In OUR Gospel lesson today, Jesus works a SIGN. This was one of His big, over-the-top miracles : A large crowd followed Jesus because they saw the SIGNS that he was doing for the sick (v.2). Jesus took them up a mountain... (-?-) where they could be closer to God Jesus looks at the large crowd coming toward Him and says to Philip, Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? (v.5) The narrator tells US that Jesus said this to test Philip, because Jesus already knew what He was going to do (v.6). Jesus question surprised Philip. Philip looked at the crowd, and said, Six months wages would not be enough for each of them to get a little. (v.7) [If YOU re curious... six months wages = 200 denarii A denarius was a day s pay... perhaps equivalent to $100. So Philip was saying that if they had $20,000 to spend on bread they still- wouldn t have enough to feed this crowd.] What Philip left unsaid was: If we had $20,000, where would we find a bakery with that much bread? If we found that much bread, how would we get it here? And... What about water? What Philip left unsaid was, You gotta be kiddin me, Jesus!

6 -6- But another apostle Andrew says, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish (v.9). Then Andrew states the obvious problem, But what are they among so many people? Someone must have said to Andrew, Good question! But why do you even bother to tell Jesus about this boy s lunch? I think Simon Peter s brother is making a great leap of faith! So Jesus tells the disciples to have the people sit down. The narrator tells US that there were about 5000 in all but if that didn t include women and children (which it may well not), then WE re looking at 10,000 or more. Jesus takes the bread GIVES THANKS and distributes it to the crowd. Then He does likewise with the two fish. took gave thanks gave Language which should be very familiar to Eucharistic people like US!

7 -7- The people ate as much as they wanted, and when they had finished there were 12 baskets of food left over -- more than they had when they started. [Remember Biblical significance of the #12: 12 sons of Jacob = 12 tribes of Israel 12 disciples 12 X 12 will be saved according to Revelation 7... ]. The feeding concludes: When the people saw the SIGN that Jesus had done, they began to say, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. (v.14) In other words... The people realized that the food that they had eaten was indeed a SIGN from God -- sent that they might believe in Jesus... and believe they did! They saw the SIGN and believed that Jesus was The One for Whom they had been waiting all those years -- the Messiah the Son of God. WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have YOU seen any SIGNS that point to God? Have YOU seen any SIGNS that help YOU to believe? Has God blessed YOUr life in some way or another? Are YOUr eyes open to see God s benevolence in YOUr life? Is YOUr heart open to believe?

8 -8- Let me close with a thought from the late English Monsignor Ronald Knox, author of crime novels and innovative BBC broadcaster: Knox noted that God created the world and all that is in it -- and, then, he talked about people who have trouble believing that God would heal a cripple at Lourdes. Impossible! they say. Knox says that the idea that Christ could feed more than 5000 using only a boy s lunch seems preposterous to many people. Then, he says: And yet what is the feeding of the five thousand compared with that patient process by which vast plains of wheat shoot up and bud and mature, under God s hand, to make the slices of bread which you forgot to say prayers over yesterday? In other words... God isn t just- feeding 5000 or 10,000 God is feeding billions of people daily, and WE hardly notice.

9 -9- SIGNS pointing to God are all around US. WE are surrounded by them sustained by them: - The bread on OUR table is a SIGN pointing to God and His love. - The air that WE breathe is a SIGN pointing... heavenward. - The water that flows from OUR taps is a SIGN pointing to God. - The trees and flowers that delight OUR view are SIGNS pointing to God and Her love. - Every farmer s field is a SIGN pointing to God and His providence. - Every supermarket shelf is a SIGN that God provides for US. Let s: Open OUR eyes to see! Open OUR hearts to believe! Open OUR lives and live! H(signs)