EVERYDAY MIRACLES

Communion Service
Readings: Psalm 51:1-12, Exodus 16:1-15; Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY August 5th, 2012

A printable PDF file can be found here

Our readings focused on 2 incidents, "Manna from Heaven" and Jesus teaching that He was "Bread of Life".  As we approach the table of Bread and Wine I'd like to offer some thoughts on what I'm calling "Everyday Miracles".

Let's start with the Israelites.  You probably know the story of how Moses led them out of Egypt into the Wilderness and how once they were there they started to complain, "At least in Egypt we had something to eat! We're starving out here." Moses promises them that sustenance will come, meat for the evening and bread for the morning. And so it was quail for supper and manna for breakfast.

"Give us meat" they said. The quail came and everybody said it was a miracle.

Quails are found in countless numbers on the shores of the Mediterranean and their annual migration is still an event that causes great excitement as they move in vast flocks towards Africa.  It's an exhausting flight, done in stages. When the birds stop to take a rest, they are so exhausted that they can easily be picked up and captured.

The miracle wasn't so much that the quail came but rather that, as they responded to the call of God, the Israelites were in that place, at that time, when the quails arrived.  In that event the Hebrews saw the hand of God and the Deliverance of the Almighty.

In the wilderness where the Israelites camped lives an insect known as Najacoecus Serpentinus.  The sap from the Tamarisk bush on which these insects feed is rich in carbohydrates but low in nitrogen.  In order to aquire enough nitrogen for their metabolism to operate properly, the Najacoecus Serpentinus consume an enormous amount of sap.  The excess from this process passes from the insect in the form of honeydew excretions which the desert air changes into clumps of sticky solids which turn a whitish yellow color.

These solid lumps are thought to be the manna that the Israelites collected and ate in the wilderness. The Hebrews called it a miracle. Yet, as with the quails, the miracle wasn't so much that the manna came, but that they were in that place, at that time, to receive it. 

Our lives continue to be surrounded by everyday miracles, many of which, if we work hard at it, can be found to have a rational explanation.  What we cannot explain though is how we happen to be in a certain place at a certain time when a certain thing which has a certain outcome takes place. That is the Grace of God. What we need to do is cultivate within ourselves the kind of spiritual sensitivity that discovers the sacred within the common occurrences of everyday life.

If we don't do that we will find ourselves in the same boat as the people in our New Testament reading who came to Jesus and said to Him, "What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe in you? You know, our ancestors had manna in the desert!"

There they were, talking with Jesus, who was a flesh and blood sign of God's grace and presence in their midst, and they couldn't see it.  Instead they are saying, "Let God knock us off our feet, astound us... and then we will believe". 

Wasn't it enough that Jesus had healed broken hearts, made outcasts acceptable and drowned fear with a flood of love?  Had they not already had overwhelming evidence of His capabilities?  Even if He had done some Divine magic trick, would it have made any difference? They saw nothing and they felt nothing because they lacked the capacity to discover the sacred within the common-place.

Jesus tells them, "What God wants you to do is to believe in the One He has sent".  What God desired for them was not that they seek for some blinding light or dramatic experience but that they wake up to the fact that in the flesh and blood of human existence and in the everyday miracles of grace and life, they could discover the miracle of God's presence.

That is something that I believe we have to do as well.  Because for most of us life goes on in a very ordinary fashion.  We are aware that we are no more or less than flesh and blood, that this is a place of bricks and wood, and that we are meeting around a table laid with nothing more and nothing less than bread and wine.

We try, by having a communion table and a clean white cloth, by putting the bread on a special plate and the wine in a consecrated cup to show that these common things are special, but really it's just bread and it is just wine and it is just you and it is just me.

But here is the wonder of it all.  Although it is just us and just another communion service, here and now, on this ordinary day, we can know the reality of God's love.  The miracle is that we happen to be here, at this time, in this place. "What God wants you to do" says Jesus, "Is believe in the One He sent".

The Israelites cried out to God "Help us out here in the Wilderness". God already had it all figured out.  The quails and the manna were there but it took an act of faith to realize it.  The people cried out to Jesus, "Show us a miracle and then we'll believe."  But the miracle had already taken place.  He was there, in flesh and blood, standing with them.  But they lacked the faith to believe it.

So what of us as we go about our ordinary lives?  Will we trust God to meet us in our needs?  Will we recognize Him in the everyday miracles that surround our daily lives?

We are here surrounded by the Grace of God in the presence of His people, past, present and to come. He has placed before us this opportunity to worship, to seek Him and share our lives with Him around this table laid with signs to point us to the greatness of His love towards us.  Christ died for our sins and was raised to bring us new life.

This is no little thing.  Unless our hearts make it so.  We need to recognize that it is through the ordinary that God seeks to do the extraordinary. "What God wants you to do is believe in the One He sent".

Come to this table, receive bread and wine, believing in Jesus Christ.
Believe in the capability of God's Holy Spirit
to take the common things of life and make them miraculous.
Believe that the Christian message is the message for your everyday life.
Believe that being a community of faith in age of unbelief
is a challenge to be embraced and a goal to work towards.

As we share together in this service may God renew us that we may help others discover everyday miracles within them and around their lives. AMEN.

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.