A Modern Day Miracle?
Joe Killian • July 23, 2015
For the last nine months I have had the joy of working in Johnstown with the people of Our Mother of Sorrows parish. In particular, we have had an incredible experience together taking and then facilitating the Alpha Course. We are in the midst of our third course and God has produced amazing results through our team. I marvel at how God provides for our 150 or more guests each week with a full meal followed by a video teaching and small group discussions. It is quite an operation that has had a profound impact on a lot of people!
Wouldn’t it be cool if I could share with you a miracle that occurred on our Alpha Course? …just like the loaves and the fishes story?
The stone altar and the mosaic of the fish and loaves of bread.
in the Church of the Miracle of the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fishes at Tabgha.
Photograph: Yael Alef 2007
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone. John 6:1-15
According to John’s Gospel Jesus had already performed a couple of miracles prior to this point. The disciples had seen evidence of Jesus’ power but were not prepared for Jesus’ latest test of their faith. “No way!” Philip declares regarding the potential cost of feeding 5000. Then Andrew points to the five loaves and two fish with the seemingly rhetorical question, “…what good are these for so many?” They soon find out that with Jesus they need much bigger expectations.
No, our Alpha Course hasn’t produced a loaves and fishes kind of miracle. However, if you had talked with our team seven months ago and said that they would be a part of this amazing experience of running this course for several hundred people I am guessing they would say “No way!” Or maybe some version of “what good are we?” But the reality is that they all stepped forward in faith and something really special has been happening at Our Mother of Sorrows (OMOS) in Johnstown.
Jesus has shown up and He is taking care of the multitudes through His OMOS disciples. Give Him the opportunity to do so with you. Willingly present your “loaves and fishes” in faith and watch Him work.
The story continues...I'm still working on the pondless waterfall in our front yard. I shared this project with you two weeks ago in Playin' In the Dirt. Since then I've had to rework sections of the stream three different times because we were losing too much water. I am now an expert on evaporation rates and excessive splash, two causes of water loss. This morning I tore the whole thing apart and I'm starting over.
Have you ever watched DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda? I stumbled across it recently and thoroughly enjoyed Jack Black's performance as a bumbling, noodle selling, kung fu enthusiast, giant panda named P o. Set in ancient China, it is more than a humorous slapstick comedy. The core message of the story jumped out at me as I have been focusing recently on the concept of being. Po is shockingly identified as the Dragon Warrior and he reluctantly enters training. The goal of the training is to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is believed to hold the secret to limitless power. Now I don't want to spoil the big reveal but I will say that what Po realizes is the same as what I speak to in the concept of being and authentic identity. So, where do we find the secret to our "power?" I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know. Psalm 139:14 God knows it; and we must seek Him with all of our hearts in order to find it. As it was in the movie, the answer is stunningly simple. Our authentic identity is already within us. The challenge for Po in the movie was in seeing himself accurately and not the way others saw him. Even his teacher scoffed at the idea that Po was anything more than an underachieving dreamer who overate when he was anxious. Po's problems are rooted in the fact that he believes the lie of his false identity much more than he does his authentic one. Is it possible that you do the same? Who could have imagined that beneath all of Po's girth lived the Dragon Warrior? What's hidden from view in you? Seek God for understanding as to who He created you to be. Spoiler Alert: the secret of your limitless power is already in you. God placed it there and He wants you to be who He authentically created you to be.
Maria and I have been playing in the dirt a lot recently. First we replaced our French drain and then we embarked on a creative project intended to change the entire look of our front yard. My brother Jeffrey and I installed a new front step.
