During his ministry, Jesus’ reputation grew. People sought him out, sometimes traveling great distances. They wanted to find out if the stories about him were true. They crowded around him in order to witness miracles of healing. They came in order to learn if his teachings were really as life changing as they’d heard. At times, Jesus needed to get away from the crowds. But no matter where he snuck away to in order to escape them, the crowds eventually tracked him down. In the gospel of John, Jesus fed five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Then that night, Jesus and his disciples quietly crossed the lake to leave the crowds of thousands behind. But as always, the crowds tracked them down. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked Jesus for a sign. They wanted to witness some work of magic that proved that Jesus was an agent of God. They promised to believe his teachings if he’d just do something miraculous. They promised to follow his instructions if he’d give them some sign of God’s power. They asked this less than a day after he fed five thousand of them with just five loaves of bread and two fish. They missed the miracle that happened right before their very eyes. Jesus performed a miracle of God’s loving abundance, but apparently the crowds were too busy filling their stomachs to notice. Jesus must’ve been exasperated when he said, “Don’t worry so much about filling your stomachs that you forget to fill up your lives. Don’t pay so much attention to the bread that you to eat, that you miss the bread of life, the blessings of God that are right in front of your face.” But no matter how Jesus tried to explain it, the crowds never quite understood. They couldn’t help get their signals crossed while Jesus was trying to tell them what was really important. They kept seeking after full stomachs and further proof. But the proof was right in front of them, and Jesus offered them something much more profound than what would fill their stomachs.

Some students of human nature have concluded that humans are basically selfish creatures. They argue that we’re all motivated solely by self-interest. We seek what fills our stomachs. Sometimes it’s not just what fills our stomachs, but in the end, we want what satisfies our immediate cravings. We’re motivated by the instant gratification of our selfish desires. These students of human nature claim that we seek love mostly because it feels good to be loved in return. We seek possessions because they make us feel secure. They’d even say we act generously only because our generosity makes us feel good about ourselves, or perhaps because we seek the promise of some eternal reward in heaven. There are those who argue that to be human is to be self-centered. To be human is to be motivated primarily by our stomachs, by our primal, immediate self-interests. But as followers of Christ we also believe that the image of our Creator was woven into us from the beginning of creation. God knitted the spark of divine inspiration into the stuff of earth and water that makes us creatures of this world. With God’s inspiring spirit inside us, we can find a balance between our own needs and the needs of others. With God’s guidance, we can rise above simply following our stomachs. With God inside of us, we can recognize the movement of God outside of us, pointing us to a greater truth than simple self-satisfaction. Some of you have heard me talk about the story of the Protestant French village during World War II that placed their own lives in danger in order to smuggle Jewish children to safety beyond the reaches of Nazi Germany. Le Chambon was the village where they pretended that Jewish children who arrived by night were their own children. They clothed them and fed them and gave them French names with French birth certificates, in order to keep them safe long enough to secure them passage out of the country. When asked later why they placed their whole village, their own lives, and even the lives of their own children at risk for these children of strangers, over and over the villagers simply responded, “What else could we do? We did what had to be done.” We all hold the potential for true selflessness. We are able to place the needs of others above our own, because God’s at work in us and through us.

There are miracles all around us. Miracles are those inexplicable moments of blessing that point toward God. While we may long for a burning bush and the voice of God to reveal the divine plan for our lives, God’s at work in the world all the time. Miraculous works of God are part of our lives every day, so much so that we may take them for granted. New life is miraculous. I’ve never known a new parent who’s failed to describe their newborn child with the word, “miracle.” As those miraculous bundles of joy grow, and grow louder, and grow more stubborn, and grow into teenagers, we may take for granted that precious miracle of life in every child. But God’s at work, making the life of every child, and every youth, and every person a divine miracle. Jesus managed to feed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, and apparently none of the five thousand seemed to notice how miraculous that was. Just so, those miracle moments that point toward God are all around us, even when we take them for granted. God is working a miracle before our very eyes whenever we face grief surrounded by a loving community. God is working miracles whenever strangers become friends. God is shaping miracles in our lives whenever those who have more than enough share with those who need a little more. None of these miracles can be explained by the purely cause and effects of human self-interest. The spirit of God is at work, in us and through us, working miracles all the time.

In preparation for receiving communion, we’ll say the Lord’s Prayer in just a moment. In that prayer, we pray for God to give us our daily bread. Most of us here probably don’t really worry about that. For most of us, we probably take our daily bread for granted. Our kitchens are likely stocked with so much food that we throw some of it away because we just can’t eat it all before it goes bad. But perhaps when we pray the Lord’s Prayer today, we can take a little extra time to count the miraculous blessings that point toward God, like bread on the table, moments of forgiveness, and the loving support of a family and community. “Don’t worry so much about filling your stomachs,” Jesus warned, “that you forget to fill up your lives. Don’t pay so much attention to the bread that you to eat, that you miss the bread of life, the blessings of God that are right in front of your face.” Amen.