How Miracles Happen

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
July 30, 2006; 8 Pentecost, Proper 12, Year B
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(John 6:1-21) -- After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

I used to spend some energy wondering what actually happened when Jesus fed the multitudes. It's the most repeated story in the Gospels, so it makes you think something happened. As a child, it was just a miracle to me, like magic. Jesus was God. Like God he could do anything. So he just created more loaves and fish.

Then I grew up and learned more science. I decided that there was something about Jesus that created a different kind of miracle. Jesus inspired generosity and a sense of satisfaction. After being with Jesus, those people who had brought food were freed to share gladly, and all in his presence experienced a sense of satisfaction and well-being more simply than they did before. There was enough for all. During that time in my life I wrote a short story about the boy who is featured in this miracle. I imagined his deprived background. In my version, he stole the barley loves that morning. As Jesus taught, it was the boy who was the first to really feel changed by Jesus' message, so he offered what he brought with simple generous gratefulness. His example became the tipping point, and others followed. All ate and were satisfied.

Then I grew up and learned some more science, and now, I'm not so sure how it happened anymore. I wonder about the interrelatedness between material and potential. Strange physics. I've heard tell of a guru in India who regularly manifests bread from his open hands. I guess I'm back to where I started. I wonder how it happened. How it happens that hunger gets fed, that need becomes satisfied, that something comes out of nothing. I like stories about that.

Nowadays, I particularly like it when those stories say something about the way good leadership works. I like it when those stories include children. I also like it when those stories offer hope for the ills and conflicts of the world. I've got one of those stories for you today. It's a story about a loves and fishes miracle. (Sources: Spirituality & Health, June 2006 "Reviews", p. 75 and web sites about Greg Mortenson and David O. Relin's book Three Cups of Tea)

Back in 1993 Greg Mortenson was fulfilling a lifelong interest in mountain climbing by ascending to the world's second-tallest peak, a mountain called K2 in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalayas. One of his goals was to honor his late sister by leaving a necklace of hers atop the summit. His attempt failed. He never made it to the top. Exhausted and disoriented during the descent, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he eventually stumbled emaciated into the impoverished Pakistani village of Korphe where for seven weeks he was sheltered and nursed back to health.

While recovering he watched the village's 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. As he left the village, in thanksgiving for their kindness, he promised that he would return to build them a school.

He had no experience in fund raising. In one early effort, he wrote letters to 580 celebrities, businessmen and other prominent Americans. His only reply was a $100 check from NBC's Tom Brokaw. So, Mortenson sold everything he owned. That netted him $2,000. With personal reserves of stubbornness, patience and charm, he continued his efforts. The big turnaround came when a group of elementary school children in River Falls, Wisconsin had a penny drive. The children collected 62,300 pennies and donated $623 to Mortenson's effort. The story had legs. The children's gift became a tipping point, catching the attention of adults, and Mortenson began to attract larger donation. Jean Horni, a Swiss physicist gave the first large gift of $1 million in 1996 to build a bridge and a school in the village where Mortenson had been cared for. One donor, after writing a hefty check said, "You know, some of my ex-wives could spend more than that in a weekend," adding the proviso that Mortenson build the school as quickly as possible, since the donor wasn't getting any younger.

Just as he had caught the mountaineering bug, Mortenson discovered that he had a knack for building schools and making friends in the glacial heights of Karakoram and the remote deserts of Waziristan. Patiently enduring the subterfuge of corrupt officials and hostility from locals whose leaders had long memories of unfulfilled American promises of such help in exchange for their services during the war against Russia and Afghanistan, he persevered. Under the auspices of the Central Asia Institute he has built 55 schools in twelve years. He's helped create fourteen other Women's Vocational Centers and more than 25 potable water stations. He did this in a region where Americans are feared and hated, in a region that is a breeding ground for the Taliban. In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in the tribal areas of Pakistan. In 2003 he escaped a firefight by feuding Afghan warlords, by hiding in a truck under smelly animal hides heading to a leather-tanning factory. He has survived fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and two children to spend up to half of his year in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders and tribal chiefs for his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls. This year the schools will educate 24,000 children. He is being called a one-man mission to counteract extremism and terrorism with books, not bombs, by replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading. "We had no problem flying in bags of cash to pay the warlords to fight against the Taliban," he says. "I wondered why we couldn't to the same things to build roads and sewers and schools." Mortenson says he is fighting the war on terror the way he thinks it should be conducted. The author of the best-selling study "Taliban", Ahmed Rashid says the "work Mortenson is doing ...is making [these children] much more difficult for the extremist madrasses to recruit." Republican U.S. representative Mary Bono says, "I've learned more from Greg Mortenson about the causes of terrorism than I did during all our briefings on Capital Hill. " Tom Brokaw says that his story is "proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world." A newly published book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorist and Build Nations...One School at a Time is helping to spread the story. And the "Pennies for Peace" program started by the kids in River Falls, Wisconsin continues to this day.

I think it is interesting that each project the Central Asia Institute works on is locally initiated and involves community participation. A committee of elders guides each selected project. Before a project starts, the community matches project funds with equal amounts of local resources and labor. Local Non-Government Organizations and village communities are selected for their dedication, initiative, and accountability to facilitate the community partnerships. They take great care to cooperate with the various governmental, political, and religious groups of the complex region, and they are able to meet the cross-cultural challenges without affiliation to any particular group.

This is good leadership. Servant leadership. St. Paul's has created a school to teach the kinds of principles that Greg Mortenson practices. You'll be reading more about our Servant Leadership School in upcoming newsletters, and I hope many of you will enroll. The Central Asia Institute is one of the many organizations that is pursuing the vision of the Millennium Development Goals, and some of you who are committing 0.7% of your income to the MDG's might consider partnering with their work.

How does it happen that needs become satisfied, that hungers get fed, that something comes out of nothing?

A little boy comes forward with five barley loves and two fish; some Wisconsin children collect 62,300 pennies. Then someone with a bit of vision, persistence and leadership will take, bless, break and give those gifts within a willing community. And miracles do happen.