This past weekend at Mass, we heard the Gospel story in which Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish (John 6:1-15). This Gospel story has always stood out to me.
How could a simple carpenter from Galilee have fed the enormous crowds with such a scarce amount of food, and yet have 12 wicker baskets left over? Surely, this can only be the work of God. We read that Jesus was preaching to 5,000 people (not including women and children) that came from afar to hear the saving words which He spoke.
Although Christ’s words satisfied the spiritual hunger of the people, He also took into account their physical hunger. Stretching out His hands, He blessed, broke and shared five loaves of bread and two fish that had been brought to Him from among the crowd. All the people present ate until their hunger was satisfied.
What can we learn from all this?
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Through this story, the Evangelist is exhorting us to trust in the loving providence of God. The people were very hungry and were quite far from a town. If they left in search of food, they might have fainted on the way. Even when Jesus was presented with the loaves and fish, it was clearly not enough to feed all the people. It is even possible that some of them might have doubted that Jesus could feed them with such little food.
They were in a very difficult situation, but regardless of this, they trusted in what Jesus was doing. That is what we are called to do in times of need and trials. We must trust in God and in His plan. In the end, He knows what is best for us. At times, we may feel that Christ withholds His providing hand from us. We feel that He is indifferent to our needs and petitions.
Sometimes, we find ourselves and our families without bread on the table. During these desperate times, we question and doubt God and His power. I myself have passed through these obstacles, and even in the midst of suffering, I knew that God would not abandon me. I was firm in faith and I abandoned myself in the hands of God, placing all my trust in Him and uniting my will to His. It was through the sufferings and trials of life that I encountered His mercy and goodness. I have seen what the providence of God has done in my life and that of others. I saw that those who had no bread on the table eventually found excellent jobs that allowed them to provide for their families.
I realized that to this day, Jesus continues to multiply the five loaves and two fish until all have been fed and provided for. We must trust in God because He will surely provide for His children the same way He provides food for the birds of the air (Matthew 6:25-26, 30). This Gospel teaches us that Jesus is mightier than the storms that we find ourselves in. Whether in times of suffering, trial or need, we know that God will stretch out His hand and provide once more.
Tucson faith leaders, we would like to include your original sermon or scriptures of encouragement. Sermons must be written by the person submitting them, not borrowed from another source or writer. If you are a faith leader from any religion or denomination, please contact Sara Brown at sbbrown@tucson.com.
Faith leaders like Rabbi Joshua Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in New York have begun to test the capabilities of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots for writing sermons. Many have found that it can in fact write a passably competent sermon, but cannot replicate the passion of actual preaching. "I told ChatGPT to write me a sermon and the voice of a rabbi of about a thousand words, about the Torah portion on the theme of intimacy and vulnerability," said Rabbi Franklin, who in late 2022 tested his congregation by giving a "plagiarized" sermon written by ChatGPT. "The goal was for them to figure out or try to understand or guess who wrote it," he said. "People thought that this content was generated by these really wise, smart, thoughtful individuals, where it had actually come from chatGPT. 100% of it." Rabbi Franklin said that he quickly realized this technology was no Google search engine, but had the ability to create AI content in a way he had never seen before. But he's concluded that rabbis and religious leaders are not obsolete. "ChatGPT has a lot of limitations," he said. "Eventually, it's going to be able to learn my style and my specific style. But giving a sermon and teaching a congregation is more about being in touch and being in relationship with them." Hershael York, a professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has also experimented with ChatGPT and feels that AI is missing a soul. "You know, a mind without a soul is hardly capable of what I would consider true ministry," he said. As a professor, York and his colleagues are testing these chatbots to establish better rules around students using such technology in their work. "That was my primary engagement," he said. "And then as I did it, I also thought, okay, this could be a tool for what I would call lazy preachers." Although Rabbi Franklin said he would continue using ChatGPT as a learning and research tool regarding unfamiliar subjects, he also feels that because spirituality is often unexplainable by words, AI chatbots are "going to have major limits in the realm of faith and spirituality and religion."
