Excerpt from Mark 6:35-44

"Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.  And all ate and were filled."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

When I was a student in divinity school, I attended a gathering of the faculty where a professor of New Testament read a paper about this passage, the story of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.   The scholars present entered into the kind of debate that is common in the academy.  They argued about the veracity of the account, its various literary and historical influences, and presented different theories about how the story had taken its final canonical form.  Then someone turned to Paul Holmer, a curmudgeonly professor of theology, for his opinion because he had been uncharacteristically quiet during the exchange, seemingly lost in thought.  He paused for a moment and then he said, "Well, I don't know about all of that stuff.  I was just thinking that if Jesus could feed all of those people, perhaps he can feed me."

It is true that, in the United Church of Christ, we do not shrink from using the tools of modern scholarship to study scripture, and there can be benefits in doing so.  But I am grateful for the reminder that the point of reading the Bible is not to pick it apart but to be nourished by it.  After all, if Jesus could feed all of those people, we can ask and expect to be fed by him, as well.

Prayer

O God, please spread your word before me, as you would a feast, so that I may be both nourished and delighted by it.  Amen.

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.