Feast or famine. Scarcity or abundance. It seems like that could describe the miracle in our reading today.

I think it could describe the game we saw in St. Cloud on Friday night. Yes, I was there along with quite a bit of the town. I had to go so I could cheer on Tyler and Corey. And I'm glad I went. I'm so proud of them. But like I said, it seemed to be Feast or famine or more like famine and then feast. It was definitely famine for the first half. I don't remember the score when half time was coming up, but when one of the brothers from New London/Spicer drained the three-pointer right at the buzzer, I wouldn't look.

But the Tigers came back from half time and they treated their fans to a feast as they answered everyone one of the Wildcats points and then some. And so, even though we didn't win, thanks boys for getting us down there and serving up that feast. We're proud of you.

It looked like famine and then feast there in the wilderness also. First there was no food, and then they had it in abundance. But looks are deceiving. The order was not Feast and then famine. Nor was it famine and then feast. Rather, it was feast and then feast. You can't beat that!

We have now come to the 4th Sunday in Lent. This one stands apart from the other readings. Perhaps you realized that these Sundays have names. They are Latin ones, and as a result they sound pretty cool. The first Sunday was called Invocabit. It comes from the first word of the Introit of the day. You can hear the word, "invoke" as in "call." The week following was Reminiscere. You can hear the word, reminisce, like remembering, which is the first word of the Introit. "Remember your mercy, O Lord." Last week was Oculi, like ocular, having to do with eyes. The Introit started "My eyes are ever toward the Lord." And the theme of each of them as we click down the weeks of Lent, have been focusing on facing opposition, growing in our discipline as a result and therefore growing in our dependence on God's mercy in Christ.

But today is different. It's called-can you see it on your insert? It's Laetare, and you can see what it means. Rejoice. "Rejoice with Jerusalem." The theme is more upbeat, and the reading fits.

It's not quite just feasting, though. It's not all roses. It turns out even in this cheery, happy scene, opposition and confrontation still shows itself. But it's nothing like it's been the last several weeks. The first week, as we review was confrontation against Satan. The next week, confrontation with God who hides His mercy while teaching us to rely on His Word alone. Last week, the religious leaders and others who made light of the exorcism. And today, those who don't want Jesus to be who He is.

There are two points the Lord wants you to take from this reading. Both of them tell you the Lord will provide, which is what we are learning through this Lenten season. The first is one we need to hear as we settle into a troubled economy. The Lord provides. Now it's true, not everyone gets hurt when the economy goes bad. I guess we have been seeing that. AIG gave out huge bonuses from bailout money as well as some other abuses we have been hearing.

Some just don't feel the crunch quite as much. To them, the Lord says, "I provide." "I am the one who provides." Like it is explained as we pray in the Lord's Prayer particularly the 4th petition, "God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to recognize it and receive our daily bread with thanksgiving." This miracles teaches us He is the One who provides, and not ourselves.

Take a look at the features of this miracle. 5,000 men were fed. That includes their families, which probably makes it more than 15,000, since that would include children, and multiple children in a family. But I had never stopped to ask myself, "Why are there so many people?" St. John provided that information. The Passover was near.

Now, giving us this detail that the Passover was near could signal several things. First, is to just tell us why there were so many people. A large gathering was coming to Jerusalem, and quite a few took a detour to go up to Galilee to check out this prophet who the people hoped to be the Messiah. That would account for so many people. They've come from all over the known world to celebrate the Passover at the temple and it seemed to be a no-brainer to go look for the guy who shows the most promise to be the Messiah. This explains why there were so many, but John signals something else with the Passover detail.

The second would be, the first Passover came immediately before Israel headed out into the wilderness after leaving Egypt. This was the protection against the last plague, death of the firstborn. If the blood of the lamb was seen on the doorposts the lives were spared, or as the hymn puts it, "Where the paschal blood is poured, Death's dread angel sheaths the sword." Finally, Pharaoh let them go. After the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, though, they were sitting out in the wilderness, without any sign of food or water. They had to learn to trust. The Lord provided for them, feeding them with bread from heaven. Once again, we have a huge crowd out in the middle of the wilderness with apparently nothing to eat and the Lord provides again. This obviously ties us into our first reading.

Finally, the last reference to the Passover may just simply show us that this same time of the year Jesus was going to be crucified. We are being trained to keep our eye on the Passover. When it comes around, this will be like the time when Jesus will be the Lamb, the Passover Lamb. Like Abraham had said when Isaac asked him on the way to what Abraham had thought would be Isaac's death and resurrection, "Father, where's the lamb for the sacrifice?" "The Lord Himself will provide a Lamb."

So, here we have over 15,000 people in the middle of the wilderness. Out of 5 loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus feeds them all, and has food to spare.

The lesson is simple: The Lord provides and will provide. This is spoken first to those who are secure financially. What you have is from the Lord. Don't lose sight of this. Don't think it is simply your own hard work. Learn to rely on the Lord. Don't take it for granted. The Lord who gave it to you, may see it might be good to take it from you. Learn to trust now.

This is also spoken to those who are not so secure. Don't worry or fret. The Lord will provide. He will take care of His children. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him give us all things? You are His child. He knew you by name, long before you were born. Before time even began, He knew you. You have been brought into his family and as a Father, like no one has ever seen on earth, He knows how to take care of you and will take care of you. This isn't to say that you will be wealthy or even what we consider comfortable according to today's standards, but you will not be left without necessities.

This is the message of the one feast, but another feast had taken place before the feeding of the bread and fish. When Satan tempted Jesus to prove He is the Son of God by telling Him to make loaves of bread out of the stones, Jesus responded, "Man shall not live by bread alone."

We have now come to the part about the other bread. John omits this detail, but the other gospel writers tell us that He taught the crowds about the Kingdom of God. They were treated to a feast of living bread, by the bread of life Himself.

Out in the wilderness as the people wandered after coming out of Egypt, the Lord provided bread from heaven. But it never got a name. Oh yeah, they called it manna. But do you remember what that means? It's just a question. "What is it?" That's hardly a name. I remember in band we played a tune called Sine Nomine. Neat sounding name, huh? I liked the tune too. Do you know what it means? It means, "Without a name." By the way, that the tune "For All the Saints" in our hymnal. The Latin sounds a lot better, doesn't it? Just like the Hebrew sounds better for this bread called "What is it?"

The point is it never got a proper name, because the proper name had not been given. But now it had. It was Jesus. This bread from heaven was no longer manna, "What is it?" but now Jesus Himself. As He speaks the people feast on living words. As He speaks they are given life.

It is the same to this day. As He speaks, He gives living words. As you hear you are being given life, because the words you hear are His Words, the words of the Bread of Life.

But not all feasted that day, not all hear. Jesus is showing who He is. He speaks of the Kingdom of heaven. He is leading them to Himself as the Savior from sin. They are separated from their Father on their own, but He is the bridge between heaven and earth. As they are being shown their plight, are they crying out for mercy or just drooling at the thought that now they may finally have the guy who will drive out the Romans?

It's apparent that the ones drooling still were not hearing. After the miracle, those people are even more convinced that He was what they hoped He would be. They want to make Him their king. They are not concerned about their standing with God or their eternal destiny. They just wanted to be comfortable in this life, to have the things that bring comfort.

Our situation isn't even a slightly bit different. As children of Adam, we are just like those listening to Jesus in the wilderness. Without Him we are lost, but with His sinless life counted to us, and His death treated as though it were own, we live. You live. By His grace and mercy, we live and we have the assurance of knowing where we stand with our God.

As we are treated to this feast of His Words, how are we reacting? Are we wishing we could hear that He will give us everything we want? Are we wanting to use Him as a cosmic vending machine, that if we insert the right kind of coins, we can get out of Him just what we want? Or are we willing to let Him give us what He knows we need?

This is the feast we need first and foremost. Like Jesus had said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but rather from every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord." This is what we need. When we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, that is the matters of eternal life which He gives us here on earth in heavenly things, then we will learn everything else, namely our daily necessities will work itself out.

When we get this right, the very lesson we have been learning this entire Lenten season, as we learn how to pray, to die to ourselves and our own ideas of what we need, then we will see every time we have come to worship, we have been feasting on the Bread of Life Himself.

AMEN