"There is boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?"

William Easum is a church leader who's dedicated his life work to helping churches thrive and engage in real mission. That he think we ought to deal with things that get in the way of fullness of God and mission, he wrote a book called "Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers". The title says a lot! He begins the book's first chapter with this statement, "Established churches worship at the feet of the sacred cow of CONTROL." Personally, one of the most often used controlling statements I've heard over the years in any church I've served is, "We can't afford it." That is merely the echo of Philip the disciple, who told Jesus there simply wasn't enough money to buy food for all those people. We don't have enough money. Or, there isn't leadership potential. Or, we just ordinary folks. Or, we can't do it. Or, we like things just the way they are. Leave us alone! I think that's what we really mean whenever we say, "We can't afford it".

St John calls Jesus' miracles signs: signs of the power of God among us. Signs: It's not that we admire the miracles, or hope for full bellies for ourselves, whatever that might mean, but rather that we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can totally give us a new life. As individuals, yes. But just as much, perhaps even more, as a church. As we begin a month of prayer for our congregation, that is what I am praying we will each and all come to believe. Don't ever sell yourself, the church, or God short by refusing to believe that something new-or renewing and wonderful can happen. among us.

One preacher says that the problem can be put this way. "We come to church thinking mostly about ourselves, but the Scripture talks mostly about God." (Willimon, Pulpit Resource, vol. 28, #3, page 21). Yeah, we come to church thinking mostly about ourselves, in the same old ways, trapped in the same old attitudes and worn-out beliefs. We even may think we've tried prayer and it was just no use. We're so full of ourselves, there hardly any room left for God. And therein is found the source of so much dysfunctional church floundering. No wonder then the bulletin blooper rings of true, "Don't let worry kill you off- Let the church help."

"There is boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?" As we initiate a month of prayer for our church, in my mind I'm not thinking about just some quick little prayer muttered when we have nothing better to do. I'm talking about serious prayer, prayer so earnest and focused that it moves us from ourselves and our typical tired old attitudes over to God. If we come to church thinking mainly of worried selves, we need to come away from church, worship, prayer, full of God.

It takes some serious prayer and worship to get full of God, and then we run the risk of being deeply challenged by God. It's not all sweetness and light. The Website Beliefnet.com presented a provocative essay by columnist Jim Naughton, titled, "Prayer is Hell." Kind of a take-off on the old classic statement, "War is hell," the columnist attacks the sweet and simplistic view of prayer often offered in the media and by churches themselves. He argues, "Seriously pursued, prayer confronts you with your own sinfulness. It exposes your culpability in the evils of the world. It leads you to the brink of your faith, and then tosses you off. It illuminates the distance between who you are, and who God called you to be. And that's the good part: The first step toward repentance is to understand what we are doing wrong."

And what we do wrong is hold out on God, is not believe that if we simply offer in faith who we are and what we have, God can do miracles among us! Back in 1884 a sobbing little girl stood near a small Philadelphia, Pennsylvania church from which she and many others had been turned away because it was too crowded. "I can't go to Sunday School," she sobbed to the pastor as he walked by. Taking her by the hand, he took her inside and found a place for her in the Sunday School class. The child was so touched that she went to bed that night thinking of the children who have no place to learn about Jesus. Some two years later, this child lay dead in one of the poor tenement buildings and the parents called for the kindhearted pastor, who had befriended their daughter, to handle the final arrangements. As her poor little body was being moved, a worn and crumpled purse was found which seemed to have been rummaged from some trash dump. Inside was found 57 cents and a note scribbled in childish handwriting which read, "This is to help build the little church bigger so more children can go to Sunday school." For two years she had saved for this offering of love. When the pastor tearfully read that note, he knew instantly what he would do. Carrying this note and the cracked, red pocketbook to the pulpit, he told the story of her unselfish love and devotion. He challenged his deacons to raise enough money for a larger building.

But, the story does not end there! A newspaper learned of the story and published it. It was read by a realtor who offered them a parcel of land worth many thousands. When told that the church could not pay so much, he offered it for a 57 cents down payment. Church members made large subscriptions. Checks came from far and wide. Within five years the little girl's gift had increased to $250,000-- a huge sum for time (the early 1900s).

Her little gift became the seed for one of the largest churches of its day, Temple Baptist Church, with a seating capacity of 3,300, and a Sunday School building which housed hundreds of Sunday students, so that no child in the area ever needed to be left outside at Sunday school time. And her gift led to the founding of Temple University, where thousands of students have been trained in life-affirming careers, and to the merciful ministry of Temple University Hospital.

"There is boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?" Russell Conwell, the founding pastor, of Temple Church and University, the kindly pastor, who had carried first carried the little girl in to that Sunday School classroom, said of her, "When that little lad brought five loaves and two small fishes to be used of Christ for His great work of feeding the five thousand, it was precisely the same thing that little girl, Hattie May Wiatt, did when she saved her 57 cents to give to the work of God."

But it wasn't just the gift of the 57 cents. It was a pastor and a people coming to believe that God could bless them with larger accomplishments. May it be so with us. We come here full of ourselves, our personal concerns, our limitations, perhaps thinking all we are or have are but a few loaves and fishes. But through the signs and miracle of the celebration of Word and Sacraments, and through sincere, intentional, committed prayer we will, we can, we may, leave here full of God. And if we're full of God, there is no limit to what we can accomplish for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.