Somewhere, out in the ether, is podcast #84. I’m leaving space for a miracle to happen in the event of its resurfacing. Or perhaps it’s like leaving the chair for Elijah at Seder dinner, just in case he shows up. In any case…

The “signs” or miracles of Jesus are so much fun now that I don’t read them literally. Sanford says the miracles tend to divide people into scholars and literalists. The scholars leave little room for irrationality and mystery, and the literalists leave little room for creativity and depth. The third way to read them is psychologically, and Sanford says Jesus was “the first great depth psychologist.” The challenge of these stories is to deepen our inward gaze, to put ourselves in them.

We arrive at the miracles of feeding the multitudes and walking on water.

Writer and poet Padraig O’tuama informs us that the symbol for the Gospel of John in the Book of Kells is the Eagle. He invites us to imagine the whole of this scene at once: the feeding, the praying in the wilderness, the storm, and the calming of it. If we could, like the eagle, soar above the scene, where might we hover and descend? the really incredible piece is that on any given day, it might be a different point int he story. We could play with this one in our active imaginations for a long while. Today I am trying to stay calm in the storm; tomorrow I might be the little boy willing to share my bread.

Another way to play with this story is to ask ourselves what do we hunger for? What aspects of the self are we holding back and what are we generously sharing with others?

Like all of the Jesus stories, there is so much richness in every single one. Dive in with us!