Readings II Samuel 11: 26- 12a; John 6: 24-35 The reading from John`s Gospel is a follow on from last Sunday`s story about the feeding of the 5000. The story is well known as are the arguments about what really happened - did Jesus perform a miracle of multiplication or was it rather that the offering of a boy`s food persuaded others to share what they had brought? If it was a miracle of multiplication it is surprising that later on Jesus is asked why he doesn`t provide them with a sign like that given by Moses - surely the provision of bread for so many people would have been sign enough to persuade them. But I don`t want to go down that path because we don`t really have enough evidence or information to make a decision about what happened. What we do know is that Jesus was pursued by many people in the hope that he might be able to meet their need for food. Jesus recognised this motivation when he is said to have commented, `You seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves`. If that was a fundamental reason why so many people sought him, allied of course, with those who wanted to be healed of their various ailments, who can really blame them? Perhaps they were also interested in the bread that comes down from heaven and which is described as the life of the world, but like every other human being they had the basic need of food to sustain their physical lives.

In 1943 a psychologist named Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs which could be described as a pyramid - on the bottom the need of water, air, food and sleep, and all other needs he said were secondary until these needs were met. Then came the need for safety and security, followed by the social needs for love, affection, relationships and friendship. Getting near the top of the pyramid came self esteem and personal worth, with self growth on the top. Research carried out by the University of Illinois in 2011 found that the top layers of social and self growth were important to many people even when the basic needs were unfilled. I interpret this to mean that we want to be treated as having value even if seen to be a worthless beggar.

I have no doubt that Jesus wanted the basic needs of people to be met but he also wanted them to discover in a relationship through him to God a sense of being valuable in God`s sight - to have not just self esteem which can vary from time to time and situation to situation but God esteem - a knowledge, a belief that in the sight of God they have value as a child of God.

At the opening of the UC Assembly in Adelaide the incoming President referred to the recent National Church Life Survey where there were 20,000 responses from Uniting Church members. The questionnaire asked people to choose three out of 12 aspects of the life of the UC that they liked. 18.7 % said multiculturism; 22% said maintaining traditional forms of worship, 20% rural ministry; 20.1% social justice; 24.5% pre-school and aged care and 71% inclusiveness. It is possible that this means that a lot of church members like the idea that the door is open to anyone who wants to belong - including themselves. Somehow or other our sense of self worth and growth is enhanced by being part of an inclusive Church family and we also hope that others will feel the same.

There are other possible motivations which draw people towards God through Jesus - the hope or expectation that you will get some sort of heavenly reward after you die or in a more immediate sense that you will be rewarded with prosperity in this life - and there are church groups in Perth which try to either scare people or bribe them into the kingdom of God. I hope that we want to be part of the Church family because we are drawn to Jesus and all that he stands for rather than looking either for pie in the sky when we die or more pie now.

Associated with the meeting of needs is also the problem of greed - of wanting more than we need and using whatever power we possess to achieve that end. Our reading from the Old Testament is a classic example of a powerful person greedily stealing a man`s wife, making her pregnant and then arranging for her husband to be murdered. Perhaps the worst part of this story about King David is that he didn`t realise how badly he had behaved until he was confronted by the prophet Nathan. And, in the understanding of those times, it was the child on whom the judgement of God fell. It is a terrible story of power being used in a selfish greedy way and it is also a story of someone having the courage to confront this evil. Not for one moment do I think that God was responsible for the death of the child but I do think that the judgement of God may be upon anyone whose greed affects other people - and maybe one of the roles of those who are seeking to be followers of Jesus is to
be willing to challenge the insidious greed which has become so much a part of our society.

But it would be hypocritical to do this unless we first of all confront any tendency for greed within ourselves. I sometimes wonder how much is enough - there is nothing wrong with having enough to feed and shelter ourselves and those who are dependent on us - to be able to provide some security against unexpected events and to maintain a standard of living similar to that of people around us whom we regard as being our neighbours or community.

The real problem arises when we not only want more than we need but also use whatever power we have to obtain it irrespective of how our demands or actions adversely affect others. We may not be guilty of the lustful greed which drove King David into adultery or the ensuing fear which drove him to murder the wronged husband but before we express righteous indignation about hungry, homeless or struggling people we all need to be sure that the fingerof Nathan is not also being pointed at us as it did at King David - `You are the man.` `You are the woman`.

I`m sorry if that seems to be too negative, too confronting but I have come to believe that followers of Jesus do have the obligation to constantly question how they use the resources they possess as well as challenging the conspicuous greed of our society.