Book of Common Prayer

3 Write this to the angel of the church people in Sardis: Here are the words of the one who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars. `He says, "I know what you do. People say that you are alive, but you are dead.

² Wake up! You still have a little life left in you. Make it stronger before it dies altogether. I have not seen you do anything that looked right to God.

³ So remember the things you were told and the things you have heard. Obey them. Stop the things you have been doing. If you do not wake up, I will come to you like a thief. You will not know when I will come to you.

⁴ But you have a few people in Sardis who have not made their clothes dirty. They will walk with me in white clothes, because they are good enough.

⁵ He who wins will wear white clothes. I will not take his name out of the book of life. I will tell his name to my Father and to his angels."

⁶ `He who can hear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.'

6 Then Jesus crossed over the sea of Galilee. (Another name for this sea was Tiberias.)

² Many people followed him because they saw the big works he had done in healing the sick people.

³ Jesus went up on a hill and sat down with his disciples.

⁴ The time for the Passover Feast of the Jews was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up, he saw many people coming to him. He said to Philip, `Where shall we buy food for these people to eat?'

⁶ Jesus knew what he himself would do, but he said this to see what Philip would do.

⁷ Philip answered him, `It would take nearly a year's wages to buy enough food for them, even if each one gets only a little.'

⁸ One of Jesus' disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, talked to Jesus.

⁹ He said, `A boy here has five loaves of bread and two small fish. But what can that little bit of food do for so many people?'

¹⁰ Jesus said, `Tell the people to sit down.' Much grass was there. The number of men who sat down was about five thousand.

¹¹ Then Jesus took the bread and thanked God for it. He gave it to the disciples and they divided it among those who were sitting. He did the same thing with the fish. The people had all they wanted.

¹² When they had eaten enough, he said to his disciples, `Gather up all the pieces that are left so that nothing will be lost.'

¹³ They gathered all the pieces of the five loaves. Twelve baskets full were left over after all the people had eaten enough.

¹⁴ When those men saw the big work that Jesus did, they said, `Truly, this is the Prophet that is to come into the world.'