Book of Common Prayer

The letter to Sardis

3 “Write this to the angel of the church in Sardis. ‘These are the words of the one who has the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know what you have done. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen the things that remain—the things that are about to die—because I haven’t found your works to be complete in the sight of my God. ³ So remember how you received the message, how you heard it and kept it—and repent! So if you don’t keep awake, I will come like a thief, and you won’t know what time I’m coming to you. ⁴ You do, however, have a few people in Sardis who haven’t allowed their clothes to become dirty and polluted. They will be clothed in white and will walk with me, as they deserve. ⁵ Anyone who conquers will be clothed like this in white robes, and I won’t blot their name out of the book of life. I will acknowledge their name in the presence of my father and in the presence of his angels. ⁶ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches.’

Feeding the five thousand

6 After this Jesus went away beside the sea of Galilee, that is, the sea of Tiberias. ² A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was doing in healing the sick. ³ Jesus went up into the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴ It was nearly time for the Passover, a Jewish festival.

⁵ Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to him.

“Where are we going to buy bread,” he said to Philip, “so that they can have something to eat?” ⁶ (He said this to test him. He himself knew what he intended to do.)

⁷ “Even with six months’ pay,” replied Philip, “you wouldn’t be able to buy enough bread for each of them to have just a little!”

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, joined in.

⁹ “There’s a lad here,” he said, “who’s got five barley loaves and two fish. But what use are they with this many people?”

¹⁰ “Make the men sit down,” said Jesus.

There was a lot of grass where they were, so the men sat down, about five thousand in all. ¹¹ So Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave them to the people sitting down, and then did the same with the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹² When they were satisfied, he called the disciples.

“Collect up the bits and pieces left over,” he said, “so that we don’t lose anything.”

¹³ So they collected it up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces of the five barley loaves left behind by the people who had eaten.

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that Jesus had done, they said, “This really is the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”