Besides the Resurrection there is only one miracle in the Bible that all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are telling: The Feeding of the 5,000. The version from Matthew 14:13-21 will be read as the Gospel in many churches this Sunday.

Matthew tells us that Christ wanted to withdraw from a crowd to have some quiet time, so he took a boat and went down the coast of Lake Galilee.

However, the crowd followed him for food and when he saw them, he felt compassion, healed their sick and began preaching the good news to them. Towards evening his disciples urged him to send the people away to get their supper in the villages around.

However, Jesus told them to feed them, but they only had five loaves of the typical flat bread and two fish (and according to John they had gotten that from a boy). That would have just been enough food for about a handful of people, but there were 5,000 men plus women and children.

Still, Christ gave thanks, broke it and urged them to begin sharing. At the end, everybody had his fill and there were even 12 baskets of bread left over.

In God’s kingdom all will be satisfied. How this happened, is not told. Did the substance of the available bread multiply miraculously? Maybe. However, I believe, once the people sat down and the disciples started to share the little they had, some more people began to share what they had, and then others did the same.

Instead of holding on fearfully to their own provision, people trusted that there would be enough for all, and it was more than enough. That is for me the real miracle. It takes some miracle to make people share what they have.

I remember I read in a book from Rick Warren about building churches: “The last thing people trust the church with is their money.” (Or in this case their food).

Not only today are people often afraid they might not have enough. Strangely even very rich people with multimillion-dollar portfolios can have that fear. This has been true through the ages. However, there have always been examples when this fear was overcome, when people began to trust.

The novel The Whale at the End of the World by John Ironmonger has a similar notion. During a worldwide pandemic a whale is washed ashore at a Cornish village. As international and national trade and logistics almost came to a total hold, people first feared that everyone would begin stealing from each other and robbing people of their food, and thus the villagers try to keep the whale a secret, as it can provide enough food for the village, but most people, with very few exceptions, actually collaborate, not only in the village, but as they learn later, nationwide.

People care and begin to share and help each other in the difficult situation rather than hold on and back what they have.

It can be challenging to begin to share. Often it takes a special event, like an earthquake or other natural catastrophe to motivate people to help others in need. In Bermuda some Churches intensified their food programmes during the pandemic. At the height of the pandemic, Christ Church Warwick was making about 3,500 meals a week for needy people in the community.

The Salvation Army has a long history with feeding the hungry, the Eliza Doolittle Society has a food bank, Baptists, Methodists and Roman Catholic Churches also provide food on a regular basis. All these programmes are run mainly by volunteers and financed through donations. I know from some of the volunteers how much this kind of work means to them, and how it changed them.

Though Bermuda has its social problems, the majority of people on this island live well. Most of us don’t have to worry about tomorrow or even next year. We just had Cup Match with lots of picnics, fine dining, takeout and many other forms of eating and drinking.

Food makes special occasions even better. I love such occasions and like many others I spend even a little more than usual on groceries or getting food somewhere else. Have you ever estimated how much you have spent on food and drinks during this Cup Match Holiday?

Imagine if everybody was willing to give just 10 per cent of what they had spent over Cup Match to charity or church programmes to help people who are less fortunate, whether because of poverty, health problems, tragedy or job loss. Wow, what we could do with all that money!

The biblical story of the Feeding of the 5,000 is a symbol for God’s Kingdom among us. When all get what they need and are satisfied and there is even a lot left over, then Christ is among us building his house. When even a boy is willing to share the little he has, the world begins to change. Fear and worry is replaced by joy and trust.

Ultimately God’s Kingdom is not just about charity, but about justice and fairness, when all get what they need, not just what they deserve or can afford. Charity can only be the beginning, and it is important.

In addition we also need to work towards social justice, overcoming of the equity gap, the earning gap, the educational gap and so on as much as possible. When hard-working people can live on fair wages, when business is back to win-win rather than win optimising at any price, when housing is affordable for all as they need it, so that tenants and landlords are happy and treat each other with respect, then God’s Kingdom begins to widen.

Christ’s central message from Matthew 3:2, “Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” can be translated more accurately “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” All we have to do is reach a little farther and get hold of it.

Imagine if more people would trust this promise, and trust God and each other instead of letting fear, greed or even crime be their mantra. Imagine a Bermuda, imagine a world, where we live like brothers and sisters in harmony, helping our neighbour and respecting our differences and diversity, without suspicion or hate but with goodwill and tolerance, and making sure all can be satisfied at the end of every day.

• Karsten Decker was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s