When a hungry crowd of thousands gathered on a Galilean hillside, the disciples counted what they had — five loaves and two fish — and saw only scarcity. Jesus saw possibility.

On Sunday 2nd August, St. Peter's, Château-d'Oex, welcomed Revd. Paul Cowley MBE to preach on Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the five thousand. Paul, an ordained Church of England priest, has spent over 25 years walking alongside men and women leaving prison, and founded the Second Chance Partnership, which has offered more than 800 jobs to people rebuilding their lives.

The real miracle, he argued, is not the bread but the surrender: the disciples gave Jesus the little they had, and he multiplied it in his hands, not theirs. What are we still gripping — our fears, our health, our future — instead of placing it in his?

Whatever we are carrying this week, we are invited to bring it to God and trust him to do more with it than we could alone. As Paul reminded us, quoting Corrie ten Boom: "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

Read the full sermon: https://stpeters.ch/sermons/feeding-of-the-five-thousand/