Reverend Raymond Osborne, Pastor

Please Note That Most Messages Follow
The Revised Common Lectionary

I apologize if I act a bit strange this morning. I have a tremendous headache and I need your prayers. I got a ticket coming here this morning for running a Stop Sign and quite frankly my head hurts from all these bumps on my head! See I got into this discussion with the officer who gave me the ticket. He said, “Mr. Osborne are you aware that you ran that stop sign back there?” I said, “No officer I wasn’t. I slowed down like I usually do and could swear I saw nothing coming. So I just don’t understand why you’ve stopped me or why you’re giving me this ticket.” He said, “Mr. Osborne get out of the car please. What you did was what we refer to as a “California stop” around here.” That’s when I got a little excited and said, “Well to me THAT’S good enough!” That’s when it happened. He pulled out his billyclub out and started beating me on the head! I asked him “what you hitting me on the head for?” He said, “Now do you want me to slow down or do you want me to stop?!” Then he asked me if I learned anything from all this and I said “yeah, next time don’t get out of the car!”

Of course you know as well as I do that didn’t really happen but it sure proves that little can be much doesn’t it?

Years ago my father bought a farm in the mountains of North Carolina. There are basically two crops that can be grown in the mountains of North Carolina, tobacco and Christmas trees. My father grew both. I will never forget the first time I helped him set tobacco. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a tobacco setter but they hook to the back of a farm tractor, have a huge water tank on the back, two seats, two trays to hold the plants, and this wheel with rubber “fingers” in the middle. As the tractor goes through the field you take a tobacco plant from your tray and place it in the rubber fingers alternating with the person beside you and as the wheel turns it sets the plant in the ground and gives it a shot of redimill mixed with water that makes it grow with the Lord’s help.

I was sitting on one seat, my mom on the other. Dad looks around and says, “Ready?” Mom and I both yelled, “Ready!” Off he went and Mom and I got busy putting those plants in the fingers of that setter as it went around. We got to the end of the row and Dad stopped the tractor, looked back, and asked, “Who was the first person and who was second?” I answered, “Mom went first and I went second.” “That’s what I thought,” said my Dad, “Get off the setter and go back and reset those plants with your hands!” I looked and lo and behold every other plant was in the ground upside down with the roots stuck straight up in the air! I learned REAL quick how to properly set tobacco using a tobacco setter!

A phrase you will begin to see printed a lot on your bulletin and one that you might hear me say a lot is “Members in Ministry – All Members Ministers.” It is my belief that you and I are both ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all entrusted with making certain that the Gospel is shared in word and deed.

In our Gospel lesson this morning we see Jesus giving His disciples a lesson in ministry. Jesus asks His disciples a question that He already knows the answer to. Throughout the Bible God has done that too. Remember when Adam was hiding in the Garden after he and Eve had endangered their relationship with God? Genesis 3 verses 9 - 11 say, “But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" See God asked Adam where he was not because God wanted to know, He already knew! God wanted Adam to see where he was, what had happened to him because of his disobedience.

Well in this text Jesus asks the disciples a question, not because He wanted to know the answer, but because He was testing the faith of the disciples. He says, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

Jesus knew there was a little boy with two fish and five loaves of bread. What lesson could He have possibly have wanted the disciples to learn that day? What lesson could He possibly want you and I to learn? Eight words. Listen carefully and count them: “Little is much when God is in it.”

I have heard so many people over the course of twenty years say, “Pastor I wish there was something I could do to help.” I usually reply by saying, “There is. Let’s figure out what it is.”

I remember a man who was like a second Father to me. His name was Boyd Gartley. Boyd was the head of the Interstate Milk Cooperative in Pennsylvania; at least I think that was his position. Boyd was also a coordinator for the Lay Witness Mission program and would take me along on mission weekends. Many times when Boyd had a meeting with a group of dairy farmers he would call me on the phone and say, “Raymond have you guitar ready I’m coming to pick you up.” He’d take me to those meetings and have me play and sing “I saw the Light.” Then he’d want to sing, “When the Saints go Marching In.” Man I loved those times! I always looked at myself as entertainment for Boyd’s meetings. It wasn’t until I grew up and looked back on those times did I realize that was Boyd’s way of bringing Christ into those meetings. He knew what “Little is Much When God is in It” really meant. I miss him.

Another man who learned that lesson was Jeff McMullen who tells his story this way:

*** A number of years ago (1983-1987), I had the opportunity to play the character of Ronald McDonald for the McDonald's Corporation. My marketplace covered most of Arizona and a portion of Southern California.

One of our standard events was "Ronald Day." One day each month, we visited as many of the community hospitals as possible, bringing a little happiness into a place where no one ever looks forward to going. I was very proud to be able to make a difference for children and adults who were experiencing some "down time." The warmth and gratification I would receive stayed with me for weeks. I loved the project, McDonald's loved the project, the kids and adults loved it and so did the nursing and hospital staff.

There were two restrictions placed on me during a visit.

First I could not go anywhere in the hospital without McDonald's personnel (my handlers) as well as hospital personnel. That way, if I were to walk into a room and frighten a child, there was someone there to address the issue immediately. And second, I could not physically touch anyone within the hospital. They did not want me transferring germs from one patient to another. I understood why they had this "don't touch" rule, but I didn't like it. I believe that touching is the most honest form of communication we will ever know. Printed and spoken words can lie; it is impossible to lie with a warm hug. Breaking either of these rules, I was told, meant I could lose my job.

Toward the end of my fourth year of "Ronald Days," as I was heading down a hallway after a long day in grease paint and on my way home, I heard a little voice. "Ronald, Ronald."

I stopped. The soft little voice was coming through a half-opened door. I pushed the door open and saw a young boy, about five years old, lying in his dad's arms, hooked up to more medical equipment than I had ever seen. Mom was on the other side, along with Grandma, Grandpa and a nurse tending to the equipment.

I knew by the feeling in the room that the situation was grave. I asked the little boy his name - he told me it was Billy - and I did a few simple magic tricks for him. As I stepped back to say good-bye, I asked Billy if there was anything else I could do for him. "Ronald, would you hold me?"

Such a simple request. But what ran through my mind was that if I touched him, I could lose my job. So I told Billy I could not do that right now, but I suggested that he and I color a picture. Upon completing a wonderful piece of art that we were both very proud of, Billy again asked me to hold him. By this time my heart was screaming "yes!" But my mind was screaming louder. "No! You are going to lose your job!"

This second time that Billy asked me, I had to ponder why I could not grant the simple request of a little boy who probably would not be going home. I asked myself why was I being logically and emotionally torn apart by someone I had never seen before and probably would never see again.

"Hold me." It was such a simple request, and yet...I searched for any reasonable response that would allow me to leave. I could not come up with a single one. It took me a moment to realize that in this situation, losing my job may not be the disaster I feared. Was losing my job the worst thing in the world? Did I have enough self-belief that if I did lost my job, I would be able to pick up and start again? The answer was a loud, bold, affirming "yes!" I could pick up and start again. So what was the risk?

Just that if I lost my job, it probably would not be long before I would lose, first my car, then my home...and to be honest with you, I really liked those things. But I realized that at the end of my life, the car would have no value and neither would the house. The only things that had steadfast value were experiences. Once I reminded myself that the real reason I was there was to bring a little happiness to an unhappy environment, I realized that I really faced no risk at all.

I sent Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa out of the room, and my two McDonald's escorts out to the van. The nurse tending the medical equipment stayed, but Billy asked her to stand and face the corner. Then I picked up this little wonder of a human being.

He was so frail and so scared. We laughed and cried for 45 minutes, and talked about the things that worried him.

Billy was afraid that his little brother might get lost coming home from kindergarten next year, without Billy to show him the way. He worried that his dog wouldn't get another bone because Billy had hidden the bones in the house before going back to the hospital, and now he couldn't remember where he put them. These are problems to a little boy who knows he is not going home.

On my way out of the room, with tear-streaked makeup running down my neck, I gave Mom and Dad my real name and phone number (another automatic dismissal for a Ronald McDonald, but I figured that I was gone and had nothing to lose), and said if there was anything the McDonald's Corporation or I could do, to give me a call and consider it done. Less than 48 hours later, I received a phone call from Billy's Mom. She informed me that Billy had passed away. She and her husband simply wanted to thank me for making a difference in their little boy's life.

Billy's Mom told me that shortly after I left the room, Billy looked at her and said, "Momma, I don't care anymore if I see Santa this year because I was held by Ronald McDonald."

Sometimes ministry means we must do what is right for the moment, regardless of the perceived risk. Are you willing to join me this morning and each day hereafter as my partner in the ministry of Jesus Christ? Are you willing to love the unlovable? Hug the unhuggable? Are you willing to take the little bit that God has given you, whatever that is and use it for His glory?

Pray With Me:

Lord Jesus I think we would all here agree that you have called us all into ministry. Some of us here doubt our abilities and gifts. Some of us have no idea what our abilities or gifts are. Help us Lord Jesus to discover that which you have given to us and help us to use it for your glory no matter how small it may be. Oh how thankful I am that little is much when you are in it! We have such a wonderful ministry here help us all to keep you above all in it! We offer ourselves to you. Take us. Use us for your glory. For I pray in the most precious name on earth and in heaven, the name of Jesus, amen.

*** “Billy’s Story” was written By Jeff McMullen and taken from Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work Copyright © 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss

Click Here To Receive FREE Notification When
New Sermons Are Posted

This Site is a Member of the Kerusso Sermon Web Ring.
[Skip Prev] [Prev] [Next] [Skip Next] [Random] [Next 5] [List Sites] [Join]

People Have Reviewed This Sermon