Reverend Raymond Osborne, Pastor

Please Note That Most Messages Follow
The Revised Common Lectionary

Oh what a joyous week this has been! I am sad to see it come to an end, as I know you are. But does it have to come to an end? I don’t think so. I think that we have lying before us a golden opportunity. We can do one of two things as we bring closure to this Camp Meeting. We can take all that we have experienced and do absolutely nothing with it, or we can take all that we have experienced and use it for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

The Baptismal service was a first for me in the United Methodist Church. I was given the honor and responsibility of holding the water. I’m glad I didn’t mess up! I will never forget the Sunday I tried to demonstrate to a group of children during a children’s sermon about the ordinance of Baptism. I had a huge bowl of water and one of my daughter’s Barbies. That particular Sunday we had an enormous amount of children in the church and when I asked them to come I was quite taken back in a joyous way. I was so taken back in fact that as I sat down, I sat right in the middle of that bowl of water! When I got up there was less water in that bowl than what we had up here last Sunday morning!

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the children play this week and I have seen the joy in their faces as they have run all over this campground. My children have made many, many new friends! They have laughed, cried, but more than anything else they have thoroughly enjoyed themselves. A memory I will always cherish is as my family and I were coming to service last Sunday morning my little girl said, “Daddy can I go play?” I said, “No darling we are going to church.” The next thing she said was “Daddy please don’t preach too long!”

I have watched the adults this week and I have seen you enjoying yourselves as well. Just like the children you have played and had fun. I have enjoyed playing my guitar at night and singing the praise choruses, and the Southern Gospel songs, and the contemporary songs. My heart and soul has been blessed by this experience. The choir has been so wonderful and perhaps my only regret is that I did not have the opportunity to preach after one of their numbers. I made the comment that if you couldn’t preach after their singing you just couldn’t preach!

I don’t know about you but I have had a fire within my heart and soul rekindled. Fires left unattended, unused, eventually die and become nothing but cold ashes.

I know that you all know what I have here in my hands. For those of you who don’t recognize this oblong, brown thing it’s a football. Some of you may share my passion for football. I have loved football all my life. Growing up as a boy in Cochranville Pennsylvania I spent my Saturdays often in pick-up football games. In high school I played Rugby, a version of football without the protection of pads. In college I tried my hand at playing football. As a grown man I have vowed to watch every football game I can on television and no matter how bad the Panthers are this year I’m still going to be their #1 fan!

Even if you hate the game of football I think you can join in this scenario with me.

You and I are in the midst of the greatest game of all time and we are in the final minutes. Everything is on the line. The future of our children is on the line. The future of the institution we call “the family” is on the line. Morality is on the line. The future of the church and yes even this campground is on the line. But equally as important, the lives and souls of men, women, and children are on the line.

We are all part of the greatest team that has ever been. It’s a team that doesn’t have to worry about winning or losing for we already know we are going to win. We are on God’s team and ladies and gentlemen, God’s team ALWAYS wins!

In the game of football each person is given a playbook. In that book is every play that can possibly be sent in from the sidelines and used against the opposition. Players are to take that playbook and read it and memorize it. They are drilled day in and day out about the plays that are written in that playbook. They are expected to know it inside and out.

Ladies and gentlemen THIS is our playbook! This book contains all the plays that we need to know to win in the game of life! I can’t count how many times I have read this Book from beginning to end, but no matter how many times I have read it - it isn’t enough. I have to keep reading it and you have to keep reading it and studying it.

In most playbooks there is one play that is called the “hail Mary.” It is a play that when you have only one chance at winning the game you use it and you pray with all your might that it works. I think I have found the “hail Mary” play in this playbook and I want to share it with you now.

It’s the same with life. We have all been hurt at one time or another. Often times we have been hurt when we least expect it by people we least expect to cause us pain. We’ve all got pain stories that we can tell don’t we?

Well beloved this is the last opportunity I have to speak to you before we break camp and go home. It’s the last opportunity I may have to speak to many of you ever again. I don’t want the guilt of knowing that I let this opportunity to challenge you, to encourage you, to get you pumped up about telling our world, a world filled with hurt and pain about Jesus, I don’t want to live with the guilt of not taking full advantage of this opportunity.

I remember in my early years as a youth I was gone from Cochranville United Methodist Church what seemed like every other weekend on a Lay Witness Mission. I had a dear friend and neighbor, Esther Garver who taught me a wonderful little saying,

What everyone told me about the volume of food here has been true and thank you so very much for taking care of the physical needs of my family, the other ministers, and myself this week! The food was scrumptious! But even as good as that food was, the spiritual food, the manna that came down from our Heavenly Father, through Christ Jesus and served to us by the Holy Spirit has been even better. I want to challenge each and every one of you to join me as we leave this place in sharing that food with others. Open your hearts and your homes and your churches to all who will enter and share with them the bountiful blessings that you have received from God.

Beloved listen to me, the game is drawing to a close. It’s the fourth quarter, the fourth down, and we’re behind by 5 points. The only way we are going to win the game is to put into play the “Hail Mary.” We have to give it one last try and give it everything we have! The Lord has handed you and I the ball and we have some choices to make. We can fumble the ball, that means we can drop it and lose the game, we can hand the ball off to someone else, which is the attitude a lot of older folks have. “I’ve had this ball long enough so I’ll just give it to someone younger who can do something with it.” Let me stop here and say a word about that. The other night I spoke with Plato Winchester. He said to me, “The Lord still has me here although I don’t know why.” I said, “Plato so you can be a blessing to me.” Plato said, “I can’t do as much as I use to but I’m still willing to help.” Now beloved that is a man who is an inspiration and has decided to do the right thing with the ball and that is to tuck it under your arms, hold on tight and run with everything you’ve got with only one thing on your mind, the same thing Paul had on his mind,

Beloved God has placed the ball in your hands. He has placed the ball is in my hands. The outcome of the game is in God’s hands. Let’s take all the wonderful experience of Camp Meeting and Go and Share it with a World that needs to know and experience the Love, the Grace, and the Salvation of God through Christ Jesus our Lord!

Let’s Pray:

O most gracious God how wonderful it has been to experience Camp Meeting this week. We have had a grand ole time Lord. The food, the music, the fellowship, it has all been so very good. The icing on the cake God was the presence of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this place.

Help us to take the fires that have been started, the flames that have been rekindled, and leave this place with a new commitment to share Christ and your love and grace and acceptance with all whom we come in contact with. Make us your present day disciples Lord Jesus, all ministers to a hurting and pain-filled World who is hungering and thirsting after you and your righteousness. . . Amen.

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