Reverend Raymond Osborne, Pastor

Please Note That Most Messages Follow
The Revised Common Lectionary

This morning, for the first time since I’ve been your pastor you see no Scripture listed. There’s a good reason for that. I am going to be jumping around in the Bible this morning from one book, chapter, and verse to another. You will also notice a piece of paper in the bulletin that has all the Scripture references listed. There are five numbers with blanks beside of them and under each number you will find the Scripture references that correspond to each word that I will ask you to write in the blank spaces. There are pencils in every pew sharpened and ready to go. I expect you to be participators in this message and not just spectators. Okay? Everybody got the instructions? Very simple put – take notes!

I must confess that I am not the originator of parts of this message, but after searching diligently for the original source I came up empty-handed.

As educators study how people learn things they have come to the conclusion that some learn by hearing, other by doing, and yet others by seeing. This morning with the pencil and paper I have provided for you the “doing” part. I have also brought along some visual effects that might help us even more to understand this message.

I think I’ve told you about my experience planting potatoes. I had never gardened in my life and my wife and I went out and bought us a 50 pound bag of seed potatoes. We cut them up with precision. I then went out and prepared about a 20-foot row to plant them in. Next I took all those cut-up eyes and placed them in that one solitary row! We had taters all right! Itsy, bitsy taters! Do you know that not only our church, but any church is made up of taters? Five to be exact. I am going to give you the names of these six different kinds of taters and that’s what I want you to write in each blank. Ready?

(Lay the first potato on the chancel rail and continue to do with each tater)

Tater #1: The Spectator

Now this is a popular tater let me tell you! I don’t care what kind of church you walk into; big, small, contemporary, traditional, liturgical, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, you name it. Walk in any church and I will guarantee you’ll find lots of spectators. You know this tater. It’s the tater that never does anything. All this tater does is show up for church. This tater lets everyone else do the work while it sits there and basks in the glory. This tater is the tater that wants to be watered so it can grow, but it never ever wants to become involved in the watering of other taters. If everything were left up to this tater, the other taters would shrivel up and die and so would the church!

Christianity is NOT a spectator faith. Look at your first Scripture reference under #1.

James 1:22-23 “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;”

God doesn’t intend for you and I to just come to church and sit there grinning like a mule with a mouthful of briars, or looking like we were raised on persimmon juice and weaned on a dill pickle. He intends for us to listen intently to the Word and become active in the ministry of the church. It would have been one awful thing if I came up here and led you to believe that the five taters were my idea. If I hadn’t confessed to you this morning that the initial idea was someone else’s I would have been guilty of letting someone else do all the work and myself take all the credit.

Yet that’s what a spectator in the church does. Church hear me when I say we are NOT to be spectators, but we ARE to be participators.

Let me introduce you to Tater #2: The Agitator.

You know the type, one who disturbs or stirs up trouble. These are the people who spend their time talking about other folk behind their back! The agitator is a crafty tater. They scheme and plot about how to tear down the ministry of the church. It’s always been my experience that the agitator is a very insecure tater that feeds of the demise or troubles of others. You usually don’t see their work, but you can’t miss the results. Agitators aren’t happy unless something is always being stirred up. They talk to this person and that person, or this family and that family, and eventually the whole garden is covered. Like a weed that begins to grow and spreads all over the garden, it chokes out the life of the other taters around it.

Isaiah 57:20-21 says, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea that cannot keep still; its waters toss up mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.”

Tater #3 is the Hesitator

Hesitators are the overly cautious who prevent the church from moving forward. Remember Peter when he was walking on the water? St. Matthew 14:30 “But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"”

As God’s people we are to be a people of action, not hesitation! The core of our belief is faith in God and in His goodness and provision. We often have two choices: we can either step out on faith and move forward, or we can hesitate and watch our church die.

Tater #4 is the Dictator

I went to a conference once and heard a speaker say, “Pastor-Dictator is an oxymoron and any pastor who tries to be a dictator is just a plain moron!” I’ve met a few of those pastors in my lifetime and I don’t like them much. Well let me tell you there are both pastor-dictators and member-dictators in the church. You can recognize the dictator by noticing how they try to always have their way. I mean it’s their way or no way. They often intimidate others because they are so over-bearing. What I have never been able to understand and why God’s people, the people who are called by HIS name, don’t just stand up in a firm Christian way to the dictators. But what does the Word of God teach? Who’s the head of the church?

Eph 1:20-22 “God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,”

Brothers and Sisters no one is the BIG DOG of the church except Jesus and when we try to dictate or force our own desires on the church we are guilty of replacing Jesus with ourselves!

Finally, Tater #5: The Imitators.

Let me tell you that out of all the taters mentioned above, this is the only good tater in the patch. Romans 13:12-14 says, “the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Beloved I submit to you that indeed the night is far-gone. It is time for God’s people, for you and for I to become imitators of Jesus! We need to stop being mere pew warming spectators and become participators in the ministry of this church. When you joined it you vowed to support is in word and deed. There is absolutely something for ever person here to do in this church. I don’t expect to ever hear someone say, “I served my time, it’s someone else’s turn.” Well someone else is a hard person to find. Nor do I expect to hear someone say, “I have no talent.” God doesn’t want your ability; He wants your availability!

It’s time to quit talking and gossiping behind the back of others and time to quit feeding off of their misfortune or mistakes.

It’s time to quit hesitating and to step out on faith and to put our faith into action. Time to believe that if we step out on faith we truly serve a God who will deliver and honor our steps of faith!

One amazing fact of life and that more times than not someone who tried to dictate to a church is the only person in that church who doesn’t realize what they are doing. It’s time to give up the mind-set that you have the only way and the church is going to do it your way or no way. It’s the way of Jesus or no way.

I want to challenge each one of you to become imitators of Jesus. Be a good tater. My son often says, “Daddy you’re a nut. A good nut, but a nut.” Well church, we are all one kind of a tater or another. What kind of tater are you?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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