Blessed by God...The Ordinary becomes Extraordinary!

We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released.

                                                                     Jean Houston

Today, I decided to post a portion of a sermon I preached based upon John 6:1-15.  It reallly embodies my philosophy and my theological stance of what  we can become through our connection with The Divine. When I use the term Divine--I mean--the life-force in the Universe---the Potential Possibitliy that Beckons us forward---some call this God.   I call it "Divine It".   The post may be longer than normal.  I will try to cut out where I can.   As you read it...think about it.  We are all called to greatness---it is just a matter of reframing what Greatness Looks like.   Here is my ordinary gift to you this Saturday morning.

Two fish

Five loaves

Doesn’t sound like enough to me.

I’m often skeptical

Don’t always believe that God will provide

Sometimes

I’m even afraid to offer my gift

DON’T ALWAYS BELIEVE GOD CAN USE ME TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.

I’m afraid of what people might think or worse..what they might say…

Afraid of what I might be called to do….

Guess if I’m willing to tell you the truth..

I guess I’m really most afraid of how I might be changed

Two fish

Five loaves

How might I have reacted if I were there and heard Jesus when he decided that he was going to be the host of a party with no food…..

I probably would have rolled my eyes and thought hump…yeah right?

Two tiny fish……five small loaves of stale barley….

WHAT GOOD IS THAT GONNA DO?

Surely somebody else must have something better

Perhaps one of the ladies in the crowd had something to share from their bags,

Or maybe..just maybe some of the men might have some fishing equitant…perhaps they could catch us something better..

Something more

Something wonderfully fresh and delicious…

Surely somebody in that crowd had something better than

Two fish and five tiny loaves…

I wonder if perhaps, if I were there, I may have hidden my little pouch of food in the grass,

Put it behind a tree,

I may have been too embarrassed to hand Jesus the food

I might be afraid he’d take notice of me..

I mean really…

What would I have to offer…

I am just an ordinary kind of girl you know….

We hear the story of our faith

As it is preached,

We study it in church school,

Read it in bible story books, and color it in coloring books..

BUT DO WE REALLY BELIEVE THE MESSAGE IT HAS TO OFFER.

DO WE?

DO WE BELIEVE GOD CAN TAKE OUR ORDINARY GIFTS AND TURN THEM INTO AN OVERABUNDANCE TO CHANGE THE WORLD?

DO YOU?

SOME DAYS I DON’T!!!!

Let’s face it!

There’s a whole lot of us in the Christian faith who have a syndrome

A skewed way of thinking

Which

Allows us to believe

God can, will and does bless and use other peoples gifts…

You know who I’m talking about, don’t you….you know people like, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr, St. Francis of Assisi and Gandhi.

WE CHRISTIANS ARE INFECTED WITH SOMETHING THAT CAUSES US TO NOT BELIEVE OUR ORDINARY LIVES MIGHT BE CHANGED BY GOD

WE DON’T BELIEVE OUR ORDINARY ANYTHING CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD

Our fear overwhelms us

Our lack of faith keeps us static

Our unbelief keeps us stuck

Stuck in the ordinariness of it all.

MANY OF US ARE SINKING IN A MUCKY PIT UP TO NECK IN ORDINARYITIES AND IT CONTAGIOUS!!!

IT OOZES OUT

TRICKLES INTO OTHERS

AND INVITES THEM TO FEEL COMFORTABLE IN THE SAME WAY THAT WE’VE BECOME COMFORTABLE.

AND WE SIT HERE—

JUST A BUNCH OF ORDINARY FOLKS

SOME OF US WHO HAVE PROGRAMMED OURSELVES TO KEEP OUR FISH AND OUR LOAVES INSIDE A BUNDLE

STUCK INSIDE A BACKPACK

BURIED DEEP WITHIN OUR PURSE

WE’VE ALL GOT AT LEAST TWO FISH AND FIVES LOAVES often and we  DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEM!!!

I grew up with the Peanuts cartoons—…

In one of the cartoons:

‘Charlie, Linus and Lucy are walking to school and discussing their class work.  Lucy asks Linus what he’s taking for “show and tell”.

While Lucy and Charlie watch—Linus opens up his briefcase and brings out homemade copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Linus is the intellectual one---remember—perhaps even a Presbyterian!!!)
He shows his friends the ancient manuscript which he has painstakingly copied in Hebrew.

Linus goes on to explain to Charlie and Lucy why the Dead Sea scrolls were such a significant archaeological find.  He then finishes up with a mini-lecture on their importance to the modern day Christian!!!

Lucy turns to Charlie Brown and asks---Charlie, what might you be bringing for show and tell.

Charlie looks sheepish, and disappointed.

He reaches into his pocket and says, “Well I was going to use this little red fire truck—but I think I’ll just forget it…

DEFLATED HE PUTS THE FIRETRUCK BACK IN HIS POCKET. (source unknown)

What is it that we keep putting back in our pocket?

What have we done with our two fish and five loaves?

Where are we stuck?

We say to ourselves…

‘I’M NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!”

I’M NOT SMART ENOUGH

I’M NOT RICH ENOUGH

I’M NOT PRETTY ENOUGH!!!

I’M NOT SOMETHING ENOUGH...

I CAN’T

I WON’T

I DON’T’ BELIEVE I CAN DO IT!!

In our biblical test…we don’t have much dialogue

We just know that Andrew points out that the boy in the crowd has a couple of fish sandwiches for lunch…

We don’t know how Jesus gets it

Whether he asks the boy for it or the boy offers it.

What we do get a glimpse of is:

What happens when God touches ordinary items of offering?

Five loaves two fish

Blessed by God

And 5000 men and their families sit down in a place where there is no McDonald's, no Wendy’s drive through, no burger king and they eat...

Jesus has them sit and we all heard what happened…..

They ate…and ate…and ate

Two ordinary fish and five ordinary loaves feed over 5000

AND WE LISTEN TO THIS STORY SOME 2000 YEARS LATER

AND

IT

BEARS WITNESS TO AN EXAMPLE OF THE WAY GOD IS ABLE TO TURN THE ORDINARY ITEMS INTO OVERABUNDANT BLESSINGS

The writer of the Gospel tells us that they ate until they were satisfied and then the leftovers were gathered up---an overabundance of leftovers

So much more than ordinary fish and ordinary bread

Five loaves two fish

Blessed by God

The ordinary becomes extraordinary!!!!

Try it with me----(say it aloud)

Blessed by God—the ordinary becomes extraordinary….

Let’s try it again…

Blessed by God---The ordinary becomes extraordinary

WHAT HAPPENS TO US IF WE BELIEVE IT?

What happens if we take that fire truck out of our pocket and use it for show and tell?

What happens if we share our ordinary tuna sandwiches with others…

How might we….yes we begin to make a difference in the world!!!

CAN WE COME TO BELIEVE THAT OUR ORDINARY STUFF…OUR ORDINARY GIFTS…..OUR PLAIN OLD WONDER BREAD AND CHICKEN OF THE SEA….MIGHT…JUST MIGHT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

BLESSED BY GOD

----THE ORDINARY BECOMES EXTRAORDINARY!!!

A few years ago, a mother with several kids was getting everyone ready for church on Sunday morning…..it was the typical chaotic day in the house of kids---one child wanted pancakes, one wanted cereal and one wanted eggs….and the mom worked frantically to please them all…after she was done, she noted that much of her hard work had not been eaten.    On the way to church the woman noticed man and women along the way near the church who appeared homeless and her mind went back to her children’s breakfast sitting on the table.  Her mind began to fixate on the issue of homelessness in her community and how she might make a difference. After much research she discovered that no agency in Lexington served breakfast on Sunday mornings…she began to pray and she began to act…..she worked through her local church to develop a food ministry for the homeless.  Each Sunday morning people from the church bag lunches and fruit and juice and park in Rupp arena parking lot where 70-100 hungry people are fed every Sunday morning..

Just a plain ordinary idea…

A plain drive to church….

A willingness to share….

And

Blessed by God—

-the ordinary becomes extraordinary!!!

A few summers ago NBC’s Today show had a week that they called Christmas in July where they honored ordinary people who had made an impact in the world.

When I watched, the person they were honoring was a man named Frank Tortellini.  Frank lost both parents and a sister to cancer.  He himself was a cancer survivor.  After his bout with Cancer, he decided he was going to do something to help kids who were undergoing treatment ….

For 17 years, Frank has taken his own money to buy assortments of candy and every Friday after work he heads to Sloane Kettering Cancer Center’s pediatric floor.

Frank now has many volunteers who help him, but it was apparent in the interview that his passion was the glue that held the program together.

When he arrives he stocks a special candy cart full of an assortment and heads down the hall…

The kids are waiting for him…..

And he enters their room…

Small kids with no hair, pale kids, thin kids with IV tubes.

Frank calls them all by name….

Frank has no rules with his cart----each kid could have all they wanted…and for a few minutes every Friday night…kids who struggle all week, kids who have not been able to eat. Kids who are week and ready to die

Feel like an ordinary kid picking out sweets from a candy rack.

They smile, they joke and as quick as you know. Frank is out the room and into another.    During the interview a parent of an 18 year old who had just died from cancer said,  “Frank gave my son Taylor something to look forward to every week as he laid in his hospital bed….Frank gave him a reason to get through the week, a reason to smile. A reason to hope he might get better.  After my son died, we cleaned out his bedside table…it was full of candy from Franks cart.  Taylor had saved it for when he might feel better.  Frank gives all the parents a reason to make it to Friday night.

Ordinary fish and loaves…

Ordinary candy,

A cart and an ordinary man named Frank

Blessed by God…..the ordinary becomes extraordinary……

At a church I once worshipped, there was a group of adults with Downs Syndrome who came from a group home.  Warren was there first, R.  and D. came later.  My family and I always sat behind them.  I cannot explain to you what I learned about God by sitting where I did.  Warren taught R. and D. how to worship.  He showed them how to find pages in the hymnal, even though none of them could read. He would also grab their shirts and pull them down when they stood up in the wrong places. I was most intrigued by what I learned about God by watching them together on Sunday mornings……I loved sitting behind them and I looked forward to seeing them each Sunday…R .would always have matchbox cars in his pocket and he’d play with them on his leg during the sermon….D.…well D. she taught me about how to experience worship joyfully.

When we’d say the lord’s prayer---you always hear d. a few lines behind the crowd….our father…and you’d hear d. say…our father….

She loved music and she’d move her body to it and after she got used to all of us…she began to conduct the choir from her seat….I loved the way she’d turn and smile at me as the choir ended their singing.

…when the offering was passed d. would hold her blue purse high In the air and squeeze and everyone would hear the pennies clank as they hit the offering plate—she was indeed a cheerful giver…

Once Sunday, D. who always went to the bathroom during the sermon, was coming back into the sanctuary—now she sat on the front row---so she was up front and center…

As she was coming in..the minster was holding the bread about to break it for Communion and …d. in her loud voice yelled…….”hey..wait for me”….and I thought…that’s how it is here, isn’t it.

.always room for one more.

Ordinary worship….

Ordinary people….

Ordinary church….

Blessed by God…..the ordinary becomes extraordinary!!!

God takes the common often unnoticed items in our lives

The common things we think don’t matter

The things we believe have no value and uses them to change the world….to make positive changes….to put forth goodness a little bit at a time.

It all matters…..there is absolutely nothing that God cannot or will not use or bless if we---if we all God to do so….

God will use our ordinary gifts...

The boy did not have much but what he had he brought to God and the

OVERABUNDANT RADICAL GOODNESS OF God was experienced through a feast that satisfied all.

WHAT DO WE HAVE IN OUR POCKET?

WHAT OFFERING DO WE THINK IS TOO LITTLE TO USE?

Do you teach? Can you fold bake bread? Can you cook or drive for shut-in?  Can you sweep the floor or change a light bulb?  Can you love a child into the faith or babysit for a sick friend?  Do you have great ideas to share?  Ever thought of writing a blog . You never know. The idea you might be sitting on might make a huge difference to hungry people, lonely people, people who are stuck…..

FRIENDS OUR ORDINARY GIFTS MATTER…WHEN WE OFFER WHAT WE HAVE TO GOD….GOD DOES SOMETHING WITH IT...BLESSES IT…USES IT FOR GOODNESS.

DON’T BE AFRAID…FAITH IS THE FIRST STEP...EVEN WHEN WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THE NEXT STEP WILL BE.

Let’s offer our ORDINARY LIVES TO GOD…and see what happens next...

BLESSED BY GOD…THE ORDINARY BECOMES EXTRAORDINARY…

BLESSED BY GOD…THE ORDINARY BECOMES EXTRAORINARY…

BLESSED BY GOD…THE ORDINARYY BECOMES EXTRAORINARY….

May we all begin to believe and live it.  Amen!

SO ON THIS SATURDAY--BELIEVE IT IS TRUE..

HEAD ON OUT INTO THE WORLD..

LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE

OFFER YOUR GIFTS

AND

CHOOSE

EXTRAORDINARY LIVING.

HUGS TO ALL OF YOU.