SMALL CHANGE
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
SMALL CHANGE
June 8, 2008
TEXT: John 6:1-15
If I were to be asked to describe America, I would have to include in my descriptive adjectives such as big, huge, large, and grand. I say this because, over and over, we are led to believe that large is important. We know the names and locations of big cities while thousands of small towns remain unknown. The most prestigious architectural and engineering feats are huge skyscrapers and other big buildings. Businesses strive to become large corporations.
Even the Church enters the picture by portraying large as successful. Large churches are considered to be the churches which are able to do things in big ways. They can sponsor ski trips, offer varieties of ministries, and offer high-cost services to their congregations and communities. They can support paid staff.
Many of the advertisements and solicitations I receive in the mail often describe programs that are either too large in scope or too costly for smaller churches. So it might appear that in our society - and even in our churches - big is better.
But it doesn't take too much investigation to discover that big isn't necessarily better and that the size of a government, business, or church is not necessarily indicative of success. An often-heard complaint about large companies is that they are impersonal, and that management-employee relationships often become adversarial instead of cooperative. People living in large cities cry out in loneliness and isolation even while living alongside so many other people.
Large churches, too, are not automatically better off than the small church merely because of their size. In fact, most programs created for the large church are designed to create small fellowship groups. The congregation may be large, but for purposes of assimilation, spiritual growth, and personal fellowship, the large church is broken down into smaller parts. In reality, the small church can have some significant advantages over large churches!
In this account of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus gives some insight into his attitudes toward large and small. Jesus teaches his disciples that to overlook the small or insignificant can mean missing the experience and the power of the kingdom of God.
In this account of the fish and the loaves from John, Jesus asked Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" Imagine what Philip thought, looking around and seeing literally thousands of people gathered around. Why, he couldn't have even seen them all! And here's Jesus, his Teacher, asking him this fool question. "Are you nuts?" Philip might very well have thought to himself. "How could you seriously ask a question like that? We can't feed all these people." Philip answers, "Eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
What was Jesus looking for when he posed his question to Philip? We are told that he was testing him, but of what did the test consist? Since Philip's response was not satisfactory to his Master, what would have been? What did Philip miss?
I think that Jesus was testing Philip - and the other disciples - for a response about faith. Jesus knew that, materially, none of them had the means to feed this gathering of more than five thousand people. They couldn't call up Kroger and say, "Hey, we've got this convention here, so how about sending out about six thousand chicken dinners." No, they had no way to feed that many.
Jesus had just been teaching about the kingdom of God, a large part of which covers with compassion. So part of the test becomes: "Here's a large crowd of people to take care of. We don't appear to be able to take care of them, but does that mean we fail to act with compassion?" Jesus was looking for his disciples to respond with love and compassion even when the crowds were large, and Philip missed something major by overlooking something minor.
I am reminded of the story about an older man, walking along a beach at dawn, who noticed a younger man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them back into the sea. Catching up with the young man he asked what he was doing. The young mans answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish," countered the old man. "How can your effort make any difference?" The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one."
Even though the harvest is plentiful and the workers few, Jesus was never deterred from his work because there were too many to save or to heal or to teach. He had compassion on the individual and on the crowd. Big or little, he taught his disciples that compassionate ministry makes a difference.
Another major topic in the kingdom of God is faith. Another part of the test becomes: "We don't have the food to feed the people, nor the money to purchase it even if it was available. But does that mean that we can't have faith in God's ability to provide?" After all, Jesus had taught that it didn't have to be a huge faith that gets things done. "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move." Surely a mustard seed of faith that can move a mountain can feed a hungry crowd. Philip couldn't quite see that.
Philip thought that everything had to be worked out and in place before the power of God could go to work. If about half the people had brought their suppers, then it would have been easy for Philip to say to Jesus, "We'll tell everyone to share their meal with those who don't have any." And that would have been the end of the problem. But Philip knew that there wasn't that much food to go around, so the situation looked hopeless.
Our situations, too, can look hopeless when we get to thinking that everything has to be worked out before the power of God can go to work. I well remember my personal spiritual struggle as a teenager. I was under the impression that I had to make myself "perfect" before Christ would accept me; my salvation was dependent upon my ability to purify myself and then to keep myself purified. In case you've forgotten, that's pretty much an impossible task for a teenager. It's impossible for adults, too, by the way. At any rate, that's what I convinced myself to believe, even though it was not the teaching of any of the churches I attended. In reality, we cannot save ourselves, not even a little bit. It takes faith in God that His grace is sufficient, and it comes before we are ready. Just a mustard seed of faith will do. If we wait until we cleanse ourselves from unrighteousness, then we are lost.
It was Andrew who displayed for Jesus a mustard seed of faith: "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish..." Andrew had at least found a starting place; he didn't completely overlook the small and insignificant, but he couldn't keep from adding, "...but how far will they go among so many?" Still, Jesus found what he was looking for: a little compassion, a little faith, and someone who didn't overlook the small.
And then what happened with these few elements? Over five thousand people were filled with twelve baskets left over! God doesn't need for us to "get it all together" before He can work. God doesn't need the power of the large corporation or the large church in order for His power to be made known. What He needs are the small, insignificant things that His people can give Him in faith and love. Then watch the power of God go to work!
God amplifies what His people do and give. You know what an amplifier is, don't you? It is a device that takes a small signal and multiplies its effect so that the output is greater than the input. Remember your basic physics? Levers and pulleys are amplifiers because they enable us to lift heavier loads than we could lift without assistance. And an electronic amplifier takes a small signal, such as a voice, and boosts it to a larger signal.
God is the believer's amplifier. He takes our small acts and gifts, such as small loaves and fish, and boosts them into great works and mighty deeds. This is one of the reasons why it is so demonic to try to make ourselves out to be insignificant in the kingdom of God. When we try to downplay our gifts, talents, and abilities, we are making God out to be a liar! We tell the world that we don't believe that God's power can make something of our small contribution.
Dr. Arthur Gossip, in his commentary on John, was led to write: "In the parable of the talents our Lord makes it plain that in his experience he has proved that it is the one-talent people who are most likely to falter and fail him; and this on the ground that anything they could do is so trivial as to be not worth doing. If it were done, it would make no appreciable difference; and being left undone, it will never be missed. That, says Christ, is a fallacy that has disastrous consequences. And it continually robs and hampers him. If this world is ever to be won for him, it will have to be done largely through the undistinguished services of simple folk, one-talent people with no outstanding opportunities, each throwing in what seems a very unimportant effort, yet which in the mass, and often individually, can have far-reaching results. Useless though it looks, put into Christ's wonder-working hands the offering that we can make, the little bit of time or means that we can spare, the service, such as it is, that we can bring to him, and nobody can tell what he may effect through us and it." (Interpreter's Bible. vol. 8, p. 555)
A few weeks ago, the young girls in the church, with their sponsors, went to the Joy Jamboree. In preparation for the Jamboree, they collected pennies. We all know how small and insignificant pennies are these days. But when we allow our small change to be amplified by God for His kingdom, then even small change adds up. The girls took about $80 from our church, and the total given for Edna Martin Christian Community Center was a wheelbarrow full. God can make a little out of a lot.
The same rings true for all of our ministry efforts. Small change, a little mission work, small steps of faith are all amplified from the local level to the worldwide mission of Gods work. What we do here at First Baptist Church for the Lord is amplified whenever we live and act in faith to Gods promises. "We're just a small church in a small community," we're prone to say. "What we do doesn't amount to much." To the world, this is true. But in the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as small change. Jesus commended the poor widow for putting in her small change. The woman swept and hunted until she found her one lost coin. The angels in heaven rejoice over the salvation of one lost soul. Small loaves and small fish, given to God with compassion and a mustard seed of faith, grow to feed a crowd of more than five thousand. Such is the kingdom of God. Small change and small deeds are amplified. Nothing that we do and give in service to God is insignificant, for in the kingdom of God, small faith, small deeds, and small change are invaluable.
Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
PO Box 515
179 W. Broadway
Bunker Hill, IN 46914
765-689-7987
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