5: Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, "How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?"
6: This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
7: Philip answered him, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little."
8: One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,
9: "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?"
10: Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
11: Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.
12: And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost."
13: So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten.

I’d like to start with a question. Listen and don’t answer. I’m MAD…aren’t you? What kind of question is that? Let’s spend some time talking about it.

I listen to Christian radio. My listening is divided between stations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Before the program changes at WAWZ, now known as STAR 99.1, they used to air a program called “A Word with Ron Hutchcraft”. They were five minute Biblically-based lessons that offered a fresh look at situations faced in daily life. In one of his messages Ron talked about his family and their commitment to GO MAD. M.A.D. means MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I’d like to borrow that phrase from Ron today and talk about a biblical character who made a difference and what this means to us. This person is not a major or minor prophet, disciple, apostle or king. This person might be considered as insignificant and is often overlooked in the telling of the story because reference to this PERSON is made in only one Gospel, although the STORY is in all 4 Gospels. The person isn’t mentioned by name, but referred to as “a boy”. We may feel that way sometimes-insignificant and overlooked, like a small speck of dust. How can we possibly make a difference? We do and we must remember that no service for Christ is insignificant. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Last week Pastor Rich reminded us that we are of great value to God, so what we do in service to God is important. Let’s go back to our story.

Let’s set the scene, using Christian imagination, if you will. Picture in your mind’s eye: A boy gets up in the morning and goes through his morning routine. He probably drags himself out of bed, after prodding by his mother and then his father. His mother has prepared breakfast for the family. As he eats breakfast, Mom makes a lunch for him. He prepares to leave his home for a day at school. The boy is going about his business when he sees a crowd of people. Being the curious type, as boys often are, he follows the crowd. The next thing he knows, he is engulfed in a crowd of people going wherever they are going to see who knows what and why. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s caught up in the crowd and going where the crowd is going. After all, he’s a youngster, a boy, and this is probably exciting to him. Somebody asks him what he has in the sack. Soon he hears a man say “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go?”

JOHN 6:9 is the prelude to the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 on the hillside.

The seemingly small gesture of passing ones lunch to a strange man and having it used by Jesus to feed a crowd of 5000 hungry people is miraculous, indeed. How about us? Are we a part of or witness to miraculous events, and not even realize it? Do we sometimes find ourselves wondering if what we do in the name of Christ matters? After all, our names are not recognizable to hundreds upon hundreds of people. Perhaps we may feel that our small contribution doesn’t matter at all. Listen to this:

You never know - Anonymous

You never know. Now, think back to the boy for a moment. After he passed his lunch to Andrew, he was not mentioned again. That’s alright. He was used by God to fulfill his purpose. He was important and his seemingly small contribution was, too. He made a difference. Some may say, “Well, if he hadn’t been there, Jesus would have done something else.” Perhaps, but he was there and was used and the Word tells us in verse 6: He (Jesus) said this to test him (Phillip), for he himself knew what he was going to do. You may say that you don’t do such and such like someone else or you’ve never served as president of Consistory, you’ve never preached or never taught children in Sunday School, never ushered or whatever else can be done in the church. Perhaps you’ve been asked to do something and you’re afraid. Afraid of not knowing what to do, afraid of failing or not doing it like someone else. It doesn’t matter what someone else does or has done, it matters what you do. As June Gunder said in the Women’s Devotional Bible, “Service for God cannot be evaluated by comparison to other people. It’s not how we measure up to others but how we do with what God had given us.” What do you have to share? What is your talent? What is your gift? God will give you what you need, to do what God’s called you to do! I’m a witness to that! How can you go MAD? Listen to 1 Peter 4:10-“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.” Large or small, if someone can see Jesus’ love in action, through you, remember His indwelling spirit is in you, what could be better than that? Yes, there will be some who are more of an eloquent speaker, some who may sing like a songbird, some may be able to pray until the spirit of the Lord comes down. You may feel that those abilities are better…more important… than yours. Not so! We must always remember what we were told in ROMANS 12:4-8. Listen to this:

“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

Whatever we do, let us do it to the glory of God. When we do, We please God.

Have you ever gone MAD without thinking or even knowing about it? This is unconscious MADNESS. It might happen! It often does. Let me share something with you. This year I decided I wanted to have some fun at Easter. I decided to pass out Resurrection Eggs at work. What’s a Resurrection Egg? It’s a plastic colorful egg that you can open and put items in then give away. I put “Easter grass” along with two Hershey’s kisses and a message that said, “Easter Blessings. God loves You.” I handed these to co-workers in my office and to people walking down the hallway. I was having a great time with my basket full of eggs. Later that day three people came back to me and thanked me again for the gift and to tell me that that was just what they needed at that moment…to know that God loves them. I was just having fun. I had gone MAD and didn’t even know it! Although, I hadn’t done anything extraordinary, I conveyed God’s love through my actions. Isn’t that something? You never know. Have you ever called someone on the telephone and they told you that they were really glad to hear from you or someone called you? Has anyone ever told you that they appreciated your visit or you said that to someone? Have you ever sent a card to someone…just because or received one? Have you smiled at someone and said, “Good Morning” in a cheerful manner? Have you ever paid the remaining twenty-seven cents of a grocery bill for the person in front of you as they were digging for more change and couldn’t find it and you didn’t even know the person? Have you offered to help someone with a project? Have you ever paid someone a compliment? Have you every said, “Thank you”? There are many other examples we can think of. If you have done anything remotely related to these examples, you have gone consciously MAD. It’s the little things we do to touch the heart of people around us.

Yes, we need leaders. People to take over the role of the trailblazer and we also need behind the scene workers, as well. We need those with loud voices and those who speak at a whisper or barely speak at all.

Exercise your abilities no matter what they are. Everything and everyone is important. Just as we need pastors to take on the responsibility of leading congregations and preaching the word, we need laity to make the church work, sextons to clean up the mess we unwittingly leave, teachers to help us with knowledge, our youth to show us life through fresh eyes, our elders to give experienced advice, the strong, the not so strong, the new Christian and the seasoned one. Everyone in our congregation is important in the body of Christ. 1 CORINTHIANS 12:14-20, 27 says:

Look at this final example of MADNESS.

That’s the ultimate example of MADNESS.

Now, I can ask the question again…this time you can answer,

if it is so: I’m MAD…aren’t you?