God's Rag-Tag Army

“GOD’S RAG-TAG ARMY!”

(MARK 6:30-34)

Good Morning!! What a beautiful day this is! We are in the House of God and we should be over-joyed to be able to be here! We should also be over-joyed at the prospect of getting out in the world and sharing the love and mercy of God with all we come into contact with! What a blessing to be able to share God!! In a world that seems, at times, to be going askew, aren’t we blessed.

God is good, all the time!! AMEN!!? We had a wonderful, most of the time, vacation! And, while I was sitting in church on the 23rd, this message came to mind! Partly thanks to the Pastor and a lot of thanks to God. We attended the Lower Marsh Creek Presbyterian Church. This church has been an active church since 1748. So, you know it’s seen it’s share of history!! It’s a beautiful, little church, nestled in a grove of trees, just off a main highway. It was used as a Field Hospital during the Civil War. We saw the outside and I just had to see what the inside looked like. It was a good service and I was blessed.

Oh, I could regal you with stories of all kinds!! I won’t! I told you last week, they didn’t move the “Turn-Pike” this year but, I wish they had! I got so lost in Charlottesville, Virginia, I didn’t think we’d ever find any place to stop!! Me, on a trip, can be a hoot!!

As I sat in church that Sunday, I got to thinking about just how big an oxy-moron “Civil War” is! How can a war be “Civil”!? “Excuse me! Yes, I am about to shoot in your direction! If you don’t want to be hit, you might want to move!” It didn’t happen that way! Some of the bloodiest, most brutal fighting of the war happened in Gettysburg! If they couldn’t shoot, they would stab with bayonets!! If they couldn’t do that they would club each other with their rifles! If that failed, there was always hand-to-hand combat! There was nothing “civil” about the war!

One place we had to see this trip was “Big Round Top”. The sight of one of the bloodiest battles of the campaign. We didn’t make it there the last time we went, so this year it a “must see” activity!! We walked, on foot, straight up the side of a mountain! Must have been twenty miles!! Straight up!! No!! It really wasn’t a big mountain but, it was a mountain!

We were about half way up the mountain and I said, “If I had been fighting here, on either side, I would have been tempted to yell, ‘You can have it!!’” I was in a short sleeved shirt, those soldiers were in woolen clothes, carried haversacks, guns and everything, I don’t know how they did it!! It was a tough climb, but it was worth the effort and I know it was for them, too.

51,000 men were wounded or killed on the fields of Gettysburg in a three day period! Who says man doesn’t know how to be inhumane to our fellow man. Any building that could be was taken over and used as a “Field Hospital”. Lives were drastically changed in a few short hours! Think about what that meant! As I sat there and reflected on what the Pastor was saying and how that tied in to my life as a Christian a lot of similarities came to mind! I’ve told you before, Pastor’s do not always make good congregants. Something is said and off our minds go, planning and plotting out a message that we can use.

Those soldiers were often a “Rag-Tag” band of men. They went from battle to battle, from miles away to uphold their beliefs and fight for what they believed in. There were regiments at Gettysburg from as far away as Texas! Many times their clothes were in taters because they had to cover so much ground, had to fight in so many skirmishes!! Many times they had no shoes on their feet.

They were tired, hungry, sick but they marched on! Church, we need the same determination when it comes to serving the Lord!! We, are “God’s Rag-Tag” army!! But, far too often, we won’t even suffer the hardship of getting out and going to church! Many times we refuse the “hardship” of telling someone else about God and His salvation! About Jesus and His love! About the Holy Spirit and His guiding influence!! What example are we setting!!? Can God really count on us!?

Church, today we are at war! The world is spinning out of control! From all indications, Satan is winning!! We have to get up and get out there and start living up to our responsiblity to God! Satan only wins, when we let him! It’s not God’s plan that the world be lost!!