1 = 3 = 1

Isaiah 6:1-8

6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.

6:2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.

6:3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

6:4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

6:5 And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.

6:7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."

6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

John 3:1-17

3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."

3:3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

3:4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"

3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

3:8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

3:9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"

3:10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

3:11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.

3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

3:17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

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It’s a hard thing to explain God, to understand God. And God seems to intend for it to be that way. In the Old Testament, when Moses encounters God in the burning bush, Moses asks God for some form of identification, which is pretty funny in and of itself. And God says to Moses: “I AM who I AM.”

So God became known by the Jews as “YahWeh” – which in Hebrew means I AM.

That’s really not very descriptive at all. It wasn’t descriptive when Popeye the Sailor said it, and it’s not very descriptive for  God either.

As Christians, we understand God to be Triune – Three in One. We refer to the One God as the Holy Trinity. 1 = 3 = 1. It’s unique to Christianity to understand God in this way. So why do we do it?

It’s not because the word Trinity shows up anywhere in scripture – it doesn’t. But in the early church, The Trinity became the “short form” terminology for the way Jesus referred to The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, and for the way the early Christians understood the relationship between these three.

The three persons of the Trinity are reflected all through the Old and New Testament, right from the first words of Genesis.
God created
The Spirit moved across the water
God said (spoke the Word)
We learn later that the Word of God is Jesus Christ.

Today is Trinity Sunday. It’s a good day for us to consider the three persons of the Trinity, and to think about how our scripture passages for today relate, how they explain the Good News in terms of the Trinity, and vice versa.

But we need to realize up front that no matter what we say about the Trinity, we will not be likely to discern a better understanding of who God is. It’s a mystery – one of the many ways that God’s ways are incomprehensible to us.

People have been studying and writing about the Trinity since the early days of the church.

They have addressed whether Jesus and the Holy Spirit came after the Father – and decided, no, they did not. Many of the words in our oldest creeds and confessions are a direct response to this question.

They have addressed whether the three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – were completely different, were of similar substance, or were the same substance – and decided, they are the same.

They have addressed whether the roles of each person – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – can be defined separately from one another – and decided, not really, that all three participate in everything that any one of them ever does.
John Calvin explained in his writings that God is three persons, and each person is fully God, and there is One God. Let me say that again:
God is three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Each person is fully God.
God the Father is fully God.
Jesus Christ the Son is fully God.
The Holy Spirit is fully God.
There is One God.

So God – this very One God who is three persons, and each person is fully God, and there is One God – that God says to us, “I AM what I AM.” And we go on trying to come up with a better, more comprehensive explanation.

But God appears to be less concerned with whether we figure out exactly who God is, and more intent upon getting us to understand how we are called to participate in the work of the Holy Trinity, of the Triune God.
God’s name is I AM, according to God.
Jesus explains himself throughout his ministry using the words I AM –
I AM the bread of life.
I AM the living water.
I AM the true vine.
And in each of these explanations Jesus connects himself to us.
I AM the bread of life. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.
I AM the living water. The water I will give will become in you a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.
I AM the vine, and you are the branches. Cut off from me you can do nothing.

Jesus is the Great I AM – Jesus is God – and always relates himself to us when he describes himself in this way.
We are the Body of Christ.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate whom Jesus sent to us to sustain us as he ascended into heaven – it’s through that power of the Holy Spirit, so that when God calls, when God says, “Whom shall I send?”, we can respond, “Here I AM, Lord! Send Me!” (see? it’s that I AM again!)
The Holy Spirit is God
The Holy Spirit abides in us
God abides in us
We have what we need to do God’s will, because God is with us.
We have been saved and not condemned, because Christ has redeemed us.
We are God’s children, from the beginning, and God continues to reveal God’s self to us.

I took a class in seminary about John Calvin, who is the primary theologian connected to the beginnings of the Presbyterian church. He lived in the 1500s, and was actually born on my birthday! which I knew you’d all want to know. Anyway, my professor for that class, the Rev. Dr. Philip Butin, wrote a book about Calvin called “Revelation, Redemption, and Response.” In it he focuses on the way Calvin structured his writings and how they reflect the three persons of the trinity, but also the way the divine interacts or connects with humanity in each way. He describes how God the Father continues to reveal Godself to humanity, and how God the Son, Jesus Christ, redeems humanity, and how God the Holy Spirit gives humanity the ability to respond to the love they receive from God. But more than that, he also describes how in each of those cases, it’s not just the one person involved, but the other two are always participating. Whether it’s revelation, or redemption, or response, all three persons of the Triune God play a part – and so do we. We are the fourth part of the Trinity, so to speak. We are the Body of Christ.

I took a break last night, even though I was struggling a bit with completing my sermon, and I went to hear Judy Collins in concert at The Ark in Ann Arbor. It was a wonderful concert. Before I left, I had mentioned on FB that I wasn’t sure if I would go or not, and Margie Hurst wrote me back to say I’d probably find some inspiration in the concert that might make its way into the sermon. And that is exactly what happened!

Judy Collins sang a song that Stephen Stills wrote and sang with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young several decades ago. It’s called “Helplessly Hoping”. And wouldn’t you know it, I heard her sing about the Trinity, and about our place in it as well.  If you recognize this part, you can sing along with me.

They are one person;
We are two alone;
They are three together;
We are for each other.

God is one person.
God and humanity could be two alone; BUT
The Triune God is three together;
And with us participating, we are for each other.
We are in community with the divine – with the Triune God – and the way they always participate with one another is the way we are supposed to be with each other as well.

So when we hear the familiar words in the passage from John – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so whoever believed in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  – and the next verse, which goes along with it – “For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

When we hear those words, the Good News for us is that all three persons of the Triune God are involved – and so are we.

We are called to be participants in the work of the Triune God, who desires to save the world, not to condemn it. We abide in the Body of Christ, as the Holy Spirit abides in us, we who were and are created as children of God, heirs of God. In this way the entire Trinity is connected with us and with one another.

You may come away from this with a whole new set of questions. And if you do – thanks be to God! Because pondering what God is doing in the world and in our lives is always a good thing.

But ultimately, the important thing about the Trinity is not whether we fully understand it.
The important thing is whether we are willing to take part in it every day of our lives, if we are willing to give ourselves over to it fully, if we are willing to work with one another in relationship, just as the three persons of the trinity are in relationship with one another.

The "Other" Lord's Prayer

John 17:6-19

17:6 "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

17:7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;

17:8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

17:9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.

17:10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

17:11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

17:12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.

17:13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.

17:14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

17:15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

17:16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

17:18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

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We are all familiar with The Lord’s Prayer. We pray it together here every Sunday, and many of us use it as a daily prayer in a variety of ways – our prayer at the meal table, or morning or evening, or when we put our kids to bed – it’s a prayer that we know well, that can come to mind often.

Chapter 17 in John’s gospel, that we just heard, offers another (lesser known) Lord’s Prayer. It’s not a prayer Jesus was teaching us, but it’s a prayer Jesus was praying himself – and he was praying for us.

When you look through the gospels, there are not many of Jesus’ prayers provided for us in words. Those that are documented are mostly one liners like these:

·      Thank you for giving your truth to infants and not to the wise.

·      (when Lazarus is raised) Thank you for hearing me – and I’m saying this for the benefit of the crowd hearing me…

·      Take this cup from me if possible.; but not my will, but yours

·      Father, glorify your name.

·      My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

But this particular one fills up a whole chapter.

·      What is this prayer about?

·      What is there for us to learn about it?

·      What does it mean for our lives?

This prayer is about us, and for us. Jesus is praying for us.

He acknowledges that life is difficult, and will be especially so for the disciples. He is asking God to be with us and to walk with us all along the way. He also prays for us to be made holy – to be sanctified – as we are being sent out into the world.

We are called to be in the world but not of the world.

What does that mean? And how does that make us holy?

It’s not an easy thing to understand. To the best of my understanding, it means that we cannot separate ourselves from what is going on in the world, whether it’s in the news, or in our relationships, or in the lives of those we love. When we encounter a need, we are called to respond in love. Not to judge, not to ignore, but to respond in love, however we are able.

The way we respond is directly connected to not being of the world.

·      What is a kingdom of God response? That should be our question.

·      What is a response that is in line with the two most important commandments, according to Jesus: Love God with everything we have, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

·      What is a response based on unconditional love?

The reality is, those kinds of responses seem to lead us to the “life is difficult” part: because we are not shielded from difficult decisions, or from challenges, or from suffering as a result of our decisions. Being Christian does not take us out of the world. In fact, Jesus prays “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but I am asking you to protect them from the evil one.”

How are we protected? Just as Christ was. Christ was tempted by the evil one, but Christ was given strength to conquer evil. It was not the kind of strength that would save his life, ultimately, but it was the strength to go beyond death into new life.

We are not shielded by God, but God is with us in all our difficulties, all our challenges, all our suffering. God is with us, to comfort us, to guide us, to lead us on the way, all the way home.

It is up to choose, to decide, whether or not we will follow. And following means being faithful. It does not mean we will be successful, especially in the way the world defines success.

And that brings us back to the part about life being difficult. The reality is, following the Way of Christ, following the living Word, is not easy. It runs contrary to our own human sinful tendencies. It is not popular among societal norms.

So the sort of circle that Christ is describing, is praying about in this prayer, goes like this:

God, I know that life will be difficult for these disciples. Just like me, you have called them to go out into the world, but you have also called them to be set apart from the world - to be holy. That’s not the easy path, even though it is the path that leads to Real Life, to True Peace. And so be with them, Father – guide them, protect them, show them the way, and don’t ever leave them.

A year or so ago I read an article in the Detroit Free Press about Ruby Dunson. Ruby is an unassuming 80 something year old woman who has lived on the west side of Detroit, in a 900 square foot house, for 58 years. She has been a widow for over 50 years now. She worked for more than 30 years at a cleaners to make a living for her family.

Her family, which consisted of the ten children she raised in that little home, eight of whom were not her own children, but were either abandoned at birth or abused as kids.

And she took them in and raised them as her own.

This all started when Ruby came home from work one day; she was already widowed by this time, and a neighbor asked if Ruby could watch her newborn daughter, so that the neighbor could go to a concert.

Well, that neighbor never came back.

And so Ruby raised that child.

And one by one, she took in other children who needed her, and whom she could not turn away.

Her children have grown up to be

·      a nurse,

·      a paralegal,

·      a sheriff’s deputy,

·      a doctor in reading education,

·      a Chrysler plant worker,

·      an aspiring medical school student,

·      a U-Haul driver,

·      a human services employee,

·      and two stay-at-home moms.

Ruby Dunson said she had no choice but to raise all those kids. She says, “I believe God was testing me. He put those kids at my door and said, ‘What are you gonna do?’”

Thanks be to God, Ruby did not run the numbers to see if this made logical sense, if there would be a return on her investment.

She was willing to be in the world, but not of the world.

She did not let fear, or financial struggles, or lack of spare bedrooms or extra bathrooms, or poverty or any of the multitude of worldly constraints that she clearly could have used to limit herself, stop her.

She trusted in God, and a miracle occurred.

She says now, “I just owe so much to God that my kids turned out so good.” She says she often prayed, “‘Please Lord, take care of my kids.

And help me.’ And he did.”  

Not by making her life easy. But by being with her, guiding her all along the way, to help her make Gospel choices – kingdom choices.

We are at the point in the Christian calendar that recognizes Jesus ascending into heaven – that happened this past Thursday! and the waiting of the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit – that happens next Sunday – Pentecost Sunday.

Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to be our guide.

We can trust that through the Holy Spirit, God is always with us, always guiding us.

The path God has set out for us will usually involve making choices that don’t line up with what the world would choose.

But the peace that comes from following God is not the peace that the world gives.

So –

What will you do differently from what the world would expect of you, this coming week, that would reflect how you are following Christ?

How will God use you this week? Maybe it’s –

·      being a good friend to another

·      listening to another’s struggle

·      standing up for someone vulnerable

·      doing an exceptional job at work

·      volunteering to make a difference

·      praying for those in need

·      knitting a prayer shawl

I invite you to take a minute, and write it down on your bulletin, and take it home with you. Keep Christ’s prayer for you in your heart and your mind this week – make it your own prayer. And respond to how God is using you as you encounter God and experience God in your everyday moments.

Let’s close with this other Lord’s Prayer, as it was restated by David Lose in his commentary (http://www.davidlose.net/2015/05/easter-7-b-called-and-sent/) for this week’s scripture:

Dear God, whose love knows no ending, we know this life is beautiful and difficult and sometimes both at the same time. We do not ask that you take us out of this world, but that you support and protect us while we are in it. We pray that you would set us apart in the truth we have heard here, that your love is for everyone, and we ask that you would send us out from this service to bear witness in word and deed to your grace, goodness and love. May we hear your voice calling us at home and at work, at school, our social settings, and the places we gather and volunteer, that we might feel and share your love. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the one set apart and made holy for us. Amen.

Ruby Dunson and Family: (Source: Detroit Free Press)

http://archive.freep.com/article/20120715/NEWS01/207150516/-A-quiet-hero-Ruby-Dunson-took-in-abused-abandoned-kids-and-raised-them-to-be-successful

http://www.freep.com/article/20120715/NEWS01/207150518

This Changes Everything (Kerry Border)

Acts 10:44-48

10:44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.

10:45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles,

10:46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said,

10:47 "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"

10:48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

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I was in a doctor’s office this week, waiting for my name to come up, and I couldn’t help noticing how much the place had changed since I last was there.   (I don’t see doctors very often – it had been about 8 years since I had seen this particular doctor.)  Oh yes, the furniture was the same, in the same places, the fireplace was still there with the fake flames flickering behind the glass.  And the flat screen TV was on the wall serving up the daily dose of talk shows.  But what was missing were the magazines – those things used to be the best business maker for doctors – just imagine all those sick people passing their germs around so repeat visits were guaranteed.   I had to go to a separate area to find a meager stack of reading material.

I looked around and I saw that virtually everyone in the office was intently focused on one of these things (hold up cell phone).  Yes, there would be an occasional glance at the TV, but for the most part, those present were engaged in electronic isolation from their surroundings.  A streaker could have run through the room and there would have been no witnesses.

Years ago, far too many years when I lived in rural Ohio, a trip to town was a social event.  You would see people you knew on the streets on in the stores and you would stop and chat with them to catch up with what was going on in their lives.  That rarely happens in the hurry-up world of today.  Times certainly have changed.

When I read today’s Gospel passage, it caused me to reflect about how things have changed so much and how they were changing during the times of the Early Church. 

The lesson is only five verses long and only says that Peter had spoken, the Holy Spirit filled those listening, they praised God, and Peter baptized them and stayed with them a few days.  Not a lot of information – kind of like tuning in the end of a movie and wondering what it was all about.  We don’t even know who was baptized!

You have to read the entire chapter 10 of Acts to get the full impact of what was going on here.  I’m not going to read all of it to you, but here is the summary:

We are introduced to Cornelius – Roman Centurion, powerful, wealthy, but God-fearing, a good man with a good family who cared for the poor and did good things.

An angel appeared to him saying that his right living had been seen by God and he needed to hear a message from a man named Peter who was in the nearby city, Joppa.  The angel told him to send 3 men to bring Peter to him.

Meanwhile in Joppa, Peter had been staying with a tanner named Simon.  While on a rooftop praying, Peter had a vision:

¹¹ He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. ¹² It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. ¹³ Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

¹⁴ “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

While Peter was still thinking about this, the three guys from Caesarea showed up to take him away to Cornelius’ house.  The Spirit told Peter that these men were OK and Cornelius was a good man, respected by all Jewish people in the community – so he went.

When Peter got to Cornelius’ house, Cornelius told him about the angel appearing and saying that a man named Peter had a message for him.

How many times in Peter’s life do you think he’s been invited into the home of a Gentile? Never happened before. That’s to be unclean—that’s to embrace someone you don’t want to embrace—that’s scary.

Peter, if you walk over that threshold, you will never be the same again.

But God says, “Go.” There’s a person with an eternal destiny that turns out to be sort of like Peter.

…Peter enters the house. (Acts 10: 25)

He goes through the open door, and the world is never the same again. He tells Cornelius,

Here’s good news.  A man named Jesus came, sent by God.  He went around doing good and healing people, but He was crucified on a cross one day.  Then He rose again, and I was there, and I saw Him.  Now He’s alive, and forgiveness of sins and newness of life are available to anybody who wants it.  We all thought it was just for us, but now I’m starting to find out that it was for everybody.

These were big changes in thinking for Peter to accept. 

First of all, in the time of the Disciples there were no second generation believers.  Everyone was a convert – Jewish people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah who died for the forgiveness of all sins and rose again from the dead.  But they stubbornly held on to many of their old Jewish beliefs as well – the necessity for circumcision, not eating “unclean” animals, avoiding contact with Gentiles, observing Jewish high holy days.  These were still strict rules from the Old Covenant. 

Peter was no exception – he believed these things, too.  But he had also seen Jesus speak with and even heal Gentiles, he had seen Jesus heal on the Sabbath, he had heard Jesus speak about having “other sheep” besides the Jewish believers.  I’m sure these things helped Peter realize that the Good News of the Gospel wasn’t just for Jewish people.

Last week, Pastor Jill used the scripture story about a Jewish proselyte – the Ethiopian eunuch given understanding of the Gospel by the Apostle Phillip and immediately baptized. 

Today’s message takes it one step further, Cornelius and his household were not converted to Judaism before being baptized – no circumcision, no sacrificial rituals, no special diets, no social restrictions – simply a belief that Jesus died for them so they could have eternal life and for that expression of belief and faith, the Holy Spirit entered them.  Jesus preached inclusiveness, not exclusiveness.

When we study the life of Peter as the Bible tells it, we see a person who has all the frailties and imperfections we all have.  He came from the wrong side of the tracks – he was a fisherman, pretty much a subsistence way of living, not highly regarded by the Jewish community.  He probably didn’t visit the synagogue frequently or get to Jerusalem very often.  Yet, he was called by Jesus to give up his occupation and be His disciple – big change.

Peter had to learn to live by faith instead of the strength of his own hands and instincts –  another big change.

Peter often learned that things he said in haste would come back to haunt him – as much as I like fishing, too, I share the same experiences as that old fisherman, Peter.

In today’s message we find Peter abandoning those pillars of Jewish law – diet, circumcision, rejecting outsiders.  Huge changes.

If you read on through the Book of Acts, you will find Peter explaining all these things to the other Apostles in Jerusalem.  And if you read his letters written later in life, you will see a changed man, far different than the fisherman of Galilee, or even the one who stood at the side of Jesus on the mountain at the transfiguration.

I think the message here today is that when we follow Jesus we, as individuals, must keep our minds open to change.  But we should not do it blindly.  Just like Peter, we must confirm what Spirit is speaking to us.  Even though change causes us to move from our comfort zone, Peter was comfortable with accompanying strangers to a Gentile’s house because the Spirit said it was OK and the circumstances matched up with what all sources of information were telling him.  Likewise we must be discerning in our approach to changes in our lives.

As a church, we also must embrace change.  I spoke of the cell phone users in my opening.  We must learn how to adapt to that change and use that medium to help spread the Good News to a world that needs it.  To do that, we will have to do things differently, otherwise we will become just as isolated as the Jewish community was in Biblical times.

In just the past few years I have seen this church make major changes from being two congregations worshipping separately, to becoming two congregations yoked together under a common leadership, then to a single combined congregation worshipping in one location.  Through all those changes we were known as being a welcoming church and we still are.  I often said that the old Peace Church was one of the best kept secrets in Macomb County, but once you got around the people in fellowship, you would keep coming back.  I think the Utica Church and now the New Life Church share that same distinction.

But now is the time when we must face change again.  I’m not talking about people coming and going from our fellowship – I think that’s a healthy part of a Church family – the seed must fall from the plant and grow elsewhere for the Gospel to spread.  I think we need transform from a welcoming church to being an inviting church. 

There are folks all around us that need to hear the message of Jesus’ love for them and that love is best expressed through each and every one of us.  Perhaps the question is how much do we have to dislike someone else to not invite them to our church?  When you think about that, it’s not about like or dislike – it’s about indifference, that same indifference I was observing the cell phones in the doctor’s office.  Indifference on our part does not immediately affect our present situation, but we don’t know what might be going on with the person next to us.  We won’t find out if we don’t ask.  And we won’t ask if we don’t care – that’s indifference.

In the past year, I’ve probably seen more doctors than I have in the past ten years.  All of the doctors produced a list of medical conditions and asked whether any pertain to me.  The one they seem to emphasize the most is “are you depressed or have been depressed in the past year”.   What I tell them is “I don’t have time to be depressed!”  But the truth is depression is far more prevalent today than ever before.  Why - because the world has stopped caring.  Depressed people are disconnected with the people and the community around them – they feel lost and don’t see any way to recover from their despair.

Jesus observed, “The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few”. 

Who, out there, is waiting for your invitation?  Who has God sent or will send to you today who needs to belong to a community that cares enough to connect with them and make a difference in their life?

And here’s the secret, my friends, not only will that person’s life be changed – your life will be changed, too.

I think the most important part of this story of Peter and Cornelius is in verse 34:

Then Peter began to speak. “Now I realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts people from every nation.”  

What a marvelous insight!  Who was converted here - Cornelius or Peter?

God does not show favoritism, but it is entirely human to do so.

Do we have any school teachers here today?  We’ve all heard about “teacher’s pets” and most teachers will say they don’t have favorites, but that’s shading the truth a bit.

I read a story a while back by Dale Galloway about a teacher named Jean Thompson and one of her students, Teddy Stollard, who was disinterested in school, who wore wrinkled clothes, whose hair was never combed, unattractive, unmotivated, distant, just plain hard to like.  

Even though his teacher said she loved everybody in her class the same, inside she wasn’t really being truthful. Every time she marked Teddy’s papers, she got a certain perverse pleasure out of putting XXX’s next to the wrong answers, and when she put the F’s at the top of the paper, she always did it with a flair.

She should have known better. She had Teddy’s records. She knew more about him than she wanted to admit. The records read:

First Grade: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but a poor home situation.

Second Grade: Teddy could do better. His mother is seriously ill, and he receives little help at home.

Third Grade: Teddy is a good boy, but too serious. He’s a slow learner. His mother died this year.

Fourth Grade: Teddy is very slow, but well-behaved. His father shows no interest.

Christmas came, and the boys and girls in Miss Thompson’s class brought her Christmas presents on her desk and crowded around to watch her open them. Among them was one from Teddy Stollard. She was surprised that he had brought her a gift, but he had. It was wrapped in brown paper, held together with Scotch tape. On the paper were the simple words,

For Miss Thompson from Teddy.

When she opened Teddy’s present, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half the stones missing and a bottle of cheap perfume. Other boys and girls began to giggle and smirk over Teddy’s gifts, but Miss Thompson at least had enough sense to silence them by putting on the bracelet, putting some of the perfume on her wrist and holding it up for some of the other children to smell. She said,

Doesn’t this smell lovely?

And the children, taking their cue from the teacher, readily agreed.

At the end of the day, when school was over and the other children had left, Teddy lingered. He slowly came over to her desk and said softly,

Miss Thompson, Miss Thompson. You smell just like my mother, and her bracelet looks real pretty on you too. I’m glad you like my presents.

When Teddy left, Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her. Next day when the children came to school, they were welcomed by a new teacher. Miss Thompson had become a different person. She was now a person committed to loving her children and doing things for them that would live on after her. She helped all the children, but especially the slow ones, and especially Teddy Stollard. By the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement. He had caught up with most of the students and was even ahead of some.

She didn’t hear from Teddy for a long time, and then one day, she received a note.

Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my class. Love, Teddy Stollard.

Four years later, another note came:

Dear Miss Thompson. They just told me I’ll be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know that the university hasn’t been easy, but I liked it. Love, Teddy Stollard.

Four years later,

Dear Miss Thompson, As of today, I am Theodore Stollard, MD. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now. Dad died last year. Love, Teddy Stollard.

What would have become of Teddy in another time, another place?

In the Kingdom, people make space for those they do not have to make space for.  One day, God did that for you.

God asks you,

Will you do that for the people I send into your life?

Will you do that?

Amen