Sunday, June 24, 2007
Acts 17:22-31
Senior Pastor
A man is stumbling through the woods, quite drunk, when he
comes upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. He stumbles into the water and subsequently bumps into the
preacher. The preacher turns around and
is almost overcome by the smell of alcohol, whereupon he asks the drunk, "Are
you ready to find Jesus?"
The drunk answers, "Yes, I am."
So the preacher grabs him and dunks him in the water.
He pulls him up and asks the drunk, "Brother have you found Jesus?"
The man says, "No, I haven't found Jesus." The preacher dunks him again, a little longer.
He pulls him out of the water and asks again, "Have you found Jesus my
brother?"
The drunk again answers, "No, I haven't found Jesus."
By this time the preacher is at his wits end and dunks the drunk in the water
again – but this time holds him down even longer. The man is flailing around in the water – arms and legs going
every which way. The preacher yanks him
out of the water and says forcefully, "For the love of God man, have you
found Jesus?"
The drunk fellow wipes his eyes as he is catching his breath says to the
preacher, “Are you sure this is where he fell in?"
Sometimes in our efforts to help someone make a connection with Jesus we fail to communicate clearly. As churchgoers, as Christians, sometimes we think others know and have experienced what we know and have experienced and that is not always true. Sometimes they need more information. Sometimes they need more direction. Sometimes they need more love. In some situations they simply need a little more time.
This part of Acts,
from which we read today, is tracing for us the trips Paul took in an effort
to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with other people. At this stop, he is in Athens, Greece. He has noticed that the city is full of
idols. He begins to tell people in the
synagogues and in the marketplace what God has done through Jesus Christ.
He tells them that
he can see they are religious seekers because of the many idols and shrines. But he says, The God who made the
world…does not live in shrines. (v.
24) He goes on to say that it is good
that people search for God but they make a mistake if they think God is far
away, for he is not far from each of us. (v.27) This is still a common
misunderstanding. People inside the
church and outside the church believe that God is far away and inaccessible
somehow. But Paul is saying: Oh no, God
is close, really close.
In fact, it is in
God in whom we live and move and have our being. (v. 28)
God is all around
us; it is within God’s life that we have life.
Rosemary Keating
is a professional nurse in
Oklahoma City. She has served as a
nurse in several different settings, but now she is a nurse practitioner
specializing in obstetrics/gynecology.
She sees her work as a ministry.
She says, “I ask God to use me everyday.” She sees no line between her faith and her job—one does not exist
without the other. She says that she
considers her role as being “the hands and feet of God” to all the women she
serves.
Her faith fills her
with compassion, patience and empathy and that drives her to serve as she
does. Her hope is that she can be a
light to those who may not know God.
She shares that she prays for all of her patients and if the opportunity
comes up she is glad to talk with them about prayer and God. In the story I read about her she was quoted
as saying, “Always be open to God’s guidance, and keep your focus on God, not
your own agenda. Ask God to direct you
to where you’re supposed to be, then listen.
(St. Luke’s UMC, Outlook magazine, March 2007, p. 10)
Paul would
understand exactly what Rosemary is saying.
She is living a life in which her faith and work are well
integrated. Therefore, like Paul, she
is being a faithful witness to the Gospel.
I would dare say she understands Paul when he says it is in God that we
live and move and have our being.
Recently one of you
sent me this story about Coach Bear Bryant. It was a story from his first year as a coach at Alabama. He had just been named head coach and was
heading way down into south Alabama to recruit. He was having trouble finding the place and was getting hungry
when he saw a simple sign that said, “Restaurant.”
I stop and go in and
every head in the place turns to stare at me, Bryant recounts. Seems I'm the only white fellow in the
place. But the food smelled good.
So I skip a table and go up to a cement bar and sit. A big ole man
in a tee shirt and cap comes over and says, "What do you need?" I told him I needed lunch.
He says, "You probably won't like it here, today we're having chitlins,
collared greens and black eyed peas with cornbread. I'll bet you don't
even know what chitlins are, do you?"
Bryant says he looked him square in the eye and said, "I'm from
Arkansas, I've
probably eaten a mile of ‘em. Sounds like I'm in the right
place." They all smiled as he left
to serve me up a big plate.
When he comes back he says, "You ain't from around here then?"
So I explain I'm the new football coach up in Tuscaloosa at the University and
I'm out recruiting. We chat a little
more; he gives me directions. I'm
paying up to leave, I remember my manners and leave a tip, not too big to be
flashy, but a good one and he told me lunch was on him. But I told him for a lunch that good, I felt
I should pay.
The big man asked me if I had a photograph or something he could hang up to
show I'd been there. I was so new that I didn't have any yet. I
took a napkin and wrote his name and address on it and told him I'd get him
one.
I met the kid I was looking for later that afternoon and I don't remember his
name, but do remember I didn't think much of him. I also thought I had wasted a day.
Next day I found a picture, wrote on it, "Thanks for the best lunch I've
ever had. Paul Bear Bryant"
-- and mailed it off.
Now jump ahead a whole bunch of years. We now we have black players at
Alabama and I'm back down in that part of the country scouting an offensive
lineman we sure needed. Well, he's got two friends going to Auburn and he
tells me he's got his heart set on Auburn, too. So once again I leave empty handed.
Two days later, I'm in my office in Tuscaloosa and the phone rings and it's
this kid who just turned me down, and he says, "Coach, do you still want
me at Alabama?" I said, "Yes,
I sure do." And he says, “Okay, I'll come.”
“Well son, what
changed your mind?" He says,
"When my grandpa found out that I had a chance to play for you and said
‘no’, he pitched a fit. He told me I
wasn't going nowhere but Alabama, to play for the great Bear Bryant. He sure thinks a lot of you – has ever since
y'all met."
He said you could teach me more than football and I had to play for a man like
you, so I guess I'm going to." Of
course, his granddad was the restaurant owner that Bryant had met years
before. The grandson said, “My grandpa
thought when you left there you would forget him and he never expected you to
send him that picture; but you kept your word and to Grandpa, that's
everything.”
Bear Bryant was in the presence of those gentlemen for only minutes that day,
but he defined himself for a lifetime.
Regardless of our profession, regardless of our station or place in life we
do define ourselves by how we treat others – how much courtesy and care we
extend to others. In only minutes or
seconds we can leave a lasting impression - we can be rude, crude, and callous
or we can be nice, generous and kind.
Paul, Rosemary
Keating, Bear Bryant they are all witnesses to God’s great love. Our challenge is to do that in our time and
in our place. There are people in Enid
who need us to do that; there are people we know that need us to do that. There are people searching for God in our
town. Are we willing to help them?
Stephen Grellet was
a Quaker missionary in the early 1800’s.
He wrote, "I expect to pass through the world but once.
Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature,
let me do it now. Let me not defer it, for I shall not pass this way
again." Amen and thanks be to
God.
"Are you ready to find __________?"
Sometimes… we ________ to communicate clearly.
Acts…the trips
Paul took in an effort to share the Gospel of
Jesus Christ with __________ people.
…in God in whom we
live and move and have our being.
(v. 28)
God is all around
us; it is within __________ life
that we have
life.
Her hope is that
she can be a light to those who may not
________ God.
Coach ________ ____________.
…he defined
himself for a ________________.
…we do define ourselves by how we __________ others –
There are people
searching for God in our ________.
Are we willing to
________ them?
I expect to
pass through the world but once. Any good
therefore that
I can do, or any kindness I can show to any
creature, let
me ____ ____ ______. Let me not defer it,
for I shall
not pass this way again. Stephen Grellet
Kid’s Question:
How do we define ourselves?