An occupational hazard of being a pastor is that you rarely get to attend other worship services or hear other minister’s sermons. That is one reason why I enjoy attending the Good Samaritan services, mostly so that I can be a part of that worshiping community and share in the powerful time of intercessory prayer. Although I usually have to leave the service early to prepare for the “Journey” worship time, occasionally the prayer time becomes a mini-sermon time.
One Sunday several months ago, Ray Anthony, an ELPC member and regular Good Samaritan worship attendee, offered some thoughts during the prayer time. As I recall, he spoke about family and about his heartfelt desire that the men of the homeless shelter and vulnerable souls on Pittsburgh’’s streets might know God’s love and peace. He went on to insist that the gospel message is stronger and truer than the messages we commonly hear, and (like a good preacher) proceeded to give three examples.
Ray mentioned how people often say “God helps those who help themselves,” but that’s not quite true. Yes, we are to do the best we can and ever seek to do what is right, but God’s grace most often comes to help those who can’t help themselves. In that assurance comes a real word of hope.
Ray then noted that we speak about the “survival of the fittest.” But life is not just about surviving, and certainly not about working hard to make it at the expense of someone else. The gospel message is about how abundant life and peace is promised, not to the fittest, but to the meek, the weak, the forgotten and overlooked. The promise of resurrection emerged not from a Caesar on a golden throne, but from a crucified teacher on a wooden cross.
Finally Ray commented that some insist “God don’t like ugly.” As true as that might be, God is greater than all the “ugly” in the world, and can get us through times that are hard into new places that exceed our hopes and imagination.
Sometimes the sermon we need to hear doesn’t happen on Sunday morning. Sometimes it is contained in a chance conversation we have in a store, on the bus, or on the phone. Sometimes it is in a story we read in the paper or a song we hear on the radio. The important reminder for all of us is that we can only hear God if we quiet ourselves long enough to listen for God–not expecting a voice from the clouds, but listening to the voice speaking close at hand.
Jesus was the “Word made flesh.” We mustn’t be surprised if people of flesh and blood become the means for that same holy Word to be spoken to us today.