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Tony Campolo
shares a story of a speaking engagement trip he made to
Honolulu. Being from the East Coast meant the time change was
about six hours. At about 3:30 a.m., he found himself wide
awake and hungry, so he was out on the streets of Honolulu,
looking for something to eat. He found a greasy spoon and a
spot at the counter. He was sitting there with coffee and a
donut when the door swung open and in marched eight or nine
prostitutes who took their places at the counter on either
side of him. Hear what happened in his own words:
I felt
completely out of place and was just about to make my
getaway when I overheard the woman sitting next to me say,
"Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be
thirty-nine."
Her ‘friend’
responded in a nasty tone, "So what do you want from
me? A party? What do you want? Ya want me to get you a cake
and sing Happy Birthday?"
"Come
on!" said the woman sitting next to me. "Why do
you have to be so mean? I was just telling you, that’s
all. Why do you have to put me down? I was just telling you
it was my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I
mean, why should you give me a party? I’ve never had a
birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one
now?"
When I heard
that, I made a decision. I sat and waited until the women
had left. Then I called over the fat guy behind the counter
and asked him, "Do they come in here every night?"
"Yeah,"
he answered.
"The one
next to me?"
"That’s
Agnes. Yeah. Why?"
"Because I
heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday," I told
him. "What do you say you and I do something about
that? What do you think about us throwing a birthday party
for her—right here—tomorrow night?"
A cute smile
slowly crossed his chubby cheeks and he answered, "That’s
great! I like it! That’s a great idea!" He told his
wife, who came out from the back all bright and smiley at
the idea. "That’s wonderful! You know, Agnes is one
of those people who is really nice and kind, and nobody ever
does anything nice and kind for her."
We planned it
for 3:30 the next night. I’d arrive at 2:30 and decorate,
and Harry, the guy behind the counter, would make the cake.
The woman cooking must have gotten the word out on the
street, because by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in
the place. It was wall-to-wall prostitutes…and me!
At 3:30 on the
dot, the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and
her friend. I had everybody ready (after all, I was kind of
the M.C. of the affair) and when they came in, we all
screamed, "Happy Birthday!"
Never have I
seen a person so flabbergasted…so stunned…so shaken. Her
mouth fell open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend
grabbed her arm and steadied her. As she was led to a stool,
we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. As we came to
the end, her eyes moistened. When the birthday cake with all
the candles was carried out, she lost it and just openly
cried.
Harry gruffly
mumbled, "Blow out your candles, Agnes! Come on! If you
don’t, I’m gonna hafta blow out the candles." After
an endless few seconds, he did. Then he handed her a knife
and told her, "Cut the cake, Agnes. Yo, Agnes, we all
want some cake."
Agnes looked
down at the cake. Then, without taking her eyes off it, she
slowly and softly said, "Look, Harry, is it all right
with you if I…I mean is it okay if I kind of…What I want
to ask is…is it okay if I keep the cake a little while? I
mean, is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?"
Harry shrugged,
"Sure! It’s okay. If you want to keep the cake, keep
the cake. Take it home if ya want to."
"Can
I?" Then looking at me she said, "I just live down
the street a couple doors. I want to take the cake home,
okay? I’ll be right back. Honest!"
She got off the
stool, picked up the cake and, carrying it like it was the
Holy Grail, walked slowly toward the door. As we all stood
there motionless, she left.
When the door
closed there was stunned silence in the place. Not knowing
what else to do, I broke the silence by saying, "What
do you say we pray?"
Now it seems
more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a prayer
meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu
at 3:30 in the morning, but it just felt like the right
thing to do. I prayed for Agnes. I prayed for her salvation.
I prayed that her life would be changed and that God would
be good to her.
When I finished,
Harry leaned over to me and said, with a trace of hostility
in his voice, "Hey! You never told me you were a
preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?"
In one of those
moments when just the right words came, I answered, "I
belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores
at 3:30 in the morning."
Harry waited a
moment and then almost sneered as he answered, "No you
don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d
join it. I’d join a church like that!"
Well, that’s
the kind of church that Jesus came to create! I don’t know
where we got the idea that we have to be so prim and proper.
But anybody who reads the New Testament will discover a
Jesus who loved to party with all kinds of left-out people.
The publicans and ‘sinners’ loved him because he partied
with them. The lepers of society found in him someone who
would eat and drink with them. And while the solemnly pious
could not relate to what he was about, those lonely people
who usually didn’t get invited to parties took to him with
excitement. Our Jesus was and is the Lord of the party.
Whether that party
is in a diner with cake and coffee at 3:30 in the morning with
prostitutes, or whether it is on the beach at dawn with smoked
fish and fresh bread, or whether it is a Thanksgiving banquet
or a wedding feast, the fact remains that Jesus was calling
his followers to join him there. Jesus’ ministry on earth
was basically walking around, healing and teaching, and eating
in other people’s houses. And while he was doing that, he
was telling people, "The Kingdom of God is here."
Over a century
ago, theologians realized that the Kingdom of God was much
more than a way of getting people into heaven when they died.
Salvation was something to be experienced in this world. It
meant transformed individuals and transformed societies.
People were saved not only for "pie in the sky by and
by" but for something "sound on the ground while we’re
still around." God wants to create a people who will work
on earth for him. Through those people, God wills to change
society and do good and deliver justice.
In the Kingdom of
God, people live out the life God planned for them when he
first created the human race, before The Fall and sin and evil
settled in. Your family life, economic life, and political
life will be lived out in accord with the plan of God in God’s
Kingdom. His love will permeate all our interactions. Imagine
if your relationships were full of the will of God. God wants
you to have strong, healthy, loving relationships. That is God’s
plan for you and for me.
Now the problem
with the Social Gospel reformers was, while they had rightly
emphasized some aspects of the faith that the church had
tended to ignore, they often passed over the fact that we need
personal salvation. As individuals, you and I are radically
sinful. We are in need of becoming new persons through a
miracle of God.
For some people,
being a sinner doesn’t necessarily mean being a bad person.
It simply means being separated from God, falling short of God’s
glory. Jesus came to set that right. By his death on the
cross, Jesus paid the penalty for my sin and your sin. You and
I simply need to put our faith in him to be saved, and enter
into a relationship with him. And Jesus bridges that chasm.
Let me ask, are
you on your way to a banquet? Are you on your way to a party?
Often because of the media and our own false views of
Christianity, we think the party is in hell. Like that’s
where all the partiers go. The fact is, though, that heaven is
described as a party, a wedding feast, a banquet. Heaven is
the place where the love, joy and peace are. When Jesus
reminded people that the "Kingdom of God" was
breaking into history, he was also reminding us of what it’s
going to be like. Jesus was fulfilling what was written in the
Old Testament.
Once a year,
according to Deuteronomy 14, all the people of God were to
bring one-tenth of all their earnings to the temple in
Jerusalem. Some of the offering was in animals. Some was in
grain. And for those who couldn’t haul it that far, they
exchanged it for money. Imagine one-tenth of Israel’s Gross
National Product! Listen to what it was used for: "You
shall eat before the Lord thy God, that you may learn to fear
the Lord. You shall rejoice, you and your whole house."
The giving was for banquets and festivals and all the
religious parties of the Israelites! No one said, "Church
is boring." The celebration on Mount Zion was anything
but. There was lots of food and plenty to drink. There was
dancing, singing and exuberant celebration. Everybody was
invited, from widows to poor kids to prostitutes and tax
collectors. The partying was about the Kingdom of God. It was
a foretaste of what heaven is going to be like.
You and I need to
be on our way to a banquet—to that banquet. You and I need
to be on the bridge to that banquet. But you and I also need
to be that bridge for others. Remember Jesus’ final words to
his followers. We call it the Great Commission. It is the
final words of Matthew’s gospel. In verses 28:19-20, Jesus
says, "Go therefore into all the world and make
disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end
of the age."
As children on our
way to Grandma’s house, driving from Detroit to Chicago, we
couldn’t eat the dinner my mom packed for us until we
crossed the bridge in Ann Arbor. When we came to that bridge,
we could eat the tuna fish egg salad sandwiches that she
always made. As I was preparing this sermon, I thought about
that bridge in Ann Arbor. I thought about the tuna fish egg
salad sandwiches, and that it was usually to Grandma’s
house, and that she would have French dip sandwiches waiting
for us when we got there late at night. And half the time it
was for Thanksgiving dinners and what a celebration it was.
Do you know the
next bridge to a banquet I thought of as I was preparing this
sermon? The Zilwaukee Bridge. Anyone who’s lived in Michigan
for a while can remember the jokes about it. For years they
struggled to get it completed. For years it sat there
half-done. For years it sat there, with some of those giant
cement blocks tilting over. For years the finances to complete
it were in question. It was during that time that J.P.
McCarthy thought it would make a great plant hanger. (But do
you remember what it was like to go "up north" on
I-75 when the old drawbridge was up?) Every time we go visit
my folks near Traverse City, I make my kids look at the view
from the Zilwaukee Bridge.
The many problems
that bridge had remind me of the many problems we have, as a
church and as individuals, in being that bridge for others to
come to know God through us. Like the Zilwaukee Bridge, for
years we may simply not be connected. We may feel we don’t
connect with others. We may feel we don’t connect with God.
But nevertheless God calls us as the church to strengthen our
connections on both ends, with others and with the Lord.
Reading the Bible, prayer and worship can get us back in touch
with God. Cultivating friendships, genuinely caring for
others, and filling in the gap to help someone in need can
bring us in touch with other people.
For years we may
simply not put our resources behind strengthening our way
toward God. Many of us love Jesus. The problem is, we let so
many other things get in the way. We’re proud when we put in
five minutes a morning in prayer or scripture. I’m not
saying that’s a bad thing. But when we love Jesus and when
we know that God is the most important one in our lives, we
just let our priorities slip. We don’t fund with our time
what we know to be important. We need to take our time,
talents, gifts and service and recommit them to the Lord.
As God is working
on us (remember the promise of Philippians 1:6: "He who
began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it,
until the day of Christ Jesus"), we may have to endure
ridicule and jokes (many of which may be legitimate!).
We may feel as
obscure as a place named Zilwaukee, wondering what big thing
God can do through us. I used to wonder what God could ever do
through a well-off, suburban white kid. And I’ll bet Peter
wondered if God would ever work through him again, after
having denied Jesus three times during his trial.
Think of Peter,
that night of fishing. He had denied Jesus and eaten his
words. Have you been "working all night" and
"catching nothing?" Have you been working hard and
coming up empty?
Many of us are
doing the right things, but there’s something missing. We’ve
been faithful, more or less, with our church involvement. We’ve
shown up for work. We’ve contributed. But we’ve just been
missing out. We’ve worked hard. We’ve even pulled our
share of all-nighters. But we’ve caught nothing. What’s
wrong with us? Perhaps we’re out in the boat without Jesus.
Maybe it’s time for us to come to the shore and let him
serve us. And remember it wasn’t until they admitted they
had caught nothing that Jesus said, "Throw your nets over
the right side of the boat."
Have you noticed
that Jesus is always "ready for us"?
The smoke was
rising on the shore, above the haze of the morning. The smell
of smoked fish and fresh bread filled the disciples’ senses.
Jesus had spread a
table for his followers.
Jesus said
"Come and have breakfast." Those are some of the
best words to my ears. "Come." Throughout the Bible
God is calling us, seeking us, and telling us to come and join
him. God always takes the initiative. God is a seeking God.
The first time God used that word was in Genesis, inviting
Noah to join him in the ark (Gen. 7:11). And in the last
chapter of Revelation 22:17, he uses it twice. The
Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who
hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come;
and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of
life.
What do you say
at a moment like this?
What do you
say at a moment like this?
It’s just you
and God. You and God both know what you’ve done. And neither
one of you is proud of it. What do you do?
Stand in his
sight. Stand still and wait. Sometimes that’s all a soul can
do. Too sorry and repentant to speak but too hopeful to leave—we
just stand.
You might consider
doing what Peter did. Stand in God’s presence. Stand amazed.
He has come back. He invites you to try again. This time, with
him.
It’s an
encounter every person needs to have with Jesus. Church, our
call is to give people every opportunity to get caught. To
allow ourselves to get caught.
We are the boat,
helping some people stay afloat, or finding purpose.
We are the net,
catching people, bringing people in to encounter Jesus.
We are the fire,
providing warmth and a meal.
We are the words
of Jesus, offering hope and forgiveness.
We are the
disciples, needing to run to Jesus ourselves for nourishment.
We need to find and we need to be…a bridge to a banquet.
And when we do, we
realize that Jesus is waiting, breakfast is on, and we know
that things will never be the same for us again. Amen.
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