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SERMONS

The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 8, 2001

By David Christian

"What can one person do?"

I don't know how often you hear that statement. But I know that I hear it, or something like it, fairly frequently. And I find myself saying it, at least silently to myself, more frequently still.

"What can one person do?"

With all the problems that face the world today, and the problems that we each face in our personal lives, it is easy to develop a feeling of powerlessness, a feeling that it is beyond our capacity to do anything. We are so small and the task is so great. Why even try?

"What can one person do?"

Or, in the case of today's gospel, "What can two people do?" Jesus sent out a group of people to every place that he intended to visit. He sent them out as laborers. But he appears to have given them no special equipment. If anything, he denied them even the basic things travelers would be expected to carry in that time. They were to take with them no purse, no bag; not even sandals.

They were given no special training, no instruction in techniques of effective evangelism, no seminar in active listening. They were sent out as lambs among the wolves. They were given only one thing. They were given a message. "The kingdom of God has come near to you." They were sent to proclaim the message of the coming of God's kingdom. That is all.

They went out with that message. And the gospel writer tells us that they returned with joy. I suspect that they may also have returned somewhat surprised. "Lord," they said, "even the demons submit to us in your name!" The lambs returned to report that they had been able to subdue even the powers in control of the world. But that was then, and this is now. Today's world is so much more complex than that world.

The problems we face are so much greater, the powers against which we struggle are so much stronger. "Today," we ask, "today, what can one person do?" You never know, and sometimes you might be surprised.

Let me tell you a story, a true story that some of you may have heard. This happened in South Africa, about fifty years ago. The story concerns a young boy, a black boy, of about seven or eight. He was walking down one of the streets in his home town when he noticed his mother walking slightly ahead of him on the far side of the street. While he followed her something unusual happened. As his mother walked along, a white man came toward her. As he came near to her, the man tipped his hat to her and stepped aside to let her pass.

That was all that happened. But it seemed quite extraordinary to the boy. The usual custom in that place and at that time was for a white person not even to notice a black person if he met one on the street. It was the black person's responsibility to step off of the sidewalk so that he would not be knocked over.

The boy was so amazed by what he saw that he turned and followed the white man home in order to talk with him. The man turned out to be a priest in the Anglican church in South Africa. After talking with the boy for a while he offered him work as a houseboy. The boy came to live with him, learned about Christianity, and was baptized. The priest sent him to school and later sponsored his theological education.

The boy Desmond Tutu became archbishop of Capetown and the metropolitan bishop of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa. Today he is internationally known and respected as a leading voice for reconciliation of black and white in South Africa and for peace throughout the world.

All because some man tipped a hat to his mother.

On that day, through that simple act of hospitality, a Christian proclaimed the nearness of the kingdom of God. Because of that act a young boy was brought to Christ, and the Church gained an eloquent spokesman for peace and reconciliation.

"What can one person do?"

That act by that priest on that day was probably not an intentional act of evangelism. The priest may not have even been conscious of what he did. Like him, each of us is called to live a life in which even our casual, unconscious actions can serve to proclaim God's love. But we are called to more than that. We are called to be more than casual agents of the kingdom. We have been called by our Lord, just as the seventy were called, to be intentional agents of God's kingdom; to actively seek ways to proclaim God's love.

Everything that we do has significance. Every act we take carries potential. Every word we utter serves either to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God, or to hide that fact. Nothing is lost in God's economy.

"What can one person, one parish, one church, do?"

By ourselves, nothing. But, if we allow it, through us God can change the world.

David Christian

The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi