Sharing Our Faith
| This devotional was generously shared by one of our Elgin District Pastors. When I asked if I could place it in our website, the Pastor requested that it be shared anonymously, so I am honoring the request, I would like to have more in the future from those who are willing to offer one. |
| Blessings, |
| Rev. Oscar N. Carrasco Elgin District Superintendent |
| Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been [imprisoned] for the defense of the gospel; the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice. |
| What a powerful man of faith the Apostle was. |
| My view from Communion yesterday: |
| Over on my left: two couples who had just received “inactive” letters from Cal and me. I am unsure if their presence was because of the letters or if they were there ‘for real’ – in one case, it could be that they were there to watch their kid play in the band, just like we parents do with all their sports and school activities . . . as if that’s the point to being in worship. The other couple is the one that I wrote about a couple of weeks back, the guy who said “if you have church on Saturday I’ll be there every week.” As if. He is so clueless to the faith that he wears his cluelessness out loud. |
| Panning right: I saw a very faithful man. He comes to church at least once a week. He has ideas about how to make church better, and prays daily for this place. He is in the financial field, and brings his kids but his wife does not attend. He was in tears as I watched. Balling. For personal reasons? Financial? God was speaking to him? I will only know if I ask to be a part of his tears. Got a decision to make there, gotta remember to write his name down when I get back to my seat. |
| The piece of bread in my hand was light. It was good to be standing here holding it. God keeps giving me opportunities to be faithful and correct my mistakes and faults. |
| Panning right: A faithful 92 year old woman. She can’t see. She was bathing in the Spirit as she listened to the teens sing a song she didn’t know. She told me last week that, when she doesn’t know a song, she hopes and pretends that the people singing it are really meaning what they sing and she uses their energy to connect herself to God. Blindness hasn’t deleted her joy and has only solidified her faith in Christ. |
| Panning right: A couple rounding their 70’s. They were pouting. They can’t smile to save themselves. They were staring a disappointing stare at the singers. Surely they were judging something, they always do. Nothing is right. The music is always wrong, they complained earlier to me about the way I was dressed, which happened to be just exactly the way he was dressed today and I reminded him of that. “ But you have to be different,” he said. Whatever. Something was wrong with communion now, and I’d surely hear about it after the service. Maybe one of the kids singing had a bugger hanging out of his nose. |
| I squeezed the bread between two fingers. |
| Turning left, I saw a 12 year old girl who has a medical condition that has made it impossible to play the sport she loves and is great at – forever. She was holding the bread in an open palm and gazing at the ceiling, as if to say “Jesus, I am here, please find me!” |
| Panning right: A man who has had chance after chance to make his marriage work and has done nothing. His wife finally filed last week and now he wants to fix everything. It’s too late, she is done. He looks lost. |
| … a couple who is in their 30’s – so faithful to Jesus that they don’t make a breath without consulting him. They show Christ’s love everywhere. A rarity for their age group – they wonder today, surely, how people can be so selfish about their lives and their church. I had just been asked this by her. |
| … a woman crippled with MS, sitting next to a woman paralyzed on one side from a major stroke, sitting next to a woman with cancer slowly eating her away, sitting near a staff member with Parkinson’s Disease. |
| And now the bread feels really, really heavy. God forgive me. And please heal us. We need you so much. I need you so much. |
| …Coming back to center, I see a Vietnam Vet. Tears in his eyes, thanking God, certainly, for all he has been given and been brought through. It’s Veteran’s Day, maybe he is reflecting. My ear left the silence created by my panning and thoughts and I remembered that the band was nearing the end of the song and I was going to have to say something. |
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Word of God speak, won’t you fall down like rain, washing my eyes to see Your Majesty. To be still and know that You’re in this place, please let me stay and rest in your holiness, …. Word of God speak. |
| I said, “Lift the body of Christ in your hand. Because of Jesus, you will be O.K.” It was the deepest theological statement I could muster. I was leading people in the big event of our faith, and that’s all I had, because, from my viewpoint, I was leading people who are hurried, faithless, clueless, broken, hurting, lost, found, angry, selfish, blind, pouty, faithful, searching, unhealed, healed, … and none of it mattered in comparison to the glory of Christ, for, and to, and through Whom we all live…whether we cherish him or take him for granted. The Word of God spoke: |
| “This is the church. It is the bride, being prepared for Christ’s return. And Holy Spirit has work to do in you, Paul, and through you.” I shall stop striving for something less that to be God’s vessel and to fulfill God’s will. Much has changed since the Apostle penned those words. And then again, not so much. |
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Jesus, Lord we look to Thee. |
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By Thy reconciling love, |
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Make us one of heart and mind, |
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Let us for each other care, |
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Free from anger and from pride, |
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Let us then with joy remove |
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-Charles Wesley |
