True Story

We were in the last 10 minutes of our Sunday morning worship time. The minister was methodically working through her sermon when she heard a door slam behind her. She noted the noise, but thought nothing of it. Perhaps some one left the back door of the church house cracked and the wind blew it shut, hard. The noise did not rattle her at all and she continued preaching.

Then the minister heard what sounded like a noise in the empty baptistery behind her, but a quick glance over her right shoulder revealed nothing so she returned to her sermon notes, about to began her concluding remarks.

"Does Jesus extend this same invitation to us today? Of course he does, he says to us just as he said to them: 'Come, follow me... ...and I will make you....'"

At that moment, out of the corner of her right eye a movement caught the preacher's attention and her sermon came to a screeching halt. Turning toward the movement I stood face to face with a woman dressed in dingy sweatpants and a light jacket, the same clothes she had worn a few days earlier in my office!

I remembered her as a very congenial simplistic woman requesting assistance to pay her utility bill. She had worked diligently to call the various agencies, but calls were not being returned and her case worker had provided very little help. She was headed toward a cut-off deadline and she was anxious. Even in this earlier encounter the woman had demonstrated a simple and sincere faith. On that day after the bill had been paid and the utility secured for another month, the woman had asked the time of our Sunday service and made the commitment to be there. Now, I realized she was making good on that commitment!

My sermon waited while I greeted her. Knowing she had some difficulty walking I held her arm and walked with her to the front pew. As we descended the steps together she commented in a rather loud voice with a slight speech impediment, "I think I came in the wrong door."

"That's okay," I replied, "You're here. That's what's important."

As I returned to the pulpit she said, loud enough for all to hear, "I think I came in the wrong door. God must have a sense of humor."

"Yes, God has a sense of humor," I said before concluding my sermon.

Reflecting on the experience a bit later I think perhaps now I might better understand how Jesus felt when that man was let down through the ceiling in the middle of his teaching.

Tonight I learned from one of the congregants that as our visitor walked through the empty baptistery she had stopped, waved, and smiled a toothless smile at the congregation. Remember, at that point I was still preaching! One from the congregation later commended me for keeping my cool.