| Fairfax Presbyterian Church Sermon by Midlife Men on a Mission December 12, 2004 Where Did We See Jesus? Luke 1:39-55 |
|---|
More than a year ago, Henry Brinton caught a spark and threw it among dry
tinder. A flame caught and it grew.
The spark was the idea that men of the church travel to a needy community
to serve.
The tinder was the many men of this church who responded.
The flame was the desire to serve those less fortunate.
It grew in meetings, conversations, donations, planning, and research.
The result of that spark was that a group of men of this church traveled
to Honduras in October on a weeklong mission of service.
Of the many who expressed interest, ultimately 13 men were able to make the
trip this year.
This was the vanguard of the Midlife Men on a Mission.
Where did we go? What did we do? What did we find?
I have been asked to provide answers to the first two of these questions.
You will hear from others in our group throughout the service about what we
found.
La Entrada is a crossroads town of more than 20,000 in a relatively remote
region of northwest Honduras.
To get to this town, we traveled by bus for an hour and a half through
numerous rugged mountain ranges, on tightly curving roads, alongside sharp
dropoffs.
We passed through a countryside dotted with clusters of tin or wooden
shacks, with dirt floors and frequently surrounded by chickens and dogs.
Some of the houses were built in the 10 or 20 feet that existed between the
winding road and a sheer drop into a ravine.
We traveled through country where coffee, cocoa, bananas, and corn was
grown, sometimes on hillsides so steep that they would be difficult to
climb.
There were three main elements of our service: construction at a youth
camp, medicines for a remote clinic, and distribution of used clothing.
The youth camp in La Entrada is run by an organization called Youth For
Christ.
The director, Mauricio Erazo, has a grand vision of a place for the local
youth to come to enjoy healthy living and to learn the message of Christ.
Mauricio has a good start - there is a large open area for soccer and
games.
There are two large rooms filled with bunk beds.
There are rugged hills nearby to climb.
But there is and was much to do.
Our group broke into three teams.
One team busied itself in repairing and upgrading a caretaker’s house - a
new roof, electrical wiring, and other improvements.
This is where we met a wonderful guy named Henry the Welder - not our
pastor.
A second team worked on the foundation of a large kitchen and dining room,
mixing concrete, laying block, and putting in a new sewer line.
The confusion between the two Henry’s led to Henry Brinton receiving two of
his many nicknames for the week - Henry the Sewer King and Henry the Wire
Bender for his work in preparing rebar for concrete supports.
A third team prepared a site to be used as a confidence course, digging
holes for foundations, fabricating a steel structure, and raising a
five-sided course including a 15-foot tall climbing wall.
As a member of this latter team, we joked that we should nickname our group
“Holes for Honduras” because we dug and redug so many holes.
There was plenty of additional activity such as painting steel beams,
moving materials, unloading telephone poles, laying out a regulation soccer
field, and building a rope swing across a creek.
The work was exhausting - and rewarding.
It was quite an interesting thing to see men of diverse talents and skills,
many of whom did not know each other, come together quite naturally and
cooperatively, without a designated construction boss, to accomplish so
much.
In the evenings, after happy hour and dinner, we met to discuss scripture
and to reflect on our purpose.
One day was spent distributing medicines and used clothing.
We brought several suitcases full of badly needed medicines to a remote
clinic reachable only over a difficult, unpaved road.
People in the countryside walk, some for as much as an entire day, to
receive medical attention and medicines from the clinic.
We also distributed approximately a dozen suitcases of used clothing in
that remote village and in La Entrada.
In all, we had a very busy week, putting our faith into living, breathing
practice, to assist those who are in need of so much.
We thank those of this congregation who donated money, goods, or time in
support of this effort.
We think this was a valuable exercise: valuable for the church to reach
out to a deserving community and valuable for the Midlife Men to be able to
work together toward both concrete and spiritual goals.
Conversation with the Children by Andy Wescoat:
Can I have all the children join me up here for a conversation?
Good morning.
Now you just heard Mr. Ward talk about a trip some of us made to Honduras.
Do you know where Honduras is?
That’s right - Honduras is a country in Central America.
A group of us went on a mission trip to Honduras in October. While we were there we worked at a camp for children in a town called La Entrada.
This camp is a great place for kids. In some ways the kids in Honduras are a lot like you. They like to play soccer.
But I bet you don’t have horses living on you soccer field. Pretty cool - you don’t have to mow or fertilize!
What do you think they’re doing here? (Children playing on a tire swing)
What do you think the kids are doing here? (Boy putting bunny ears behind his friend)
Now these children do not have a lot of things. Maybe we would call them poor because they don’t have much. But they find joy in many things. They look pretty happy don’t they?
Now I want to tell you about one place we visited - a school called the Tree of Life / Plan Escola. This particular school is for 400 Junior and Senior High School students - a bit older than you. We visited the school on Sunday morning and joined the students in their worship service.
While a lot of you go to school, many children in Honduras can not afford to go to school. The children who go to this school have very little. They come from all over the country. We met one boy from a place called the Mosquito Coast. It takes him about 5 days to get to this school. He travels down a river in a boat and then travels many miles by bus. The students all work very hard. In addition to studying they do chores for about 2 hours a day and then 4 hours on Saturday.
Being with them that Sunday, we all felt the great joy, faith and love these students had in the celebration of God. They sang, and danced and gave testimonies to their faith in Jesus Christ.
So why do you think these students - who didn’t have much and who were away from their families - were so filled with joy and love? Why do you think they are happy?
They received a great gift of love in their school. I think they also realized great joy and happiness giving of themselves through fellowship and service. They truly find happiness and joy in their faith - which is so strong, in their fellowship and in serving their fellow students. At this time of Advent we need to remember that Jesus taught us that he did not come to be served, but to serve.
The pastor at the school at the school has a wonderful saying. It’s nine simple words I want you to remember. “Find a need, meet a need, change the country.” What a great plan.
Please join me in a prayer.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for the children in La Entrada that so touched our lives and all the children here who touch our lives everyday. Let us remember the joy we can bring and the joy we can receive by serving others. May we all endeavor to “Find a need, meet a need, and change the world.” Amen.
Carl Waltrip:
Someone last week asked me, “Why are you guys doing this right now? What does reflecting on your trip to Honduras have to do with celebrating the Advent Season?” It’s true, we are supposed to be thinking about a baby in a manger, a bright star, the wise men, and all the other “symbols” of the greatest miracle of all time. But we should also be thinking about what His birth brought to us. The certainty of salvation and the clarity of what love can actually accomplish. I think that talking about where we saw Christ on our trip to Honduras has everything to do with celebrating the Advent Season. Even though none of us were there to see Him born, every man on that trip saw Christ, in the children, in our co-laborers, in each other, and it was the birth, so long ago, of that little, tiny baby boy that made it possible.
I want to tell you a story about a simple little tree swing. Nothing special to look at really……..a branch over a creek, a rope over the branch, and a board. I looked around one day, I think it was our first full day there, and saw Phil Beauchene and Henry, trying to throw a rope up over a branch. You can just imagine the scene, a couple of middle-aged guys in shorts (no one wears shorts down there except the Gringos), with no arms and skinny legs, trying to throw a rope over just the right branch.
As an aside, we had two Henry’s on our trip – we had the Henry who was a welder and we had our Henry. Our Henry started the week working on the sewer line in the foundation of what will someday be a dining hall. Now as valuable as our Henry was on this trip, trust me when I say, Henry the Welder was worth his weight in Gold. But, every time one of us hollered “Henry”, our Henry popped up from under his sewer pipe and came over to see what we wanted. It didn’t take us too long to figure out that we needed to come up with an answer to the Henry, Henry problem. I mean, if someone fell off the top of the house, we would need a Pastor, but most of the time we just needed a Welder. Someone had an inspiration – lets identify them by the work they are doing – Henry the Welder, and………Henry the Sewer King! Problem Solved! I’m sure that, in the coming weeks, if you feel particularly moved by one of Henrys Sermons, he would appreciate being reminded of his true calling.
Anyway, back to our story of the tree swing, the two Henrys and Phil. Here we were, some of us anyway, digging holes, moving rocks, sweating like a son of a gun, I mean we were doing GODS WORK, and those guys were over there standing in the shade tossing a rope up into a tree – WHAT WHERE THEY DOING? WE HAD A PLAN, AND BELIEVE ME, TOSSING A ROPE UP INTO A TREE WAS DEFINITELY NOT ON IT! GET BACK TO WORK!
Well, let me tell you, that tree swing, that simple little tree swing, came to represent one of the biggest reasons we were there – for the kids. Those kids have nothing, I mean really nothing. Many of them don’t have shoes, toys, or, except for this camp, even a safe place to gather and play. This swing was a big deal to those kids. The people in this community are just trying to get by in life, to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Building fun things for their kids to do is just not at the top of their list.
It started with just a couple of kids, then a few more, and soon there were 10 and sometimes 20 kids gathered around, having a blast swinging back and forth across that little creek. One day, almost at the end of our trip, we were working on the confidence course. Henry the Welder was way up on a ladder welding above his head, and I was standing below watching him, supervising I guess. There were at least 20 kids playing on the swing at that time. Henry the Welder looked at them, stopped what he was doing, came down from his ladder, and gathered all the kids around. He asked them “do you know why they built this swing for you?” Now remember, Henry the Welder is just 20 or 21, not much older than some of the oldest kids playing on the swing, so it was really a remarkable moment. He told them, “They came all the way from North America to build this swing for you because they wanted you to know that they loved you”. I have to confess I wept. I saw Christ right then. I saw him in the way that that young man took the time to describe a vision of sacrificial love to those kids, and I saw Christ in Henry (our Henry) and Phil. I saw Christ in the way that those two men showed, instinctively and with no fanfare, that it’s not the big things that are important, it’s the little ways you show love, by meeting people right where they are. That swing met those kids right where they are. A simple little tree swing, nothing special to look at really, but a HUGE expression of Christ’s love.
Lann Malesky:
I’m Lann Malesky and I am going to tell you a personal story about what I was looking for and what I found on the trip to Honduras. Our first night in La Entrada, I told my fellow midlifers that the part of the service here at FPC that I liked least is when Henry and Carrie invite us to stand and greet each other. I discovered that if I timed my arrival just right, I could slip into the sanctuary just as this meet and greet ended.
I also found that if I closed my hymnal during the final verse of the final hymn and placed it in the pew rack, I could quietly slip out and be halfway across the Glebe before service was over.
Some of you may now wonder why I bothered to attend FPC if I did not want to mingle with you and in fact avoided you. I often asked myself that question as I approached the church on Sunday morning. I felt out of it but I kept coming back. I think I returned out of habit because going to church was something I always did on Sundays.
I do not know how much longer that habit would have carried me but 18 months ago something changed. Brad said that Henry tossed a spark. I e-mailed Henry after I caught the spark and told him that I had no skills but I would like to join him on the mission. In truth, I not only did not have skills but I was not sure that I even qualified as a “midlife man,” whatever age group that is. I figured that if I wanted to be a midlife man, I would be one and I may decide to be one for the next 15 or 20 years. Henry, be warned, I plan to hang out with you on these mission things as long as we are at FPC together.
I remember my first meeting with my fellow midlifers. I knew two men, Henry and Ken and I knew who George was. Before each meeting thereafter I studied the pictorial directory in hopes of identifying the men. I attended each meeting with the fear that I would get names wrong or make some dumb comment. But time passed and I ceased to worry about who was who. Andy returned from Honduras with his superb report. We got shots. Mauricio visited and fired our enthusiasm.
I got caught up in the trip and could not have snuck out early for anything. Before I knew it, we had cleared customs in San Pedro Sula and were on the school bus. Then it hit me. We men were not only on a mission but we were stuck with each other for the next eight days.
With that as background maybe you can begin to understand my very personal reasons to go on this trip. I was tired of coming to service late and skipping out early. I wanted to connect. I wanted to be a part of this church. I wanted to do something more than just pay dues. I think that this trip was my last chance.
On our first night in La Entrada I told my fellow midlifers what I have just told you. In our time there, I discovered that I was not the only one who did not know everyone in the group and that others had issues.
Over those eight days we did the things Brad mentioned. We had the encounters Carl talked about. In a moment Scott will tell you of our daily discussions. I came to know my fellow midlifers, Brad, Andy, Phil, Carl, John, Bill, Henry, David, Scott, Kevin, George, and Ken plus Brian and Mauricio. I connected with them.
A couple of Sundays after we returned, I did not sneak out during the final hymn. I actually waited in the narthex to complement Sheri and HeeJung on their great job with the children’s choirs. I talked with Andy, Kevin, Ken, and Scott. As I prepared to leave, Scott invited me to attend Henry’s Bible study that morning. Thanks to Scott, I knew at that moment that the trip had provided the connection I sought.
Scott Zimmerman:
In addition to the many ways large and small that we saw Jesus at work in our interactions with the people of Honduras, we saw similar examples in our interactions with each other. Nowhere was this more apparent than in our after-dinner devotional meetings each evening. As the basis for those meetings, Henry had prepared for each of us a booklet that included, for each of the nine days of our trip, a Bible passage for study and a series of related questions for discussion. Each night, the discussion was led by a different volunteer.
the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20). That was certainly true, I believe, during our daily gatherings.
To give you a flavor of the discussions, the first day the story of Jesus’ baptism by John in Mark Chapter 1 led to a discussion of the ways in which the trip would be a kind of “baptism” for us; later in the week, Jesus’ admonition that a lamp should be placed on a lampstand and not under a basket raised the questions of how the light of Christ might threaten us and what the light is disclosing about each of us over the course of the week. Not exactly the usual “how ‘bout them Redskins” guy stuff.
For me, one moment in particular stood out. At the end of the week, the night before we were leaving to come home, we were talking about Mark Chapter 8, which includes the story of the loaves and fishes. As the evening was drawing to a close, and in response, I think, to a question about what “loaves” we ourselves had brought to Honduras, Lann took the floor and, instead of talking about himself, went around the room and, one by one, gave a personalized account of the gifts that he had seen displayed by each one of us individually during the course of the week, including, in my own case, seeing some things that I had failed to see in myself. That’s just one example among many.
Our meetings were remarkable to me for the insights that came from everyone at one time or another – especially considering that they emerged from a group of guys many of whom, by and large, did not know each other very well (or even at all, in some cases) before the mission project began. There was a depth of reflection that I suspect would have been very difficult to achieve had we been sitting down for an hour in Fairfax County. It was a result of the environment we were in — for nine days we were outside our “comfort zone” of daily life and immersed in a world where there was literally nothing to do, nothing to focus on, except what we had gone there to do.
I’ll close with just one more example of what I saw as the Spirit at work in our meetings. Our last meeting was during our trip back home, between flights in Houston. Bill Freeborne led the discussion, and instead of talking about that day’s reading, he simply asked each of us to answer two questions: (1) What moment during the week stood out the most for you, and (2) what’s next? What will you take away from this experience going forward? As you might expect, there were 13 different answers to the first question. The interesting, thing, though, was that those 13 different perspectives came together to produce essentially the same answer to the second question: a shared desire that our experience not be a “one and done” – that we look toward continuing the mission outreach effort, in some form or another, and in doing so encourage as many other men as possible who may not have been able to participate this time to become a part of that ongoing work.
Responding to Christ’s Call by Henry Brinton:
Today’s Scripture from Luke really jumped out at me as the Midlife Men and I were planning today’s service. Like Mary, we 13 men went to a town in the “hill country” – in our case, the hill country of Honduras.
Like Mary, we discovered that God really does look with favor on the lowliness of his servants. In the lives of our friends in Honduras, we saw that joy and peace are not always to be found in professional careers, in luxurious homes, or in well-funded bank accounts. We came to see that our Lord really does lift up the lowly, and fill the hungry with good things. Our friends in Honduras gave us so many good things, so many good gifts, even though they have no material riches to share.
But most of all, we shared the experience of Elizabeth, the one who was startled and delighted to discover that she was in the presence of Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us that when Mary came to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Elizabeth was six months pregnant, carrying the child that would grow up to be John the Baptist. When Mary approached, the presence of Jesus was sensed by John, and he kicked his mother – awakening in her the understanding that Mary was pregnant with Jesus, the Son of God.
Well, the same thing happened to us. Not that we were kicked by babies – we are, after all, Midlife Men. But we were kicked by something—maybe the Spirit of God—and we discovered that we were in the presence of Jesus Christ. The presence of Christ startled us, surprised us, delighted us, and inspired us – and as you are hearing, each man leading worship today has a story to tell about where he saw Jesus on our trip to Honduras.
What I want for each of you is the same kind of experience. I want you to be surprised. I want you to be kicked. I want you to discover that you are in the presence of Jesus.
If you are a man, join our group for the next trip to the town of La Entrada. We’re calling it Midlife Men on a Mission, Version 2.0. You can talk to Carl Waltrip about the plans. We’ve penciled in eight days beginning on Saturday, October 29, and we’ll be returning to the Rancho Vida camp to continue our work with Mauricio and Brian and the children. You’ll sense the presence of Jesus, I’m sure.
If you are a woman or a child, join a group that will be traveling to a mountaintop medical clinic in Honduras. This will be a companion trip, in association with the Midlife Men, and you can talk to Phil Beauchene about the plans. A group of about 10 will be hosted by our friend Lisa Armstrong, and work will be done to help build safe and sanitary homes for the people of the community.
If you are a member of this church who needs to stay a bit closer to home, join one of the many opportunities for mission outreach that are available right here in Fairfax. Jesus is present with us here, and he appears every day in the lives of the lowly, the hungry, the homeless and the hurting. He will appear when you least expect him, usually when you are reaching out to someone else in an act of service.
Christ is calling to each of us today. From across the globe, and around the corner. All he asks is that we respond.
Call to Respond by George Fesak:
I saw Jesus in Honduras.
I was working on the house at Rancho Vida when Henry the welder yelled for me from halfway across the soccer field.
Henry had been welding on the confidence course and I figured that there was some problem with the welder. (Henry and I had a symbiotic relationship: he broke the welder and I fixed it.) I started walking toward the confidence course, annoyed by the interruption.
About half way across the soccer field I met a beautiful girl about 6 years old. She reached out her hand and showed me a smooth, translucent piece of glass. I took the glass and told her as best I could in English that it was very pretty. She smiled.
Henry had already reached the confidence course and was gesturing for me to hurry.
I returned the piece of glass and started toward the confidence course. I was on a mission and I needed to fix the welder for Henry. The little girl followed me. I stopped and she held out the piece of glass again. Finally, it dawned on me that she wanted to give the glass to me. I took it and said, “Gracias!” She smiled a very warm and happy smile.
I resumed my trip to the confidence course and fixed the welder. By then I realized what a precious gift I had received from the little girl. I looked for her on the way back to the house. I wanted to tell her how much I appreciated her gift. I wanted to tell her about my daughter Mary. I looked for her every day after that day, but I never saw her again.
In one of our team meetings a few nights later, Henry the Pastor asked us where we had seen Jesus in Honduras. It was then that I realized I had seen Jesus in that little girl.
This experience taught me two beautiful lessons: You see Jesus when you least expect it; and, even when you are on a mission, you have to stop what you are doing to experience Jesus.
Please remember the many precious gifts God has given to you directly and through others like the little girl I met in Honduras as the Ushers collect the Offering.
Benediction by Phil Beauchene:
All of us saw Jesus that week. On Sunday we visited the Mayan ruins at Copan. Our guide was a cheerful man named Fidel, which means “faithful.” We climbed all over those ruins, and Fidel told us amazing things. When we were tired and hot, Fidel would simply smile and say, “We go up now.”
The Midlife men are committed to an ongoing journey. Whether you can come in person or in spirit on the next trip, we invite you to join us in Honduras or right here in Fairfax. And now we say to you, “Vaya con Dios.” Rejoice, we go up now … to see Jesus. Amen.