him.
Tommy's afternoon off work was Tuesday. He got off at 1:00 P.M., and he always came straight to my office. It was a standing appointment that he set. Every Tuesday afternoon at 1:15 he would show up at my office with pictures from a trip he had made with his parents, and he would show me his pictures.
Tommy's favorite thing to do was to sit in my chair behind my desk. He would pretend that he was the minister and that I had come to see him. He loved to sit in my chair and put his feet up on my desk and show me the pictures from his latest trip. His parents were well-to-do and took him to a lot of wonderful places.
Tommy and I had been friends for some five or six years when one day I heard that Walter Underwood had been elected bishop and that the church he had been serving (St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas) was open and that I was being considered along with many others to be appointed its minister. A few weeks later, the bishop called me to tell me that some folks from St. Luke's were coming to hear me preach the very next Sunday morning, and he said, "I want you to do three things: (1) don't tell anybody they are coming; (2) don't call attention to them in any way; and (3) preach a good sermon."
Well, I went to work on that sermon and when Sunday morning arrived, I was ready. After the 8:30 service, after everybody left the sanctuary, I was cleaning up the church and straightening things to get ready for the next service and looked up and saw this distinguished group of people walking down the aisle. I thought, "That's got to be the group from St. Luke's," and it was. We spoke, introduced ourselves, and one of them said, "We liked your sermon." I was surprised because I didn't even realize they had been there. I was expecting them in the 11:00 service. At least the pressure was off. So we just stood there having a nice visit, when all of a sudden, the sanctuary door flew open, and I heard somebody loudly call my name: "JIM!"
I recognized that booming voice—my worst nightmare. It was Tommy, just back from a trip to New Orleans. I was always glad to see Tommy, but not at that moment, because I had no idea what he was going to do or say as I was trying to put my best foot forward. He ran down the aisle and hugged me. I introduced him: "Tommy, these are some friends of mine from Houston. Have you ever been to Houston?" "Oh, yes," he said, "to the Astrodome and Astroworld and the Galleria. Once I got lost there, and my parents had to get the police to find me." Then he said, "Can I come and see you Tuesday like I always do at 1:15?"
"Sure."
"Can I sit at your desk and play like I'm the minister like I always do?"
"Absolutely. And Tommy, bring your pictures from your New Orleans trip and we'll look at them together."
While all this was going on, I was praying, "O God, please, please don't let Tommy say something embarrassing." Well, God must have heard my prayer because, amazingly, Tommy said, "Jim, I'll see you Tuesday, but now I'm going to get my seat on the front row and get ready for the worship service."
The St. Luke's group and I visited a while longer, and then they left. I breathed a sigh of relief. The next day, the bishop called me and said, "Jim, you must have done a good job because they liked you." And I thought, "I'm going to go home and frame that sermon!" But was I ever in for a surprise. Some weeks later, when I was sent to St. Luke's, I discovered that it wasn't my sermon at all. That group of people who came to hear me preach said, "Jim, do you know when we decided that we wanted you to be our minister?"
"Was it my sermon?" I asked.
"No," they said. "It was when Tommy came in!"
I learned a great lesson that day, namely this: The greatest sermons don't happen in a pulpit. They happen when we love other people. They happen when we love other people for God's sake. First, the Bible teaches us to love God because he first loves us. Second, the Bible teaches us to love other people for God's sake.
Third and Finally, the Bible Teaches Us to Love Life Because It's God's Gift to Us
Life is not an endurance test. It is a gift from God to be celebrated day in and day out. The scriptures put it like this: "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24). At home we have a plaque with these words: "Today is God's gift to us; that's why we call it the Present."
Fred Craddock tells about an old red mule with which his family used to plow their garden. The mule would often get out of the fence, and it was Fred's job to find the mule and bring him home. Fred was just a young boy at the time, and he would have to go through the woods and across an old family cemetery to find the old red mule. It was scary for Fred to go through the old cemetery, and on top of that, his mother would always say, "Make sure you don't step on graves. Graves are sacred ground, and don't step on the graves." And young Fred would protest because he couldn't tell where the graves were. The cemetery ground was level, the markers were leaning over, and pine needles covered the ground. He said: "Mama, I can't tell what part is sacred." His mother answered, "Well, I know it all looks the same. But if you'll just treat it all as sacred, you'll never miss" (Fred B. Craddock, Craddock Stories [St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, 2001], 91).
What a great lesson that is! Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, if we will learn to treat it all as a sacred gift from God, then we'll never miss. We will do well in this life. This is what the Bible teaches us.
When we understand this and build our lives around these great biblical lessons, then we are rich in the things that count the most. We are rich in the scriptures.
2
Rich in Soul
The Signs of a Healthy Spirit
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:27-31
If we were to bring together a brilliant group of doctors, psychologists, and sociologists, and if we were to ask them the question, "What are the signs of a healthy brain?" they would probably list three things:
Think of that with me for just a few moments.
The first sign of a healthy brain is connectedness. A healthy brain is beautifully and amazingly connected to the rest of the body. It's the brain that signals to us how to respond in every situation. It's the brain that prompts and directs every part of the body so that we know how to live and think and move and react. The brain tells the foot where to step and where not to step. The brain tells the hand what to touch and what not to touch. The brain tells the mouth what to taste and what not to taste.
And
