“My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious Christ – originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?” (The Message)
Everybody in First Church knew that this was the Sunday their new pastor was to arrive, but nobody knew exactly when he would turn up. The new pastor was moving from a far away city, and he had told the congregation that he would provide his own transportation. (This is pre – COVID – 19.) The pastor of a neighboring church was handling the service that morning. The big congregation had already begun singing the first hymn when there was a commotion at the back of the church. Some homeless guy nobody had ever seen before had quietly slipped in and was looking around for a seat. Unfortunately, all the seats in the back were taken, and so the usher was in a quandry: should he give this man a seat in the front where everybody could see him, or should he simply ask him to leave?
The homeless guy had an old over coat with torn pockets and running shoes with one sole flapping. He was wearing a dirty ball cap and he looked like he needed a shave. There seemed to be some kind of bottle in a brown paper bag sticking out of the man’s coat pocket. But the man appeared to be clean and so the usher brought him forward to a place on the second row next to the center aisle. There were some raised eyebrows and a few of the deacons were heard muttering to themselves. But a lady sitting next to the homeless man handed him a hymnal and a bulletin and gave him a pat on the shoulder and a big smile. The homeless man continued to behave himself properly and listened to the sermon with rapt attention. The pastor conducting the service appeared totally unworried about this new addition to the congregation.
Finally, at the close of the sermon, the preacher stopped and announced, “As you all know, today is the Sunday for your new pastor, Buck Smith, to arrive. What you might not know is that Buck and I roomed together in seminary and have been close friends ever since. So now it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you, Buck Smith, your new pastor.” Heads were swiveling as people scanned the large crowd, but nobody saw anyone who looked like a pastor. And that’s when the preacher said, “Buck, you’ve fooled these people long enough! Come up here and let them get a really good look at you.”
There were gasps throughout the congregation as the homeless man shucked off his ragged old coat, removed the dirty ball cap, and ran his fingers through his hair before joining the preacher on the platform. “Good morning, everyone,” Pastor Smith said. “I apologize for joining you in this informal fashion. But I wanted to see what kind of Christians you really were. Congratulations! You just passed a major test! I chose to leave my previous congregation because they worshiped money more than they worshiped God. Had you turned me away this morning, I was prepared to write refusing to accept the position and to look for a position somewhere else.”
Yesterday I mentioned the horrific assault on a homeless man in Champaign, Illinois. By all accounts, this man had many talents and could have found a place for himself without living on the street; however, he chose to stay on the street to minister to other homeless people and to point them to God. There are many kinds of ministry and this man chose a very demanding one, a ministry that led directly to his untimely death.
There are many reasons that someone might wind up on the street. Companies merge and jobs disappear, mortgages fall due and there is no money to keep up, vehicles break down and their owners have no means to repair them. In the last few months, many businesses that were flourishing a year ago have been forced to close, leaving their owners in dire financial straits.
There is a saying that the ground is level at the foot of the cross of Calvary. None of us, whether rich or poor, is good enough to earn our way into heaven. Our financial status means nothing to God; only the condition of our hearts matters. As this fictional congregation learned that Sunday morning, appearances can be deceiving. The homeless man who was the object of scorn turned out to be their new spiritual leader in disguise.
Today, we must search our hearts. Are we allowing ourselves to be impressed with someone’s educational qualifications or their profession or their money, rather than simply treating them as a child of God? Are we giving special preference to those we know can donate big money to our churches? God forbid! The test of our love as Christians is not to love those who are easy to love but to love equally, without preference.
PRAYER: Father God, help us to love as you love. Help us not to treat people according to their financial status but to see them as your beloved children who need you more than anything or anybody else. Please, Lord, change our hearts so that our hearts break with the things that break your Heart. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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