In April of this year, my wife Dorry and I spent a wonderful vacation in the cities of Houston and Galveston, Texas. Now, a little over four months later, places we enjoyed strolling are deluged with the floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey. It seems that the Gulf Coast of Texas is in need of some heroes.
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| Flag of Texas over Galveston Bay |
Another place which Dorry and I once visited on a vacation -- Charlottesville, Virginia -- also has been in the news lately. We all know what happened. White
supremacists and Neo-Nazis from across the country rallied in Charlottesville
to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, others
came to protest them, and violence followed that peaked with a white
supremacist from Ohio ramming his car into a crowd of peaceful
demonstrators. Nineteen people were injured,
and a young woman died. The hate-fueled leaders of the deadly rally have vowed to return to Charlottville. It seems that Charlottesville too could use some heroes.
Whether it's the storm surge of a hurricane or the surging hatred of white nationalism, one has to wonder how strongly we, as a nation, will rally to tackle these challenges. My father once observed, "The fabric of our society is growing weaker because we have lost faith in the power of the ordinary individual to make a difference. We need to recapture the spirit of men and women of the past who believed in themselves and believed that they had something worthwhile to sacrifice for the good of their fellow-man. These people were not great charismatic leaders who stood head and shoulders above everyone else, but common folks, like you and me, who clung to the belief that one person can make an impact and, more than that, has an obligation to do so. They were unlikely heroes.
On December 1, 1955, a black seamstress named Rosa Parks was on her way home from work. She was tired and her feet hurt as she climbed onto a bus in then-segregated Montgomery, Alabama. At the next stop a white man came onto the bus. Following the common practice of the day, the bus driver told Rosa Parks that she would have to stand so that the driver could enlarge the white seating area for this white businessman to sit down. Rosa Parks later said that all she knew was that she was tired and she had had enough. She said 'No' and refused to move, never guessing that God had a preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr. around the corner at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and that her simple act of conscience would spark a major reform in the social fabric of the United States. Rosa Parks was an unlikely hero.
Strange as it may seem, God's first choice of a method for working in the world is through common, ordinary, earthy people like Rosa Parks, or you, or me. God gives us gifts of goodness, grace, mercy and peace. As we receive these gifts and use them, we discover that our consciences become captive to the word of God, and we find ourselves doing what we must do to live with our consciences. Every act -- especially in the kind of world we live in -- becomes a heroic act, whether large or small. Through people like this, the kingdoms of this earth actually have a fighting chance to become the Kingdom of God.
Perhaps this is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the common, ordinary people of Corinth who responded to the gospel and said, 'Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.' 1 Corinthians 1:26 (NIV). In other words, the Christians in Corinth were mostly a motley crew, just like that motley crew of tax collectors, fishermen and day laborers whom Jesus called to be his first disciples. But Paul said, 'God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are.' 1 Cor. 1:28. So God chose what the world looks down upon and despises and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks is important. Paul later wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians that '[w]e have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.' 2 Cor. 4:7.
We can't explain God's ways. Sometimes they make absolutely no sense to us. Sometimes God appears to be highly mistaken in the way he operates. But the evidence is that God chooses what the world considers to be weakness to shame the strong; that God chooses what the world thinks of as nonsense to shame what the world thinks is wise. God chooses simple, seemingly insignificant men and women whose consciences have become captive to God's word, and God uses them to do God's marvelous work in the world.
But -- and this is the key to the mystery -- they are able to become unlikely heroes because those whom God calls, God also equips and empowers. The important thing is not what one man or one woman can do. The important thing is what God can do through all men and women who choose to be available; who allow their lives, their minds, their consciences to be shaped by the spirit of Jesus Christ; who are willing to live out that life right where they are planted. You yourself can be an unlikely hero. All you must do is be willing to pray, 'Thy will be done in me.'"
If you would like to be a hero to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, I recommend that you donate to the incredibly effective relief efforts of UMCOR - the United Methodist Committee on Relief. One hundred percent of your donation goes to hurricane relief because the United Methodist Church picks up this agency's administrative expenses. You can donate here.
And if the events of Charlottesville have moved you to learn more about what you can do to combat racism, you will want to check out the resources gathered for the United Methodist Church's "Embrace Love" campaign. You can find those resources here.
Lord, may your will be done ... in me. Amen.
Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
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