"There Are Street Children Everywhere"
Preached on March 18, 2001
by
The Reverend Dr. Thomas C. Sheffield
Text: Matthew 28: 16-20
His cheeks and forehead showed the ritual carving
of his tribe, but his eyes, deep and intense, also showed a
sense of peace and a quiet desire to connect. He was from the
Sudan but at that time he was studying to be a Presbyterian
minister at the Pastoral Institute in Kenya. To do that he had
had to leave his family, his wife and his children, behind in
the Sudan. Such a separation was profoundly difficult, but that
was not the worst of it all. For in the Sudan they kill
people for many things and among those things are because you
are a Christian. Christian ministers and priests are prime
targets.
"What will you do after you graduate?" I asked him. Haltingly,
he answered me that he would go back to serve Christ, the church
and his people in the Sudan. Along with another student, we
had our picture taken together. As we finished, I heard
the words, "Hurry everyone, the vans are leaving!" We shook
hands and embraced twice, as is the custom, our cheeks lightly
brushing and said good-bye. With a wave I was gone and
he vanished from sight.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations·."That
one encounter can lead us to see that what Christ commanded
has become living reality. What Christ desired, what Christ
sought has, through Christ's power, taken place. The words
of Christ's life HAVE gone out to all the earth. Every
nation has received the words of faith and the baptism into
love.
Sometime long before I met my Sudanese friend, someone we did
not know came to the Sudan. That American missionary,
himself the product of centuries of mission work and preaching
to all the earth, began to preach and witness to the Living
Christ who is Lord and Savior. The missionary ... someone like
John Haspel who went to the Sudan and there was taken hostage
and whipped when he tried to escape · lived among the people
and also sought to live the life of Christ. People were drawn
to the human life of the missionary and then to the words of
Christ and then to the Christ who stood among them, as surely
as he stood with disciples on that Galilean hillside. The story
of this Christ was told and retold until that young man heard
and believed and gave his own life so that he could tell more
about the God of Love and the Lord of Life.
The brief time with him also clearly and indisputably
revealed the truth of our Brief Statement of Faith: In
a broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to witness
among all people to Christ as Lord and Savior. Only the Spirit
of God could have enabled him to do what he did. Only the Spirit
of God could have given the kind of courage that was needed
to do all he did. His life is a testimony, a witness itself,
to the power of Christ and to the words he spoke to his disciples.
There is always a chance, but quite honestly it is only the
slimmest of ones that we will see each other ever again.
Yet, his face and his words remain with me. And as I remember
his face and the words he spoke, they also are and always will
be a living witness to me as well.
Witnesses tell what they have seen and heard.
They report and they point to what has happened. The young man
was a witness to the power of Jesus Christ, a power that can
give strength enough to leave one's family, the importance of
which in their society we barely understand, a power gracious
enough to give comfort and peace when living far from home and
among people who never can speak your language, a power that
can give courage to return to live with suffering, torture and
death.
To be in his presence, to receive his words
of faith and courage was also a moment for me personally and
directly to receive Christ. Through him, with him I heard not
only his words, I heard the voice of Christ speaking to me.
In him I saw not only a life of devotion and commitment and
courage. I saw the Living Reality of Christ who still
is with us all, always.
Please note that what he said possessed no great theological
statements. It only simply stated the truth of his life and
the way he had chosen and been led to live. Such a witness
lifted and still lifts up the possibility that life can be lived,
life is being lived now in Christ. Hearing him also was to learn
again that what people believe and how they live and the words
they speak can touch and transform life, my life included.
It was to see and to hear that Christ's life not only can be
received, it can be lived in dangerous places. It was to confirm
the reality of Christ's love in all the world.
My meeting with the young Sudanese Christian
reveals that the need for witnessing for Christ is never done,
never completed, never finished. Already a Christian, I still
needed those words. I needed someone · I needed him · to bring
me to a new awareness of who I am in relation to Christ and
to Christ's life in me. I needed to hear and think and believe
again in the power of Christ that is in me. The words of witness,
the life that was a testimony of Christ in the world, return
again and again to me and continue to challenge and to change
me. His life of service humbles me and causes me to look
again at my service, my ministry, my life. His words of courage
and faith move me to consider how I am living my life of faith
and in what ways I must live my faith with the gifts the Spirit
still gives--- courage and confidence.
There is no end to witnessing, to living, to telling of Christ,
to serving for Christ. And there is no end to our need
also to be witnesses, to tell and to live the power of Christ,
to point to the ways we have chosen and been led, to point to
the ways we have been strengthened in life's terrible moments
by the coming of courage.
The former moderator of the General Assembly
Marj Carpenter wrote about mission in her book, To the Ends
of the Earth. In one chapter she described the work of
Presbyterian missionaries Bev and Knox Swayze in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, who are "there working from before dawn until after
dark every day with street children." But as she talked
about them she also said: "We know there are street children
everywhere." Witnessing for Christ is not a far away activity.
It is not something missionaries do. It is something Christians
all are called to do. It is what we have promised in every
baptism in this church, to tell and live to the children of
this church and this community. It is what needs to be
done with children and with men and women beyond the community
of this church. There are street children everywhere. There
are children everywhere wandering without love, without purpose,
without the essentials that make life good and grace filled
and abundant. There are women and men whom we face every
day whose hearts are breaking and whose spirits are failing.
With only a word, with a simple act and gesture of faith, we
could change their lives. We need to tell them and truly live
the life of Christ with all the children of all our streets,
everywhere.
Witnessing makes a difference to others. That
is the final point. We may think that it doesn't matter
what we say or what we don't say. We may think that people
are not paying any attention to the way we live. We may
believe that people no longer can be touched and transformed
by words and acts spoken and given in the name of Christ.
But my one encounter tells me that we would be wrong. People
still need to hear and receive the words that we have heard.
And people still can have their lives changed. It may not be
immediate. We may part from them, as we parted on that Kenyan
road, and never see them again, but the power of Christ will
remain. It will remain to work within their hearts and to recall
one day what was said and what happened to them. "For I am with
you always."
The words of the Living Christ who stands among
us are still fresh and new. They still are the commands of the
one we say is Christ and Lord. They are still the ones to hear
and obey. They still are the ones that change the whole world.
