His Name Was Earl

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday August 28, 2016, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

This is an odd story, as many stories are. Of course if all stories were "normal" there would be no point to recording or telling them. This is the story of someone I met one day at First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas named Earl. I'll let you decide if this story is worth recording and telling.

Early one Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting with my Spiritual Director. According to the Spiritual Director's International Website, Spiritual Directors are folks "who share a commitment to the art of contemplative spiritual compassionate listening." The closest certified Spiritual Director to Weatherford is the Rev. Carol Waters in Clinton.

Spiritual Directors aren’t counselors. They are fellow travelers who listen and ask good questions like a counselor, but their concern is with spiritual health and development instead of mental health. The image they use to describe their work is called The Three Chairs. This description of The Three Chairs Concept comes from their website:

In one chair a seeker sits, desiring a deeper relationship with God, a Higher Power, or Ultimate Reality. In a second chair, a spiritual director listens, inquires, and holds the space for the seeker to encounter the true Spiritual Director in the third chair.

On that Wednesday afternoon, to help me encounter God, he asked me how I had been blessed lately. I talked about my second anniversary at the church (celebrated about ten days earlier) and about other stuff, but he knew there had been so many stresses in my life that sometimes the tiny diamonds of blessings got buried under tons of dung. One comes sprinkled like pixie dust and the other comes dumped from a bucket truck. Ever feel like that? Can I get an "Amen"?

Not long after my Spiritual Director left, a man rang the church doorbell. He was a black man at the door, maybe in his late 20's but looking much older. He told me his name was Earl and he could not read or write; and he sounded like someone who could not read or write. I hate using what we from Kansas called "discouraging words," but it was true. He was dirty. His clothes were in tatters. He looked, moved and sounded like the walking-talking stereotype of an illiterate black man in deep east Texas. God forgive me for this overgeneralization, this stereotype; but then again, this might have been a part of some sort of test. More on that in a couple.

When I answered the door, he said that he was sent over to us from another church because he was looking for some bibles. While he couldn’t read, that was no problem because his mamma could. While he couldn’t read them for himself, he knew some bible stories but he had no idea what they were called or where to find them.

I said "Sure" and headed toward the chapel where there was a surplus of bibles. Georgia, the church secretary, offered to go and get some from the spares stored in the choir room instead. That was perfect. So he came into my study while she went to the choir room for the bibles. I also gave him a Gideon New Testament-Psalms-Proverbs book. He asked for three of those. No problem, there are plenty more where that came from.

He asked me to mark some things for him. No problem. He asked me to mark "that place where it says 'the Lord is my shepherd.'" No problem, the 23rd Psalm coming right up! By this time Georgia got to my office with the other bibles and she started marking them. Then he asked for that story of the guy who "Satan took everything he had but God returned it seven times. "No problem, Job coming right up!”

This is when Georgia told me she had to leave. She had an appointment. No problem, it had been in the works all week. That left us alone, Earl and me, just the two of us.

This is when Earl made a less precise request. He said that he was watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network the other day and they mentioned a scripture "where God brings two people together who have nothing in common, but it blesses them both."

I thought about it for a moment. By this time, I had begun to believe Earl was a soul God placed in my day so I could be blessed, and be a blessing too. Kind of the on the nose about what my Spiritual Director said not twenty minutes earlier.

I told Earl that I didn't know the verse they used on TBN or what they were talking about, but I wanted to share Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." I told him that as much as we were a blessing to him by giving him the bibles, he was a blessing in my life. He was the man I needed to see that day. So I marked it in the bible he handed me and that's when it got weird.

Suddenly, Earl's demeanor completely changed. He stood taller. His eyes became clear. His voice took on a power and command I did not expect. He blessed me. I mean he blessed me, not in some general “you are a blessing in my life” way, he blessed me. I don't know exactly what he said because I was so taken aback that I didn't hear everything he said. What I did hear was, "We won't see each other again for a long time, but we will see each other again," and that's where it got fuzzy again.

As he started to leave he dropped one of the small Gideon testaments, and when it hit the floor, the moment was over. The electricity in the room was gone. His old voice returned, he smiled and said "Whoops."

It's said that the vast majority of people never have a spiritual experience while in church. Well, I had mine that day. I met a man who seemed to shrug off his human facade like I’ll take off this robe after church. He blessed me and told me that we will meet again one day. He spoke with a voice of peace and authority that I haven't ever heard another human being use. Was Earl an angel? Perhaps, I think so. Biblical Greek translates the word we use for “angel” as “messenger” and I got a message.
Does that make me crazy? Well, if I’m crazy, that’s not the reason.

I was asked if I had been blessed lately and not an hour later, there’s a man who in his own way is giving me the message that “God said ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Don’t get me wrong, at that moment my life didn’t turn around. Life wasn’t a bowl of cherries. Every moment hasn’t been “happily ever after.” There is struggle, but as much as I have ever felt helpless I have never felt hopeless.

If Earl had walked into most offices, he would have been ushered out as quickly as security could get there. That’s the nature of most offices. Not so in the church, thank God. So it was my good fortune to be blessed that day to offer him a seat and because of that he blessed me.

There was nothing tangible, physical on this earth he could offer me. Nothing. He had nothing, he owned nothing. He was waiting on his mamma to bring back the car. They might have been sleeping in it for all I knew. All he wanted was the Word of God and I had plenty of the printed variety. He wanted some instruction too and so I could offer him the Word of God proclaimed. He had nothing, but he had a lot of it.

So in a way, without intending to, purely because I was living in the moment, I was doing as Jesus commanded in Luke 14:12-14. There was a man in my office who could never repay me. He had nothing to give me; and I didn’t know he had anything I wanted. I was able to have him sit at the table and feed him with the bread of life and give him the living water that satisfies hunger and thirst, the Word of God. By this I was blessed. I was blessed by an angel named Earl.

Come to think about it, maybe those were the verses the folks on TBN were talking about. “God brings two people together who have nothing in common, but it blesses them both?”

After he left, about five minutes later our Worship Leader, a man named Al, came in to pick hymns for Sunday’s worship. I asked him if he saw a black man leaving, either getting into a car or walking away on foot, because I wanted to tell him this story. He said he didn’t. I didn’t think there was any way Earl could make a “quick getaway” and was sure Al would have seen him. No, Earl was gone.

Friends, I keep asking if you have had any experiences like this. Last week’s board meeting included this story and three others from three board members. So that you know, the other six aren’t off the hook, there’s another meeting in two months.

There are so many questions of faith, but here’s one for the people of faith: How have you been blessed? How have you been blessed lately? How does your faith make a difference in your life? As Christians in a world that has a warped view of Christian values, we are like Jesus, we are being carefully watched, and when we live our lives like our faith makes a difference, the world sees. That’s when the world begins to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s time to show the world the Gospel again.

The Shepherd Calls Us All

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on April 13, 2008, the 4th Sunday in Easter.

The image at right is a chalk drawing of Jesus the Good Shepherd in the chancel of the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.


Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10



May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

In our gospel reading today, we heard the first half of what is known as the “Good Shepherd” discourse. There is no more endearing image of Jesus from scripture than the Good Shepherd. You need only look behind me for proof of this. The wonder of this image is not only that the shepherd cares for the sheep, but that the shepherd protects the sheep from predators and thieves.

Imagine if you will a large pen, a stockyard or a sale barn perhaps. In this yard are the sheep of many different shepherds. The gatekeeper recognizes the shepherd, so the gate is opened and the shepherd calls the sheep by name. Somehow, some way, the sheep know the voice of their shepherd. When the shepherd calls, the sheep come.

Saturday afternoon, I was sitting at the computer, looking over this sermon, and one of our cats came into the room. Now, cats are historically finicky. It is said you don’t own a cat, the cat owns you. But Cal is different; he knows his name and responds when called. When I call him he knows he will be petted, he will be loved. We even started a game while in seminary, while he is on the bed I can walk up to him, pat my chest, and he will come up, put his paws on my chest, and I pet him.

Now does that make him well trained or me?

I couldn’t tell you how the sheep know the shepherd’s voice, but scripture says they do. Perhaps it is something like me calling Cal by name. The shepherd develops such a loving and protecting relationship with each sheep that an intimacy develops. Or maybe it is the flock who knows their shepherd’s voice like Israel knows the voice of the Lord their God.[1]

In our Call to Worship we offered the words of the nation of Israel, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”[2] In this Psalm, the Lord is worshipped for the protection of the shepherd and how the shepherd provides for the flock.

We give thanks that we have a good shepherd in the Lord Jesus, a shepherd who protects the sheep from danger. That’s actually what I preached a year ago, the last time this gospel reading was used in worship.

But when I read all of the lectionary readings this time I became more interested in the sheep than the shepherd.

My usual sermon points to Jesus in the word and in the world. But recently I have been thinking not just about Christ but the body of Christ, the church. And while these readings from John and the Psalms wonderfully describe Jesus as the Good Shepherd, today I am drawn to who we are as the sheep and the flock.

As the sheep in the psalm, we shall fear no evil because of the work of the Good Shepherd. We are fed and watered in perfect rest and harmony, not in a terrified and anxious hurry. We have been anointed and set aside; we drink from the cup of many blessings, the cup which over flows with the goodness of the Lord.

We are so loved that we have been given a name, both as individuals and as a holy people. We are a people following the call of the good shepherd. The voices of other shepherds surround us; voices that call us away from the good shepherd and toward a life that is less; voices that tempt us to veer from a holy way of life.

The thief would come to steal and kill and destroy, but the good shepherd offers life, abundant life.

So often, this is where I would say give praise, halleluiah, glory to God. But today, as the church, as the holy people of God, as the flock of the shepherd, I want us to ask the question “what comes next?”

In Acts, we are offered the answer. The Acts of the Apostles is a unique book in the New Testament. It is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke and continues the narrative account of the early church, from the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, continuing with the spread of the gospel “to the ends of the earth.”[3] In this portrait of the church, the people devoted themselves to the Lord and the teachings of the Lord in the church.

The first of the four characteristics of the church in Acts is holding fast to the teaching of the apostles, as they teach the meaning of the kerygma, or gospel message.[4] Kerygma is one of those fancy words you can drop into conversation to impress or bore your friends, but there is a very important reason to use it. Kerygma by its very definition reminds us that the message is more important than the messenger.[5]

When I was working at the University of Arkansas, one day I was on my way to my boss’ office when I heard a campus preacher on a soapbox. This is nothing new at the UofA; in fact, there had been an article in the campus newspaper about this particular man. As I walked by, he was preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Two hours later, as I returned from my boss’ office and from lunch, he was still there in full voice. But he had gotten off of his soapbox and onto his high horse preaching hair length.

Yes, it is biblical. Paul’s discourse on hair in 1Corinthians 11 is there for a reason. But this young man had gone from the fullness of the Gospel to the narrowness of Paul Mitchell and Miss Clairol. He had gone from the message of sacrificial love and gone to cosmetology school to show what offended him and God. As the early church in Acts, we need to focus on the full teaching of the Gospel, not tiny pieces of it. We are called to focus on the one who is the message, not the one who gives it today.

The second of the four characteristics is koinonia, the fellowship which entails both spiritual communion and the sharing of possessions.[6] The people were called to be together in the community of believers.

There are many who say: “I feel just as close to God in the woods (or on the lake, or with my family, or in bed, or so on) than I ever could in church, and I was once one of them. There is something to be said for solitary time of meditation and reflection, but this alone is not how we are called to respond to the word of the Lord.

We are called to come together to hear the word of God. We are called to come together to be the community of God and it is impossible to be a community of one. I have spoken of Jewish theologian Martin Buber who said, “I cannot be an I without a thou.” In the Lord, if we do not have a relationship with others, we do not have a relationship with the people of God, nor do we have a relationship with God. We don’t even have a right relationship with ourselves. To be God’s people, we must be with God’s people as God’s people serving God’s people.


This point is also elaborated on later in this reading. The author of Acts reminds us that the people would sell their possessions and distribute the proceeds to those in need. Scripture does not say “other members of the community as they had need,” it says “distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Yes, God is alive in the church, but only when the church is alive in the world meeting the needs of all God’s creation.


The sharing of meals and celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the third element of the church’s devotion shared in Acts.[7] Today we will celebrate both beginning with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. We are called to joyfully come together and share the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the body and blood of God’s Son Jesus Christ. We celebrate this meal that we might live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose for us. [8]

Today we also celebrate Fellowship Sunday. We come together and break bread and drink from the cup of what is in the refrigerator. We will sit around the table and share stories, we will laugh, and we will share concerns with one another. We are called to share the word of God, and we are called to joyfully share the bounty of the Lord’s Table and the kitchen table together.


The last of the four characteristics of the early church is prayer, both in their homes and in the Temple.[9] We are called to share our joys and concerns for the church, the world, and one another. We are called to pray not just for those we love, but for those who would do us harm. We are called to pray not just for the weak, but also for the strong. I am called to pray for you and you for me.

Brian Kolodiejchuk, a member of the Catholic Order of the Missionaries of Charity, collected and edited the letters of Mother Teresa in a book called “Come Be My Light.”[10] In her letters, there is one thing that stood out to me as she wrote of the Sisters of Loreto, the Missionaries of Charity, and the people of India; she ended nearly every letter begging the recipient, “Please pray for me.” The Saint of Calcutta knew the prayers she needed from the people and from the church. In this, we should remember that if Mother Teresa needed prayer, all of us need prayer.

Let me say to you, in the words of Mother Teresa, “Please pray for me.”

We talk about the Good Shepherd, but we also need to talk about our role as the flock; the body of Christ bringing in the Kingdom of God; the kingdom begun before the creation, marked by the crucifixion and resurrection, continuing today. The shepherd calls us all, all of the sheep in the pen. The shepherd calls us to be the flock and follow him, Jesus the Christ, into the assembly and into the world.

We are called together to share the good gifts of God with one another and with the world. We are called to do this as joyful response to the gift of salvation given freely by the grace of God.

We are called to be like the church of Acts spending much time together; breaking bread and eating with glad and generous hearts praising God; having the goodwill of all the people; through kerygma, koinonia, breaking bread and prayer. And by these things, through God’s grace and peace, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

We are called to be the church, the body of Christ in the world today as the church was called to be two thousand years ago.

[1] New Interpreter’s Bible, volume IX, page 667.
[2] This rendering of the 23rd Psalm comes from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship. As this Psalm was from today’s lectionary, we used it as our Call to Worship.
[3] Introduction to “The Acts of the Apostles” from the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, electronic edition
[4] Ibid, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[5] “Kerygma”, BDAB Lexicon, Electronic Edition
[6] Ibid, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid, Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, Communion Setting E
[9] Ibid, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, text note for Acts 2:42-47
[10] “Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light, The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta”, Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, editor. New York: Doubleday, 2007.