When we were looking at this Sunday and looking at the Scripture and Vacation Bible School and something else which I will refer more to in just a moment, I wanted to pick a Scripture, in this case not the Lectionary for the day, but something I thought might sort of tie if all together particularly looking at what we have as the gift of these children.  And actually there are two short passages, one out of Matthew and one out of Mark, both related to what Jesus was saying and what Jesus was doing.  I’m going to read it in a moment; and it’s going to use a word that we will jump on because we know it as a specific disease.  But clearly in every reference in the New Testament, when this word is used it means not the specific disease but a whole host of things—skin diseases in particular—particularly those kind that in this setting holds them off, the person who has this disease, from the rest of us.  Do you know someone that’s like that or have you ever had that experience?  If you’ve had a disease, it’s disfiguring in some way or you know of someone.  And people back off when they see that.  Even a bad case of eczema they’ll do that in the right place on the face.  You sort of wonder, should I get that close?  Should I even touch them?  And then, of course, there are other things that separate us and those are our actions that become known in public, our reputation, the tradition of what we do or don’t do, our being arrested, facing other kinds of public humiliation, people begin to hold us off.  So this isn’t just the skin disease that’s spoken here.   

But let us understand that is the setting as we hear Matthew 10, Verse 7-9 where Jesus says, “As you go, preach this message, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is near.  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.  Freely you have received so freely give.’”  That’s that word—leprosy.  I want us to think more broadly, although the leprosy of today is not the same as even spoken of there as a literal disease.  There are some comparisons, but it is much more easily controlled now.  So let us think not such as skin disease, but that which separates us from other people or that we feel separated from.  Jesus says, “Go to all of them.  First preach the message but then heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.   

Then in Mark 1:39-41, Jesus was traveling to Galilee in the first verse preaching in the synagogues and driving out demons.  And a man with leprosy came to him and begged on his knees.  Jesus said to him, “If you are willing…”  The man said, “You, Jesus, can make me clean.”  Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  “I am willing,” he said, “so be clean.”    Jesus clearly says to us that we are to be the ones in his model and his way, to be willing to go out beyond where the public would go.  Where the rule would say, “Let’s ignore those kinds of people; let’s not go there.” 

What we are told in these passages as translated in Swahili is ‘Yesu Ni Bwana’.  It’s my error in putting it in the bulletin.  It doesn’t start with the letter “J”, it starts with the letter “Y”.  It means in English, “Jesus is Lord”.  Now when you say, “Jesus is Lord”, it’s an easy thing to say.  But what we’re going to talk about today is how you live that out in specific ways.  After watching the children participating in Vacation Bible School this week, I got a little statement on the Internet that said it this way:  “There are two things that children are going to be willing to share openly and freely.  One is communicable diseases and their mother’s age.”  You know that truth, “Be careful what you say”, they will repeat it usually at the wrong time and at the wrong places.  What you really saw this morning, they are like sponges.  They drink it up.  The first night they were going home and I heard one grandmother say, “I couldn’t shut them up on the way home.”  Now, she didn’t really mean she wanted to, but they just kept singing and singing.  And a little three-year-old said, “Boy that was fun.”  And that for a 3-year-old is a great expression of joy, isn’t it?  To be able to say that!  More and more I heard that from the parents and watched it on the faces of the children.  And that’s, by the way, one of the greatest blessings of the adults who work with children when they see that. 

A very touching story was by one of the leaders of one of the teams, who I guess the process, and I saw them, was each day they would cut out these paper strips that were meant to be put around the wrist and then taped on.  And they had some statement or saying.  And one of those days it said, “Pray for the team leader.”  A nine-year-old boy saw that, taped it on his wrist, and he said, “Well, let’s do that!”  And he launched into a prayer for his team leader.  A nine-year-old!  Which his team leader said, with some obvious emotion in his voice, and it was very well said, very well phrased, formed for a nine-year-old.  What a powerful witness that nine-year-old had for that adult.  The joy of planting the seed and the opportunity of hearing that good news that Jesus was Lord and saying that part of what you are called to do is to pray for one another.  And immediately when he saw that, the boy said, “Well, now is the time to pray.”  Not saying, “I’ll pray for you”, but stopping right there and praying. 

What a gift that is. And that’s what we are here for.  We are here to plant that kind of a seed of joy.  Not just in the children of the age, but children of all ages.  When I said in the prayer that we are children of God and to understand that helps us to know that is the basis for what we are to be about as Grace United Methodist Church, as Christians anywhere in any setting.  So now there are three things that children will share willingly—communicable diseases, their mother’s age, and the joy of God in their heart.  Isn’t that true?  Isn’t that what is so wonderful?  I had a little girl come up to me.  I didn’t know her name, but she just walked up and opened her arms and offered me a hug.  It’s a joy when they do that to you and for you. 

Now I’ll kind of shift a bit, but in about three weeks I’m going to be leaving, along with five other pastors, to teach a pastors school in Uganda.  Now what’s the connection between Vacation Bible School and the school in Uganda?  Very simply in two ways:  One, it’s going to take place at the Humble School.  At the Humble School, you as Grace Church in the past have helped to fund it, the building of that school, so that it might provide a place for children who have special needs which I’ll talk about in a moment.  Now our primary purpose is to go and teach pastors.  Now these are adults; they’re pastors who are serving a local church.  For the most part they have had no formal education beyond maybe sixth or seventh grade.  They are required to attend this school they have to, of course, speak English and understand sometimes what we’ll be speaking.  And that shows that level of education.  But they are coming, as John Elliot described, because John has been helping the trainers.  He went last year and taught. He said, “They are just like sponges.   They are just so eager to learn.”  These sixty some pastors will be walking, riding on bicycles, whatever way they can from many miles away to come and attend this two-week school of the great desire to learn and to grow.  And the Bishop wants to establish this foundation of education to educate them and equip them as pastors.  Continue to give them the tools so they can help to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ in their area.  With a joy, they come as children.  You see, not children of the age, but children of the heart. 

So the Humble School, what a great place for that to take place.  That we are going to be teaching pastors to come there and be a part of the Humble School in the physical setting and to be as children of God learning more in that setting.  By the way, Humble, let me give you what that stands for if you have not heard it before.  You heard the phrase earlier, Yesu Ni Bwana, Bwana means Lord, that’s in Swahili.  In the Uganda language of the local area, Mwana means “children”.  So Humble stands for “Helping Uganda Mwana by Loving Example”, Helping Uganda Children by Loving Example.  And a quote from their own web site, “Unless there is someone helping another person by loving example, we can never get rid of this epidemic of poverty.  We want to work by example then see how we can help others.”  Or another way that they describe the Humble School is it is a home for children without families, it is a school where they may be learn, it is a clinic where illnesses may be treated, it is a church where they can grow spiritually, it is a hope for a promising future! 

Now what are the illnesses?  It’s AIDS.  It’s the leprosy of our modern times.  Children in Africa are the most highly affected and women are the next by AIDS.  Most of these children that are orphaned are orphaned because their parents died of AIDS.  And therefore most of the children have contracted just through the birth process.  Here we think of it as a homosexual disease.  Most of us are getting over that mostly, but it still kind of hangs out there.  Its well, if you do something wrong, you get that disease.  These are women and children, children in particular that did nothing at all wrong.   

But the church is responding and you’ve been a part of it through Grace Church to help the Humble School to provide that kind of a setting for these children in that setting.  You see, leprosy is a taboo word, AIDS is a taboo word still in many of these countries.  There are some countries that won’t even recognize it.  But what we need to do, as they are doing at the Humble School, is to see the world as God sees the world.  Human sight will segregate and divide and separate off in prejudice and put people over in categories and corners.  God sees the world very differently because God also sees us differently. 

So there are two really important goals that I know the Humble School is doing and it is what we are trying to do at Grace Church.  Is to help people see the world as God sees it by first helping them to see themselves as God sees them or you.  Seeing yourself as a child of God is foundational to understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This was the setting of two questions that Jesus will ask when you meet Him after you die.  I don’t want to wait until then to ask a question or to challenge us with the response.  I think the question is asked of us today at this moment at this place and time.   

The first question that Jesus will ask, “What did you do with me?”  Jesus is asking that.  “Did you hear my words?  Did you let my peace and love grow in your heart?  Did you accept the way God sees you as a child of God?  What did you do with me?  And then the next question is, “And what will you do with what I have given you? 

The children at the Humble Place and the pastors that we are going to be teaching are some of the poorest in the world.  We’re talking dollars a month income, just a few, less than a thousand a year.  And inflation is rampant in Uganda.  It’s a tough place to live.  It’s a beautiful place to live.  And the people have the spirit that reminds us that where God plants peace and the seeds of God’s grace and love, it grows wonderfully.  But then it becomes a gift that we receive.  And we take it too much for granted.  Not just here at Grace Church but in Christian communities throughout the United States.  We say, “Accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior’, that’s all you need to do.”  But the truth is, Jesus will ask us and He is asking us right now, “I give you this, what are you going to do with it?”  And “this” is defined as money, your own personal identity, and the influence that we have.   The gifts and resources around us first come with the identity of who we are.  Do we live like we are children of God?  And do we influence those that we have the closest influence with?  That’s here in Franklin, Indiana!  Yes, we help Uganda.  Yes, we help The Humble Place.  That’s part of what God is telling us to do. But we can’t do that without also doing it right here.   

Influence is a gift that God has given us and the church is the most influential part of this world today.  And we don’t use that influence fully enough.  You see, when God asks a question, it’s not for God’s education.  When Jesus says, “What will you do with me and what will you do with what I have given you?” it’s not to be a rhetorical question.  It’s for us to grow in that question.  We need to recognize that the identity of who we are is first of all receiving the gift from God that we are a child of God and then returning that identity and not being afraid to go and show others that we are children of God.  And then our resources—money, abilities, the time, the talents, even our prayer—that’s part of what we are also asking us by God, “What are you going to do with what I’ve given you?”  And even more important than even our money is our influence.  The greatest weakness we have in our day to day exposure and contact with other people to show them that we are children of God and help them to have the gift of that peace in their lives.   

If the church today does not speak up about AIDS more than it is now, shame on us.  Just as we look back 200 years ago and wonder how in the world the church could ever support slavery.  In 200 years the world may look back and say, “How in the world did the church not have responded better to that crisis of not just AIDS, but poverty itself?”  Because poverty tends to lead toward the greatest influence of whether you have AIDS or not.  If the church does not speak up as the church is called to speak up, who else will?  We are to lead the world.  We must do so in that way. The Humble Place is part of the answer, but the greater answer as far as to look at the five areas, five great world issues that the church can have the greatest influence and that’s : 

1.      To recognize spiritual influence.  Not knowing why we are here.  Not knowing who God is.  Not knowing that we are created to be children of God is the basis for that spiritual message. 

2.      Egocentric leadership, self-serving leadership as opposed to Christ’s way which is servant self giving leadership. 

3.      Poverty.  Yes, Scripture does say you will have the poor with you always.  Even Jesus said that.  But that wasn’t said to ignore, it was to recognize that you will always have poverty in your midst to which I will give you things and yourself that you can be an influence and make a difference.

 4.      Disease.  I’ve gone through my typhoid inoculation, Yellow fever, malaria; I have measles and mumps and I’m going to an area where “Why are not all the children and adults there inoculated the same way?”  We could do that as the world.  The church could put the pressure in the right place in the right way and lead that to help make that possible. If we can have it here, why can’t they have it there?  It’s a matter of balancing resources. 

5.      Illiteracy/Education.  Education formally and education spiritually as the basis for that.   

So I found this model and I want to reform it and shape it to help us for today.  It will give you a plan based upon the word “peace”.  Peace and those five letters give us in a sense a model or a plan of what we are to be about individually and what we are to be about as Grace United Methodist Church.  The first letter is “p” – plan God’s love in the harvest of people.  That’s our first call.  Plan God’s love in the harvest of people.  That’s what we were talking about earlier.  That’s our identity.  That people know God’s love is in Him and that God calls them as Jesus says.  “You are my child.”  A child of God, what greater gift can you give someone than that? 

The second, the letter “e” is to equip people that once that seed is planted and it begins to grow, you equip them to grow as disciples.  It’s a life-long journey.  It’s not just saying, “I’ve accepted Jesus Christ”, but it’s growing in Jesus Christ forward.  

The third letter is “a” and, yes, it will be with us always but we are called to “assist” the poor.  Not to do it for them but to assist them.  The Heifer Project is an example helping them to grow out of poverty by giving gifts in the right way.   

“C” is the next letter and that is to “care” for the sick.  That is AIDS and many other diseases and helping with the gifts that we have.  What the United States and the western world has been given in ability to inoculate against these diseases, Jesus would say to us, “What have you done with what I have given you?  Have you addressed these issues in other areas?” 

And the last letter is “e”—educate the next generation.  That’s what the pastor school is about, that’s what Vacation Bible School is about, that’s what any opportunity this church gives to is for us to understand that we must educate this generation now and prepare to educate the next so that we will not make the mistake of the prejudice issue question about slavery and will be looked upon in the future in the same way about AIDS. 

The Humble School is in the midst of that crises and we are with them in prayer.  The pastor school will aid and be a part of that answer, but only a part.  But also remember, what we do there we must also do here.  For if Yesu Ni Bwana, if Jesus is Lord, then we better act like it, speak like it, and live like it.  Let’s join our hearts together in prayer, “First we give with our hearts.  No other place is more important to you.  For our hearts represent our spirits and our spirits are that in which we are made in the image of you is that which will last forever, it is that which you have given to us that we might return it as a gift to you.  Let us, if we allow the seed of your grace and love and joy in our hearts to grow dim out of cynicism, out of inattention or for whatever reason, be a flame anew and grow as you wish for it to grow so that we will be able to stand clearly when Jesus asks, “What will you do with me?”  We will be able to respond, “You are my Lord, the Lord of my life.”  And then, gracious God, let us see the world as you see it and know that you have given us much in so many ways. Let us not be stingy with our lives, our resources, our identity of ourselves, and the influence that we have.  But be generous as you are generous so that when you ask, “What will you do with what I have given you?” we can respond, “We’ve given you love.”  Gracious God, thank you for these children of age and of spirit.  In the name of Christ our Lord, Amen.”

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

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