Pasadena Presbyterian Church Sermon Text
February 9, 2003

"The Personal Touch"
Preached by The Rev. Dr. Marian McClure

Dr. Marian McClure is Director, Worldwide Ministries Division, 
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 

Scripture:  Colossians 4:7-18;  John 20:19-22

(7) Tychicus will tell you all the news about me; he is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. (8) I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts; (9) he is coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here. (10) Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions-if he comes to you, welcome him. (11) And Jesus who is called Justus greets you. These are the only ones of the circumcision among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. (12) Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that God wills. (13) For I testify for him that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. (14) Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. (15) Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. (16) And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea. (17) And say to Archippus, 'See that you complete the task that you have received in the Lord.' (18) I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

-- Colossians 4: 7-18

(19) When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' (20) After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. (21) Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' (22) When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.

-- John 20: 19-22

A mission co-worker from the PCUSA, Sylvia Wilson, wrote her supporting churches from Kenya describing the effects of three years of drought there. She ended by saying, "We can't make it rain, but we can make a difference!"

Do you believe that, that we can make a difference? It's a big question for everyone who is aware of the big social and geopolitical challenges such as poverty; globalization, war, terrorism, displaced people, Palestine, drug abuse, and AIDS.

Most everyone wants to make a difference. But what is the distinctive difference that the Christian church can make?  What is distinctive about the difference we can make is the kind of community that we are and the relationships we have, as the people of God as part of the universal church.  The church is a community that is sent, sent into the world for the sake of God's reign.

This is the meaning of the texts we read this morning.  In Colossians, as at the end of most of the epistles, we hear the names and concerns of people who were sent by congregations to be the cross-cultural missionaries and new church development specialists of the Jesus Movement nearly 2,000 years ago.  In John, we hear Jesus telling all disciples "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" - an awe-inspiring analogy indeed!

Now here is a basic truth. We cannot be a community without relationships. There is no community without relationships. And relationships are formed and maintained by people.  In most of the world, a relationship does not consist of an occasional email and a promise to do lunch. The relationships that bind together the Body of Christ are formed by sharing each others' life conditions and homes, learning each other's language and perspective and ways of worshiping and knowing God daily.  Out of these relationships come the inspiration and the means to make a distinctive difference in God's way.

So, at the heart of the answer to the distinctive difference of the Church you will find the mission workers who are sent to and from the churches.  The missionaries are the very circulatory system of the Body of Christ!

Take Jackie Bartz for instance, sent by the PCUSA to teach at a college in Lithuania.  Jackie is such an open and honest person.  She went through a family tragedy a couple of years ago when a relative committed suicide, and she wasn't able to leave her work in Lithuania to go be with her family. 

So one day she shared with her students and colleagues the emotional and spiritual struggle she'd had over this family tragedy, and how she'd been able to return to her sense of God's goodness and care.  It turns out that there is so much despair in Lithuania among the youth and young adults, that suicide is rampant. A few weeks later, one of the college freshman named Denis committed suicide, and within a month of his death the graveyard had 20 more such graves in it from suicides in the larger community, including Denis' 17-year-old brother.  Geopolitics and economics have something to do with the despair in Lithuania.  But the relationship-building presence of a Presbyterian mission worker lets us know about it, care and pray about it, and do something about it. Because Jackie had shared her grief first, many students sought her out about Denis' death, including many students who are not Christians.

Or take Chris Doyle, serving for the PCUSA in the Middle East.  Chris's wife, Hala, is a Palestinian Christian born in Bethlehem.  Apart from the very dramatic snippets of newsreel footage we get on TV, how many of us really have a feel for what it is like to be Palestinian? Chris is getting a real taste of it. One example was when he and Hala and their little boys tried to board a Swiss Air flight from the U.S. to Tel Aviv.  Since Hala's passport shows her birthplace as Bethlehem, they could not let her board without paying an $11,000 fine to the Israeli government. The Swiss Air agents cried as they watch those little boys have to board without their mom. 

When all were reunited in their West Bank home, they saw Hala's niece. She is a university-educated book-keeper who used to make $500 per month, but now with 65% unemployment in the West Bank, she is lucky she's earning $170 a month.  Trauma, decline, fear and anger are all around.

Many people ask Chris and Hala why they return. They explain, "This is obviously what God wants." Geopolitics, history, many big factors are afoot here.  But what difference might it make in Jordan and Palestine and Egypt for an American and Palestinian couple to choose to be in ministry there and share so deeply in the conditions of life?  What witness? What new possibilities? What new voice for us to hear?

And then there is Janet Guyer.  Janet makes me feel small when I stand beside her, and I'm not used to that!  But she has a sweet and wistful smile and manner that belie the very significant expertise she brings to the service of the church.

The daughter of mission co-workers, Janet grew up in Thailand.  She is at home there linguistically and culturally, and returned to Thailand as an adult under PCUSA appointment to work in an AIDS ministry.

The sexual exploitation of the Thai people is well known now. Janet saw so many human tragedies every day, as children used in the sex tourism trade came for help with symptoms of HIV/AIDS. She helped our mission partners in Thailand get this AIDS ministry up and running.

And then a surprise happened.  She came to the States to help our offices gear up to do more work in the area of AIDS in Africa.  The churches in Africa are key to holding civil society together during this epidemic, to breaking the silence about AIDS and how to avoid it, and to caring for the orphans and other victims. 

Janet sensed a call from God to apply for one of the new missionary positions for coordination of our involvement with the church work on AIDS.  So, with the blessings of both the Christian Church in Thailand and a new PCUSA appointment, she moved to South Africa. 

At the chapel service in Louisville to say farewell to her, she turned to me and whispered, the way they're talking it sounds like I'm dying. I whispered back, "well, you are dying - to self!"  It takes someone like Janet to face such a challenge. 

What a privilege that we can all be part of making that difference thanks to the relationships forged by Janet, and Debbie Chase, and Caryl Weinberg and Frank and Nancy Dimmock and so many other PCUSA mission co-workers in the health field in Africa.

Then let's talk about Kim and John Strong, serving in China. They work for the China Christian Council and come out of the congregation I attend on Sundays in Louisville.

Kim and John chose to have their first child in a regular Chinese hospital in Nanjing.  It is so rare for a Westerner to use the Chinese health system for a birth that they were written up in the newspapers.  John couldn't do his grocery shopping without being shown a picture of himself in the newspaper!

What difference does it make that we as Christian Americans so visibly and strongly show this level of commitment to sharing in the lives of the Chinese?  What corrective balance does that supply for our official American postures? That Kim and John and their baby Benjamin are so much a part of the lives of the leaders of the China Christian Council does great things for our already long-standing connectedness in China and ability to serve alongside Chinese people as a denomination.

I should mention that we also bring people in mission to the United States, sometimes in collaboration with a presbytery that wants a gifted mission worker to help develop a new congregation.  I think of Jairton Barro de Mello, a Brazilian Presbyterian. A PCUSA partner denomination in Brazil hand-picked him to answer the call to do new church development in Los Angeles.  They trained him to be a missionary to the US and continue to give him good care as he serves here. He comes to nearly every global mission event our denomination sponsors, beaming with his pleasure at being able to serve here and watch his congregation grow.

Just as we sometimes receive missionaries, we also sometimes send them from one country other than the United States to another.  You'll be interested to hear about Flor. I won't mention her last name, for reasons you'll understand in a minute.

Some years ago, when the decision was made not to continue our presence in northern Iraq, a study was done of where Kurdish peoples are living. Surprisingly, it turned out that more than 40,000 Kurdish persons were living in the Berlin area, in Germany. We sent a co-worker, Christine Goodman Callison, to work with a German partner in ministry to these persons.

Along the way, Christine became aware of the need for a fellow laborer who could speak fluent Kurdish and know the culture more deeply. At the same time, we learned of a woman in Iran, Flor, who was unemployable there and even in danger, for several reasons.  She had worked for the Bible Society that had been closed down. She had come to her Christian witness from a Muslim background. And she was Kurdish.  Flor would make an excellent companion in ministry in Germany.

It was a great adventure in the Spirit, to raise the $40,000 year's income up front that the German government was demanding for Flor to get a visa. Amazing things happened as funds materialized from congregations and even a foundation.  And now the ministry in Berlin continues to flourish in a new way and to make a difference because we are able to sustain so many relationships across so many borders internationally and so many parts of our own church.

I could go on and on. There are more than 300 PCUSA mission co-workers and many scores of others serving in other categories of volunteer service.  Every one of them communicates with many congregations in the US.  Every one of them has their own life changed in a way that in turn changes who we are as Presbyterians. Every one of them helps you and me be meaningfully involved in what God is trying to do in this world.

You know this already. After all, this congregation and this area have a strong history of participation in mission beyond the local community.

Thank you for all you already do to support these people.  These mission workers need to know you care about them.  You may be surprised and dismayed to learn that we don't have enough presbyteries and congregations asking us to send them mission workers who are on home assignment.

Hearing from these folks is good for you, your mission committee, your Sunday School class, and your youth and children who might begin considering a call into church service and mission.  But it is also a service you can provide to the people who serve in your name.  They need to tell their stories. They need you to listen. They need to know you welcome them and care about what they are doing.  They want to know you're praying for them and reading the letters they send out through our offices. They even like an occasional email saying "Thinking about you!"

Host them. Arrange for a pot luck dinner, or if you've got some time and some people skills, volunteer to arrange a whole week for a mission worker to spend in this presbytery visiting various congregations or groups.

Another way to support them is with funds. The funding that sustains this crucial part of the mission work of our denomination needs to be strengthened.  We will soon begin a special funds development effort.  You can help by praying for this effort, by sharing with me the names of individuals who might be interested in making a large gift for this effort, and by thinking about whether you and your congregation could give more.  I am convinced that mission workers are the very circulatory system of the Body of Christ and that the PCUSA, and indeed the universal church, will be deprived of the very oxygen we need to be faithful if we allow the mission sending and receiving work to decline. On the contrary, it should be growing.

"We cannot make it rain, but we can make a difference." The scriptures say that we can plant and we can water, but God gives the increase, God makes our efforts flourish. Thank you for joining in the work of planting and watering, and praying for God to give the increase! Jesus said to the disciples that they were sent into the world in the same way that Jesus was sent. That is a message to us as a church. Thank you for being the community of the sent.

Gracious God, Thank you for bringing your community, the church, into being.  Thank you for those among us who are willing to send and those willing to be sent in mission, for the sake of your mission in the world.  Help us to be your body, a community sent in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

(c) Copyright 2003 by Marian R. McClure.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution.