Humbled For Love
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV, Cycle B
Object:
Humbled For Love
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. (vv. 5-7)
In Brooklyn, New York, maverick pastor Bill Wilson runs a madcap, no-holds-barred Sunday school -- the largest in the world with over 20,000 children twelve years old and under. It's church-meets-game show as "Pastor Bill" mixes stunts, sketches, games, and prizes with hard-hitting anti-drug and crime lessons. Each week, Bill's Metro Ministries organization buses in hundreds of children to his Yogi Bear Sunday School. Visiting is key to the continuing success and growth of the program. Every child receives a personal home visit from one of the 150 full-time staff and 400 trained volunteers each week.
Reverend Bill Wilson is an unlikely savior with a voice like a chainsaw and a haircut from a bad '70s cop show. Abandoned by his mother on a street corner at the age of thirteen, Bill has dedicated his life to the kids of New York's toughest ghettos. Believing that only God can save young people living below the poverty line from the effects of drugs and crime, he says "I will do anything morally and ethically correct to get a kid under the sound of the gospel one time."
Working and living in the violent ghetto has taken its toll. Bill has been stabbed twice and shot by armed gangsters as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church.
In his sermon, "The Roads He Walked -- Palm Avenue," Mark Adams told of a Puerto Rican woman who came to the faith through Bill Wilson's church. After she became a Christian, she went to Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church's ministry." He asked her what her talents were, and she couldn't think of anything -- she couldn't even speak English.
However, she did love children, so Wilson put her on one of the church's buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn't speak. He came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the woman's lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday school and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I -- I -- I love you, too!" Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash.
"I love you and Jesus loves you." Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life -- from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman humbly became a servant of love. And because of her, a little boy who never heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.
Paul says that Jesus became a slave -- an indentured servant of love. He became human so we could see love in a tangible way. He humbled himself to serve us in love. In humility, Bill Wilson serves Christ. In humility, the Puerto Rican woman serves Christ. Let us humble ourselves in service so that we may be in the same mind in Christ Jesus.
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Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. (vv. 5-7)
In Brooklyn, New York, maverick pastor Bill Wilson runs a madcap, no-holds-barred Sunday school -- the largest in the world with over 20,000 children twelve years old and under. It's church-meets-game show as "Pastor Bill" mixes stunts, sketches, games, and prizes with hard-hitting anti-drug and crime lessons. Each week, Bill's Metro Ministries organization buses in hundreds of children to his Yogi Bear Sunday School. Visiting is key to the continuing success and growth of the program. Every child receives a personal home visit from one of the 150 full-time staff and 400 trained volunteers each week.
Reverend Bill Wilson is an unlikely savior with a voice like a chainsaw and a haircut from a bad '70s cop show. Abandoned by his mother on a street corner at the age of thirteen, Bill has dedicated his life to the kids of New York's toughest ghettos. Believing that only God can save young people living below the poverty line from the effects of drugs and crime, he says "I will do anything morally and ethically correct to get a kid under the sound of the gospel one time."
Working and living in the violent ghetto has taken its toll. Bill has been stabbed twice and shot by armed gangsters as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church.
In his sermon, "The Roads He Walked -- Palm Avenue," Mark Adams told of a Puerto Rican woman who came to the faith through Bill Wilson's church. After she became a Christian, she went to Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church's ministry." He asked her what her talents were, and she couldn't think of anything -- she couldn't even speak English.
However, she did love children, so Wilson put her on one of the church's buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."
After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn't speak. He came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the woman's lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday school and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."
One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I -- I -- I love you, too!" Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash.
"I love you and Jesus loves you." Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life -- from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman humbly became a servant of love. And because of her, a little boy who never heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.
Paul says that Jesus became a slave -- an indentured servant of love. He became human so we could see love in a tangible way. He humbled himself to serve us in love. In humility, Bill Wilson serves Christ. In humility, the Puerto Rican woman serves Christ. Let us humble ourselves in service so that we may be in the same mind in Christ Jesus.
