The Real Deal

The Real Deal

This past Sunday, Beth and I visited Bomalang’ombe Lutheran Church which is located in a mountainous region about 50 miles from Iringa. It was my first “real” driving experience here both in the mountains and on the real rural roads. The “real rural” roads are dirt, a slim two lanes and are what we call in the Midwest, “washboard”. The ride took about two hours. The ELCT Diocese Dean of Spirituality, Pastor Gaville and his wife, Pamela escorted us (If we would have tried to find the church alone, we’d still be out there driving around). We arrived at 9:45 AM for the 10:00 worship to a genuine welcome by a dozen of the faithful who “sang” us up to the church. As is usual, Pastor Jane Chusi, who has served the Church for 20 years as an Evangelist and ordained pastor, invited us into her home for the pre-worship tea and bread. At 10:30 we all marched into the church. I have never felt more surrounded by grace than on our march down the aisle to the altar. The church was full of people, but even more than that, full of joyful voices raising the roof to the glory of God. It was a spectacular moment. We made our way through the service. At least 4 choirs sang, each a different age, each beautiful. It came time for my sermon, and Pastor Gaville joined me at the pulpit to translate to Swahili. I had chosen Luke 10, the story of the Good Samaritan. As I began to work through the sermon, pausing occasionally for the Holy Spirit to do what She does, the reality of the Word hit me squarely in the heart. I used a number of Good Samaritan real life stories we had experienced while in Tanzania to illustrate the sermon. Illustrations like, the trucker that had apparently lost his brakes and intentionally hit a tree along the road on a mountain pass, instead of going off the edge of a cliff and our bus driver who immediately stopped the bus and ran to help; he was the Good Samaritan! Or the person we had visited, who had a small house, with two children of her own to support; who also invited her niece who had no where to live into her home, then invited a friend’s daughter, husband and new baby in also, to share a place so small, you could hardly turn around in it; she is the Good Samaritan. Then it occurred to me, that nearly everyone we’d met here has invited friends or relatives into their homes out of the goodness of their hearts. If someone was in need, they responded with love. Almost every home has more than just their family living there. It was one of those; “Aha! Moments”. Here I was preaching a gospel message to people who were living it everyday. They were the “real deal”. These are people who had taken Jesus’ message personally, and who had stopped to help the ones waiting for love by the side of the road. There are so many waiting for help here, it’s almost overwhelming. With little or nothing so many of God’s people I met willingly show mercy and like the story of the “Widow’s Mite”, they offer all they have to give. The faithful at Bomalang’ombe must have thought it odd for me to be using such an obvious example of Christ’s love to follow. Yet they welcomed the Word that morning with the same grace with which they were living their lives. I’m glad somebody heard that old story in a new way, and I’m thankful it was me. God does work in mysterious ways.