Manna and Mercy
On a mission trip in Honduras a few years ago, we were all sitting
with some of the villagers around a fire in the evening. One
of the members of our team said, "Let's all go around and
share our favorite Bible verse."
This sort of thing can be tough for us scripturally challenged
Methodists! Someone mentioned John 3:16, somebody else said 1
Corinthians 13. A Honduran woman said, through a translator, "I
love that passage toward the end of Luke's gospel, where Jesus
says that the world is coming to an end, the moon will turn blood
red, and everything will be burned and disappear. Such a comfort."
That's her favorite Bible passage? A comfort?
A nurse, sitting next to me whispered, "I talked with that
woman in the clinic today. She has had four children, three of
whom died in infancy because of hunger."
Then it hit me. Sometimes the difference between bad news and
good news (gospel) is where you happen to be when you get the
news. What sounded like bad news to me, "This world, which
has been so good to you and your family, is ending. God is going
to destroy all of it. This isn't the world God wanted; this is
the world you built" seen through the eyes of the poor,
is good news, gospel.
R.G.Lyons, our pastor in West Birmingham at the Community Church
Without Walls, has invited Alan Storey to North Alabama to conduct
his famous, Manna and Mercy Workshop. Alan Storey is the inspiring
pastor of a multiracial church in South Africa. Manna and Mercy
is a worldwide program whereby laity are led through the entire
Bible in a study that reads scripture through the eyes of the "least
of these." A Manna and Mercy workshop is a fast-paced, life-changing
experience that you can use in your church and in your life right
now. You will not read the Bible as you read it before after
Manna and Mercy.
Join me and Alan Storey at Woodlawn United Methodist Church
on Friday night, April 11 through Sunday, April 13 for Manna
and Mercy. More details, along with registration information,
are available on the Conference Website or by contacting the
Rev. R.G. Lyons at (205) 532-0907 or e-mail at rglyons@gmail.com
Will Willimon |
