Student Minister, Maggie Scholar, came to Rev Chance McMullin earlier in the week and said, “I think I saw Jesus on the news this morning”. She went on to say, of course not Jesus Himself, but rather I saw Jesus in someone. She said while watching a news segment on the US-Mexico border, a small business owner in one of the border towns was interviewed. His response to the unprecedented number of people in his town was, “Well I see a people in need, so I’m going to help them.”
Rev Chance McMullin followed that story with a question: Do you think we know we’re a people in need? Our lives are plagued and we need help.
He went on to say that the only way out of our need for help is when somebody helps.
And there is one place we can go to for help: Jesus.
“Why do we need Jesus?”, Rev Chance McMullin asks. “Because we need grace and guidance”, he answers.
We are a people who are lost, and the symptoms of being lost are depression, addiction, suicide, etc.
When you are lost in the woods, what are the two natural tendencies? The first is to stay in one place, be paralyzed with fear. The second is to panic and find yourself even more lost.
To those who find themselves lost, needing grace, and either paralyzed with fear or panicking in the Valley, Rev Chance McMullin says a prayer.
After praying, he addresses those who do not find themselves lost in the woods and know the grace of Jesus.
“If you are trying to be led by the grace, you are meant to be one of the people carrying the stretcher.” (Wow, what a hit to the heart!)
“You are called to carry the people in need”, he says. “You are called to live in the grace and guidance of God and carry others to it.”
Then Rev Chance gave the real heavy hitting, convicting, gut punching questions: When was the last time you brought someone to Jesus? When was the last time you were around someone who needed Jesus?
He said that we have bought into the idea that if we live a good life others will see Jesus through us and that will change their lives. “Bologna”, he says.
How do we get others to Jesus? We dig through the roof if we must.