Angel Unaware Pt. 4

Angels? Pt. 4
Scripture: Hebrews 13:2: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”.

June, 1992, Paducah Kentucky, Saturday afternoon, District Conference, St. James CME Church.

It was youth day, the final day of a three-day church conference. It had been almost four weeks since I left Frank on the eastbound ramp of the Western Ky. Parkway to catch a ride to Virginia. It was customary for the past few years for the youth director of the Evansville-Hopkinsville District churches to close the conference with a message at the noon service. I, was the youth director. My preparation was a little different this time than usual. In the past I probably would have looked through a stack of old sermons; fine tuned one, beefed it up a little, and delivered it with as much enthusiasm and vigor I could muster. But, meeting Frank a few weeks ago, had left a mark, a visible impression on my heart that had and would heavily influence my life and calling as a minister for many years to come. The youth choir sang several selections and then it was time to share the Word.

My friend Rev. Velma Thomas Fleming, a young Minister from Evansville Indiana, introduced me. As I stood in the pulpit I took out my harmonica and began to play a song for those in attendance accompanied by a contemporary Christian music cassette. I have been playing songs in church for almost two decades on my Harmonica, and some folk will not let me leave till I play at least one verse of Amazing Grace. After the selection I began to share with everyone a brief message about a person I had met on the highway a few weeks ago. I told them that too often we judge a book by it’s cover and you really don’t know the true substance of a person until you began to talk to the person, until you acknowledge they exist.

In the story of the Good Samaritan, many think when the Priest and Levite passed the man in trouble that that was an awful thing to do, but the real crime was not that they passed the man by, but after they saw the man’s need, they pretended that he didn’t even exist. I told everyone I picked up a total stranger a few weeks ago just lying on the side of the road late one evening waiting for a ride. I told everyone he was a white man, skinny, appeared to in his early 50’s and actually he looked more homeless than like a hitchhiker. But I picked him up and gave him a ride to my home, and the following day he went to church with me and my family. I told them that he spoke French, and his words of wisdom seemed to take on a life of their own. I told them the night before he left, I didn’t go to bed till after three o’clock in the morning, because I felt I was in the presence of someone who was truly walking by complete faith, and had an intimate relationship with his Heavenly Father.

I told them I had never heard a drifter or anyone speak about life in such simplicity. To look at his frail stature, many would have dismissed him as a vagabond, someone looking for a hand out, and yet he shared with me the only thing he had to give, his words. He gave me, words. Words that will live on in my life forever. Frank told me that as a society we raise our children to be the best they can be; the best student, the best athlete even if they’re on a team, we want them to be the best on the team. Then he said after years of raising our children in our institutions to be the best, to reach for the stars. They graduate from our high schools and our colleges thinking only of themselves, only of their self-interest, but now we want them to be part of a team in our work force, to blend in to society, to think of others and work side by side with their fellow co-workers to achieve a common good. Frank said we needed to start teaching our children early how to get along and work along side with their neighbors.

I told them that Frank told me to stop trying to understand people, and that God has called all of us to love one another, not understand one another. I told everyone that the Words of Jesus came to my mind when Frank was talking to me, “Love ye one another as I have loved you” (St. John 15: 12). That kind of love Jesus is speaking of is unconditional, without strings attached, we simply love because it’s the right thing to do, not because we expect something in return. Agape love. Frank said trying to understand one another only builds walls between churches that are different, walls between communities, walls between people of different cultures and lifestyles. Frank said he doesn’t understand himself most of the time, how could he possibly understand another person’s life story, another person’s pain, another person’s baggage. Frank said he doesn’t have that much time, but he can take time to love them, and not judge them. I told them he was a chain smoker, and had a dry sense of humor, but he never wasted his words.

I told them my life has truly been touched and enriched by the words of this total stranger. As I took my seat my friend Velma said, “did you see him?” I said, “see who?” She said, “did you see him?” Again I said, “Velma, See who?” “The Angel!”, she said. To which I replied, “Velma! What Angel!” “The one in the balcony”, she replied. I laughed under my breathe and said “Velma, What are you talking about?” and she said, “While you were talking I saw an Angel in the balcony and I said who are you, and he said “I am the Angel that was with Rev. a few weeks ago”. “And then he told me to stop looking at him and to listen to you”. I told Velma I had thought to myself he might be an Angel, or that he could have been, but, I just dismissed it because he chained smoked and who ever heard of a chain smoking Angel. duh! I began to tell Velma more about my Angel unaware and we both just marveled that God had blessed the both of us with such a wonderful experience. Me with the experience and Velma with the revelation. Wow. I wonder if I’ll ever hear from Frank again. I just wondered………..Be Blessed….Go

p.s. (next…The Letter…welllllllllllllllllllll, if Angels can chain-smoke, I guess they can write also…: )

…coming later…: )