I had a conversation with a woman last week that touched me deeply; partly because it reminded me of why we do justice and compassion as the church, partly because it was a testimony to our ability to touch each other and see God through simple, ordinary, small ways.
The story goes like this: a group of women (from a mostly white suburban church), took an Ethiopian refugee woman out for lunch. They were celebrating the refugee woman’s birthday, and so after enjoying lunch together, one of the church women brought out a small cake that had the African woman’s name on it. The African woman was so touched by this gesture, she started crying, and she asked the group how they were able to put her own name on a cake. The church women learned that she had never had a birthday celebration before; the refugee woman was so touched, she did not even want to eat the cake. This group of church women were encouraged to grow in their relationships with this woman, and were also motivated to think more about how they could improve and strengthen their outreach to the entire refugee community from their congregation.
This is what happens when ordinary church people, kind women who show the love of Jesus through birthday lunches and cakes, are used by our gracious God – our God who welcomes the refugee, widow, and orphan. Our God, who also uses a refugee woman to deeply impact others and reciprocally bless relationships forming across racial, cultural, and economic barriers.
Sometimes, as I work to learn how I and the church can better embody and witness this gracious God to the world, it feels like I am all alone, like it’s overwhelming. There is too much work to be done, it takes too much time, there are too many obstacles, too many people don’t get it, and there is too much profound suffering in the world to be able to make a difference. It all feels like too huge of a challenge, especially when compared to my meager attempts to call one person back, write one message, spend one hour at coffee with somene, get one more meeting with a church planned. Small steps – being available for lunch, talking to a new person at church, taking one step at a time toward learning about an issue, letting God slowly lead us each toward one more step of faithful discipleship – sometimes feel too small, or even invisible. But these small steps really do lead toward big things – like changing lives, renewing congregations, redefining communities, vocations in the world, lives full of meaning and purpose and commitment to God, ministry with the least of these where we meet Jesus, and encouraging stories about celebrating life and friendship to tell others. That is the big stuff, afterall. And big stuff is what God and the coming kindgom of shalom is all about.