"I gave them my freedom (bus) pass and scribbled down the address of the church on the back of a receipt! Praying that they'd come along today." If I could have raised one eyebrow I would have. As it was, I simply smiled. It seemed risky. He had only met Araz, Dilvan and Genc* - the three Kurdish men that he spoke of, the day before. They had been housed in a local hotel while their Asylum claims were processed. My friend had made his way down to the hotel to try and make some connections. They met in the hotel café. He couldn't speak Kurdish, but had done his best with Google translate to get to know them. I thought of the bus pass. Surely, he was destined for a long conversation with his local council to try and get a new one.
It was Sunday and as we chatted, people slowly began to drift into the school hall for the church service. There was an encouraging diversity of colours and backgrounds, but my friend was eager for something more. "What do you think it will take for us to change?" I asked him what he meant. "For us to be more willing to learn from other people's cultures and for them to feel free to express themselves?" It's a question I'm increasingly asked. I don't think it comes out of a desire to be politically correct, but to be biblically faithful. A desire for their local churches to be, in embryo now, what the whole church will one day be in eternity. To journey towards many ethnic groups and cultures, saved and sanctified, worshipping the one Christ together (Revelation 7.9-10).
I had the privilege of being the visiting preacher at my friend’s church that Sunday. As I stood up to preach, the back door opened, and the three Kurdish men made their way to the back row and sat down. As I spoke, they smiled and listened intently. When I spoke to them afterwards it became clear that they hadn't understood a word. But a week later they came back - this time with their friends. They have kept coming ever since. One small act of faithfulness has opened the door for several people to begin an extraordinary journey of faith.
My friends' question was "what do you think it will take for us to change?" Wonderfully, he proved to be the answer to his own question. He chose to take one small step towards people who were different from him. He didn't change everything, he didn't upend his whole life. But he did make an intentional decision that made a difference. The decision was to flow against the tide of everyday life for an hour. To create an opportunity to speak to someone outside of his normal sphere.
As I reflected on how he'd spent that hour, I was rebuked. I’d been sceptical of the visit, and the wisdom of giving strangers a bus pass. He on the other hand, had remembered Jesus’ encouragement to put the mercy of God before human calculus (Luke 6.35). This act of generosity had served to empower the men. By giving them his bus pass, he effectively said: "I'd love you to come to church, but I want you to know that I trust you, I respect you and it's up to you." Despite my reservations, this trust and respect clearly impacted those three young men.
The tide of everyday life keeps us meeting the same kinds of people in similar ways. Some of us have days filled with people and places. Others less so. But either way, we find ourselves enmeshed in the flow of the same routines, the same spaces, and the same social events. Pausing, even for a moment, takes purposeful effort. In the case of my friend, one change, on one week, of one year, opened the door to God's grace - for him, for his three new friends and the church community.
What might it look like for us to go against the tide? To linger with a new colleague, to accept an invitation from a newcomer, to listen to the story of a stranger, to display risk taking generosity? To create new stories of change and welcome like that of Araz, Dilvan and Genc. The challenge for all of us is to take one small step, and to trust the Lord for the results. It could come to nothing, but who knows how the Lord might choose to bless it.
*These names have been changed.
HT Helena Lopez via Pexels for the picture!
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