“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” Matthew 28:16-20
The final words of the risen Christ to his disciples: Commissioning them to go forth and make disciples.
Who helped you to come to faith in Jesus Christ?
In his book, What About Tomorrow?, author J. Wallace Simpson tells the true story of a Baptist minister, Dr. Gordon Torgerson, sailing across the Atlantic one summer. Torgerson noticed a man sitting in a deck chair reading the Bible. He sat down beside him and said, “Forgive my curiosity, but I’m a Baptist minister. I assume you are a Christian, and I’m interested to know how it happened.”
“Yes,” said the man, setting aside his Bible. “I’m very glad to talk about that. I’m a Filipino. I was born in a good Catholic home in the Philippines. Some years ago, I came to the United States to study law. My first night on campus, a student came to see me. He said, ‘I’ve come to welcome you to the campus and to say that if there is anything I can do to help make your stay here more pleasant, I hope you’ll call on me.’ Then he asked me where I went to church and I told him I was raised Catholic. He said, ‘Well, I can tell you where the Catholic church is, but it’s not easy to find. It’s quite a distance away. Let me make a map.’ So he made an outline of the way to the church and left.
“When I awakened Sunday morning, it was raining. I thought to myself, I’ll just not go to church today. I’ll get some more sleep.’”
“Then there was a knock on the door and when I opened it there stood that student. His raincoat was dripping wet and on one arm he had two umbrellas, and he said, ‘I thought you might have a hard time finding your church in the rain. I shall walk along with you and show you the way.’
“As we walked along in the rain under the two umbrellas I asked, ‘Where do you go to church?’
“’Oh,’ he said, ‘my church is just around the corner.’
“I said, ‘Suppose we go to your church today and we’ll go to my church next Sunday.’
“I went to his church and I’ve never been back to my own. After four years, I felt it was not the law for me, but the ministry. I went to Drew Seminary in New Jersey and was ordained a Methodist minister, and received an appointment to a Methodist church in the Philippines. My name is Valencius. I am Bishop Valencius, Bishop of the Methodist Church in the Philippines.”
This is a fascinating story of one of the most important people in the world – not the bishop, though he is important – but the man with the two umbrellas. In back of every convert to the Christian faith, in back of every church that was built, in back of every Christian enterprise and movement in history, you will find someone like that unnamed fellow with two umbrellas. An ordinary man or woman, a person who believed that the salvaging of souls was important, a person who dared to make his faith so useful, a person who dared to make her faith so attractive, that other people said, “I want the kind of faith you have!” We can turn the world upside down when we dare to live out our faith because we believe that each person is precious to God.
Will you dare to do that?
Will you dare to be the person with two umbrellas?
In this season of Easter, let us take up our Savior’s commission, and each resolve to help someone else find new life in Jesus Christ!
In Christ,
Rev. Clark Lynn Callender