Communion Message
(An accepting smile)
September 22, 2002
Pastor Leighton Sheley

In preparation for this time together I was reflecting this week on this passage found in Colossians chapter 1, which reads of Christ, For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

Because of the work of Christ on Calvary's cross, we can be presented holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. We are presented that way, but the fact of the matter is, without the work of Christ we're not very attractive to God. You see, God is a very holy God and we are very unholy people. We were once alienated from God the Scriptures say, separated from God.

We know from the Scriptures that what causes separation from God is sin, rebelliousness against him. And we're enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior. We were not only complacent against the things as God, but we resisted the things of God. And yet even while we were enemies of God, God sent forth Jesus Christ to Calvary's cross to pay the wages of our sin--to reconcile us back to him. So important for God is this relationship.

I was reading this week a story from Paul Brand/Philip Yancey. John Karmegan came to me in Vellore India as a leprosy patient in an advanced state of the disease. We could do little for him surgically since both his feet and hands had been damaged irreparably. We could, however, offer him a place to stay and employment in the New Life Center.

Because of one-sided facial paralysis John could not smile normally, when he tried, the uneven distortion of his features would draw attention to his paralysis. People often responded with a gasp or a gesture of fear so he learned not to smile. Margaret, my wife, had stitched his eyelids partly closed to protect his sight. John grew more and more paranoid about what others thought of him.

It caused terrible problems socially, perhaps in reaction to his marred appearance he expressed his anger at the world by acting the part of a troublemaker. And I remember many tense scenes in which we had to confront John with some evidence of stealing or dishonesty. He treated fellow patients cruelly and resisted all authority, even going so far as to organize hunger strikes against us.

By almost everyone's reckoning he was beyond rehabilitation. Perhaps John's very irredeemability attracted my mother to him, for she often latched on to the least desirable specimens of humanity. She took to John, spent time with him, and eventually led him to the Christian faith. He was baptized in a cement tank on the grounds of the leprosarium.

Conversion, however, did not temper John's attitude against the world. He gained some friends among fellow patients, but a lifetime of rejection and mistreatment had permanently embittered him against all non-patients. One day, almost defiantly, he asked me what would happen if he visited the local church in Vellore.

I went to the leaders of the church, described John, and assured them that despite obvious deformities he had entered a safe phase of the arrested disease and would not endanger the congregation. They agreed he could visit. Then I asked, can he take communion? Knowing that church used a common cup.

They looked at each other, thought for a moment, and agreed that he could take communion. Shortly thereafter I took John to the church which met and a plain white-washed brick building with a corrugated iron roof. It was a tense moment for him. Those of us on the outside can hardly imagine the trauma and paranoia inside a leprosy patient who attempts for the first time to enter that kind of setting.

I stood with him at the back of the church. His paralyzed face showed no reaction, but a trembling gave away his inner turmoil. I prayed silently that no church member would show the slightest hint of rejection. As we enter during the singing of the first hymn, an Indian man towards the back half turned and saw us. We must have made an odd couple--a white person next to a leprosy patient with patches of his skin in garish disarray. I held my breath, and then it happened.

The man put down his hymnal, smiled broadly and patted the chair next to him, inviting John to join him. John could not have been more startled. Haltingly he made shuffling half steps to the row and took his seat. I breathed a prayer of thanks.

That one incident proved to be a turning point of John's life. Years later, I visited Vellore and made a side trip to a factory that had been set up to employ disabled people. The manager wanted to show me a machine that produced tiny screws for typewriter parts. And as we walked through the noisy plant he shouted at me that he wanted to introduce me to his prize employee. A man who had just won the parent corporations all-India prize for the highest quality work with the fewest rejects.

As we arrived at his work station the employee turned to greet us, and I saw the unmistakable crooked face of John Karmegan. He wiped the grease off his stumpy hand and grinned with the ugliest, the loveliest, most radiant smile I have ever seen. He held out for my inspection a palm full of the small precision screws that had won him the prize.

A simple gesture of acceptance may not have seemed like much, but for John Karmegan it proved decisive. After a lifetime of being judged on his own physical image, he had finally been welcomed on the basis of another image. I had seen a replay of Christ's own reconciliation. His spirit had prompted the body on earth to adopt a new member, and at last, John knew where he belonged.

In my reading recently I came across this portion of a book written by Charles Swindoll. He writes, the neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to fellowship Christ wants to give his church. It's an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but it is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship. It is unshockable. It is democratic.

You can tell people secrets and they usually don't tell others, or even want to. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics but because God has put into the human heart the desired to know and be known, to love and be loved. And so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers.

With all my heart I believe that Christ wants his church to be a fellowship where people can come in and say honestly; I'm sunk; I'm beat; I've had it. A place with they can find acceptance.

You see it's really not for us to change people, that is the work of God's Holy Spirit. We can't change people. We can't even change ourselves. People can't change themselves. It's really only God's Holy Spirit that can change people. It's not our job to change people. It's our job to accept them, receive them, invite them, and lead them to Christ Jesus, their Savior and Lord.

May it always be that those who visit Church of the Highlands are warmly welcomed and greeted. This is a time for us to examine ourselves as the Scriptures say and I would like to invite you to join with me as we now kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

Lord as we've examined ourselves in these moments we are reminded of how unholy we are. For each and every one of us have sinned against You each and every day. Lord we don't desired to continue in sin. We don't want to carry our shame and our guilt. We thank you that You have received us and accepted us as we are. We thank you Lord that You love us so much that You don't want to leave us this way.

We thank you for the work of Your Holy Spirit in our lives, changing us, transforming us more into the image of Your Son. We knowing and we are reminded by these elements of the price that has been paid for our salvation. As we partake, Lord, we ask You to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup. Thank you Lord.