Sermon Central
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The Church: A Place Where Nations And Cultures Are Brought Together.
Contributed by Martin Spoelstra on Feb 28, 2023 (message contributor)
Edgington Young, the first missionary to the native community of Saskatchewan had gone there with the message of the love of God the Father, and they received it like a new revelation.
When he told his message an old chief said, “When you spoke of the great Spirit just now, did I hear you say, “our Father”?”
“Yes I did,” said the missionary. “We know him as Father because he is revealed to us as Father by Jesus Christ.”
“That is very new and sweet to me,” said the chief. “We never thought of the great Spirit as Father. We heard him in the thunder; we saw him in the lightning, the Tempest and the blizzard, and we were afraid. So, when you tell us that the great Spirit is our Father, that is very beautiful to us.”
The chief paused, and then asked, “Missionary, did you say that the great Spirit is your Father?”
“I did,” said Young.
“And,” said the chief, “did you say that he is the Father of the Indians?”
“Yes,” said the missionary.
“Then,” said the old chief, “you and I are brothers.”
(William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Volume 2 [Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956], page 74-75)
The church should be a place where people of all nations and cultures are brought together and all racial and national barriers are to be broken down. The church is a place where the curious, the unconvinced, the skeptical, the used-to-believe, and the broken as well as the committed, informed, and sold-out come together around Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
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