2 Authors, 3 Journeys, 1 Heart

I am in the process of reading two different books by two different authors. I am enjoying both immensely and would recommend them to any of you. But what has been standing out in my mind is the differences between these authors, not in word and content, but in background, personal histories, and their unique journeys. The first book is In The Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen. It is a short, 100 page paperback book but is packed with profound truth. Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest. His religious practice led him to take vows of celibacy and poverty. He taught at Yale and Harvard as a theologian before taking an obscure post at a home for the mentally disabled.

The second is by Mike Sares who planted and pastors Scum of the Earth Church in Denver. His book, Pure Scum, chronicles his life from his Greek Orthodox background to ministering in the Presbyterian denomination to beginning a street church that has no denominational ties and crosses into street subcultures that have little light. He is not a young man. He started seminary in his 40’s and began Scum when he was turning 50. He writes with humility and grace. We attended Scum two weeks ago and had the pleasure of meeting him. His ministry is raw but he is a much needed beacon to what he calls “the left-out and the right-brained.”

Then I add myself into the mix - the reader. I come from an independent Baptist background trained early in a Baptist university and seminary. I love these roots but I eventually found myself an outsider, no longer fitting into the mold that they had cast. After more than a decade in a Southern Baptist church, God moved me outside denominational walls. Now I find myself at 50 in Denver working at the airport trying to plant seeds of the Gospel and sow love into the lives of neighbors. This is a setting that had become as foreign to me as if I had moved to Ukraine, Bhutan, or any other distant field.

I write this only to say that God is greater than the walls and boundaries we have established, much more vast than the God we believe in, unlimited in His reach, unfettered by denominational and religious chains, free to move as He will in the hearts of men. “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:4-6) I am long past the days when I thought that only the Baptists had things figured out. So when I read the stories of a Catholic priest or a Greek Orthodox/Presbyterian/Street preacher, the heart of this Baptist/non-denom pastor/missionary is knit with them, joins with them, rejoices, applauds, weeps with them. Paul wrote that our stories “are a letter from Christ, . . . written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” That which the Spirit of God etches on our hearts can be “known and read by everybody.” Different journeys, different backgrounds but one heart. This is one of the mysteries of the Gospel.