Forthright Magazine
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Straight to the Cross

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COLUMN: Final Phase

What It's All About
J. Randal Matheny

As I sat in the small living room last night, an
hour away from home and comfort, after a long day
of activities, I was alert, awake, and content.

Jorge was preaching an articulate message on
Jesus' words in Luke 5:31-32: "It is not those who
are well who need a physician, but those who are
sick. I have not come to call the righteous but
sinners to repentance" (NASB).

We all are sick, he tells us, and needing the
doctor's attentions. None is righteous of himself,
but our cure is found in changing mind and life.
And the doctor's mission is seen in the place
where he speaks: Levi's house. A banquet. Bad
sinners and worse sinners gather around the table
with Jesus, where he is anxious to offer his
remedy.

The congregation paid close attention to the 30-
minute sermon, as the wind died down outside and
the room temperature rose from the twelve warm
bodies occupying its space.

We had sung together, eaten the Supper together,
made an offering together, prayed together. We
sensed our togetherness resulted from God's
presence in our midst.

After Jorge's message, a final moment of
exhortation opens, when any Christian man is free
to speak a word of encouragement. Sr. Benedito,
72, pipes up and, in words more eloquent than I
have ever heard from this retired manual laborer,
urges us to consider that the time is now to act
and that we cannot rest or resign ourselves to
passivity.

At the end, our concerns surfaced as we shared our
prayer requests: Fatima's mother and sister; our
son's appendectomy; potential problems for the
church in India, to whom an offering is being sent
for disaster aid.

Afterwards, refreshments from Fatima's kitchen.
Tonight, a cake and soft drinks. (It never hurts
that the hostess is a caterer.) Served with
laughter, light banter, insistences to eat more,
stay longer.

We left this new house church certain that we had
shared in true worship, with people reconciled
together under the Cross, as the family of God.

This is what it's all about. Though small, a place
for everyone.

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