Galatians 5:1, 13-25
After all that has been going on in my Presbytery, I daresay, the denomination, I needed a vacation. I took a week this past week, when we hosted my husband's three 1/2 brothers from Florida and California, whom he met for the first time 6 months ago. Their father , Roy Hampton, who died in 1996, was an artist and they found each other on the Internet through his art. This was a miracle of reconciliation that only God could have arranged. For 58 years my husband did not know he had these brothers, born after his mother and father divorced and both remarried. He was raised by a wonderful step-father who adopted him. We learned from these brothers that their father yearned to know what had happened to his first-born little boy. They had been looking for him for over 35 years. And now they are together as family, marveling at the Hampton traits they all share.
God was present in this reunion, and I was very aware of Him the whole week in simple ways. We shared Kansas City Jazz and blues, barbecue, art galleries, and gallons of coffee. Curious about my vocation, I had occasion to share the hope that lies within me to three men and a nephew who had never talked to a minister this long, let alone stay with one! We talked about Jesus with them - seekers at best, polite listeners at the very least. Our marriage witnessed God's covenant love to all of these single men. And the reunion testified that God will use anything to reconcile what is broken and lost. They set aside their lifelong tendencies to wrestle and compete, and deferred to good behavior and keeping peace and sharing their lives and hopes. We laughed and remembered and marveled.
But they taught me more than we could ever teach them about unconditional love and grace. They had no concerns really about what we believed, our politics or religion, really. Their eyes glazed over when I shared what was going on at our presbytery, and I felt foolish for the energy I had directed to the fray. It did not matter. What mattered was that what was lost had been found. And the fatted calf and broken bread we shared together were the sweetest I had ever tasted. I needed this at such a time in the life of our denomination, where quarrels and factions were the food I was consuming, and I was starving for real peace and unity. To have my heart engaged in REAL reconciliation was a balm for my soul, that has been battling the flesh. They were forthright about their lifelong battles as well, but we were bound by the grace of God - all of us. God was present and we have all been transformed. Paul sums it up for me in today's lectionary:
2By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
The Spirit blows where it will and it has blown through this family to show me what real love and commitment and connectedness feel like. They rose above their past and entered the future whole and intact, as new people. In their way, the Hampton boys understand the fruit of the Spirit even if they don't know Jesus, or Paul or polity or PUP. I thank God for His miracle of reconciliation, the wisdom to know the real thing when it comes along, and the courage to let go of everything else.
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