Thursday, Jan. 31--Nachugunta and goats

My apologies for this late entry. We’ve had a few busy days of late and I haven’t had a chance to post an entry on this blog.

My teaching at the seminary ended on Wednesday afternoon. Before I had left the U.S. I had prepared for a series of lectures to give to the students, but once I arrived I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough material for the time allotted to me. God is good. We finished class at 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon and I had just the right amount of material. No coincidence…only God’s providence.

Thursday morning we left in two vehicles for visits to four congregations on the islands in the Krishna River delta. Our first stop was Nachugunta. As you might recall, All Saints provided funding through the BFLC to construct a new building for worship and finish the parsonage. Both were completed in late summer, early fall of 2007. We’ve received pictures of the buildings at All Saints, but none of us had seen the actual buildings. Last January when I visited, the walls to the new space were only have way completed.

All of us were excited about going to Nachugunta. The purpose of our visit was to dedicate the facility with the congregation and pastor. It would also serve as our overnight accommodation Thursday night. (No Motel 6 here…only cots in the new sanctuary for us.) We entered the village and were all struck by its remote nature. It is accessible only by ferry. Our cars turned the corner on the “street” (which serves 99% of the time as a dirt sidewalk for cattle and people) and were greeted by the congregation and the reality of the newly constructed building. We got out of the cars and simple stood amazed. The pictures we had seen were now in 3D. After a few minutes of everyone saying, ‘Wow, look at this place…’ we had a group photo with the congregation members who were present. Most of the congregation greeted us, but some of the men were working that day out on the Bay of Bengal as fishermen.

The worship service was wonderful. Since my luggage hadn’t arrived yet, my robe and stole were not available. Zakkia, a BFLC pastor, loaned me his robe and stole for the ceremony. It was an honor to wear his vestments that day and the share worship with such wonderful people and their pastor Sudir. After some music and greetings from each person in our group to the congregation, I shared with them a message I had prepared for this event. Normally (read…never) I don’t prepare a manuscript for my sermons. I usually have an outline of key points. This time, for this event, I wrote what I said (clearly an act of God) and am able to share word for word what I shared with them. Before you read it, I would suggest you now sit on the floor on a mat just as the Christians in Nachugunta do because there are no pews or chairs in the worship space. I’ll wait while you make your way to the floor….……………………….Ok, here’s what I said,

It is our pleasure and joy to be with you today in this beautiful house of worship. Last year when I was here, the walls were only ½ completed. It is nice to return to stand in and worship with you in his space and to see the completed parsonage. Last year as well, we only had a few minutes to spend with you because we were on a tight time schedule. As we left some of you escorted our group back to our cars. One of you said to me, ‘Next time, please stay longer.’ By God’s grace I am pleased that today we can stay longer and enjoy this time together.

It is appropriate today as we from All Saints Lutheran Church gather with you to read Psalm 133,

‘How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.’

Our unity today witnesses to the gospel of Christ everywhere. As Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth,

‘To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.’

Together, from India and the U.S. are called to be God’s holy people.
The people of All Saints have prayed for you and pictures on this new building hang outside our sanctuary. Together, we praise God in unity for the blessing of today.

What does God enjoy? Unity. When his people gather in peace and unity, as Psalm 133 says, there is abundant blessing. Why does God love unity so much? Because it is the nature of God. The Holy Trinity is itself community; three persons made one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit unified and yet distinct in their roles. The Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit makes clean. But, all create, all redeem, and all make clean. Where one is, there the other two are.

So it is with us…Christ has made us one. As Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus,

‘You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.’

Christ has broken down the dividing wall between us making us friends and no longer strangers. We who are separated by language, custom, and color of skin are unified in mystical union in Christ. We share a common life in Christ with you and together we are built, as Paul says, into a beautiful dwelling place for God, more beautiful than this worship space. We dwell with you in this moment and as we return we dwell with you in prayer.

‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever! Amen.’
(Ephesians 3:20-21)

May this congregation be a place for all generations and people.”

The entire sermon was translated in Telugu to the people. The next day Pastor Sudir mentioned to me that the congregation appreciated the message. I am simply grateful to God that I had the opportunity to share it.

(pictures of Nachugunta and the congregation will follow on this blog once I return to the U.S. Right now I am unable to upload the pictures from my camera to this computer. Check back after February 10)

Following worship and lunch at Nachugunta we visited four other congregations for the remainder of the day. On our return to Nachugunta for the night, we found the one lane rural road blocked. We had passed earlier in the day a road crew putting down by hand a new layer of gravel on the road to smooth it out (believe me, it needs it badly). As we were driving, we found six large piles of rock in the middle of the road waiting to be distributed the next day. Since there are very, very, very, few cars on the island this is no problem…except for us. There was no turning back because this road was the only way to get to Nachugunta. So we all got out of the cars to investigate and ponder solutions together (as men do), some in Telugu and others of us in English. The only solution was to take the SUVs down the right side of the road along one side of the gravel piles. Mind you, there was just enough space for the vehicle. Since this is a rural road, there was no shoulder or berm. The only thing on the other side of the vehicle from the road was a deep ditch. We waited at one end of the piles while our driver tried to make his way through the piles. He got stuck on pile two.

Yikes. No we’re stuck in the middle of no where, literally. I mean, we’re somewhere on the globe, but with no street lights and villages near by at night, you pretty much feel like you’re in no where. Two options: try to dig the SUV out or let it sit until daybreak while the group walks the 8km back to Nachugunta. We try option one. One of the pastors reached the pastor at the congregation we had just visited, maybe 5 km away. The second SUV went back and picked up a man with a shovel who would help dig the stuck SUV out. Upon his arrival, he quickly dug the SUV out and smoothed a path ahead of the two vehicles so that we could pass. Someone in our group mentioned that we should pay the man for coming out to help, but Zakkia said no. He did this out of the kindness of his heart. He has recently converted to Christianity and was happy to serve our group in this way.

The classic moment for us while we waited was the arrival of the goats. We stood by watching the digging happening and next thing you know, here comes a herd of goats with its goat herder. The goats meandered through the piles, undisturbed by us. Only in India would we be stuck and a herd of goats passes us by. As the goat herder walked by us with his walking stick, the words from the Christmas story came to our heads, ‘And there were shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night…’

Thanks for reading.

Pastor Mike