I know William Willimon as an outstanding preacher as well as a professor and chaplain at Duke University. In this vignette, he gives an account of two elderly women who made a wrong turn into a sketchy part of town and proceeded to invite a most unlikely guest to their suburban church service. Verleen lived with her children in the projects and had never been to a church in her life, but she accepted the invitation of the two women, Helen and Gladys.
The next Sunday, Helen and Gladys proudly presented Verleen at the eleven o’clock service, along with her two feral-looking children. Verleen liked the service so much she said that she wanted to attend the Women’s Thursday Morning Bible Study. Helen and Gladys said they would pick her up on Thursday.
On Thursday, Verleen appeared, proudly clutching her new Bible, a gift of Helen’s circle, the first Bible Verleen had ever seen, much less owned.
I was leading the study that morning, a study on the lection for the coming Sunday, Luke 4, the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. “Have any of you ever been faced with temptation and, with Jesus’ help, resisted?” I asked the group after presenting my material. “Have any of you refused some temptation because of your Christian commitment?”
One of the women told about how, just the week before, there was some confusion in the supermarket checkout line, and before she knew it, she was standing in the supermarket parking lot with a loaf of bread that she hadn’t paid for.
“At first I thought,” she confessed, “why should I pay for it? They have enough money here as it is. But then I thought, ‘No, you are a Christian.’ So I went back in the store and paid them for that loaf of bread.”
I made some approving comment.
It was then that Verleen spoke. “A couple of years ago, I was into cocaine really big. You know what that’s like! You know how that stuff makes you crazy. Well, anyway, my boyfriend, not the one I’ve got now, the one who was the daddy of my first child, that one, well, we knocked over a gas station one night—got two hundred dollars out of it. It was as simple as taking candy from a baby. Well, my boyfriend, he says to me, ‘Let’s knock off that Seven-eleven down on the corner.’ And something in me, it says, ‘No, I’ve held up that gas station with you, but I ain’t going to hold up no convenience store.’ He beat the hell out of me, but I still said No. It felt great to say No, ‘cause that’s the only time in my life I ever said No to anything. Made me feel like I was somebody.”
Through the stunned silence I managed to mutter, “Well, er, uh, that’s resisting temptation. That’s sort of what this text is about. And now it’s time for our closing prayer.”
After I stumbled out of the church parlor and was standing out in the parking lot, helping Helen into her Plymouth, she said to me, “You know, I can’t wait to get home and get on the phone and invite people to come next Thursday! Your Bible studies used to be dull. I think I can get a good crowd for this!”
(Adapted from William H. Willimon, The Intrusive Word: Preaching to the Unbaptized (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1994)
What country do you live in, Julio?
Dear Mr Yancey,
I’m a Nigerian and after reading your book ‘Where is God when it hurt?’ in 2005, (the Red Cross edition), it took me seven years to get some of your other books. Even the ones I got (What’s so amazing about grace?, Prayer: Does it makes a difference?, The Jesus I never knew, Soul survivor and I was just wondering) were used ones. Since then, I’ve been trying to get your other books. You introduced me to C. S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, G. K. Chesterton, and other writers you mentioned in your books; getting their books here in Nigeria has been difficult. But because most of their books are now in public domain, I’ve been able to download the pdf versions on-line.
You are a great influence in my Christian journey. Hoping to see you at the feet of the Lord. Till then, keep the good work going.
Temitope
The US now sends all books internationally by airmail, which means the postage costs more than the books! So it’s very difficult to send books from here. You’re better off reading the people I quote anyway!
Philip
I have literally read moat all your books, except vanishing grace, and many of the authors you ascribe to. I need some direction . My faith has been shaken to the core. Though raised as a Christian and on his fb site listed that way, my son was not in a good place and died suddenly and in bad circumstance I cannot go into.. I am wracked with the question I have never grappled with. Does this same Jesus I have come to know and trust in , the Amazing full of grace and perfect love, , who is also the same God who does in fact say depart from me, and go to the place of gnashing of teeth ? I t has been 3 months and I cannot reconcile the two. Holding onto my Jesus, how do I know my son who was not actively walking with the Lord is with Him and even more, how does the Lord I love send mere broken failed mortals , who Born in sin,left to themselves will only sin , so if it it is not freely accounted by Jesus sacrifice to ALL men everywhere for all time then it is not by one man Jesus, the same way it was by one man Adam. I am desperate as my whole premise in faith as my 24/7 anguish as to my son’s eternal state is with me every minute and I am undone and though I know, like Job, who am I to question God, I fear I at not be able to recover without some help here. If you have any scriptural direction or further reading….
I am so sorry for you. I have family members with somewhat similar experience. One, who became an insistent atheist after a childhood in the faith, was comatose, in ICU. As I leaned down and whispered a prayer in his ear, every time a single tear would appear in his left eye and trickle down his faith–this even though he showed no reflex activity at all. I’m convinced that God sees us through the lens of our moment of greatest faith. That seems true of those Jesus contacted. Except for his hometown, which showed no faith, he responded to the smallest glimmer of those who believed in him, or wanted to. “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” My advice: read the gospels, and follow Jesus from person to person, seeing how he treats the lost, confused, and wandering. Bless you, Midge. The pain is like no other, I know. Whatever grace, mercy, and forgiveness we can muster as human beings, God exceeds beyond imagining. –Philip