After some difficult meetings in a church where I was a pastor, I sought some wisdom and consolation from a wonderful mentor. This man had pastored a large church for many years, planted a church (where my wife had attended 10 years before), and in his retirement he served as an interim pastor at several places. He also took time in his retirement to encourage several younger pastors. As I complained and wondered out loud how he had managed to love this same congregation for a year when he was their interim. He remained his wonderful cheery self and simply encouraged me to keep being the shepherd God had called me to be regardless of how the people acted. I told him there were moments when I felt like one of the “sons of thunder” when dealing with some particularly contentious congregants. After the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus, James and John asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”(Luke 9:54 NIV) Jesus of course rebuked them, took them to another village, and reminded them that they were to save the lost, not annihilate them. I asked him to pray for me as I was about to meet with the chairman of one of the committees. He said he would pray for me. But as he was leaving, in his fun lighthearted way, recited an old Irish blessing. He said, "May those that love us love us; And those that don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He can't turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles, So we'll know them By their limp." We both chuckled a little at the pastoral humor, until a little later that day when I got a call from the wife of this contentious committee chairman saying that we needed to cancel our meeting because he was in the hospital. I said, “I am sorry, what happened?” She said, “he fell off a ladder and broke his ankle.” I was in shock, but found out where he was in the hospital and went to pray with him. Even though we were often at odds with each other, I don’t want to see anyone get hurt like that. Interestingly though, he was much kinder to everyone, including me, after this incident. BTW: I never shared with this man about the Irish blessing that was spoken right around the time the incident happened.
Eventually, the apostles James and John got it. They matured enough in their walk with Jesus to no longer want to destroy those who disagreed with them. They embraced Jesus’ mission to seek and to save the lost. James became one of the first martyrs for the Gospel at the hands of Herod. John went on to write about Jesus and the importance of loving God and others in all five of His books in the Bible: the Gospel of John; 1,2,3 John; and Revelation. Jesus reminded his disciples and all of us. “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”(Luke 6:27-28NIV) I’m not sure if this includes praying an Irish blessing over them, but it does mean we have to love them all like Jesus does.
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all.