Sunday, April 5, 2009

An Unexpected Apology

This morning I preached on Mark's account of Palm Sunday and how it runs counter to our expectations of a God who will act on our terms and immediately when we ask. As an example, I shared the story of Elwin Wilson, a life-long racist who beat up freedom riders during the Civil Rights era--most notably Congressman John Lewis who was then a 21 year-old seminary student. Wilson never changed from his racist ways until recently as he approached the end of his life and had a spiritual conversion and experienced the forgiveness of God. Now very ill, he is devoting the final years of his life to making amends for his past mistakes. Even his son never dreamed his racist father would change his ways, but God worked in his life. Granted it would have been nice if Wilson's heart had changed decades ago, but God's timing is not our timing. It is a powerful story and hearing it in his own words is far better than hearing my recounting of it.

Grace and Peace,

Chase.

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