Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee and a number of other states have been hit by very severe weather these past few weeks, with rising rivers and creeks causing severe flooding. Well, Marland just did not expect the waters of his creek to be so deep, nor the current to be so strong, but wash him down stream it did. His truck finally got snagged by some tree limbs and stopped swirling down the river. Marland climbed on top of his truck (not bad for a 74 year old!). He thought about trying to swim to the shoreline, but was talked out of it by two passing strangers, who insisted that he wait for help. Each of these two strangers tried to reach Marland but couldn't get close enough to the truck without the current almost washing them downstream.  

Both of these strangers waited on the shore, keeping Marland company while he sat on his pickup truck's roof. Help finally came by way of some boats that made a life-line, so to speak, to reach Marland and his pickup, bringing him to safety and a continuation of life that could have been snatched away that day. A seemingly small act of kindness by two strangers helped save a life. A miracle? Probably not. A work of God talked about in today's Gospel? Possibly.

A completely different kind of work that exhibits God's hand in our world occurred right here in our Guild Room about a month ago. An ecumenical group of clergy came over from Northern Ireland to visit various parishes in the United States. The main focus of their mission was to explore how to appropriately respond to and deal with lesbian and gay people in their congregations. There were 22 of these folks in this ecumenical group of both clergy and non-clergy. Represented among them were an Anglican priest, a Roman Catholic priest, a Baptist minister, a Presbyterian minister, Congregationalists, Methodists, Lutherans, UCC, a gay man who said he was a former Roman Catholic, among others.  

When the meeting was set up we had been told that two to four of the group would be coming to visit with us, while the others spread out to other churches and organizations. We were rather surprised when the entire delegation showed up at the meeting time. A smaller circle of chairs was quickly made into a rather large circle. For the next two hours we had an open and frank discussion that was quite remarkable to participate in. A number of surprising things that happened that day have stayed with me. One of those was the fact that the Anglican priest ended up not being an ally and did not participate in the discussion at all, but rather sat with his arms crossed, looking rather put out the entire time. The Baptist minister, who I first thought would be a cause for concern turned out to be the loveliest, loving and most caring man, who truly was looking for ways to be responsive to gay and lesbian couples who are part of his congregation back in Northern Ireland. 

These people were here, at St. Thomas', asking questions, being open to and actually doing God's work in the world, both here and back in their own parishes. They were, most of them at least, truly attempting to find out how better to ask questions, to be open to God in the other, to find Christ in someone different then themselves. In doing this they are performing God's work in the world today in a personal way.