Our church has a partnership with a church across town. We have been working with them over the last few years to help restore a blighted neighborhood in West St. Augustine. 

One of the first times I went to help out, it was not on one of the scheduled work days, but I went with one of our elders, Cliff Calvert, to do some preliminary carpentry. By that point, Cliff had been down there so often that everyone knew him.  He had already made such a reputation in the community, that cars would honk and people wave enthusiastically, as they drove by his work site… “Mr. Cliff!”  And when we went to eat lunch at the BBQ place across the road, they wouldn’t let us pay.

The need in that neighborhood is tremendous. And the actual work we do down there does make a difference. But it’s the restoration work is not the most important thing. The relationships we’re building with our neighbors speak to the larger reality of God’s Kingdom.

Over the past few days, we reflected on John 12:21, where some outsiders find the disciple Phillip and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  

There is tremendous need in the world around us right now. Even right here in our own communities, many are lonely. There are parents struggling to raise their children in an age of social media and rapidly changing norms.  Others are genuinely hurting and in need. 

I can’t think of a time when the world has needed Jesus more than right now… I can’t think of a time when the world has needed us more than right now.

“They would see Jesus.”

May they see him in you, and in me.

Let us pray: God of Hope, meet us today at the deepest point of our need. Heal us where we need healing. Comfort us where we need comfort. Challenge us where we need to be challenged. And then use us as instruments of your love and grace, that the world might see Jesus, through us. Amen.