In those bleak moments when the lost souls stood atop the cliff, wondering whether to jump, the sound of the wind and the waves was broken by a soft voice. “Why don’t you come and have a cup of tea?” the stranger would ask. And when they turned, they saw a man whose smile was often their salvation.
The Associated Press reported this week on Don Ritchie who lives across the street from Australia’s most notorious suicide spot, a rocky cliff at the entrance to Sydney Harbor called The Gap. Each morning, Don raises the shades on his front window and looks. If he sees anyone getting too close to the edge or climbing the fence, he scurries over and offers them understanding poured over a spot of tea. There’s something about this gentle man that causes many to back down and join him in his living room. He doesn’t keep count, but officials say he hasn’t saved dozens; he’s saved at least 160 people.
One woman he particularly remembers at the fence. He spotted her, her purse already beyond the fence. He invited her to his house for tea, which turned into breakfast. Eventually, her mood improved and she drove home. A couple of months later, she returned with a bottle of champagne.
I wonder what a banquet given in his honor would look like? I bet hundreds would crowd into a hotel ballroom to express their appreciation. Wouldn’t it be great to have a side seat by the wall and listen in as person after person stands to relate how this man saved them and turned them a different direction. One person near-by stands up, who looks so put together, and talks about the depression and helplessness that shadowed her that no one knew about that was broken when Don reached out. Another stands surrounded by spouse and children, the fruit of a saved life. One person testifies to a personal commitment to choose life always; one man marks that day as the beginning of a search for God made personal by Don Ritchie’s compassion. Maybe someone else would point to that day as the deciding moment when they decided to get out of a safe but numbing situation, take a risk and launch out into something exciting. Each person speaks of the difference this man made in their lives.
Today, we get a side seat to listen to another witness who tells his story, too. There’s a wonder in his words, a tender awe. Let me read these verses again from a translation that captures the heart-felt emotion of a person whose life was different because of God in his life. (Read I Timothy 1:12 – 17 from The Message )
The person who wrote these words, the apostle Paul, is a demonstration that God can make a difference in human lives. His whole life changed direction. Paul considered himself the last candidate that God would ever want to use. He lists his credentials: a “blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent (and arrogant) man.” Just a few books back, Galatians 1:13, Paul describes his former life. “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of (Jesus) and tried to destroy it.” This man was actively, violently pursuing the exact opposite of God’s will. He sought out Christians, arrested and imprisoned them. In at least one case, he voted for and took part in the killing of a Christian. Oh, he didn’t do it knowing that Jesus was Messiah and God. As he says, “I acted in ignorance and unbelief.” But, that’s no excuse.
And, yet, God still put his finger on him and entrusted to him the job of telling others the wonderful news about this Jesus. God considered him faithful. Despite all that Paul had done against God, God still loved him and entrusted him to be his representative. Paul calls this incredible mercy on God’s part, grace. So, in Paul’s own words, “the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” In an overflowing fashion Paul felt the grace of God pouring over him. This experiencing of pouring reminds of Vacation Bible School. One day during the week is water day. The kids bring their swimming suits and a towel. The Laurel Springs Fire Department very nicely brings a hose truck and they shoot the water up and it spills down on the parking lot in back like a steady rain. The kids love it. But, for Paul, it’s as if it’s God’s grace that shoots out of the hose, not up in the air to come down like rain, but a straight shot from the hose leveled at Paul, so powerful that he can not stand. It knocks him down and tumbles him over and over, in the marvelous stream of God’s merciful grace. In Paul’s words, we overhear the experience of God who makes a difference in his life.
The direction of his life changed. Paul also changed his understanding. You see, Paul had been trained as a Pharisee in the Jewish religion. Like other Pharisees, he had been taught to divide the world into two kinds of people; the righteous, such as himself, and sinners. We hear an echo of this from Jesus’ life, when the Pharisees would shake their heads and point their fingers at Jesus and say, “Look at that. This man shares table meals with sinners!”, those kind of people. The Pharisees thought they were the only ones doing it right. They thought they were the ones God truly loved. They were the righteous people. Everyone else was a sinner. They were like the man who came up to my pastor, just after he had preached on the need for repentance from sin, shook his hand warmly, leaned in and said, “Way to tell it to them.” To them? Even today, we can divide the world into sinner and non-sinner. “Way to tell to those sinners.”
When Jesus came into Paul’s life, all that changed. With blinding clarity, Paul realized he, too, was a sinner, just as much in need of God as the next person. Author and pastor Bill Hybels explains the need of each person for Jesus this way. (draw on easel) On a piece of paper, or a paper napkin in a restaurant, he’ll draw a crude ladder. He’ll say, “Picture morality as a scale drawn by this ladder. This is a scale of how good we are. God sits at the top of the ladder because He is holy – He’s perfectly moral. Evil people are at the bottom, serial killers and axe murders. Everybody else is somewhere in between. So the question is, where would you and I put a mark on the ladder to indicate what kind of a moral person we are; how good we are? Now, Mother Teresa, who spent her life caring for the poor and dying, would be up pretty high on the rungs, maybe up here. Not up at the top – only God is perfect, but up pretty high. I would put myself definitely lower.” Then, he hands over the pen and says, “Where would you put yourself?” When the person has marked a rung, he says, “Well, what’s your plan to make up the gap? Mother Teresa had a plan for her morality gap. It was the cross of Jesus Christ. I have a plan to close the gap between my level of goodness and God’s standard of perfection, Jesus Christ, who, through the cross, gave his life for me. What’s your plan? If you think you can rise to the standard of God’s holiness on a self-improvement program, you will waste the rest of your life in spin cycle. Real freedom is found when you ditch your man-made plans and choose instead to accept the work that Jesus did on the cross You can be forgiven. You can live an abundant life. Your morality gap can be closed once and for all by choosing faith in Christ.” (Just Walk Across the Room).
We all are sinners, in need of a Savior.
“And I received grace,” Paul says, “for this reason; that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who will believe.”
Commentator JND Kelley says…
Paul never got over what Jesus did for him – for him! Paul persecuted Christians. God was patient. Paul became self-righteous and smug. God was patient. Paul did the exact opposite of what God wanted. And, God was patient. Then, Jesus Christ put his finger on Paul, turned him around and gave him new life. And, Paul never got over it. He saw the difference in his own life. Before Christ, he was arrogant. After, he was humble, someone who could confess, “I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling…” (I Corinthians 2:3) Before, he persecuted Christians. After, his enemies became his friends. Before Jesus, he was rigid and judgmental. After, he became more open and loving. Before, he pursued his own course that led to death. Now, he was given life. The difference between where he was going and where God got hold of him and directed him…. He never got over the difference Jesus made in his life.
What is true for Paul can be true for us as well. What would happen if we regularly touched base with the difference God has made in our lives? To touch again the wonder that God, out of patience and grace, has come into our lives in Jesus Christ, despite what we’ve done and who we are, and made a difference. When we look back at the before and the now, we marvel anew at what God has done. Touching base with the difference keeps us humble. Wouldn’t it allow us to be more forgiving, because we remember just how forgiven we have been by God? Maybe touching base with our own experience with God would grow our own patience and enlarge our joy. It could be the nudge we need to choose to obey God, not just believe in God.
Oh, our own story may not be as dramatic as Paul’s, from persecutor to believer. But, we too, can trace the difference between what we would be like without Christ and where we are now; we can be 8 or 17 or 25 or 45 or 85. The difference Jesus makes. Over the years, I heard people say, “I’ve moved away from being self-absorbed and me focused.” Or, “I gave my marriage anther shot. Through Christ, there’s a big difference now.”
For me, Jesus has given me purpose to living when I was wandering, discontent.
We can access our personal story this outline. What type of person were you before you met Christ? On the lines below, write down several adjectives that come to mind that describe what you were like. (If you came to faith at a young age, consider how you would describe what you were like before you became consciously focused on following Christ.)
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Then, completing the sentence below, note a primary difference that Christ has made in your life. “Since inviting Christ into my life (becoming more focused on following Christ), I’ve become _______________________.” (Taken from the study guide, Just Walk Across the Room)
Touching base with the difference God has made keeps us grateful; open to the grace of God.
Paul isn’t giving his personal information just to share it. He wants Timothy, who will be getting this letter in the mail to understand something. Despite the challenges Timothy will face and his lack of experience and confidence, Paul wants him to know something: the power of God to make a difference.
So Paul tells Timothy, share the difference Jesus has made in your life with others.
We can share our story with others, too. We can tell others the difference Jesus has made in our lives – not shouting it on street corners, but in homes, Starbucks, in business, with friends and acquaintances. God is so great that sometimes he brings someone alongside us that needs to hear our particular story because that matches their life. Like a witness in a court of law, we just testify to what we know. Jesus can make a difference.
Don Ritchie, standing watch at the entrance to Sydney Harbor, knows he can make a difference. We can, too, as we share what God has done in our lives – and may God find us faithful, like Paul, in telling it.