Dr. Rodney Plunket

Last Sunday I focused on some of the events that have generated fear around the world.  Unfortunately, new fear-inducing event took place in our nation on Friday and Saturday.  Eight pipe bombs were placed in rural mailboxes in northwestern Illinois and northeastern Iowa.  Six of them detonated injuring four postal workers and two elderly women.  Yesterday five pipe bombs were placed in mailboxes in Nebraska.  Fortunately none of the Nebraska bombs exploded.  But a new fear has entered.  The fear of doing something simple and taken for granted ––opening your mailbox.

And the other fear inducing conflicts and wars have not ended.  More deaths occurred this week in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and the efforts to find and capture terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan continue unabated.

American crime fighting personnel are on the hunt for the pipe bomber operating in America’s Midwest.  America’s military operatives are seeking out terrorists.  Our President, the Secretary of State, and our diplomats are working overtime to try and forge a lasting peace in the Middle East.  And all of these efforts are to be applauded and supported.  But, as I said last Sunday, real peace will only come when the gospel of peace changes people’s hearts and minds.  Police, soldiers, and diplomats can stop the symptoms; but the underlying causes of terror, conflict, and war can only be addressed by the Holy Spirit of God whom God gives to people through the gospel of peace.

This morning we come to celebrate missions, especially the mission efforts of this congregation.  I went through some of Broadway’s archives the other day and found that Broadway has supported mission work in Denmark and Korea and lots of other places.  Currently we support the Talleys and the Moudys in Kenya, the Thomases in Washington, England, and the Triveñoses in Peru.  We celebrate all of these mission works.  But I want this morning to celebrate the Broadway mission work that started it all, a mission work that powerfully illustrates our theme of “Proclaiming Peace to the Nations.”

Churches of Christ were involved in overseas mission efforts prior to World War II (WWII), but the real explosion of foreign missions within our fellowship occurred after that war.  And the Broadway church led that explosion, as any his­torian of our churches will tell you.

Before WWII ended, Broadway’s leaders were making plans to take the gospel to Germany.  The idea of taking the Good News to our enemies likely seemed preposterous to some, but to Broadway’s leaders it was a natural move.  Their actions clearly reveal an understanding of the power of the gospel of peace.  One of our late elders, Mack Kennedy, told of reading all of the minutes of the elders meetings during that planning time.  Mack said that, since all they could do was plan, the planning was exemplary.  And that early preparation and planning yielded wonderful results.  WWII ended in May of 1945, and in 1947 the Broadway church sent Otis Gatewood and Roy Palmer to Frankfurt, Germany, to begin mission work there.  They were the very first religious workers of any church allowed to enter Germany after WWII.  The result is that, as of 1997, churches of Christ are in twenty-five German cities.  I have had the opportunity to visit Germany and to meet some of the Christians who are there.  I have worshipped with the church in Frankfurt.  I have toured their facilities, including the building that houses their exemplary kindergarten and after-school care program.  We took the gospel of peace and the blessings to that people continue on.

I want us to celebrate that.  I want us to rejoice in the power of God’s Good News to change people’s lives and to create healthy communities where war once reigned.

And along with the gospel of peace we also took lots of help to German people who were impoverished by all of the years of war.  In the archives I found a picture of Otis Gatewood with German workers sorting clothes to give to people who were in desperate need.  In a Broadway Bulletin article written in 1997, Dr. Harvie Pruitt noted that over 600,000 people in Frankfurt were helped with food and clothing through the mission efforts led by this church.  Harvie goes on to report, “Several years later the President of Germany presented Otis Gatewood with the Distinguished Cross, First Class, on behalf of all the Christian workers . . . .  This is the highest honor that can be given to foreigners.”  Harvie also reports the beginning of the Kindergarten program, the providing of a summer camp, the operation of a home for homeless boys.  And in November of 1997, when we celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the sending of Otis Gatewood and Roy Palmer, I heard testimonials from adults who were German orphans after WWII.  They could hardly find words to express their appreciation.  The gospel of peace was proclaimed through lip and through life, through words and through active compassion and love.  We celebrate that legacy.  I exhort us to continue it and to build upon it.

Many of us know that Harvie Pruitt actually was sent to Germany in the 1950’s by the Broadway church to join the mission team there. Harvie recently told me that the German people had the hardest time understanding why we were there.  They would actually say to Harvie something like this, “We were your enemies.  Why are you helping us like this?”  They thought it was preposterous.  It was preposterous, and we must continue being preposterous in our efforts to proclaim the gospel of peace to the nations.

I mentioned earlier that I have visited the church in Frankfurt, Germany.  While there I met with the seven men who led that church.  I met with them because we had just learned that we still held the deed to their properties, i.e., the church building and the building nearby where the kindergarten and the after-school care facilities were housed.  The German Christians wanted to hold the deed to their own buildings.  They wanted us to give them free title to them.  But the properties are worth a great deal of money.  If my memory serves me correctly, they were worth about $2.5 million at the time.  I remember entering the meeting.  I could tell that the men there were very tense.  I finally figured out that they assumed that they would have to convince Broadway that it was the right thing to do to give over the title.  What they did not know was that we wanted them to have the title.  We knew it was the right thing to do.  In fact, up until just a short time before my trip to Germany, we did not even know that we still held the title to their building.  But in that meeting I ended up saying the same thing over and over, “We want you to have your buildings.  We know that is the right thing to do.”  It took a fair bit of legal activity to get the job done, but it was done.  But I know that the Christians there thought it somewhat preposterous that we would give them free title to such a valuable piece of property without a lot of convincing and persuading.  The response of the Broadway elders is another example of living out the gospel of peace that we proclaim.

Let me give one example of the continuation of this legacy.  As was mentioned last Sunday, three Broadway ladies left for Peru last week.  My wife was one of those ladies.  The other two ladies were Anita Neff and Judy Linker.  They went to take a wheelchair to a little boy in Cusco, Peru, a little boy with Cerebral Palsy.  Let me read an email that I received from Margaret on Friday (May the 3^rd):

Hi Babe,

We made it safe and sound.  The wheelchair was no problem.  The customs agent asked if it was a wheelchair.  Judy replied yes and then was asked who it was for.  Judy said a little boy in Cusco.  The agent asked if it was a gift.  Judy said it was a gift from our church.  The agent said, “Welcome to Peru.”  We were very pleased to say the least.

We didn’t leave Miami until almost 2:00 a.m. and arrived here about 10:30.  It’s been go, go ever since.  Needless to say, we are exhausted.  We took to chair to Joel at 3:00.  His mother and family were so grateful.  Little Joel was just pitiful.  His little body was so contorted; it was hard to get him in the chair.  It will help him sit up straight making it easier to feed him and easier for him to breathe.  We were there for a while.  Between the smells and the emotion, I went outside for a while.  There were cows grazing, chickens everywhere, and a man was herding some really dirty sheep down the dirt road.  It was a Kodak moment––but I had no film left!

Hipolito, Francisco, & Dan have been wonderful to us.  Hipolito has a Nissan truck with a back seat.  Anita rode in the bed of the truck on one of our ventures!

In this message we can hear an example of the way that Broadway’s proclamation is a proclamation through both lip and life.  Our mission special contribution feeds that proclamation.  Please give generously to the mission special contribution so we can expand our proclamation of the gospel of peace.  Let’s respond to the conflict, war, and fear in our world with the only message that resolves all of that.

I said last Sunday that the mission of proclaiming the gospel of peace is 100% God and 100% us.  What I mean is that the power of the message, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of divine love are 100% from God. That is the power that gets it done, and it is all from God.  We cannot supply or supplement any of that power.  But we are to give to God 100% of ourselves for God to use to transmit the gospel of peace.  We are like pipes through which water runs.  The water meets a physical need; the pipe cannot meet that need.  The water is the replenishing and life-giving power.  We have to have it, and we will never start chewing on the pipe thinking that it will meet the need that water meets.  But the water does not deliver itself to our houses, lawns, fields, etc.  The pipe does that.  Its sole purpose is to take water to where it is needed.  The water is 100% involved in meeting a physical need; the pipe is 100% involved in delivering water to the places where it is needed.

Our giving demonstrates our 100% commitment to the proclamation of peace.  Our giving is actually used by God to transmit the gospel of peace to the nations.  Let it flow through us.  Let it flow through us to the glory of our God and to the transformation of our world.  Let’s pray.

Top | Sermons | Home