An Invisible Thread
My Pentecost Day sermon was on Acts 2:1-11 and my primary sermon illustration was from the book An Invisible Thread. My sermon should be up on sermoncentral.com shortly. It has the same title as the book. You may also find online an NPR interview with the author, Laura Schroff.
Here's the beginning of the sermon:
They lived just two blocks from each other, but
they couldn’t be more different. He was
11 years old, with an abusive father, a drug-addicted mother, drug-dealing uncles,
and a knife-wielding grandmother. She
was a successful advertising executive.
They met on a street in Manhattan when he asked
her for some spare change. He said he
was really hungry and he had such sad eyes.
This happened on 56th Street near Broadway.
She says, “when I heard his voice, I didn’t
really hear him. His words were part of
the clatter, like a car horn or someone yelling for a cab.” (An
Invisible Thread, p. 1)
When she went back to him, she noticed, “he was
just a boy… he was so young… he was a child – tiny body, sticks for arms, big
round eyes.” pp. 1-2
“I am hungry,” he said. “If you’re hungry,” I said, “I’ll take you to
McDonalds an buy you lunch.”
“Can I have a cheeseburger,” he asked. “Yes,” I said.
“How about a Big Mac?
“That’s okay, too.”
“How about a Diet Coke?”
“Well, how about a thick, chocolate shake and
French Fries?”
I told him he could have anything he wanted. And then I asked him if I could join him for
lunch. “Sure,” he finally said.
Laura Schroff says, “We had lunch together at
McDonalds. And after that we got
together every Monday. For the next 150
Mondays. His name was Maurice and he
changed my life.
The Chinese have an ancient proverb that goes
like this: An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, and circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.
I believe in an invisible thread. Moreover, I believe that the invisible thread
is a divine person – the Holy Spirit.
posted by Tony Seel at 12:07 PM
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