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14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" 38 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him." 40 And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:14s, 36-41 RSV)
A blessed Wednesday to you and yours, dear Eradio. As I posted my ConCafe onto Twitter and Facebook, I added news of the death of Mrs. Esther Blanco, who was the wife of one of my pastors from my home church in Houston. His name was The Rev. Samuel Blanco, Sr., and he died some years ago. I ask your prayers for the Blanco family and also for Mrs. Elisa Gaytan, wife of one of my ministerial mentors, The Rev. Francisco Gaytan. She fell last night and broke her femur and was to undergo surgery on Tuesday morning. This is a difficult time as family members are not allowed to even sit in the waiting room, so this makes the day even more difficult for family. Also, Please pray for Edith Lucas’ sister Betty Carley. Please pray for Garrett and Layne Miller. Garrett will be having surgery today in New Braunfels. Please pray for peace and healing for him as well as peace for Layne. Pray for one another. Pray for yourselves.
The greatest preacher of the former Río Grande Conference was, according to many, The Rev. José Espino, longtime senior pastor of La Trinidad UMC in San Antonio. LTUMC was the mother church of many Spanish language churches in Texas and from Texas to California. A friend of mine has tapes of this prince of the pulpit and has promised tapes of some of them, but none have yet appeared. But, I did ask him, what made him the greatest? He replied, "Because every Sunday he would preach for exactly fifteen minutes!" Why was I not surprised? And I thought back to a dear colleague, now in Glory, who when he would invite me to preach in his absence would report, "All my people loved you! But when I asked them what you had preached about, all they could say, 'he was good'". Fair enough. For today's passage we have a small portion of the first Christian sermon preached by the prince of the disciples, Peter. We also know that this sermon was so effective that at the end, without an altar call, three thousand souls presented themselves for baptism as a sign they had heard and received the good news. I believe some evangelists may have preached to more souls and perhaps baptized more, but imagine this sermon in its context and setting. This happened on the steps leading into the temple on one of the holiest days in the Jewish faith, the receiving of the law by Moses for the people of Israel. The crowds hearing this sermon were in town to celebrate a Jewish tradition and they hear, in their own language, the goodness of God. Most of the crowd suspects these men are drunk and up rises Peter to let them know what was what. He did not let them off the hook in regards to the crucifixion of Jesus; but he also was led to share the Good News about Jesus. The sermon did not include a joke; it was a very serious sermon. In fact, the sermon told the truth about the guilt of Jesus' murder. It also calls for people to repent and to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. And, Peter calls the people of that generation, "Crooked," and that they should be "saved from them." Ouch. But it worked. A worship service that ends with three thousand people baptized is not a shabby thing.
Friends, here is the reality; you and I are called to be living, walking, talking sermons of our faith to others. How we act, interact, and even react to others tells them a lot about who we are, and Whose we are. Our lives should reflect our faith and how we love God and as result, like yesterday, love others. We are fueled by what was shared with us on our worship days, but also fueled by what we pray, what we read, what we hear as we worship God on a daily basis. And there's no pressure on you preaching for only fifteen or twenty or thirty minutes; it's all about how you share your love and present yourself as truly caring.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, bless our preachers, especially in these different times; bless what we feed our souls so that we can help bless others. We pray for those whom we mentioned above, and we pray that we be the best possible sermon someone hears from us this day. It is in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Preach it today, sister/brother!
Receive my blessings of love and peace.
Pastor Eradio Valverde
