The God Of All Grace
Stories
Object:
Contents
"The God of All Grace" by John Sumwalt
"Keeping the Word" by Frank Ramirez
* * * * * * * *
The God of All Grace
by John Sumwalt
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.
-- 1 Peter 5:10
For most of us the biggest mistakes we have made in our lives have not been the times we have broken civil or moral laws, nor even the times we have caused injury to another person, but those occasions when we have refused an offer of grace. Some of us spend much of our lives with arms crossed, adamantly resisting grace. It is only in a moment of utter desperation when we have lost everything we have worked for and face imminent death that we will sometimes open ourselves enough to let the graciousness of God pour in.
One of Adolph Hitler's secretaries tells of the last hours in the command bunker under Berlin before the Russian troops overran the city:
"Shortly before the end Hitler called all the women into one room and told them to pack their bags and get ready to leave for the south, the cause was lost and it was not safe for them to remain. At that moment his companion and lover, Eva Braun, stepped forward and said, 'You know I will not leave you, I will stay with you.' Then Hitler did something uncharacteristic, something no one had ever seen him do before; he stepped forward and kissed Eva on the lips."
Early on the morning of April 29, 1945, Hitler and Braun were married by Walter Wagner, a minor official in the Propaganda agency. Afterward Hitler dictated his last will and testament to his secretary, explaining the reason for the marriage:
"As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people."
These were moments of grace. What a pity that Hitler had known so little of grace or the history of the world might have been different.
John Sumwalt is the pastor of Our Lord's United Methodist Church in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and a noted storyteller. He is the author of nine books, including the acclaimed Vision Stories series and How to Preach the Miracles: Why People Don't Believe Them and What You Can Do About It. John and his wife Jo Perry-Sumwalt served for three years as the co-editors of StoryShare. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), Sumwalt received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for parish ministry from UDTS in 1997.
Keeping the Word
Frank Ramirez
John 17:1-11
(Jesus said) "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word."
-- John 17:6
Take disease bearing rats, a highly infectious disease, white-coated lab researchers who start dying, and a plague that threatens not just a distant continent but thanks to air travel much of the first world, and what do you get? The Andromeda Strain?
No. What you get is the story of a simple missionary to a distant country whose life consisted of unselfish stewardship and service in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thanks to the bestseller Fever! written by John G. Fuller missionary Laura Wine (1899-1969) is best known for being the first person known to have contracted and died from Lassa Fever, one of many deadly diseases in Africa. But her life made her famous among her brothers and sisters in Christ for much, much more, and as much as anyone who has lived our faith stands for those who were given to Christ by God and who kept God's word.
The book Fever begins his narrative with the following paragraph:
Although she was used to being wakened at any time of night, the rap on the door shortly after three in the morning on Sunday, January 19, 1969, brought Laura Wine to the realization that the pain in her back was worse. With some effort she fumbled for her flashlight and shined it through the thick canopy of her mosquito netting. Assured there were no African vipers lurking on the cement floor, she parted the netting, tapped her slippers upside down to dislodge any scorpions that might be inside, and put them on.
What follows is a tale of medical intrigue. He describes in vivid detail the primitive nature of the mission outpost, Laura Wine's background, and her life as a missionary. He then proceeds to tell a gripping tale of the onset of a mysterious disease that does not respond to normal treatments. Laura's condition worsens and a harrowing journey follows as her fellow missionaries John and Esther Hamer drive her across treacherous terrain to a waiting flight that is every bit as dangerous as it sounds.
With a novelist's eye for detail, the countryside is described in detail, as are the conditions in the hospitals. Though their heroic efforts keep Laura alive until her arrival in Jos, she continues to fail.
She is failing as the Sunday morning services begin. As "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is sung, without opening her eyes Laura says, "Oh, I'm so glad the hymns are in English today!" That realization must have puzzled her since in Lassa the hymns were sung in another language. Laura always considered it a personal failing of hers that she did not learn either the Hausa or Margi languages. She must have realized that she had been moved. That led her to ask, "But where am I?"
Those proved to be her final words. She is anointed and receives the laying on of hands but dies that evening thousands of miles from her home.
What Laura Wine died of was Lassa Fever, a disease endemic in West Africa. According to the Center for Disease Control, between 100,000 to 300,000 contract the virus every year and around 5,000 die. The actual figures are hard to determine but it is now known that the disease is carried by rats. If the rats have been in contact with food that is ingested or if the dust from their feces becomes airborne it is possible for humans to become infected. And humans can spread the disease among each other. In Fever! a nurse in Jos cut her finger while gardening and contracted the disease while swabbing out Laura Wine's mouth.
Fuller's narrative follows the samples of the early victims who are flown to researchers at Columbia University, but the pathogen was so fatal that research was shut down after a lab assistant and two nurses died of it. Eventually the sort of isolation laboratory was developed in Atlanta such as one usually associates with bad science fiction moves and some progress against the disease was made. An antiviral drug called Ribavirin proved to be effective much of the time, especially when it was administered early in the course of the disease.
Throughout the narrative Fuller expresses his amazement and admiration for the missionaries, even though he admits he does not share their zeal. Indeed, one wonders if his timidity compared to their bravery is the direct result of a difference in faith.
So Laura Wine came to the attention of the world through the manner of her death. Even today, if you Google her name and the words Lassa Fever you will get a good number of hits. Indeed, had she died a few years earlier the fever might well have been named after her. At the time of her passing the custom of naming diseases after the first person who was diagnosed with them had given away to naming them after the region in which they were first discovered.
But like most Christians she sought to be known less for the manner of her death and more for the manner of her living. Laura Wine was already noteworthy among the members of her denomination, the Church of the Brethren, before notoriety -- the fatal sort -- struck. She was born at Mount Sidney, Virginia. After receiving a B.S.E. degree from East Radford Teacher's College in Virginia, she earned her nurse's diploma from Bethany Hospital School of Nursing.
It had been her dream to serve in the Chinese mission field, especially after coming to know Chinese at both Bethany Theological Seminary and First Church of the Brethren in Chicago. However a history of tuberculosis disqualified her from mission work for health reasons.
Her TB certainly did not slow her down. She worked as a school nurse in Oak Park, Illinois, and eventually headed the entire nursing program for the school system. As if that were not enough, she then worked weekends at Bethany Hospital, which was located on the West Side of Chicago, an impoverished area of the city also fraught with danger. According to one story when attacked by a mugger she beat him off and then went on her way to work.
According to the account of one woman who was a fellow nurse at Bethany no one worked as hard as Laura Wine. What was just as impressive to her was how she diligently supported the programs of Chicago First Church. The support included a 30% tithe, which got her into frequent trouble with the IRS. Officials with that agency found it hard to believe she gave so much of what was not a large salary to her church.
She had only retired from the school system because of mandatory age limits, but she decided at the age of 65, to serve as an unpaid volunteer in Nigeria, which meant that her health history was no handicap.
She was modestly quoted in an article, "I do not really feel any pride in giving what's left -- just what's left over!"
Once there she proved a tireless worker, described by one fellow missionary as "one of the most selfless persons I know. It was simply her way of life to think of others."
Despite her aforementioned difficulty with both the Hausa and Margi languages (and according to one source the fact she couldn't master the languages made her feel, at least to some extent, as if she weren't "a real, sure enough missionary") she considered her work in Africa "the greatest thing in her life," and exhibited "real joy" in her work. Even after her two-year term as a volunteer ended she did not retire, but signed on for another.
Dr. John Hamer, who accompanied her on the futile flight in an attempt to save her life, wrote "Laura Wine's giving of her life which she was totally prepared to do for the sake of Christian service and medical advancement was a symbol of love. Love made the difference all the way for her. It was love that made death as easy for her as it had been easy to give her life in service."
This is the sort of person, no doubt, about whom Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word" (John 17:6).
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, and three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 5, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"The God of All Grace" by John Sumwalt
"Keeping the Word" by Frank Ramirez
* * * * * * * *
The God of All Grace
by John Sumwalt
1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.
-- 1 Peter 5:10
For most of us the biggest mistakes we have made in our lives have not been the times we have broken civil or moral laws, nor even the times we have caused injury to another person, but those occasions when we have refused an offer of grace. Some of us spend much of our lives with arms crossed, adamantly resisting grace. It is only in a moment of utter desperation when we have lost everything we have worked for and face imminent death that we will sometimes open ourselves enough to let the graciousness of God pour in.
One of Adolph Hitler's secretaries tells of the last hours in the command bunker under Berlin before the Russian troops overran the city:
"Shortly before the end Hitler called all the women into one room and told them to pack their bags and get ready to leave for the south, the cause was lost and it was not safe for them to remain. At that moment his companion and lover, Eva Braun, stepped forward and said, 'You know I will not leave you, I will stay with you.' Then Hitler did something uncharacteristic, something no one had ever seen him do before; he stepped forward and kissed Eva on the lips."
Early on the morning of April 29, 1945, Hitler and Braun were married by Walter Wagner, a minor official in the Propaganda agency. Afterward Hitler dictated his last will and testament to his secretary, explaining the reason for the marriage:
"As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people."
These were moments of grace. What a pity that Hitler had known so little of grace or the history of the world might have been different.
John Sumwalt is the pastor of Our Lord's United Methodist Church in New Berlin, Wisconsin, and a noted storyteller. He is the author of nine books, including the acclaimed Vision Stories series and How to Preach the Miracles: Why People Don't Believe Them and What You Can Do About It. John and his wife Jo Perry-Sumwalt served for three years as the co-editors of StoryShare. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), Sumwalt received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for parish ministry from UDTS in 1997.
Keeping the Word
Frank Ramirez
John 17:1-11
(Jesus said) "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word."
-- John 17:6
Take disease bearing rats, a highly infectious disease, white-coated lab researchers who start dying, and a plague that threatens not just a distant continent but thanks to air travel much of the first world, and what do you get? The Andromeda Strain?
No. What you get is the story of a simple missionary to a distant country whose life consisted of unselfish stewardship and service in the name of Jesus Christ.
Thanks to the bestseller Fever! written by John G. Fuller missionary Laura Wine (1899-1969) is best known for being the first person known to have contracted and died from Lassa Fever, one of many deadly diseases in Africa. But her life made her famous among her brothers and sisters in Christ for much, much more, and as much as anyone who has lived our faith stands for those who were given to Christ by God and who kept God's word.
The book Fever begins his narrative with the following paragraph:
Although she was used to being wakened at any time of night, the rap on the door shortly after three in the morning on Sunday, January 19, 1969, brought Laura Wine to the realization that the pain in her back was worse. With some effort she fumbled for her flashlight and shined it through the thick canopy of her mosquito netting. Assured there were no African vipers lurking on the cement floor, she parted the netting, tapped her slippers upside down to dislodge any scorpions that might be inside, and put them on.
What follows is a tale of medical intrigue. He describes in vivid detail the primitive nature of the mission outpost, Laura Wine's background, and her life as a missionary. He then proceeds to tell a gripping tale of the onset of a mysterious disease that does not respond to normal treatments. Laura's condition worsens and a harrowing journey follows as her fellow missionaries John and Esther Hamer drive her across treacherous terrain to a waiting flight that is every bit as dangerous as it sounds.
With a novelist's eye for detail, the countryside is described in detail, as are the conditions in the hospitals. Though their heroic efforts keep Laura alive until her arrival in Jos, she continues to fail.
She is failing as the Sunday morning services begin. As "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is sung, without opening her eyes Laura says, "Oh, I'm so glad the hymns are in English today!" That realization must have puzzled her since in Lassa the hymns were sung in another language. Laura always considered it a personal failing of hers that she did not learn either the Hausa or Margi languages. She must have realized that she had been moved. That led her to ask, "But where am I?"
Those proved to be her final words. She is anointed and receives the laying on of hands but dies that evening thousands of miles from her home.
What Laura Wine died of was Lassa Fever, a disease endemic in West Africa. According to the Center for Disease Control, between 100,000 to 300,000 contract the virus every year and around 5,000 die. The actual figures are hard to determine but it is now known that the disease is carried by rats. If the rats have been in contact with food that is ingested or if the dust from their feces becomes airborne it is possible for humans to become infected. And humans can spread the disease among each other. In Fever! a nurse in Jos cut her finger while gardening and contracted the disease while swabbing out Laura Wine's mouth.
Fuller's narrative follows the samples of the early victims who are flown to researchers at Columbia University, but the pathogen was so fatal that research was shut down after a lab assistant and two nurses died of it. Eventually the sort of isolation laboratory was developed in Atlanta such as one usually associates with bad science fiction moves and some progress against the disease was made. An antiviral drug called Ribavirin proved to be effective much of the time, especially when it was administered early in the course of the disease.
Throughout the narrative Fuller expresses his amazement and admiration for the missionaries, even though he admits he does not share their zeal. Indeed, one wonders if his timidity compared to their bravery is the direct result of a difference in faith.
So Laura Wine came to the attention of the world through the manner of her death. Even today, if you Google her name and the words Lassa Fever you will get a good number of hits. Indeed, had she died a few years earlier the fever might well have been named after her. At the time of her passing the custom of naming diseases after the first person who was diagnosed with them had given away to naming them after the region in which they were first discovered.
But like most Christians she sought to be known less for the manner of her death and more for the manner of her living. Laura Wine was already noteworthy among the members of her denomination, the Church of the Brethren, before notoriety -- the fatal sort -- struck. She was born at Mount Sidney, Virginia. After receiving a B.S.E. degree from East Radford Teacher's College in Virginia, she earned her nurse's diploma from Bethany Hospital School of Nursing.
It had been her dream to serve in the Chinese mission field, especially after coming to know Chinese at both Bethany Theological Seminary and First Church of the Brethren in Chicago. However a history of tuberculosis disqualified her from mission work for health reasons.
Her TB certainly did not slow her down. She worked as a school nurse in Oak Park, Illinois, and eventually headed the entire nursing program for the school system. As if that were not enough, she then worked weekends at Bethany Hospital, which was located on the West Side of Chicago, an impoverished area of the city also fraught with danger. According to one story when attacked by a mugger she beat him off and then went on her way to work.
According to the account of one woman who was a fellow nurse at Bethany no one worked as hard as Laura Wine. What was just as impressive to her was how she diligently supported the programs of Chicago First Church. The support included a 30% tithe, which got her into frequent trouble with the IRS. Officials with that agency found it hard to believe she gave so much of what was not a large salary to her church.
She had only retired from the school system because of mandatory age limits, but she decided at the age of 65, to serve as an unpaid volunteer in Nigeria, which meant that her health history was no handicap.
She was modestly quoted in an article, "I do not really feel any pride in giving what's left -- just what's left over!"
Once there she proved a tireless worker, described by one fellow missionary as "one of the most selfless persons I know. It was simply her way of life to think of others."
Despite her aforementioned difficulty with both the Hausa and Margi languages (and according to one source the fact she couldn't master the languages made her feel, at least to some extent, as if she weren't "a real, sure enough missionary") she considered her work in Africa "the greatest thing in her life," and exhibited "real joy" in her work. Even after her two-year term as a volunteer ended she did not retire, but signed on for another.
Dr. John Hamer, who accompanied her on the futile flight in an attempt to save her life, wrote "Laura Wine's giving of her life which she was totally prepared to do for the sake of Christian service and medical advancement was a symbol of love. Love made the difference all the way for her. It was love that made death as easy for her as it had been easy to give her life in service."
This is the sort of person, no doubt, about whom Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word" (John 17:6).
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, and three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 5, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
