Dunbar United Church of Christ - September 27, 2009

I. A month or so ago I was pulling weeds from the garden in the back of the house. It was the hottest part of the day and I felt a little dizzy from the heat and probably should have have waited a few hours when the sun had gone down a bit. Janet and Annie were visiting her parents at the lake.

So I was hot and dizzy, pulling weeds in a kind-of meditative stupor, when a young man came running at me, screaming “Help! Help!” He’s also yelled “Fire! Fire!” and pointed to an old, broken-down truck parked across the street from the church. It looked like smoke came from one of the front wheels and a man fanned the wheel with a piece of paper. A woman was there, talking hysterically and holding both her hands on either side of her head.

II. So I stopped pulling weeds and stood up and the young man explained the problem. The wheel on his father’s truck was about to catch fire and could I please help, “Quickly! Quickly!” He asked me to do something, “Fast!” He kept pointing to the truck across the street, saying, “Hurry! hurry -- it’s going to catch fire!”

III. I ran around the house like a crazy person, thinking, thinking, thinking -- what will carry water? I grabbed an empty trash can, took the hose and filled it half way with water, threw in a plastic flower pot to use as a water-scooper, and told him to grab a handle while I grabbed the other and we ran across the lawn, water sloshing all over the place. We got to the smoking truck and the man and woman said “Thank you, thank you....” with thick accents -- which was about all the English they knew. The truck said “Luis Landscaping” on it. Luis grabbed the plastic flower pot, filled it with water and threw it on the metal and brake inside the wheel and it hissed and turned to steam instantly. He kept doing that till the trash can was empty and then the young boy and I ran back and got more water.

IV. I asked Luis if he could drive the truck into the driveway of the parsonage where we could use the hose, and he did. It took another 15 minutes before the wheel cooled. In Spanish, Luis explained (while his son translated) that his brake got stuck and the friction of the brake clamped on the metal disc around the wheel caused the fire. He said he’d drive home slowly and try not to use the brake. He asked for a bucket he could fill with water and take with him, in case it got stuck again. I found him one and he promised to return it. I said to keep it on his truck in case this happened again. Then he gave me his card and asked me to call if I had any landscaping needs -- he’d like to return the favor. The woman asked my name, “Como te llamos?” I pointed to the sign on the church lawn, said my name is on that. “Ah!” she said, “estoy padre!” she said. “Con dios.” Then she pulled out a cross she wore around her neck and showed me. They all waved as they left saying, “Gracias,... thank you,... gracias....”

V. When they realized I was pastor of this church they said “Ah!” and smiled and looked relieved -- like they’d just solved a puzzle. They probably thought -- “Of course he’s going to help us -- he has to! -- he’s following Jesus.”

And you know what? If that’s what they said in their Spanish and broken English, they were exactly right. When we follow Jesus, when we carry his name on our hearts and in our minds all day, then we’re commissioned. We’re called to cast out demons of fear and prejudice and hate -- we bring comfort to the weary -- we extinguish fires from old landscaping trucks. In the name of Jesus Christ, that’s what we do.