We saw many miracles in that setting but our time there, as you can well imagine, wasn’t always rosy though. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was right on Main and Hastings – the most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan who was out of town at the time.
Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school program I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I’m sure, I…well, I chased the mugger.
I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped from in front of the bus with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the program files for the kids.
It was when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent from this incident, that I experienced the miracle that happened: I encountered an angel, a messenger of God, in the back alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still remember vividly; he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he offered me these words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I knew he was right. God gave me these words to encourage me because my life was about to get turned upside down in ways we haven’t got time to address here today. God gave me these words to encourage me.
Today, how many times does God come to us through angels, messengers, and or people in our communities? How many times do we run into the same people struggling with the same problems but today something is different, today they have a message from God for us but maybe we don’t see it; maybe we write it off and ignore it. There is a schizophrenic gentleman who comes into my office not as often as he used to but I now try to pay special attention to what he says because often hidden somewhere in the midst of his ramblings is a message from God. When I first came to a Salvation Army I was stand-offish with a few of the people who frequented there. It was only after the Officer/Pastor pointed out one such gentleman to me and said, "I think that guy might be an angel" that the scales fell from my eyes as I realized that he may be right. Many times we have helped people our in the courts or in the food banks or other ministries and only really noticed after the encounter that God was really there.
Today, I invite us to be aware of those who come before us; pay attention to what they are saying; for indeed as the author of the letter to the Hebrews says, we may be even be entertaining angels without even being aware of it.
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