Rev. Chuck Olson
My name is Chuck Olson. I first attended the Via de Cristo Indiana Men's weekend number 8
and I was privileged to sit at the table of John. Today I worship at Peace Lutheran Church in Morris, IL
with my wife Anne, my daughter Rebekah and my son Erik. I thought that weekends were as close to
heaven that I would get in this life. This morning during the music I learned differently. It was
wonderful.
I would like to begin by introducing the men who are with me, then introduce the topic, and then
turn the program over to them - and then have a closing comment.
I would like to have Larry and Rob to join me here and while they are coming up, I will introduce
them. Both have attended weekends. I'm sorry I can't tell you which ones. Living Water number 6,
Larry says, and Rob, number 9. Larry is an operations manager with Braidwood Power Plant for
Commonwealth Edison. Larry and his wife Kris are the editors of our Barnabas Monthly newsletter that
you should have in your hands.
Rob is an Illinois State Trooper. He teaches domestic violence intervention at the Illinois State
Police Academy and will begin work soon to become an investigator for the Illinois State Police. I must
tell you that I have two images of Rob just from this week. We had Vacation Bible School with 170
children at Peace Lutheran. Rob was the music man, jumping around, and getting them to scream. It was
wonderful. The kids just loved Rob. Last night at 10:00 I was driving home from Joliet on Interstate 80
and there was an Illinois State Police squad car and with a trooper standing there on the bridge at
Interstate 55. I thought to myself, I wonder if that was Rob. And it was. What a contrast in those two
images of Rob.
My favorite question to ask pilgrims is what was the net effect of your weekend on your life? In
fact, I wish I could ask every pilgrim in this room that question. And listen to you at great length. I
cannot answer that for you but I can answer that for myself. Weekends have had two powerful effects on
me. Remarkably each one of the weekends continue to have the same effect.
First, they have filled the broken places in my soul with the grace of God in Christ Jesus. I
realize with the result of the retreats that I have been grieving all of my adult life for the loss of family
members. Just a few weeks before Anne and I married up the hill here at Ascension Chapel, my father
laid down to go to sleep and 5 minutes later he was dead of a heart attack. Two years later, my 30 year
old sister, a vibrant, most alive person, was killed in a light plane crash in the Rocky Mountains. Five
years ago my brother committed suicide. So, I've had enormous amount of family grief. And each time
I've been in a weekend, I've experienced the re-healing, the regracing of my soul again.
Grace has filled the broken places of my soul. And my hope and prayer is that you, too, have
experienced that same fullness.
Second, this grace has given me a powerful impulse to care for others. Our reunion group at
Peace meets, we share needs and concerns and then we go out to our environments, care and then come
back for mutual regracing. But the problem for me has been this: once you have that enormous impulse
to care for others, how do you do that effectively?
I remember a time when a lady was trying to care for me effectively. I was a paranoid young
pastor in Gary, Indiana and she said very kindly, "I don't care what anybody says about you, I still like
you." Later I found out she was the same lady who locked herself out of the house and climbed in the
front window, unlocked the door, then climbed out the front window and went in the front door. Makes
perfect sense to me.
Or I think about the pastor trying to care for the man on his way to the electric chair. The pastor
said, "More power to you." So I think the problem for every pilgrim and for every believer is how to
care effectively. In a way that really cares for the other.
As I was pondering this riddle, I came across a man who may be the New Testament's unsung
hero. I first met him in the 4th chapter of Acts. This goes back to the time when the church was small
and there were few believers. The church was growing. This is what Dr. Luke writes:
"There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, to whom the disciples gave the name Bar-Nabas, which means son of encouragement. He sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money
and laid it at the Apostle's feet." So the Apostles had no means of support except for the generosity of
other believers, Barnabas sold his farm back home in Cyprus and gave the money to the Apostles and
they were so grateful that they gave him a new name Bar-Nabas - The Son of Encouragement.
I thought, "How could we best encourage one another in our Christian faith." And especially
those most in need of encouraging, the elderly, the dying, those who are grieving. We began having
classes at Peace Lutheran in Morris, Illinois teaching three healing skills. The first healing skill is to
understand the psycho-social stages of life. The second healing skill is how to have the best conversation
no matter what the circumstance. The third healing skill is how to help with grieving. Through the
course of these classes and subsequently I have found that I am not alone in my grief. In fact, there was a
critical automobile accident just 2 blocks from our church the Saturday before Christmas. A
grandmother was driving her 2 grandchildren to do Christmas shopping and pulled out in the path of a
truck. The children and the grandmother lingered at Loyola Medical Center in Chicago, and died.
A poem written by a little girl whose friend died in that accident is in the lower right hand corner
of our Barnabas Monthly.
Why did you leave today
Why can't you come out to play
If God loves you and me
Why did he take you, Valerie?
I think about you all the time.
Who will be a friend of mine?
It makes me sad - it makes me mad,
I feel bad for your mom and dad.
My friend, you were so kind,
I'm so glad you are a friend of mine.
I hope I see you again some day
Will you remember me so we can play?
People need caring Christians. People need encouragement in the worst times of their life. So
we took those who completed training in the three skills and we commissioned them at worship to be
Barnabas Ministers. Since then we have had other classes. Now we have 47 Barnabas Ministers and 45
special people.
Not very long ago, I had a woman in my study who was hysterical. She told me that her husband
had come out of open heart surgery completely blind. No one had warned them this could be an outcome
of the surgery. He can no longer work. I think he was 50 years old at the time. He had always been a
strong caregiver for his wife and she didn't know how to cope. I told her we were commissioning our
first blind Barnabas Ministers two days from now. His name is Jim Smith. Nine years ago, Jim was
walking across a Chicago city street. A careless driver ran him down and his head hit the pavement.
And finished off what had been left of his eyesight. So he had lost his eyesight a short enough time ago
to remember the grieving which accompanies that. I asked her if Jim could call her husband, Larry. She
said, " of course."
So the next week, I asked Jim how the phone call went. He said it was very awkward. Can you
image a blind man caring for another blind man on the telephone. I said to Jim, "What did Larry say
when you asked him if you could call him back."
He said, "He almost jumped through the telephone." Since that time every week, Jim calls Larry
to encourage him through his blindness.
I would like now to turn this over to Larry Weber so he can share with you about his Christian
community in action in the Barnabas Ministry.
Larry Weber
As I thought about this verb "Action," my thoughts centered on motivation. As Christians we all
take actions to do God's work. But what motivates us into action?
I am sure each one of us has a story, a reason. For me it's my son ANDY. On Dec. 4th, 1987, I lost
Andy at age 6 after a lengthy battle with cancer. I was devastated, overwhelmed, and yet in some ways it
has changed my life for the better, forever.
I would like to read a portion of the book, The Gift, by Danielle Steel. This is a story of a young man
who lost his younger sister and he is struggling with that loss. He meets a 16 year old girl who is
pregnant and she begins:
"Do you ever feel her there with you, like when you think about her? She asked, feeling his pain
with him, and almost feeling as though she knew her.
"Sometimes. I talk to her sometimes, late at night. It's probably a dumb thing to do, but
sometimes I feel like she can hear me."
"I'll bet she can hear you, Tommy. I'll bet she watches you all the time. Maybe she's happy
now...maybe some people are just passing through...maybe they get it all done faster than the rest of us.
They don't need to stick around for a hundred years to get it all right. They get it down real quick...it's
like.." She struggled to find the right words to tell him, but it was something she had thought about a lot,
especially lately. "It's like some people just come through our lives to bring us something, a gift, a
blessing, a lesson we need to learn, and that's why they're here. She taught you something, I'll
bet...about love, and giving, and caring so much about someone...that was her gift to you. She taught you
all that, and then she left. Maybe she just didn't need to stay longer than that. She gave you the gift, and
then she was free to move on...she was a special soul.. You'll have that gift forever."
Andy has taught me lessons, given me blessings, given me a gift. I need to take action, pass it along in
Jesus' name. That's what he would want.
I sometimes wonder what Andy is doing in heaven. I look up in the sky and a vision appears. Of a good
looking, bright shy little boy, peeking through the clouds at me, checking to see if I'm utilizing that gift.
I am, through things like the Barnabas Ministry that Chuck explained. My wife and I minister to children
in need.
Each one of you has met people who have given you gifts. With those gifts you are charged with
ACTION. Let it motivate you to do God's Work.
Rob Sgambelluri
Rob's talk is not available online.
Rev. Chuck Olson
I want to close with a story from Kathryn Ann Porter's novel "A Ship of Fools."
One of the couples on the Ship of Fools has a know-down, drag-out fight in the doorway of their
cabin where the little boy is sleeping in a berth. And the fight that they have is obvious to everybody on
the ship. And the next morning the couple is seen formally bowing to each other in the doorway of the
very same cabin. The narrator says in part, what they were saying to each other was only love me - love
me - love me in spite of it all. Whether or not I love you, whether I am fit to love, whether you are able
to love, even if there is no such thin as love - love me. There is such a thing as love - it is called Grace.
May our Christian communities take it to those who give the very most. To listen and encourage. God
loves you and so do we.
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