EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Feb. 25, 2022.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
A Lutheran pastor and his wife walk into a distillery, meet three men -- one born in Peru, one born in Cameroon and one born in Venezuela -- currently serving the U.S. Naval Reserves, and hours later the five leave as fast friends.
This isn’t the lead to a bad joke. This actually recently happened to us in Omaha. And the experience reminds me of Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Shelley and I were there at that distillery so I could buy a souvenir bourbon. And the three men -- Wilson, Claude and Igor -- who serve in a Navy unit that provides dental care to U.S. Marines were there killing time before flying out. We randomly ended up at the same distillery and struck up a conversation that lasted hours.
Some would describe the encounter as mere coincidence. But something more powerful was taking place. You could feel the Holy Spirit at work as we shared stories of families, where we live and even faith.
The men were extremely supportive of our work as a pastor and pastor’s spouse. And we had a loving conversation about faith, all of us feeling comfortable enough to share our faith backgrounds, thoughts about God, loving the neighbor and the state of faith in the world.
As we came to know each other better, I was reminded that this is why Jesus tells us that we get to know God through our relationships. To see God, we just need to look at his glory being reflected in the faces all around us, faces the same as ours, but even more importantly in the faces of those who do not look anything like us!
It is when we meet Christ through the eyes of a stranger, that he transforms our hearts from within and helps us grow closer to God. In this transformation, we begin to radiate Jesus’ light in our own faces, becoming a beacon for all the world to see!
The five of us had little in common before we came together on that fateful night in a distillery in Omaha, but that shared experience has changed each of us. Kindness was shared, an intimacy developed; and I know that Jesus himself was present.
As faithful people, we are called not only to be faithful for an hour a week at worship services. We are called to live out that faith on a daily basis, even when we are at play.
There may not have been an altar, wooden pews and stained glass windows in that distillery that night, but we were most certainly in worship. Jesus was present, and he helped bring this world just a little bit closer together as five complete strangers walked out of that place as friends. … For where two or more are gathered in my name, indeed!
Devlyn Brooks, who works for Modulist, a Forum Communications Co.-owned company, is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He serves as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He can be reached at devlyn.brooks@forumcomm.com for comments and story ideas.
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