Luke 10
Last month, nine members of our congregation traveled to the village of Xoy, Yucatan, Mexico. Xoy is a village of 800 inhabitants deep in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula. The folks there have a proud Mayan heritage. We went to Xoy to work with our brothers and sisters of the Divine Savior Reformed Presbyterian Church on the installation of a batch water treatment plant, and the education of their community as to how to use the purified water. We had previously entered into covenants with both Living Waters for the World and with the Divine Savior church that we would support the plant in Xoy with our prayers, our finances, and whatever technical expertise we could provide. God blessed both the installation and education portions of the work, and the mission, therefore, was felt to be a huge success. At the end of our week there, we celebrated with many from the village and some folks from surrounding villages by worshipping together and sharing the purified water from the plant.
Needless to say, all of us who made the trip were richly blessed from our participation. As I look back on the experience, I think the thing that I will remember most is the laughter of the children who came every afternoon for the skits, crafts, songs, and games. The lessons, however, that will stay with me are the same ones from Luke 10. In verses 27 and 28, Jesus confirms to the Levite that he has correctly identified the commandments of the law for eternal life – love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. What I found in the members of that small Presbyterian church was a joy that welled up from deep within them; a joy that was irrepressible and easily overcame cultural differences, language differences, and especially socioeconomic differences; a joy that seemed to come from a conscious choice each morning to follow Jesus by living out His commandments to love God and everyone else.
Another lesson for me was that I need to pray for the enlightenment to recognize when I should stop plodding along as a “Martha”, and spend more time as a “Mary”, as Jesus points out in verses 41 and 42. Sometimes our love for Jesus (and others) requires only that we be present. A third lesson follows this second one close behind. In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus to the elders in the church at Ephesus stating, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Sometimes for me, giving is much easier than receiving. Along with my prayers to become more of a “Mary”, I also need to pray for the humility to become a better “receiver”, for it is in being a gracious receiver that we allow others to give.
Yes, maybe we were able to help the villagers in Xoy with purified water for their bodies, but I want to thank the members of Iglesia el Divino Salvador for being such good examples of the One who is Living Water for our souls. Gracias!
RBL
