²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ?Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.?²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ?To an unknown god.? What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.?²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,?²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.?²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,?²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him?though indeed he is not far from each one of us.?²⁸For ?In him we live and move and have our being?; as even some of your own poets have said, ?For we too are his offspring.?

John 14:15-21

¹⁵?If you love me, you will keep my commandments.?¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.¹⁷This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

¹⁸?I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.?¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.?²⁰On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.?²¹They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.?

When I think about someone who I always admired and just loved being around her, even when she drove me crazy, was Wanda Gaye. Wanda Gaye was an elder at South Park Presbyterian Church in Charleston, WV. Wanda was one of the three ladies in their 80s at this church that I pastored. To say Wanda and I always got along and saw eye-to-eye, would be a lie. Most of the time, we argued and disagreed, then we would figure out how to compromise as we moved forward. Wanda was solid in her faith and had lived out her life fully devoted to God, her family, and her church. When you met Wanda, you knew she had been a Sunday school teacher-she had that voice, you knew she would have sang in the choir-she loved to sing, you knew she had prepared meals for every function at church-she was a great cook, you knew she was in Presbyterian Women-and had taught it for years, you knew she had served with Habitat for Humanity-because she could swing a hammer, you knew she was a leader-because people listened when she spoke, and many others. Wanda had a presence and everyone knew it. As we began to work together on what our purpose was in our community and what God was calling us to do, Wanda made it quite clear that ?we have already done all of this and it got us no-where.? She was also clear in stating that nothing was going to work, this was pointless, and this was a waste of time?to the point that in a conversation I yelled at her, walked out the room, and slammed the door like a little kid. Yet, Wanda had presence and power. Wanda was the type of person that the women in the community admired and feared, but really wanted to be like. But Wanda was getting older. She couldn?t teach, lead bible studies, serve by swinging a hammer, or even cook large meals anymore. She just didn?t have the patience, ability, or stamina any more.? And this was a hard realization for this woman. What she still had was the ability to argue and share her opinion?with me, she did it on a regular basis. In one of our long heated arguments, we were working on how we were going to reach out to the children in our community. As we started brainstorming on all the help we would need to pull off these monthly community events, Wanda became fed up with the conversation. She looked at me and with a slightly raised voice said, ?I can?t do what I usta could!? And I responded by with a slightly raised voice saying, ?I?m not asking you to do what you usta could!? Oh, she said. Then what are you asking me to do. I told her I was asking her to be present with the children in the community. Meaning at every event, I needed her to show up, talk to children, meet their parents, and let the people know we are being present for them. After a few long moments, with a hint of resignation, she looked at me and said, ?well, I can do that.? I said ?thank you, I really need you to be present.?

The piece that Wanda needed to know is that she had a presence within her that needed to be shared with all the people in the community. That presence was not only her physical presence, but her spiritual presence. Of all the different people I have known in my life, Wanda has been one of the people who has reminded me of the bodily presence of Jesus and the spiritual presence of the Holy Spirit living within someone. I became a better person because of the presence of Wanda being in my life. And I know the children and their families became better people because of the pure presence of Wanda Gaye.

Wanda was a person who shared with others that the air we breathe is vital to living out our faith. She modeled what it meant to be a disciple and growing in faith to live out life being an apostle of Jesus Christ, one who learns and one who shares. Wanda came to mind as I read through this passage because I believe she acted in similar ways as Paul. Paul exhibited the importance of having a presence in the community, of learning from your community, and of sharing a message that made sense in the culture. Paul?s presence in this new community began with him being observant as he walked through the city. He paid attention to who he saw, what was in the city, and what was written on the statues. In addition, it is my guess that Paul also talked with people, learned their names, saw what they had in their yards, and what they like and didn?t like. Paul?s presence led him to being observant in his community and he learned. His learnings led to a better understanding of the culture and customs of the people of the day. Through his presence and his learnings, Paul was able to figure out how to share the message of Jesus Christ with a culture that didn?t want to hear any messages about Jesus Christ.

In recognizing their differences, Paul realized he needed to figure out what they had in common. The commonalities Paul discovered were connected to creation, life, and the air we breathe. Paul realized the Athenian people were all connected through the air we breathe which is the advocate-the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of God, who abides in all of us; in everyone who breathes the air. All of God?s children.

Paul took the teachings of Jesus, instilled them into his being as a disciple who was always learning and was able to translate his message in a way that it could be heard, living out being an apostle. Paul taught the people of Athens that all people are connected to God because it is ?in him we live and move and have our being and we too are his offspring.?

As the Advocate will be with us forever, it is important for us to acknowledge the truth in Jesus? words that he will be with you. We aren?t doing this alone. We do not have to go through life without someone being with us. Jesus? presence is within all of us and the spirit of God is present within all people. Including those gathered here today and those who live in our community.

As I think about the importance of being present as the Apostle Paul discusses is vital to our time and with our community. The people of Athens worship multiple gods, read different books, exploratory in their sexuality, prosperous in their endeavors, and overall wealthy nation. They would have doubted this new ?way? of believing in one God made known through Jesus and would have intellectually debated everything put before them. I don?t believe that is any different than now. Except the gods we worship are better jobs, more money and power, bigger house, nicer car, better health-yet many folks expect these things to happen without working towards it. We read books that talk about religion, yet we don?t read the bible. We have a culture that explores with sexuality-through affairs, pornography, prostitution, sex trafficking, lust, and more. We have a culture that says, ?I don?t trust organized religion,? ?I?m spiritual not religious,? or ?I used to go, but I didn?t like what they said,? or ?Christians just take what is said and don?t think about it,? or Christians are super hypocritical,? or any other reason to not be intellectually stimulated through dialogue with Christians.? ?Friends, the words and phrases have changed, but it is still our job to figure out what we have in common with our neighbors, determine how to engage in conversation based on what you see in their surroundings, and then explore connections to faith-even if they say something crazy like, ?I don?t believe in organized religion? and know how to respond with something like, ?I get that. If I only experienced churches that preached about hell and damnation and everything was really black and white, I wouldn?t want to be part of that religion either.?

We are getting ready to embark on four different approaches to evangelism and outreach in our community. It is going to take some work, learning, volunteering, and walking. It is going to be small things that we can all do. We are going to truly begin sharing the ?air we breathe,? the breath of God with those who live all around us. We are going to do this in many different small ways: Neighborhood Watch Meetings, Beautiful Feet Gatherings for Prayer and Walking, Prayer Concerns, House Parties, and Book Club. More information will be coming each week about these events and details are in the Summer newsletter. Beginning next week, you will be invited to participate in someway or another. I believe this is going to take ALL of us. Everyone can put their name on one of these items.

• Neighborhood Watch Meetings- We have three watch groups that meet at the church. The first 3 Thursdays of every month, we have a group of folks meeting at 6pm. It would be WONDERFUL if a few of our members and friends came to these meetings to get to know OUR NEIGHBORS! Sign up sheets will be passed around if you are able to commit to ?representing? the congregation.
• ?Beautiful Feet Walks?- On the last Saturday of every month, we will begin with a time of prayer for our community. Then if you are able, we will be sending folks out ?two by two? to meet our neighbors. If you are not able, we will ask you to stay behind, pray, and write cards to our neighbors. During this time, we let people know we are from the church and ask them if they have any prayer requests or know of ways we can support our community. We will leave a brochure about the church with each home. If someone is not home, we will leave a door tag on their door with a little bit of information about the church. We have truly only reached out to about 4 streets?we have many more streets to reach out too. We will meet at church at 9am on the last Saturday of the month.
• House Parties- We want to help our neighbors get to know one another. We want to have hosts from the congregation or Neighborhood Watch groups host a party at their house. The church will provide all the finger food and drinks for this event. We would love to find 12 homes to host a ?house party? one time over the course of the next year. This would be a two-hour event, food would be provided, and invitations will be specialized for you to invite your neighbors. You can invite those who live next door to you or those who you are friends with. More details to come. It is our hope to have the first house party in June.
• Neighborly Prayer Concerns- Every week during the prayers of the people, we share our joys and concerns with one another.? Once these are shared, I write them down on a piece of paper and we pray for our friends, family, and friends. For those requests that are local, I would love to go and meet that person and pray with them in person. And I would need you, the person who lifted them up in prayer, to go with me. In addition, we will work on creating a table in the back of the Sanctuary where you can send cards to people who don?t live in the area to let them know we are praying for them as well. This will take a little bit of effort, but it is something we would love to try.
• Book Club- We are continuing our monthly book club. Share the year long list with your friends and invite them to join us in reading these books.

Friends, what would our community and our world look like if we saw every breath we took as immersing ourselves in God, and every exhaling as an opportunity to breathe God?s amazing love back out into the people we meet so it spreads into the world we live in? Are we up for the challenge? I pray we are and that we can be present together as a faith community who shares the love of God with all we meet.