A good example is the best sermon

“My, my, my.” My aunt Nadine always made her exclamations in threes. Jesus said that we should let our yes be yes, and our no be no (Matt 5:37), but for my aunt,yes was always “yes, yes, yes” and no was always “no, no, no.” Even when she wasn’t sure, she would fall back on “well, well, well” and “uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.” My aunt was compassionate, resourceful, creative, and immanently sensible. She was a woman of deep faith. She rarely spoke of the content of her faith,however. She embodied the words of James 2:18 - “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I - by my works - will show you my faith.”

About the closest I ever saw my aunt come to entering in to a theological discussion was about thirty years ago, in my grandmother’s kitchen, in their little house on Gilette. A baby shower was being planned for ayoung woman from their church who had become pregnant outside of marriage. Aunt Nadine was planning to go to that shower and she was taking a gift. Her husband and the elders of hercongregation disapproved, but my Aunt was resolute. “That baby is going to need things,” she said.

Not only was she firm in her conviction that this act of mercy was the right thing to do, she was confident as well that we could andwould meet Christ when we meet the needs of others. A few months after my ordination to ministry in 1989, a package arrived in the mail at the church I had begun to serve. It was from my aunt. She had decoupaged her invitation to my ordination service to a nine by seven inch piece of pine. On the back, she had written: “A good example is the best sermon.” Those words mean as much to me as my ordination itself. My aunt crossed over into eternal life on October 2 of last year. I still miss her, and - oh, oh, oh - do I treasure her words and her witness.

A good example is, indeed, the best sermon.