Click to hear this sermon and testimony by Tim Gauthier  sermon101024

It seems to me that one of the saddest stories in the news in the last decade was the story of Lee Malvo.

Conversion: Finding Your Mentor -I Samuel 3: 1-10; Acts 9: 1O-19a - October 24, 2010 - Cicero United Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            It seems to me that one of the saddest stories in the news in the last decade was the story of Lee Malvo. Malvo is now 25 years old; he was born in Jamaica in 1985. As a child, he was
described as polite, studious, always charming, always smiling - a description that could be
applied to nine out of ten children. So it's especially haunting to realize that today he is serving
a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole - and prosecutors in several states
are searching for a way to make him legally eligible for a death sentence. Malvo is one of the
so-called 'Beltway Snipers' who terrorized the nation - and especially the Washington, D.C.

area - by shooting innocent people at random from a spot in the back of their car that they had
specifically designed for killing. They shot 21 people in six states, and 14 of the 21 died.

            Two weeks ago, as we began reading Acts 9 in church, I said that life is full of conversion experiences, and that these experiences can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some of them are extremely negative. Lee Malvo went from a bright and promising child to a
murderous and corrupted youth - and we are left to wonder what happened. The answer in
this story is one you can see in many - Lee Malvo was converted to evil by an evil mentor. That
he was a candidate for bad mentoring was later affirmed by his aunt, who said of her family,
"We don't know what is father's love." Young Lee's father left when he was a child, and it is
clear that there was a vacuum waiting to be filled. And eventually the man who stepped into
that vacuum was his mother's boyfriend for a time, John Muhammed. Under Muhammed's
tutelage, Lee was taught how to shoot and kill, and indoctrinated into a vision that the two of
them together could use killing to bring about a utopian community. They planned to kill six
people a day for a month. There is no doubt that the younger man pulled the trigger on many
of the shootings. A Newsweek article concluded by saying, "(Lee) had finally found a father."

            Mentoring is a powerful force in human life - and we can see the power of evil mentoring. Thank God we can also see the opposite - the power of a mentor in helping a person find the right path. The Bible is full of such stories. Moses was a great leader for God's people, but only after being schooled by his father-in-law Jethro. Samuel was a great prophet, but he needed the elder Eli to show him how to recognize the voice of God. David was a great king, but the prophet Nathan shaped him for faithfulness. Elijah trained Elisha, and so on.

            And then we come to the story in Acts 9 - the conversion of Saul - kind of the opposite path of Malva's story - the conversion of a murderer into a Christian disciple. And it is so interesting to see God at work. Because there is, of course, the dramatic experience we read about in Acts 9: 1-9, where Saul is struck down on the road to Damascus, and sees the Risen Christ, and hears the words, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

            But that turns out to be only one piece of what God is putting together here. Saul had his
vision, but if that was all that God did, it probably wouldn't have amounted to much. Like Saul,
many people just end up blind and confused from their visions. Saul's conversion, it turns out,
took several steps. It was part of a whole scenario that God was assembling. And it is so

important to notice that at the same time God was raising Saul as a potential apostle, he was
raising Ananias to be Saul's mentor. He was raising someone who could seek Saul out, and pray
with him, and bring him under the power of the Holy Spirit, so that his sight could be restored,
and he could begin his journey as the greatest of all the Christian apostles. That was the great
role that Ananias was called to fulfill. And he did it faithfully, and we are all in his debt.

            I'm using Acts 9 to help us see four very important components of a conversion to faith. Two weeks ago, we talked about the first - the dramatic experience of grace. Today we add the
second - such an essential step: find a good mentor. This is such a critical piece of not only the
faith-journey, but life in general. Good mentoring is so important for church, nation, society.

            We see the tragedy of the opposite. In fact, you might say that our society is experiencing a mentoring crisis. Young people like Malvo are either not finding credible mentors, and so are
drifting and struggling through life; or, they are finding evil mentors like John Muhammed, or
Gordon Gecko in the current Wall Street movie, or any number of other examples - and ending
up in gangs, or in pursuit of destructive values, or worse.

            Mentoring is something we should be paying a lot of attention to. Who are your mentors in faith - not just in your early days of faith, but in every stage? Who is God raising to help you to the next steps of your discipleship journey? I don't believe those people come into our lives by
accident. God is putting pieces together. And I know from so many testimonies that I have
heard that time and time again, when people of faith get a little lost on the path, the right
person shows up at the right time, and says the right thing. That's God at work.

            But then flip the coin around. It's just as important to ask when God is calling you to be the Ananias in somebody's life. Who is needing you to bring vital mentoring and care from the
lessons of your own life? Many of those mentoring moments come within families. I love the
story about the little girl who was sitting and listening to her grandmother tell about the
adventures and fun she had when she was young; and the little girl sighed and said, "Oh,
Grandma. I wish I'd met you sooner!" I think she probably met her grandmother at just the
right time, because Grandma's role at that point is mentoring. Many of you have young people
around you, in the family, in the neighborhood - who vitally need an example of values and
faith and integrity in life. And if your family or neighborhood doesn't present you with
opportunities to teach the young about the good path in life, your church does. Teaching and
mentoring are woven into the fabric of our church life. Certainly the program here that
incorporates mentoring most intentionally is our confirmation program, which matches each
young person with a faith-mentor. Time and time again we have heard mentors say that they
started out wondering what they had to share with an inquiring young person, and ended up
saying it was one of the most rewarding things they have ever done. (Incidentally, now is the
time of year when Sue Bonspille starts to look for just the right mentor for each youth. Could it
be that God is calling out some Ananias's right now? Pray about this crucial ministry.)

            But mentoring is not just about raising the young. We always need mentoring as we
continue to encounter the challenges of each stage of life. I have been blessed with wonderful

mentors - so much so that I continue to anticipate the next person that God will send to shape
my thinking, my praying, and the direction of my life. We need mentors throughout our lives. I
believe God uses mentoring more than any other faith-building tool.

            I wanted us to have a concrete example of such mentoring, and rather than give one from
my own life, I've asked Tim Gauthier to share about a mentor who made a difference for him.

"Witness from Tim Gauthier"

            Everybody here this morning is potentially a messenger from God to steer someone to grace. Sometimes it's with the right words. But as Tim's example has shown, as often as not it's in action - in simply living a life before others with integrity and faith.

            I want to close with one of the most beautiful expressions of that - a poem most of you have no doubt heard, and probably I've already read to you at least once. It's by Anonymous, and
it's entitled, "When You Thought I Wasn't Looking."

            When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals. When you thought I wasn't
looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me, and I learned that little things can be the
special things in life. When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew
there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust God. When you thought I wasn't
looking I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I learned that we all
have to help take care of each other. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your
time and energy to help people who had nothing and I learned that those who have something
should give to those who don't.

            When you thought I wasn't looking, I felt you kiss me good night and I felt loved and safe. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it and I learned we have to take care of what we are given. When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw
how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel good, and I learned that I
should be responsible ... When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes,
and 1 learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's alright to cry. When you thought I wasn't
looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be. When you thought I
wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and productive
person .... I looked, and now I want to say thanks for everything I saw when you thought I
wasn't looking.

            This week - at home, at work, at play, in your community, in your church - take care how

you live. Someone is looking. And you have the wonderful chance of being for that someone

one of God's greatest gifts - a loving, faithful mentor.