Reflections from Lithuania Sunday

“Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” — John 4:15

Give me some of that water. For a long time, I didn't know why the woman at the well was so excited about this water ... this living water. Having been raised in the church, I am not personally privy to the eager desire the woman has for what Jesus has to offer. Because, from the start ... as a boy raised in a privileged home, and a prosperous community and a religiously free nation ... I had that blessed assurance that Jesus was mine.

And then I went to Lithuania. And I saw in peoples eyes what the thirst for grace really looked like ... what the parched spirit of the woman at the well desired of Jesus. I have to tell you though, I wasn't expecting to find her there. Lithuania is a member of the European Union and a NATO nation ... part of the first world order ... part of the privileged. So I was expecting the Baltic land of Lietuva to be just as blessedly assured ... full of just as many owners of the status quo Jesus. After all, 95 percent of the nation claims to be actively Christian.

I was shocked to find that the Jesus they have come to know is not the Jesus I know. The faith they have come to know is not the faith which I celebrate and know. In Lithuania, Jesus is not the living water so that people can live today for God and neighbor. In Lithuania, I encountered a Jesus who demanded suffering of this people so they could better appreciate the eternal life in heaven.

In Lithuania, I encountered a people so battered by occupation and communism that they had given up on this life having any meaning whatsoever. This is how, historically, they understand Jesus Christ. While I do agree that there is a cost to disciple that does result in suffering, I do not agree that suffering should make faith joyless. In Lithuania, there was little blessed assurance, Jesus was off sobbing in his hands — powerless, and many people imitated this image of Jesus.

This is what made Methodism so enticing to so many Lithuanians after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It danced with hope and joy and laughter and offered to quench the thirst of mind, body and spirit for all of God's children. A resurrected Jesus, working with a community which prays for each other, studies together, challenges each other and displays genuine compassion for their neighbors in need.

This is what made Methodism so enticing to this man.This is Vidas (photo). Vidas is a father, a World War II buff and a war hero himself (he was one of the handful of volunteers who took on a soviet tank battalion in 1991 to defend the citizens of Lithuania from being occupied again).

One day Saturday, walking home from work in 1999, Vidas saw the familiar cross and flame on the door of the building the congregation rents there in Kybartai, and he was overcome with something he couldn't explain. There was just something about that cross and split flame that spoke to him. It warmed his heart ... it inspired him.

This was the defining moment of Vidas' life. He noted the times for worship on the door, went home and told his wife that he was going to go to church tomorrow. She looked at him in shock. Apparently, Vidas was not the church-going type. She gave him the approval, but did not go with him.

That morning, his 10-year old son Arnoldas was playing football (soccer) in the parking lot of their apartment complex, when Vidas took him by the hand and said “We are going for a walk.”

“Where are we going?” Arnoldas replied, somewhat frightened and confused.

“It is a good place, you will know when we get there,” his father replied.

Together, they heard through an interpreter the gospel of Luke being told by a Methodist missionary ... and he was saying things about God they had never heard before. They never knew that God could be so accessible ... so loving ... so for them ... an advocate ... a healer ... a restorer ... a home ... a parent. Give me some of that water, he said.

What was so inviting about that cross and flame was the community which stood behind it. It was a community which welcomed Vidas and his family, a community which changed his heart and his preconceptions about God. And it even changed his career. You see, Vidas would later enroll in seminary and become the pastor of our partner church in Taurage. Now, I am proud to call him my friend and partner in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

The good news is that Methodism ... the Wesleyan ethos ... the holistic faith of our heritage ... has the potential to change everyone in Lithuania. Your continued support of Lithuanian missions bring joy and laughter to new people daily. It brings them to a faith which tells them that they are important ... children of God. Vidas knows this, because it changed him. And, I have to say, hearing of his transformation has changed me.

I am a man reinvigorated for God's mission because of what I witnessed in Lithuania. I am exuberant with joy for what the Wesleyan faith is doing there. Our friends in Lithuania have become my passion. And this is something I pray you all can share in too. For the rest of my life may I never forget the well I drew from there. Give me some of that water.