Sunday came and, as was becoming usual, Danny did the first part of the service in his tried and true Episcopal way, after he read the scripture, he moved into a chair to the side of the altar. There, he was joined by a lady who had been translating Danny’s words into Spanish for the congregation. From here on, she would be translating Davy’s Spanish words to Danny alone. She slipped into the seat beside him. Preacher Davy stood and walked toward the pulpit. Davy stepped behind the pulpit and slowly looked at those sitting before him. In Spanish he said, “Buenos Dias.” meaning “Good Morning.”
The congregation responded “Buenos Dias.”
Davy began his sermon. “We have a problem,” he shouted, “I am not telling you anything you do not know. In a community like ours, news travels fast and is surprisingly accurate. One of our own is about to lose her granddaughter, a granddaughter she has never met and a granddaughter she will never meet if we don’t do something and do it now.”
Davy became silent and looked around the church. Then he spoke. “I was taught years ago that when a problem occurs, the first place to look, the best place, is in the Bible. This I have done. In the Bible it says ‘An eye for an eye’. But, a few hundred pages later, Jesus tells us that if someone strikes us on the right cheek we should turn the other cheek.” Again, a moment of silence followed by, “Which is it? This is confusing.”
Several in the congregation looked at each other and nodded.
“In Genesis and throughout the entire old testament for that matter, God kills his enemies. He rains brimstone down on Sodom and Gamora and kills every man, woman and child in those two cities. Then, he kills Pharaoh’s entire army by drowning them in the Red Sea. Okay, fair enough, we kill the man who is threatening this woman’s granddaughter. We’ve never killed anyone before, but God is telling us to do it. That’s what we’ll do. We will kill the man.”
The eyes of people in the congregation widened and people began to dart looks at each other. The people begin to shift in their seats. They were becoming extremely uncomfortable.
“Then, I read, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ God is now telling me that it would be wrong to kill this man. I am more confused. No, the answer is not in the Bible. If it's not in the Bible, where is it?”
Davy shakes his head then says, “I’m sure some of us have thought about this matter and prayed. Prayer is good. Prayer is one of the foundations of our faith, but unfortunately, prayer is not very time sensitive. Though our situation today is worse, much worse, it does remind me of something that occurred years ago at a former church. It was the middle of the winter and one of the members of the Sunday school stood and said a lady in their church was about to have her electricity turned off because she couldn’t pay the bill. She needed ninety-seven dollars. After some discussion, the leader of the class stood and announced that they would pray for the woman, and he began moving onto something else. One of the men in the class stood, obviously concerned, and said, ‘Wait just a minute. The power company doesn’t want a prayer. They want money. It’s cold outside, and if we care in the least about this woman, that is what we need to give her, money, not prayer.’ The class realized the man was right, passed the hat, and helped the woman pay her bill.”
Davy started getting louder.
“People, that is what we are facing now. We don’t need to pray. We need to do something to take this dear woman’s daughter out of harm’s way. We need to buy her a ticket to someplace safe. To where, I won’t say. What she will do when she gets there, I don’t know. But what I do know is that her child will not be murdered.” Davy emphasized the word “murdered” at the top of his voice.
“No, I couldn’t find the answer in the Bible, it wasn’t there, but God gave us something even greater than the Bible, much greater than the Bible, he gave us the ability to think and he gave us a heart to love our fellow man.”
Then, Davy almost whispered, “And I ask you now, what does your God given ability to think and your God given ability to love tell you to do?”
Davy shouted, “It tells you, and it tells me, to help this woman. It is something we can do, me and you, NOW!”
Even louder Davy screamed, “Together we can prevent a murder. I don’t know about you, but I have never had an opportunity to stop a murder. I don’t know if I’ll ever have it again, but I do know one thing, opportunity is knocking. It’s knocking loud, and I’m opening the door!”
Davy literally ran to the back of the church, grabbed one of the offering baskets and threw his money inside. He handed the basket to man who did the same and passed the basket along. Another man stood, went to the back and passed the other baskets out to the people. In a matter of seconds, one of the baskets overflowed and money fell to the floor. Someone went out the door and returned with a cardboard box and began dumping in the contents of the collection baskets. People were writing checks, everyone in the church was smiling. Everyone knew they were doing something good.
Danny looked in total disbelief. Davy knew that what was happening would happen. He knew it the week before. He knew it when they were in Ramona Mendez’ apartment. Davy knew these things and somehow, Danny knew that at that very moment, God was watching.
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