BELIEVE WE CAN DO IT
1 Peter 2: 2-12
JOHN 14: 1-14
MAY 3, 2026
In the midst of the Great Depression … when families were struggling to put food on their table … when everyday folks like you and me had no hope … an author who used the pen name of Watty Piper was writing a book ostensibly for children but truly for everyone. He was born in Hungary … his real name was Arnold Munk but what mattered was the book he wrote … for kids … a book that has lasted … a book about perseverance … a book about possibilities … a book that I am sure I first heard read on Captain Kangaroo back in the days when children’s programming was more simple … when our civilization was focused on working together for the good of all rather than what we apparently have become today.
Those of you who are my age may recall the book. It has to do with a railroad train. In fact, the message has to do with Luke chapter 10 when you get down to the reality of the story. I am sure many of you today are well aware of Luke chapter 10 even though Captain Kangaroo never read from the Bible on his show; he just brought goodness, wholesomeness not a focus on violence or on which robot could kill another … Bob Keeshan didn’t need to use TV to preach at us … he showed us goodness with Mr. Green Jeans and Bunny Rabbit. We didn’t need folks on television telling us about their God … nor politicians attempting to say their version of faith was the only way to connect with God. Friends and families went to church together back then … it was a good part of life.
Jesus reminds us “Don’t be troubled … trust in me. My Father’s house has room to spare.” Ah, yes … trust in Jesus not in some human whose image is placed on coinage, buildings, or have their names emblazoned in gold insisting that their view of God is the one we must adopt. Back in those days of Captain Kangaroo … most families made their faith walk an important family connection without a push from their television sets.
Anyhow, that story … that book … there was a train carrying food and toys for children in need. Children on the other side of the mountain … the train had to cross a mountain to provide the needed help … a moment in literary history that for those of us who have pursued the Gospels in one of these (HOLD UP BIBLE) might have tied to a Jesus’ lesson.
The train breaks down and becomes stranded calling out to others to help it … so that the children … ON THE OTHER SIDE of the MOUNTAIN … can get the food they need and their toys. A bright new shiny passenger engine comes by and refuses to hook up to the cars carrying the food and toys for the children on the OTHER SIDE. Then a big ole powerful freight engine comes along, and it laughingly says NO, refusing to even give the idea … of helping move the food along a second thought. A tired old engine says … no, I am too old and worn down to move the train and to help get the food and toys to the children on the other side.
But then a small, weak, little blue engine whose role was just switching cars in a rail yard came along. Knowing that others were depending on that food … that small, weak engine fired itself up … agreed to take on the overwhelming challenge … she gets hooked up to the train full of food and toys and yes, in that Depression Era when women were often considered second class citizens Piper describes the hero of the story as “she.” The Little Engine leaves us with some of the most memorable words in American literary history … “I think I can … I think I can … I think I can” while using every ounce of it’s strength, faith, and perseverance to take on the challenge pulling the train load of food and toys over the crest of the mountain delivering it to the children on the OTHER SIDE. And, we remember the joy of the LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD when she said, “I thought I could … I thought I could” and she did.
And, on this first Sunday in May that children’s story is a lesson we need to remember as the church of Jesus Christ. There will be moments in this life when others have said no … others have been too busy … or not even caring even when there are individuals who need help, services, or to be rescued. When the question of who will help comes down to you and me. Peter writes to the early Christians in what is today’s nation of Turkey, “Once you weren’t even a people but now you are God’s people. Once you hadn’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” And, as He continues perhaps a very clear reminder to us in these times we live in … “YOU ARE IMMIGRANTS and STRANGERS in the world. Live honorably among unbelievers who will try to defame you.” And, then Peter notes that the unbelievers will notice the honorable deeds of the faithful.
Interesting that Peter puts an emphasis on the “honorable deeds” of the faithful. Throughout my life and I am sure throughout many of your lives too … I have heard the skeptics claim that helping others is not worth it … that those in need deserve their fate or that they should “pick themselves up by their OWN bootstraps.” I have also heard a choral litany of individuals explaining why they can’t take on a challenge … oh the excuses are so many I could probably write a book. There was the pastor in Atlantic City who told me he couldn’t join a group of us in a weekly midnight two hour walk through the crime zone in that resort city because he had things scheduled for that time every week … every Friday night … every single one of them scheduled from 11pm until 130 in the morning so good luck Dave .. I am already scheduled. I have had people tell me that they were too old … that their kids had sports events … even that they really didn’t like to get near poor people because they might have diseases.
Jesus, as you heard earlier, said “I assure you that whoever believes in me, WILL DO THE WORKS THAT I do. They will do ever greater works.” Now, I have read those words probably thousands of times and I have come to the conclusion that Jesus was serving as our coach when He said those words. He knew humans weren’t God like He is but He knew he had to get us into the mindset of I think I can … I think I can … I think I can because as His brother would write in the Book of James, “FAITH WITHOUT WORKS is DEAD.”
When others notice the faithful doing the unexpected, they become curious and might even join in. When people hear that this church is willing to go to the poorest county in the United States to help strangers fix up their homes … people from this church who are not “spring chickens” giving up a week of their time … that is faith in action! When we pack this church with kids during Vacation Bible School … when we sell out our chicken dinners … when hungry folks see smiling volunteers at the Food Pantry … when we care for homeless families and it is associated with this church … God at work through us.
We get far too much negative messaging in this world. This past week an amazing moment in time occurred that is continuing to provide a loving return on the volunteer moment in time when 19,070 individuals stepped up to do a simple act of kindness. I wasn’t even part of those nearly 20,000 humans and yet yesterday in Point Pleasant Beach New Jersey I had people thanking me because they had a feeling that I was associated with the individuals who crossed a road to help out.
There were no politicians involved … there was no one leader of note to name to say this person or that made a difference … it was teamwork young and old folks … folks of every color and from various nations … it was a love moment. One person described it as a “warm friendly moment the most special thing I have ever experienced.” Tears of pure joy and happiness were shed. As I watched it happening, I thought … what if the Christian church just came together and did something simply good and wonderful and then did it again and again and again out of love pure love.
Some of you know the story … it was simply at the start of a hockey game. Just happened to be in Buffalo New York at the Keybank Center. A young woman named Cami Clune came on the ice to sing the national anthems of Canada and the United States. In Buffalo we always include Canada … they are our neighbors and our friends. ALWAYS … FOREVER … as she started to sing O CANADA her microphone started to break up … Norm and Bev you know what that’s like … this was on INTERNATIONAL LIVE TELEVISION … you could see the panic in her face … but then the crowd of folks from West Seneca, a place our District Superintendent calls home, from Cheektowaga, Niagara Falls, St. Catherines, Williamsville, Elmwood Village, Hamburg, Orchard Park, Black Rock, and other communities began to lift up their voices to sing the Canadian National Anthem with a reverence and decibel level that you would normally hear only in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto or Montreal … O CANADA … our home and native land! These weren’t Canadians singing but they continued “O Canada we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free!” They sang to be good neighbors … they realized it was an incredible special moment of love for strangers … a moment reflective of what Christians are called to do … tears poured out … and then from around the world from Canada from Great Britain from Australia and New Zealand and from throughout the United States news stories about the love … one wrote “Call this a wonderful piece of Canadian-American diplomacy you own’t find written up in a trade agreement … teamwork with the crowd that will go down in Canadian and United States diplomacy history … something special to remind all of us of the close relationship between two neighbors … <<PLAY THE VIDEO>>
Yesterday I was walking through Point Pleasant Beach New Jersey. It might surprise some of you but I was wearing a Buffalo hockey jersey … and strangers came up to me saying THANK YOU and GO SABRES. THANK YOU … GO SABRES … I called a friend and said I have never had strangers come up to me and say GO SABRES … now GO BILLS yes but never GO SABRES but THANK YOU … they said THANK YOU because they associated me with those 19070 singers.
As you walk through life are you thanked for being associated with a church that has taken on missions to help others and make a difference? Are you one of those who says I can’t do it … I can’t help … I am too busy or I don’t like those who struggle or are you ready today with your Bible in hand to start chugging along like that little blue engine and saying I THINK I CAN I THINK I CAN … Jesus said, “I assure you that whoever believes in me … WILL DO EVEN GREATER WORKS”
I believe that this little church named St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of West Deptford is not done … that God has more plans for this place. I believe because of people like you great things still can be done for God and Jesus Christ in the coming years … we all just have to step up and say we know we can! AMEN