Have you ever been on the outside looking in? So many of my favorite teachers taught history. Awarded the title of Master Teacher, James Vardaman taught British History at Baylor University when I was an undergraduate. He was brilliant and intense. England came to life in multiple dimensions and vivid color as he taught. Not to mention his sister Anne Miller was a favorite professor in the English Department. Their brother taught religion at Mississippi College. Another brother was named George Truett Vardaman. Dr. Vardaman’s own father died when he was just a few weeks old.
Years after he taught me, I was privileged to sit next to him at a gathering of Baylor dignitaries. He told me that night about going to First Baptist Church Dallas as a child. His family lived five miles away from the church and they walked over on Wednesday nights, because his mother loved George W. Truett’s preaching. Truett was eloquent, articulate, and fiery. Maybe Vardaman first learned public speaking under Truett’s tutelage. As I recall the story, they did not eat the Wednesday night supper because it was too expensive for their large family. So they waited outside in the shade of the trees until the programs started.
The Gentiles in Ephesus knew what it was like to be outsiders. They did not enjoy the covenants or the commandments of the Old Testament. The stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sounded foreign to them. What business did they have with Moses, much less Elijah, or David? They were without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, they had been brought near to God through the blood of Christ. God reconciled the world to himself in Christ. Now they were no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens.
At the dinner table that night, I had a two-hour audience with Dr. Vardaman. It was like nobody else was in the room. He told me that one night Dr. George W. Truett noticed him and his siblings standing in the shadows on a Wednesday night. He brought them into the fellowship hall and bought them supper. They sat at his table that night and it did not cost them anything.
When was Dr. Truett at his best? Some would say when he stood on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington D. C. and preached about Religious Liberty. But Dr. Vardaman disagreed. Perhaps the preacher was at his very best the night he noticed children and brought them in from the outside.
E. V. Hill used to preach a sermon asking, “When was God at his best?” He concluded it was not in the creation of the world but in the redemption of all peoples who believe. At Calvary God was at his best, redeeming, reconciling, and restoring. We don’t have to be on the outside. Christ has brought us in. We are welcomed at the table of the King.
