Let us pray: O God you make yourself known in many ways and in many places. May the words and pictures today help us to see you. Amen.

Last week I told about a conversation that I had around the dinner table at the wedding reception of Steve and Coral. It began with our friend Bob asking if I’d heard of Paul Potts. I tried to connect the story of this underdog opera singer - winner of the Britain’s Got Talent reality television show - with the passages of the day. At the time I promised a further recalling of that conversation this morning. I countered Bob’s story with this story, one that I first learned about in May at a Living the Welcome event in Grande Prairie.

Today’s passage from the letter to the Hebrews referred to the cloud of witnesses. I think the story I’m about to tell is a prime example of how the cloud of witnesses is always near by, emanating from unexpected places in unexpected ways. Often times the answer to a need comes from within the need itself, and you’ll hear that in this story, and I believe you will also see the love of God shining through in an unexpected way.

So without further introduction, let me take a couple of moments for technical set-up and introduce you to this video, which is readily available through youtube. I also added a link to it on the web page of Yellowknife United Church.ca

I’ll say more about the video after you’ve seen it.


The Story of the "Free Hugs" Video
(As shared at Norval United Church, Oct. 8, 2006)
This is a true story. A year ago, Juan Mann was just an odd guy standing in the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, Australia offering "free hugs" to passing strangers. One of the people he hugged was Shimon Moore, the lead singer of a band called the Sick Puppies. They became friends, and one day Moore decided to borrow a video camera and tape Mann doing his thing.

As the "free hug" campaign started to spread, the city council tried to ban it, demanding that Mann have a huge liability insurance policy in case people got hurt with his free hugs. Mann and his friends mounted a petition campaign, and after presenting more than 10,000 to the city council, the calls for a ban died away.

That might have been the end of a quirky story. Except for this. After Mann's grandmother died, Moore decided to mix the video he had taken with the Sick Puppies song All the Same, to lift his friend's spirits. He created a great little video and posted it on YouTube, September 22.

Since being uploaded the video has been viewed more than 4,100,000 times (as of Oct 25) and seventeen million times on August 19, 2007.

Good Morning America featured the video. A group of university students at Memorial University in Newfoundland posted their own video response, showing their "free hugs" effort. So did people in Portugal and Tel Aviv. One person in Toronto took it to the Nuit Blanche Arts Celebration in downtown Toronto.

Juan Mann, the fellow in the video holding the Free Hugs sign writes:

"I'd been living in London when my world turned upside down and I'd had to come home. By the time my plane landed back in Sydney, all I had left was a carry on bag full of clothes and a world of troubles. No one to welcome me back, no place to call home. I was a tourist in my hometown. Standing there in the arrivals terminal, watching other passengers meeting their waiting friends and family, with open arms and smiling faces, hugging and laughing together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me. So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words "Free Hugs" on both sides. And for 15 minutes people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one-year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling. Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven't compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time.”

Juan Mann is an unexpected witness. He needed to experience the love of God as much as he needed to share it. But in so doing, he became one of the cloud of witnesses. He helped us see the importance of sharing love in the world. And yes, the conflict that Jesus predicted was also there - but thankfully resolved.

Where might we experience the cloud of witnesses - who might we meet today that will help us to know more about God’s presence in the world. Who might we meet today that will know more about the presence of God because of something we say or do?

We are called to follow Jesus, and let God’s spirit flow through us. Amen.