Thanks to the early riser in the motel room next door, I made it into the sanctuary. While we waited for President Carter to arrive, I chatted with a Baptist minister sitting in the pew behind me about a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, in which Mr. Carter hinted that he considers the sitting president of the United States a liar. Asked what it takes to be president, he told Mr. Colbert, “I used to think it was to tell the truth. But I’ve changed my mind lately.”

There were flashes of the same impish wit on display at the church in Plains. “Do we have any visitors this morning?” he joked to the crowd. He asked where we were all from, and voices sang out from places like Cameroon, Israel, Uzbekistan.

When it was time for the lesson itself, President Carter stood smiling and spoke without referring to notes, moving to the lectern only to read from the scripture. The text was from the Acts of the Apostles, passages concerning the priorities of the early church. “They worshiped together. They had fellowship together. And a third thing: They took care of each other’s needs, even in a sacrificial way,” he said. He spoke particularly about the generosity of Barnabas, who sold his own field and gave the money to Jesus’ apostles to distribute to the needy.

President Carter is not a pacing, gesturing, booming-voiced orator, but he is a brilliant teacher — moving nimbly between his memories, his concerns for the world and what the Acts have to say about the right relationship of human beings to one another. He asks questions, nods encouragement when an answer is close but keeps nudging until someone hits on the point he’s trying to make.

“We have lost faith in a lot of things that have always nurtured us,” he said. “Many people in the world have lost faith in democracy. We’ve lost faith in the sanctity of telling the truth and the value of education. We’ve lost faith in the equality of people. In our country’s history, some of our greatest struggles have been over the issue of equality.”

Then he asked the congregation what year women in the United States gained the right to vote.

Several called out “1920!” But it was a trick question. “That was white women,” he reminded us. “A lot of white people don’t remember that distinction.”