Today we conclude our sermon series on the Truth Project. Next week we'll begin a series for Advent on the Jesse Tree, looking at the Biblical figures whose lives paved the way for the coming of the Messiah.
There is a painting by Antonio Ciseri a Swiss painter in the 1800's that was used all through the Truth Project DVD's. It shows Pontius Pilate presenting Jesus to the crowds just after Jesus had told Pilate--"I have come in to the world to bear witness to the truth." And Pilate responds to Jesus saying "What is the truth?"
Perhaps a better question is "Who is the truth?" Jesus answers that question for us in
John 14. He says, "I am the way and the truth and the life." As the truth project has powerfully shown us, the truth comes from God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we can see that truth all around us in God's design for his world in ethics, science, government, economics, the family.
The Truth Project has helped us to see how God has designed us and everything around us. And if we understand how life is intended to work, then life in all it's fullness opens up to us. Not that we can follow God's design perfectly.......
Do any of you like to put puzzles together? Stephanie really likes to do puzzles. You know what you can do to drive a puzzle doer crazy? Get two puzzles with similar pictures and then switch the lids on the boxes! Now I've never done that to Stephanie--but Josh McDowell says that's what the world does to all of us. The world has switched the puzzle box tops on us and we're trying to put the puzzle of our lives together according to the wrong picture!
What the Truth Project has helped me to do is to focus on the picture of God's design for life instead of the worldly picture that confuses us all so badly. If we're going to successfully put the puzzle of life together, we need to follow God's picture of what life is supposed to look like.
The final segment of the Truth Project is entitled, "God and Community--God Cares-Do I?" And it focuses on Jesus response to a teacher of the law who asked him, "What is the greatest commandment?"
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matt 22:37-39
Do you want to know the truth about human life? Love God and love your neighbor and you will experience the truth of what God has created life to be! And you can't do either one without the other.
Early in his life, St Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier. One cold winter day he rode into a city and a beggar stopped him and asked for money. Martin had no money, but he felt compassion for the man shivering in the cold. So Martin took off his cloak and cut it in half and gave half to the beggar.
That night Martin had a dream. He saw heaven and all the angels standing around Jesus. And Jesus was wearing half a soldier's cloak. One of the angels said to him, "Master, why are you wearing that battered old cloak? Who gave it to you?" Jesus answered, "My servant Martin gave it to me!"
When we love our neighbor, we are loving God and if we love God we will love our neighbor. Why?-- because love for those in need is at the heart of who God is.
Look at just a few examples from scripture of God's feeling for people in need.
1 Samuel 2:8
The Lord raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.
Job 5:11
The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
Psalm 138:6
Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
God loves all his people but for those in need he has a special place in his heart. And so should we.
Our heavenly Father loves each of us his children, not with a weak love like an over-indulgent parent, but with a strong love that guides us to good things and doesn't enable us to chase after the bad.
What is the greatest commandment? Jesus said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Love for God and neighbor go hand in hand.
It's been said that God doesn't comfort us to make us comfortable. He comforts us so that we can comfort others.
But too often we struggle to share that comfort. Why? What are the obstacles that keep us from showing love to our neighbors in need?
Well, sometimes we get taken advantage of. Our church in Pennsylvania wasn't far from a truck stop along interstate 80. And so we would get calls from time to time from people who were stuck because of weather, money or car troubles. One day I got a call from a man who identified himself as a Lutheran from Minnesota who was stranded at the truck stop because he worked for a moving company and the van driver had gotten mad at him and just drove off without him.
So I went up and got the guy some food and part of a bus ticket to Minnesota. Six months later I got a call from the same guy with the exact same story. I said "That sounds like the same trouble you called about six months ago!" He hung up. About six months later he called again-same story. He called several more times over the next few years, each time with the same story.
But we cannot let those who try to take advantage of people prevent us from helping the many people who are truly in need!
Sometimes---we have helped people who haven't shown any gratitude and we think "Why bother?" But Oswald Chambers writes that "if we serve out of devotion to man we will be hurt when they are ungrateful. But if we serve out of devotion to God, ungratefulness won't hurt us."
Sometimes--- it's hard to know how to help and not make the problem worse. We don't want to enable someone to keep making bad choices. But that can't prevent us from trying. So sometimes the best way we can help is to say, "I can help you this way but I can't do that for you."
It's often easier to just give someone what they want. But showing true love to someone who is hurting or in need means helping them to live in a way that is consistent with God's design for them. We need to remember that "the Lord loves us just as we are, but he loves us too much too let us stay that way!"
Sometimes--- we are in need ourselves and have little resources to share. Writer Leo Tolstoy was once approached by a man asking for money. But Tolstoy had no money with him. He said, "I'm sorry my brother but I have nothing to give you." The man quickly replied, "Oh but you have given me a great gift. You called me your brother!"
Even if we have little to share in a material way, we can share Christ's love through kind words, friendship, keeping informed on where people in need can find help in the community so we can point the way for them.
Sometimes ---we don't do well at showing love to God and neighbor because the needs just seem too overwhelming. It's true that you and I can't save the world. But it's also true that God doesn't expect us to. The Lord is in charge of the big picture--all you and I can do is our small part. But remember how good God is at working with small things to create great results.
A stuttering Moses against the mighty pharaoh of Egypt. David's pebble against the giant Goliath. The 2 small coins of the widow that Jesus praised. The mustard seed faith that Jesus described that starts tiny but yields great results. It's true that the needs of the people around us are more than we can handle. But God has called us together into families and congregations so that together---through the strength of his Holy Spirit, we may be able to follow his command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Why does Jesus give us that command? Because we are created in the image of God and love for those in need is at the heart of who God is.
On the night before he was crucified, Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?" (John 14:6-9)
Do you know what had happened just before he said all that? He had just washed his disciple's feet, an act of humble service-- caring for their need. Jesus said, "If you know me, you will know my father also." His washing of their feet was a personal demonstration of the sacrificial nature of God and his love. You and I are made in that image and that nature of God.
Of course we are far from being able to care for people as God does, but consider the ways the world is better because of the work of Christ's people. Think of the heritage of caring for the needy that has been created by Christians through the centuries. Many hospitals were founded by church groups. Hundreds of colleges and universities began as Christian institutions. Much of the greatest art, music and literature of history came from Christian artists, composers and writers. Many of the social service agencies in our country today are ministries of Christian groups. Missionaries around the world have brought health care, education and agricultural aid to people in need.
Though it has not always been done perfectly or completely, as Christ's people we have an incredible heritage of making the world a more caring and compassionate place.
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) is a key part of that heritage. You may have seen the recent movie of his life "Amazing Grace"
In the late 1700s, English traders raided the African coast on the Gulf of Guinea, captured between 35,000 and 50,000 Africans a year, shipped them across the Atlantic, and sold them into slavery. It was a profitable business that many powerful people had become dependent upon. The economics of slavery were so entrenched that only a handful of people thought anything could be done about it. William Wilberforce was one of them.
His early life, enjoying the pleasures of his privileged position, didn't hint at his becoming a social pioneer. But he experienced a spiritual rebirth in 1786 and became a devout Christian.
He had served in parliament since 1780, but he later admitted, "The first years in Parliament I did nothing—nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object."
As his faith grew, he questioned whether he should stay in parliament. But with the encouragement of others he began to see his life's purpose as serving in parliament to create change. He became absorbed with the issue of slavery. Later he wrote, "So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition."
Wilberforce was naively optimistic. He expressed "no doubt" about his chances of quick success. As early as 1789, he managed to have 12 resolutions against the slave trade introduced—only to be outmaneuvered on technical legal points. The pathway to abolition was blocked by, parliamentary filibustering, bigotry, international politics, slave unrest, his own sickness, and political fear. Other bills introduced by Wilberforce were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805. But he would not give up.
In fact, slavery was only one cause that excited Wilberforce's passions. He gave away one-quarter of his annual income to the poor. He fought on behalf of chimney sweeps, single mothers, Sunday schools, orphans, and juvenile delinquents. All this in spite of the fact that poor health plagued him his entire life, sometimes keeping him bedridden for weeks.
His antislavery efforts finally bore fruit in 1807: Parliament abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. For the next 26 years he then worked to ensure the slave trade laws were enforced and, finally, that slavery in the British Empire was entirely abolished in 1833, three days before his death. More than 40 years of his life Wilberforce dedicated to the love of his African neighbors in slavery. He lived by Christ's command to love God and neighbor.
There is no doubt--God cares for those in need! And so must you and I!
Rabbi Israel Salanter said, "The material needs of my neighbor are my spiritual needs.
So what should we do? Being here at Christ Lutheran is the right place to start. Since coming here a few months ago, I have constantly been impressed by the servant hearts of so many people here. You have an amazing sense of care for those in need. Shepherd's Hand Clinic, youth mission trips, Stephen's ministers, the Ecuador mission trip, Share the Bread for families in need, support for missionaries around the world to name just a few. And today, Operation Christmas child---all great examples of how we can love God and neighbor.
And as we love God and neighbor, we learn the truth of human life as God created us to be.
Amen.
