BELIEVE 8 compassion RUMC October 16

(Video in Easyworship)Week 8

BELIEVE compassion

RUMC October 16

(Video in easyworship)

http://ktla.com/2014/11/12/pregnant-panhandler-in-socal-caught-driving-off-in-mercedes-benz/

Occasionally, we see stories like that and if you are anything like me, it makes your blood boil. Then, the next time I come across someone who seems to be in need, I remember folks like that and think twice, or three times, about whether I should help them.

•             So, WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE SOMEONE PANHANDLING do you try to change lanes so they are not right beside you when you stop at the stop light? That’s what they priest did in the scripture today.

•             When you see the commercials for some organization supporting orphans do you say to yourself, “I’LL BET MOST OF THE MONEY GOES TO SOME RICH CEO SO THEY CAN TRAVEL ON THEIR PRIVATE JET?” So you raise your magazine or newspaper just a little higher so you don’t have to look into the orphan’s eyes? That is what the Levite in the story did.

•             When we ASK YOU TO BUY TOYS FOR CHRISTMAS IN GRUNDY NEXT MONTH, IS YOUR FIRST THOUGHT OF THE FAMILY YOU KNOW WHO CAN AFFORD XBOXES AND SATELLITE TV, BUT STILL TAKES ANYTHING THEY CAN GET FROM AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE THAT? Is that your excuse for boycotting the project? How is that different from the priest who passed by the man on the road?

•             The next time someone comes in to my office asking for help do I think, “Well, if you hadn’t made such dumb decisions, you wouldn’t be in this situation?” Isn’t that just a way of mentally walking by the bloody man on other side of the road?

I know it’s hard when we hear stories like the one in the video. They stick with us and make us cynical about people. I know it’s hard when we discover someone has taken advantage of us. It still stings to remember taking diapers and formula to a family outside of Letts, Iowa near Muscatine because they supposedly had no money and no way to get in to the church to pick up these essentials. When I arrived, the infant had been left in the care of a 5 year old while mom drove her little Toyota 20 miles into Muscatine to play Bingo at the Knights of Columbus hall. I was so mad! Frankly, it made me a little hesitant to help the next person who came along. I know how hard it is.

 Jesus tells us that we can’t be like that. The priest and the Levite who passed by the man had good reasons. The Levites assisted the priests in their duties the temple. If they had stopped to help them man, contact with blood would have rendered them ceremonially unclean meaning that they would have not been able to do their jobs and it would have been significant time away from their families for purification. On the other hand, maybe they were afraid, because the road to Jericho was notoriously dangerous and it was not unheard of for robbers to lie along the road as bait so their cohorts could jump out and rob any kind stranger who stops. Therefore, like us, in their minds, the first two men had good reason to pass up the victim.

  From the beginning of time, people have tried to claim that we are not responsible for each other. In Genesis chapter 4, Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. When God came looking for Abel, Cain asked God, “Am I my brothers’ keeper?” God’s answer is essentially, “Yes you are.”

•           God is a God of love. Love in action, is compassion. Compassion is translated from a Greek word that means, “To be moved to one’s bowels.” That is a vivid way of describing something that moves us deep within. We might say compassion is when the sight of someone suffering is like “a kick in the gut” and we are forced to do something.

•           God is often described as having compassion. He had compassion when he saw the slaves in Egypt.

•           We read that even when the people of Israel were suffering because of the consequences of their sin, in his compassion God “delivered them time and time again.”

•           When (Jesus) went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

•           Of course, the greatest act of compassion was, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.”  God’s compassion went so far as Jesus laying down his life for God’s beloved people suffering in sin.

Finally, Jesus asks the question, “who acted like the man’s neighbor,

•           the two good Jews who may have felt a little guilty, or afraid, but passed by the man without helping;

•           or the dirty, nasty, smelly, unbelieving, unclean, Samaritan who knew very well that if the tables were turned the man probably would not have done the same for him. (Because Jews hated Samaritans ;) but he stopped anyway and showed the man compassion? Which one was the neighbor? Obviously, the Samaritan was the one who acted like a neighbor. Then Jesus pulls out the zinger, “Go, and do likewise.”

“Go and do likewise.” Jesus is clear that just as he, himself, showed compassion in healing the sick and casting out demons and cleansing lepers, and forgiving adulteresses, and raising Lazarus and all the other wonderful, compassionate things Jesus did in his short life on earth; he expects us to do the same. GO AND DO LIKEWISE. YES, YOU ARE YOUR BROTHER’S KEEPER… GO AND DO LIKEWISE.

  So how do we do it? The key passage for this week is Psalm 82 vs. 3-4, 

 “Give justice to the weak and the orphan;   maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy;    deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”  There are four verbs in this verse, which reveal what we can do as believers to put on hearts of compassion. They are

•           give justice,

•           maintain rights,

•           rescue, and

•           Deliver.

 Let’s look at these verbs more closely…

 1. Give Justice… (The NIV says Defend the weak)

The Bible repeatedly describes God as the defender of the fatherless and the widow, in other words making sure the weakest are treated justly.

The political reality in our world is that the wealthy and powerful will always look out for themselves. No matter what a candidate says, the orphans and widows, the weak and the powerless do not make the campaign contributions.

We all love the stories of someone standing up to the bullies.

I read a story recently about a group of football players who didn’t like the way the bully treated other s in the school, particularly one little boy with down’s syndrome. The football players grabbed the bully one day, stripped him naked, lathered him up with Nair from head to foot, and duct taped him to the flagpole. I’m sorry but I had to cheer just a little inside (even thought they clearly went too far and the football players were actually the ones in trouble.) I'm not proud of it, but I actually cheered just a little bit, because the bully got a taste of what it means to be weak and powerless.

Now, to be clear, I do not suggest that kind of behavior under any circumstances, but their motivation was right, they were standing up for the weak and the disabled children who were easy targets for this bully.

Friends, if we don’t stop our busy lives, get off our donkeys, and defend those can’t defend themselves, who will?

 2. Maintain the rights of the lowly, (the NIV says Uphold the rights)

At first, I thought that this was the same as giving justice to the weak. Then I learned that the word “rights” is used in a technical sense here. In a legal sense. 

Last spring Robyn and I spent most of a day in Montgomery Alabama. One of the things we did was tour Martin Luther King Junior’s church. There is a man who led a movement fighting for the rights of the lowly. 

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years for trying to uphold the right of black South Africans.

Our former Bishop Trimble went to jail for protesting in front of the Whitehouse on behalf of families in danger of deportation.

One of our Iowa pastors was brought up on ecclesiastical charges for confessing her homosexuality at annual conference as way of standing up and saying that this group deserves rights too!

Over what would you be willing to go to jail? Which group of people is important enough to you, that you would be willing to risk your job? What issues do you feel so strongly about that you would stand up for them even if it meant your family rejected you? What causes are so important that you would give your last dollar to make a difference?

Proverbs 21:13 (ESV) says, “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”

If we don’t hear the cry of the poor and do something who will? Friends, if we don’t stop our busy lives, get off our donkeys and stand for the rights of the lowly, who will?

 3. Rescue and Deliver

The Samaritan is a great example of this.

To the Jews, a Samaritan was a heretical, unclean, untrustworthy, contaminated, disloyal, deceitful, hated creature… He’s the one who stopped.

 He came to where (the man) was, and when he saw him, he had COMPASSION. (He got off his donkey) He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

But he didn’t stop there, And then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

But he didn’t stop there, because the next day he took out two days wages and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 

When we consider the plight of the poor, it can be overwhelming. The truth is Jesus told us that we will always have the poor among us.

The problem is that our response is often in one of two extremes: try to do everything (and fail because we cannot do EVERYTHING) or we do nothing (and fail because we don’t try.) Neither of which is what Jesus is asking of us. Rather he is calling us to do whatever we can just as the Samaritan did.

•           Maybe giving the family a tank of gas doesn’t solve their problems, but it gets them a couple hundred miles closer to a solution.

•           Maybe dropping spare change in a panhandler’s cup doesn’t change the system that forced them into the position of having to beg, but it will buy him some food or a razor so he can apply for a job tomorrow.

•           Maybe sending a hundred dollars to Haiti seems like such a small drop in the bucket- that it couldn’t make any difference. But remember I said 2 weeks ago, “your little difference added to my little difference, raised to the power of God working in and through the church” has the power to change

o          not just the lives of a man laying alongside the road,

o          not just  a family seeking better life for  themselves,

o          not just the homeless vet panhandling on the interstate exit,

o          Not just an orphan who might otherwise have starved; but it has the power to change the world for Jesus Christ.

 “In 1952, Everett Swanson went to South Korea to preach the gospel to troops in the Republic of Korea’s army. During his visit, he was deeply moved by the number of children orphaned by the war. He discussed this issue with a missionary, who challenged him “What do you intend to do about it?” In effect, this missionary was saying, “Are you going to just feel sorry for these children, or are you going to express compassion?”

 Swanson returned to the United States, and launched a ministry on behalf of these orphans. He collected funds to meet their daily living needs. By 1954, people could give a monthly gift to help provide food, shelter, medical care, and Bible instruction for a specific child. In 1963, inspired by Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:32: “I have compassion for these people ... I do not want to send them away hungry.” He renamed the organization COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL. What began as a kick in a preacher’s gut, is today a vital ministry that serves more than one million children in more than twenty-five nations.”

 

Rev. Swanson got off his donkey and did something that made a difference.

So what about you? Our key belief today is this: please read it with me.

“I believe God calls all Christians to show compassion to people in need.”

Do you? Do you believe that? If so, are you just going to sit there, or will you get off your donkey and change the world for Jesus Christ by doing love… exercising compassion.