COMPOSED

To keep oneself from being polluted by the world does not mean we don’t live in the world. It is our inner life, which informs our core beliefs and practices, that needs protection. To avoid touching the hungering, groaning world is not admirable; it’s cold and heartless. Our faith is weak if we don’t believe we can walk amidst our neighbors and remain consistent in our foundational doctrine. We are not sullied by rubbing shoulders with those whose beliefs differ from ours. We are only contaminated when spiritual toxins grow from the inside and take root, poisoning the well of humility, grace and truth from which we draw strength. The overflow of our hearts needs a daily soak in the living waters of the Divine. We become parched, sickly and anemic, without this regular refreshment of His Word and prayer.

It’s also a terrible defect to walk amidst our neighbors and believe that we are better than they are. Disciples of Christ are not superior people. We are the same sort of human as every other human, and if we don’t truly believe that, there will be no way to hide it; arrogance will spill out everywhere. It is an awful thing to be tainted by a hardened, insidious, spirit of self-importance.  

Where did Jesus go? Directly to places and to people that made others say He was “a drunkard and a glutton…a friend of sinners.”  And what did He say to those who accused Him of consorting with an unseemly crowd? That He came to heal, and individuals who are already well don’t need a doctor. Significantly, He must have interacted without condescension, or He would not have been welcomed so willingly. We should wish to be so accused.

We are poor in spite of our riches. Our advantages are our disadvantages. We act as if we lack such important things; our self-centeredness makes us blind to the desperation all around that deserves – requires – a response. We’ve looked for so long at ourselves that a glance further out is at first blurry and unfocused. Yet it is really not so hard to see genuine need, to notice suffering, once we are actually looking. What should be challenging is to look away. 

AMPLIFIED

We are to have such compassion that our highest calling – to practice faith with purity and without fault – is to search out the most desperately forlorn among us, see the urgency of their pain and difficulty and seek to comfort and fulfill their need. To step right in alongside calamities that unfold before our eyes, among those who cannot repay or may not express appreciation, but to whom we can pour out sacrificial love with reckless abandon. To show extravagant generosity of spirit, goodwill and tangible action. Where are the followers of this faith? They are tragically hard to find. More often, it appears, ‘believers’ distance themselves from such messy inconveniences.

Jesus met people right where they were, speaking truth with warm eyes, a compassionate voice and deep respect, cherishing their dignity and free will. In an encounter with the real Jesus, both then and now, He assures us that we are worthy of love and invites us to leave behind the unfulfilling guilt and shame of our desperate acts. We are all parched, and too often drink water that leaves us with a remaining thirst.

Consider Jesus’ own actions when He had a “lengthy conversation with a Samaritan woman – to the consternation of His disciples, who knew that ‘Jews do not associate with Samaritans.’ This woman, rejected by Jews on account of her race, rejected by neighbors on account of her serial marriages, became the first ‘missionary’ appointed by Jesus and the first person to whom He openly revealed His identity as Messiah…Jesus’ approach to ‘unclean’ people dismayed His countrymen and, in the end, helped to get Him crucified.” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 152-3) 

The woman at the well could have rejected His message, ignored Him and went on with her chores, denied the assertion that her numerous relationships were problematic, made false accusations – any number of responses. But for some reason, her conversation with Jesus didn’t evoke any of these reactions. “...He said, in effect, I sense you are very thirsty. Jesus went on to tell her that the water she was drinking would never satisfy and then offered her living water to quench her thirst forever.” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 279)

And so instead, she ran – with newly found joy and freedom – to share this good news. What caused this abrupt shift in her life’s trajectory? True and kind words from a stranger who knew her frailties – her sin – yet still encouraged her with love. A stranger who braved crossing the societal and cultural barriers of the day and was not concerned about becoming “polluted” from interacting with her. He knew and cared about the details of her life as He delicately and honestly acknowledged her situation. It was a profoundly simple act. And we are to do the same – to be strangers who are kind and unafraid to share truth and love at the well of our daily encounters. 

Since God allows us to exercise fully our free will, one could resist Him. And when some did reject Jesus’ invitation, He didn’t follow or lecture or berate them. With a quietness that must have been painful, He allowed them to choose their path. How differently some act today toward those who choose a different path – biting anger and accusations are filled with a hateful spirit that looks nothing like Jesus. This is a fundamental failure. Followers of Christ are to offer genuine love to those who do not follow Christ. It cannot be any other way. Especially when that love is neither welcomed nor reciprocated. We can lament and pray for a change of heart, but a sincere, mature, patient love applies no subtle pressure or expectations, and carries no belief of superiority. We do more to encourage a relationship with God by giving the nourishment of unconditional love, speaking truth with warm eyes, and a compassionate voice filled with respect, treasuring the inherent dignity and free will of every person.

We ought to regularly offer this meaningful love and support to the orphans and widows of our day – those separated from family or community, grieving significant loss, or impoverished in other soul-wrenching ways. The homeless, imprisoned, addicted, sickened and unwell; refugees, immigrants, and others far from their homes; those seeking protection from abuse and violence; countless others in indescribable conditions. Similar to the orphans and widows of Jesus’ time, they are at the mercy of the tender-hearted who nurture, protect, care for and support them. In distress marked by destitution, fear, devastation, hardship, and adversity, unsolicited help brings not only material aid, but the immeasurable value of a refreshed and hopeful spirit. To be welcomed out of isolation and uncertainty into a hospitable place, where one is held dear, instills assurance and the promise of healing to a life broken by the world.

To keep in step with the imperative of compassionate, sacrificial service laid out in this passage, we must not let the voice and action of our love be unspoken. Satan ranges freely, and he knows well how to discourage us. The sheer amount of suffering we see makes us question if our singular acts will make any difference. We cannot become paralyzed with this tempting doubt, but instead can offer the most profoundly simple acts as we follow His will: sharing a cup of cold water, lifting up an uncomplicated prayer, walking alongside those who grieve, heal or grow, generously sharing our resources, working clearly against injustices. 

We must look with our eyes, see with our hearts, and act deliberately, challenging practices that ignore the needs of countless marginalized populations, working for protection and security for those who suffer. What can remain unspoken are moralizing, elevated judgments in which we tell people what to believe and what to do. Prescribing demanding, harsh directives on standards of correctness, reveals a spirit of unkind hostility and error.  

How do we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with honest, unimposing intent? Telling seems so starkly contrived. Our hypocrisy, and what certainly would seem like an evaluative posture, spill out clumsily in front of the message. Yet the alternative – silence – is equally troubling. So we must communicate. Let it be our love that is not unspoken. Let it be clearly, abundantly present, easily detected. That message will be heard; it is impossible not to hear love. One can reject it, ignore it, pretend it’s not there, or that one doesn’t need it, but love will whisper acceptance, unending kindness, and such gentle, delicious fruit of the Spirit that it cannot be silenced.

What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Copyright 1997 by Philip Yancey, used by permission.

POSTLUDE

“The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, April 30

“Jesus reversed the process: rather than becoming contaminated, He made the other person whole. The naked madman did not pollute Jesus; he got healed. The pitiful woman with the flow of blood did not shame Jesus and make Him unclean; she went away whole. The twelve-year-old dead girl did not contaminate Jesus; she was resurrected.” P.  Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 154

“He [Jesus] would accept almost anybody’s invitation to dinner, and as a result no public figure had a more diverse list of friends, ranging from rich people, Roman centurions, and Pharisees to tax collectors, prostitutes, and leprosy victims. People liked being with Jesus…” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 89

“Jesus did not let any institution interfere with His love for individuals. Jewish racial and religious policies forbade Him to speak with a Samaritan woman, let alone one with a checkered moral background; Jesus selected one as a missionary. His disciples included a tax collector, viewed as a traitor by Israel, and also a Zealot, a member of the super-patriot party. He praised the countercultural John the Baptist. He met with Nicodemus, an observant Pharisee, and also with a Roman centurion. He dined in the home of another Pharisee named Simon and also in the home of an ‘unclean’ man, Simon the Leper. For Jesus, the person was more important than any category or label.” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 242

“…learn to lavish the grace of God on others. Be stamped with God’s nature, and His blessing will come through you all the time.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, May 16

“Paul had not a hypersensitive interest in his own character. As long as our eyes are upon our own personal whiteness we shall never get near the reality of redemption. Workers break down because their desire is for their own whiteness, and not for God. ‘Don’t ask me to come into contact with the rugged reality of Redemption on behalf of the filth of human life as it is; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.’ To talk in that way is a sign that the reality of the Gospel of God has not begun to touch me; there is no reckless abandon to God. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul is unconscious of himself, he is recklessly abandoned, separated by God for one purpose -- to proclaim the Gospel of God.” O. Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, January 31

“Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God…There never was a more inconsistent Being on this earth than Our Lord, but He was never inconsistent to His Father.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, November 14 

“The key to missionary devotion means being attached to nothing and no one saving Our Lord Himself, not being detached from things externally. Our Lord was amazingly in and out among ordinary things; His detachment was on the inside towards God. External detachment is often an indication of a secret vital attachment to the things we keep away from externally.” O. Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, October 18

“The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and brokenhearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men. Paul’s realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the secret of his determination to serve others. ‘I was before a perjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person’ -- no matter how men may treat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with which I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake.”  O. Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, February 23

“‘To love a person,’ said Dostoevsky, ‘means to see him as God intended him to be.’” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 175

“Satan has the power to coerce, to dazzle, to force obedience, to destroy...Satan’s power is external and coercive. God’s power, in contrast, is internal and noncoercive…Such power may seem at times like weakness. In its commitment to transform gently from the inside out and in its relentless dependence on human choice, God’s power may resemble a kind of abdication. As every parent and every lover knows, love can be rendered powerless if the beloved chooses to spurn it…God made himself weak for one purpose: to let human beings choose freely for themselves what to do with him.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 76

“Growing up, Jesus’ sensibilities were affected most deeply by the poor, the powerless, the oppressed – in short, the underdogs. Today theologians debate the aptness of the phrase ‘God’s preferential option for the poor’ as a way of describing God’s concern for the underdog. Since God arranged the circumstances in which to be born on planet earth – without power or wealth, without rights, without justice – his preferential options speak for themselves.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 40-41.

“Conservatives will lambaste me for coddling a sinner, and liberals will attack me for not endorsing their position…an intense and ongoing test on how grace calls me to treat ‘different’ people…such profound differences, in whatever arena, form a kind of crucible of grace…My study of Jesus’ life convinces me that whatever barriers we must overcome in treating ‘different’ people cannot compare to what a holy God…overcame when He descended to join us on planet Earth…A prostitute, a wealthy exploiter, a demon-possessed woman, a Roman soldier, a Samaritan with running sores and another Samaritan with serial husbands. I marvel that Jesus gained the reputation as being a ‘friend of sinners’ like these…” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 175

“Grace is not about finishing last or first; it is about not counting. We receive grace as a gift from God, not as something we toil to earn…’Are you Pharisees envious because I open the gate to Gentiles so late in the game? That I honor the prayer of a tax collector above a Pharisee’s, that I accept a thief’s last-minute confession and welcome him to Paradise…Do you begrudge my leaving the obedient flock to seek the stray or my serving a fatted calf to the no-good prodigal?...God dispenses gifts, not wages. None of us gets paid according to merit, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirements for a perfect life. If paid on the basis of fairness, we would all end up in hell.” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 61-62

“Every time I…read God’s speeches that begin with sternness and dissolve into tears, I marvel at a God who allows Himself to endure such humiliation only to come back for more…At the heart of the gospel is a God who deliberately surrenders to the wild, irresistible power of love…Centuries later an apostle would explain God’s response in more analytical terms: ‘But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.’” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, p. 66

What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Copyright 1997 by Philip Yancey, used by permission.

The Jesus I Never Knew, Copyright 1995 by Philip Yancey, used by permission.

ENCOURAGING WORD

1 John 3:16-18  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 

Matthew 9:36  When he [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

John 15:12  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 

Romans 12:9-10  Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Mark 7:20  What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’

Luke 13:34  ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!’

John 4:13-14  Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’

Matthew 9:12-13  …Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

2 Corinthians 2:4  For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

Matthew 10:42  And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.

Matthew 24:12  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 

Matthew 25:35-36; 40  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Philemon 6  I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

1 Peter 1:22  Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

2 Peter 1:5-9  For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

1 John 4:7-12  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Hebrew 13:3  Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.