Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

John 13:34,35

“It’s Really Quite Simple”

Compassion Sunday

Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

What is the real essence of Christianity? If you had to boil it down to one core sentence- what would you say? In Mark 12:28 we read what Jesus said after being asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” He doesn’t come up with anything new. That commandment came straight from Deuteronomy 6:4. But then, he does something odd. He is only asked for THE greatest commandment, but instead he gives TWO. “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourselves.” This he takes from Lev. 19:18.

This is the real essence of Christianity: Love for God and love for our neighbor. Bart Campolo who helps oversee Urban Promise in Philadelphia- a ministry to the poor in the inner city says it this way, “Love God. Love people. Nothing else matters.”

Viteszlav Gardovsky, a Czechoslovakian philosopher, was once asked, “What do you see as the most terrible threat in our world today?” He replied, “The terrible threat is that we might die earlier than we really do die.” In other words, if we stop loving God and loving our neighbor as we are commanded and enabled by the Holy Spirit, to do, we stop truly living. In order to keep on living, we must start becoming passionate about the kind of love Jesus came to model for us.

When you look at where Jesus poured his love out most, you will find it poured out on the poor. That’s where his love really found its greatest fullness.

We spend a lot of time pointing fingers at other people in and outside of the church, listing out all the things we know they do wrong. But, did you know that in all of scripture- the whole Bible- there are only 67 verses discouraging adultery? There is only 1 verse that says that all of Scripture is inspired by God. There are 2 verses, in the whole Bible, that say Jesus is the only way to God the Father. Homosexuality is mentioned 5 times. (Now, I’m not saying that the number of times something is mentioned diminishes God’s truth. What God says, whether once or 100 times, is the truth that sets people free.) But listen to this: There are over 560 verses in the Bible which God commands His people to love the poor. Why? Because the poor need love. They need to know that God loves them- and he uses people like you and me to show others his love.

In Deut. 15:7-8, as the Israelites are preparing to move into the land that has been promised to them, God says, “If there be among you, in any of the towns the Lord your God has given you, any one who is in need, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor, but open your hand willingly, lending enough to meet the need whatever it may be.” Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who lend to the poor is kind to God and will be repaid.”

Do you hear how a relationship is established between how we treat the poor and our treatment of God? “He who lends to the poor is kind to God and will be repaid.”

Sodom and Gomorrah are often lifted up as the great cities of sexual sin- and they were very degenerate cities. However, in Ezekiel 16:49 we read why God destroyed Sodom, “This was the sin of your sister Sodom, she and her sisters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous means yet she did not aid the poor and needy.” Jeremiah 22:16 reveals the son of a former king being spoken to by the prophet, telling him what his father was like as a king, “He judged the cause of the poor and needy and all went well. Is this not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord? God says that knowing him consists of defending the cause of the poor and the needy. We say, as Christians in America, that we want the Ten Commandments and prayer back in the public classrooms. We say we want to be able to teach the Bible anywhere, anytime, without all the interference from the government. “That’s what will really turn this country around,” we say. But God says, “If you would develop a heart for the poor, that’s what will really get my attention and cause me to bless America.”

About 36,000 children die every day; 60% of those children die of hunger; the other 40% die of preventable diseases such as stomach flu, dehydration, and measles. And yet, one of the most damaging effects of poverty may not be the physical suffering. Mother Teresa said that the worst part of poverty is the emotional experience of the person as a result of the message they receive: “I don’t matter, I do not matter, I do not matter, I am of no value, I am worth nothing.” Women who have been raped or abused, whether that woman grew up in a wonderful home environment, have wonderful friends, or not- can live their whole lives trying to silence that very same message. One instance of rape or abuse can do that to a person. With ongoing poverty, we are dealing with intense day in and day out messages of rejection, “you are worth nothing, you are worth absolutely nothing.” When Moses told the people in Egypt that God loved them and was going to deliver them, the Bible says the people didn’t believe him. Why? Because of the experience of the cruel slavery they had been enduring their whole lives. Their experience prevented them from hearing the good news about what God wanted to do. Poverty is an experience that hinders people from believing the news that seems too good to be true: that they are love, that they are worth something, that not only does someone care about them, but that God himself cares about them.

Rich Mullins was a Christian songwriter who wrote, “Awesome God,” and many other songs that are sung by Christians all over the world. But Rich Mullins never knew how much he made. He told his record company to send his royalty checks to the elders at his church. He told the elders that he wanted them to write him a check for $25,000.00 a year. He figured that was what the average American worker made in a year. All the rest of the money he made, the elders were instructed to give it to orphanages in Mexico, and to organizations working with Native Americans in the Southwest U.S. Rich Mullins died in 1997 at the age of 42 in an auto accident. His example of a heart for the poor is a powerful one.

The word “Compassion” means to suffer with or to feel with. The opposite of compassion is apathy: no suffering, no feeling. And I would add: No action.

Last week I asked these questions from the pulpit, “Are you a pilot-light Christian, or a fired-up Spirit-filled Christian?” “Are we a pilot-light congregation, or a fired-up Spirit-filled congregation?” I hope you’ve been thinking about the answers to those questions. I know I have.

But here are a couple of new questions: Are you a person of compassion for the poor? Does your heart yearn to make a difference in the lives of those caught in the cycle of poverty?

Are we a congregation of compassion for the poor? Does our collective heart yearn to make a difference in the lives of those caught in the cycle of poverty?

If the answer to those questions is “No. I (we) really don’t think much about the poor,” then based on the Scriptures we’ve heard this morning, I think we have some big-time prayers to pray- asking the Lord to give us a change of heart.

It really is quite simple. We are called to love God and love others. We say we want our church to grow, well, that’s how it will grow. We have to get our eyes off ourselves, and get our eyes on the needs of others. Jesus said, that if we love as we are commanded to love, others will see that love and be drawn to it.

Our little guy, Derrik, that we have been sponsoring this past year through Compassion International, is 6 years old. He lives in Kenya with his mother and 3 other children. In one of his letter to us he told the person who was writing down what he wanted to say, to tell us that he loved us. The $32 per month that we send for him was so that he could have food, clothing, an education, a connection to a church-based program, and medical attention. We never expected him to love us in return.

But, Compassion’s brochure that you have in your bulletin today says this on the front inside cover (in the last paragraph): “Your love makes all the difference.”

Now see, love is what I feel for my family. It’s what I feel for all of you. Love is what I feel for God. But do I love Derrick, whom I never met? God says I do- because I am doing something to help him. Love is not just a feeling. Love is an action word.

I pray that in 2006, out of obedience to the two great commandments, we will extend love more extravagantly than ever to each other, to our neighbors in great need, and to the children near and far. For then, we are extending extravagant love to our extravagant God. It’s really quite simple, isn’t it? May it be so. Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

4-30-2006