I invite you today on an imaginary trip. Let’s walk through
just one day in a needy world. Just imagine a few hours in a
world that asks us for more than we can possibly give:
You are awakened early by the phone’s insistent ringing; you
hear the voice of a member of your family. He needs money.
So what else is new? Whenever he calls, he needs money.
When you’ve settled that, you fix a cup of coffee and flip on
the television to catch the morning news. Stocks are down,
way down, again. Terrorist threats are up, way up, again.
The president says that he needs a billion dollar bailout for
displaced workers and a multibillion dollar reorganization for
homeland security. We’ll have to raise taxes. Read Bush
junior’s lips! Many new taxes!
As you get ready for the day, you scan yesterday’s mail,
which you had tossed aside. There were address labels
from the Audubon Society, with a request for a donation.
There was a calendar from the National Center for Children
and Families; a contribution would be appreciated. At the
bottom of the stack, the Christian Children’s Fund has sent
you a picture of a child in Bolivia who needs shoes and
school supplies. You decide that you will read these again
tonight; not enough time to deal with them right now.
As you pick up the morning paper, there is a story about a
group of generous people who have built a Habitat for
Humanity house. You are thinking that you would never
have the time to do that, but it would be a good thing to do.
As you step into the Metrorail station, you turn to another
story about how the courts are looking for mentors to work
with ex-convicts, and you start to wonder what kind of guts
that would take, but your reverie is interrupted because
ahead of you at the Farecard dispenser is an elderly woman,
digging in her purse to scrape up a few coins for her fare. Is
she going to have enough? When you get on the train, you
go back to your newspaper, and decide to look very
absorbed in the op-ed page -- it’s intellectual, you know -- but
the columnist there is telling you that we must not forget the
plight of the oppressed in Sierra Leone. It’s depressing, all
this talk about starving people.
So you get off at the stop nearest your office. You know
which way to go, because if you go the other way, “he” will
be there. The guy who looks perfectly capable of working,
but who always carries a sign that says, “Homeless, please
help”. One day you gave a couple of quarters and he didn’t
even thank you.
When you get to your office, one of the secretaries is
standing at your desk with an envelope in hand.
Somebody’s grandmother died, and they are collecting for
flowers. Comes lunchtime, and one of your coworkers says,
“I really can’t leave right now. Would you pick up a sandwich
for me?”
And when you finish lunch, late; and finish work, late; and
navigate past the street beggars; and ride the Metro,
crowded with a lot of people who look as though they need
something from somebody, you walk home, past the school
with a banner asking for tutors, past the church with a sign
urging you to attend worship, past the overgrown yard at the
house where the man had a heart attack last month. What a
joy to be home after such a day! Your loving family. Your
haven of rest in a world of needs. As you enter the house,
there they are. Ready to throw their arms around you and
welcome you: “Daddy, I need new shoes ... Husband, I need
some help in the kitchen ... Brother, I was wondering if you
could ...”
And when all those demands are settled, not to mention the
telemarketer who wants you to sponsor two tickets to the
circus for needy children – when all the clamor is settled and
you are ready for bed, it’s time to take it all to the Lord, so
you call 202-723-9140. There is your pastor’s voice saying,
“Today I ask that you pray and ask the Lord to lead you to
supply our church’s need for Sunday School teachers,
committee members, grounds keepers, choir singers, tithe
givers, kitchen helpers –“
You do not hear the end of the message because you have
fallen asleep at the end of a demanding day. They need.
They all need. And they all need it from you.
For many of you this little fantasy is like a nightmare. It feels
awful. You feel guilty because you did not respond to all of
these demands. You feel drained because it seems
everyone turns to you as if you were a bottomless pocket.
You feel harassed and pushed. This fantasy is a nightmare.
But did you know that for others, this fantasy is a dream
come true? Nothing pleases some of us more than to be
needed! Are you one of the many people who have a need
to be needed? I confess that there is a touch of that in me.
When I was sort of on vacation last week, there was good
news and there was bad news. The good news is that not
many of you called me at home. But the bad news is that not
many of you called me at home! We need to be needed,
and so for some of us, unless someone is pulling at us, we
are not happy.
So – my little fantasy about all the needy people out there is
a nightmare for some and a dream come true for others. But
this morning I want you to see that God has another way
altogether. The Lord approaches the issue in an entirely
different way. He says that in a world of needy people, it’s
not about whether we feel guilty or feel needed. It’s about
whether we know how to love. God says that it’s not about
feeling bad or feeling good. It’s about doing the right thing
for the right reasons, with the right consequences.
I want to suggest a series of changes we to need to make if
we expect to know what to do when surrounded by the
world’s neediness.
I
First, I want to suggest that we must change from worrying
about what we should do to thinking about who we are. The
real issue is not what I should do, but who I am. John
speaks to us with a clear reminder and a startling warning:
For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we
should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from
the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder
him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
John reminds us that we should love one another. That’s
nothing new. That is one of the Lord’s oldest commands.
We should love one another. Fine. We know that already.
But did you also know that just being aware of what we
should do is never enough to get us to do it? John’s
startling warning is that we had better look inside, we had
better understand our own motives, before we respond to the
needs around us, because even what looks like a loving act
can have daggers in it if you don’t understand your own
heart!
John asks us to look at why Cain murdered Abel. Cain and
Abel -- that’s a very provocative Bible story out of Genesis.
Why did Cain kill his brother? Cain killed his brother
because Cain defined life as competition, and because Cain
did not deal first with his own heart. And so what ought to
have been love turned to destruction.
John says we already know we should love one another. But
we need to be careful we are not down deep like Cain.
When we do not know our own hearts, we speak syrupy
words about love, but in them there is a venom that poisons.
We may do all the right things, but we do them in a way that
hurts more than it helps.
Have you ever given something with strings attached? Yes,
you can borrow this money from me, but I will expect that you
grovel in gratitude every time you see me. Yes, I will run this
errand for you, but I will never let you forget just how
inconvenient it was. Yes, I will pray for you to overcome this
issue you have, but I do need to tell others all about your
business – oh, it’s only so that I can enlist them to pray for
you, understand, but I really need to tell them what a mess
you are!
You see, it looks like love, but we have not first examined
our own hearts. We have not found a worthy motive out of
which to respond to the needs that are put to us. And I
would submit that if we do not find a worthy motive, then our
sinful nature will see to it that an unworthy motive is put out
there! If we do not know why we should love our brother or
our sister, whatever we do will be raising Cain against them.
It will hurt them. Better that we give nothing or do nothing
than that in our need to be needed we destroy! Better that
we say nothing than that we stand and speak critical words
that hurt!
When someone wants you to fulfill a need, ask not, “What
should I do?” You already know that love is commanded.
Ask first, “Who am I?” Why would I want to respond to this
need? Is it out of love or is it out of a desire to impress? Is it
out of love or is it because down deep I want to punish the
one I am helping? “We must not be like Cain who ...
murdered his brother ... because his own deeds were evil.”
We need to move from what we should do to who we are.
II
But then, when we have that settled, there’s another move
we need to make. We need to move from the easy way out
to the sacrificial way. When we have found that, yes, we can
respond out of genuine love, and not just to satisfy our own
need to be needed, then our next challenge is to move from
the easy way out to the sacrificial way. To go from the
minimum to the maximum.
Most of the examples I used in our little opening fantasy
involved money. Actually, giving money is the easiest way to
respond to need. I can put my hands in my pockets and give
the man on the street a dollar and glow all day long. But
have I really helped him? I can write a check to some charity
and wash my hands of whatever problem they are dealing
with. But how much have I actually done?
The Lord is not so much interested in the money issue as He
is interested in the you issue. The Lord wants nothing less
than your very heart, and when He has that, everything else
takes its place. Let’s not talk about money. Let’s talk about
the Cross. John writes so pointedly:
We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we
ought to lay down our lives for one another.
If you want to know what love is like, go to the Cross, and it
will put an end to pious fuzziness about love. Love is not just
telling someone you love them; it is demonstrating it. Love is
not just fine intentions and high-sounding words; love suffers.
Love is not simply sweet whisperings; love is flesh and
blood, nails and sweat and tears. Love is not wishing
someone well and going our merry way; love is getting into
the trenches. Love is not sending a check and forgetting it
all; love is cleaning up the bedpans for a dying friend,. Love
is not a thirty-second prayer sent into the ether; love is sitting
into the evening stillness with a man whose wife of fifty years
is a victim of Alzheimer’s, and does not even know him any
more. Love is not an empty wish that maybe the Lord will
work it out somehow; love is entering a smelly prison for
somebody who never gets visits, never gets letters, never
gets another warm human presence. Love is not minimum
effort; love is maximum sacrifice.
How can I say this? Go to the Cross. Go to the Cross, and
it will put an end to shallow wordiness. Some of us seem to
think that what people really need are long preachments and
accusing admonitions. I say go to the Cross, where there
was one who uttered no words except words of forgiveness.
I say go to the Cross, where there was one who did not feel it
necessary to make a dying thief feel even worse about
himself, but who loved him into the Kingdom. Go to the
Cross, and find out that love is concrete, presence, being
there. Love is sacrifice.
If I really love that man who is begging for money, I will find
out who he is, learn his circumstances, help him find work,
assist him with his family, deal with his whole issue. If I really
love that woman who is battered, I will do more than tell her
to clean up her children and get a lawyer. I will put my hands
in her dishwater, bend my knees to scrub her floors, and
open my arms to diaper her baby. The Cross means
sacrifice. If we intend to help, we have to get down where
people hurt and stay there with them. If we really expect to
help, we must move from the easy way out to the sacrificial
way. We have to get beyond the minimum of money and go
to the maximum, as Jesus did.
We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we
ought to lay down our lives for one another.
III
And so, if you know who you are and why you want to
respond to somebody in need; and if you can respond in a
Cross-shaped way, that is, doing more than just the bare
minimum – if you can do those things, then you are ready to
respond. But you say, pastor, if I take this seriously, I cannot
possibly do very much. I cannot help this one and that one
and spend time here and put effort there. There just isn’t
enough of me to go around. How do I make choices?
Where do I put my energy and my effort when there are
needs everywhere?
There is a third change that we need to make. We need to
shift from responding to everything to focusing on where we
can truly make a difference. We cannot do everything, but
we can do something. Look at your world -- your world --
and determine where your passion is, and go there with all of
your heart. Other issues are fine and good, but they are for
other people. Where is it that God is calling you to invest
yourself? Where do you see, with your heart as well as with
your eyes, a need that has your name on it? John says,
How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods
and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little
children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.
John speaks of seeing a brother or sister in need. Seeing.
John is telling us that with the eyes of the heart we will know
when there is a need that is ours to fulfill. You see, when
we feel overwhelmed with all that could be done, we end up
doing nothing. We need to find our passion, what we see to
do. We need to discover what energizes us, what calls us,
what floats our boat, what has our name on it. What do you
see?
The older I get, the more I find I want to focus. The deeper I
go into a walk with Christ, the more I want to center down on
the things that have my name on them. Time was when I
wanted to do it all. When I first arrived here sixteen years
ago this week, I wanted to be involved in everything from the
floors to the ceiling, from the babies to the seniors, and from
the sermon texts to the kitchen menus! I pushed and
prodded everybody about everything. All that really did was
to earn me a reputation as a micromanager, and it got
everybody impressed with the length of my “To Do” list.
Well, big whoop! What did that mean? What does that
accomplish?
Today I find myself with passion for only a few things. I find
my joy being stoked with only a few things where I know I
can make a difference. I can’t do everything. I can’t even do
the things my job description says I should do. And guess
what? I don’t even want to! But I know I do want to reach
out for new people; there I can make a difference. I do want
to connect with families in turmoil; there I can make a
difference. I do want to teach with all my mind and preach
with all my heart; there I can make a difference. Certain
things have my name on them. I see them. I see our new
mission church. I see a vision of a better, safer, more
attractive building. Those are needs I see with my name on
them. Those are tasks that give me life. I’ll do the other stuff
if I have to, but it will drain me. These things are a formula
for life.
What about you? Where will you invest your life? What kind
of difference will you make? You cannot do everything, but
you can do something. If you have something, and someone
needs it, and you see it with your name on it, give it and both
you and they have life. Somewhere around you God has
placed a need. Look at it. See it with the eyes of the heart.
Go for it. Go for it, knowing first your own heart and why you
want to deal with it. Go for it, remembering that love is
sacrificial, not minimal. Go for it, if it is God’s call to you, and
it will give you joy and energy and life. “We have, they need”
If you see it, it’s a formula for life.
