IMPACT!
Do you ever wonder what kind of an impact you have on your family, friends or people in general? Do you stop to consider how your life matters in this world? Life is precious. It is a gift from God. And every one of us matters to someone. But sometimes I stop and wonder if I am making my life count. Am I making the most of my opportunities to bless others? Am I making an impact? Don’t you wonder this?
As the pastor of this church it is my responsibility to evaluate whether we as a body of believers are making an impact on our community as well. You see, the job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world around us. It’s like a huddle in a football game. 30,000 people don’t pay 35 dollars a ticket to watch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers huddle. What if you went to the Bomber game tonight and for 2 ½ hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you paid for! 30,000 people pay 35 dollars a ticket to see what a difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public? So the challenge for our church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break the huddle and head to our weekday assignments. When life’s struggles line up against us, what difference does it make that we are Christians? What impact are we making?
This has been on my mind for some time and I wonder if it’s just me. As I searched my heart and the Bible for answers it was the story of the Good Samaritan that the Spirit impressed upon me. We have heard this story a thousand times. It’s been analyzed to death; we know who the bad guys are.
So I will not dissect this story entirely but will pull out the critical questions to answer this: How can impact my neighbors with the love of Jesus?
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
When women share their problems with their husbands, how do men typically respond? Men respond by saying, “This is what you should do…” Or they try to do it themselves. Now in our enlightened age we men should know by now that women are not sharing their problems so that we will solve; they just want u s to listen. But engrained in all of us is this compulsion “to do.”
When the expert in the law tests Jesus he wonders how he can impact God, as it were. How can I impress God so that I may gain eternal life? “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus responds in his characteristic teaching style by throwing the question right back at him. “You are a student of the law. What do you think the law tells you to do?”
The law expert responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”
Note what Jesus says next: “Do this and you will live.” There is a hint of mirth in Jesus’ reply. He knows and the expert in the law knows that it is impossible to keep these two commandments perfectly. It is unfortunate that he is asking about a way to life instead of a way of life. There is an important difference here. We think, even with our knowledge of God’s grace, that there is something that we can do to be significant, to avoid a wasted life. If I keep busy enough, then maybe…
Doing is important but there is something more to making an impact. Being shaken by the challenge to love God and neighbor, the expert in the law tried to ease his conscience knowing that he had not loved every person equally: he asked, “And who is my neighbor?”
Who is my neighbor?
I want to answer this in a practical and personal way. You know who the neighbor is in the story. But who is your neighbor?
If I think of my neighbors literally in Kleefeld I would have to say Tyler & Melissa, Chad & Darlene, Annie, Tiff & Tamara, Eldon & Adeline, Ryan & Jeralyn, Fred & Vinnie, Dave & Janet, and Merv & Eunice. All of these people either go to our church, to KCC, to Rosengard Church or to Southland. My neighbors are all church goers. So in a sense we return to the original problem that if I or you want to have impact we are not to impact the church but we should seek to impact our community. But my neighbors are mostly the church. And so are many of yours.
Yet there are people near us, even among us this morning who are like the man who went down to Jericho and was attacked by robbers.
a) they stripped him of his clothes – you are living with people who have been stripped of their dignity. Life has dealt them blows which have left them naked and vulnerable. This makes them a bit untouchable to us. We can see that to converse with them is a black hole of involvement so we back off.
b) they beat him – divorce, abuse, drugs, addictions have all hurt these people. We can’t see their woundedness but we can see the effects which also repulse us. They have lost their jobs or death has taken a family member and they are hurting.
c) they went away – these people feel abandoned. No one wants to hear their hurts. You know that little joke, “I’d complain but nobody’d listen anyways.” It’s truer for them than we realize. To hurt like this is to know an intense loneliness.
d) they left him half dead – the fact of the matter is that these “neighbors” are dying spiritually. Naked, wounded, and alone, they are discouraged with life and wonder if anyone cares, if God cares. The reality is that Jesus knows that kind of pain. He was stripped of his dignity. He was beaten and wounded. He was abandoned by his friends and God, knowing loneliness on the cross till he died. Jesus is more like them than like us healthy Christians. But they don’t know him or his compassion.
Who is my neighbor?
In the movie “The Four Feathers” a white Christian gets lost in the African desert while trying to save his friends. Thirsty, hungry and stranded, he despairs and collapses onto the hot sand. When next he wakes up he realizes that a big strong Muslim fellow has rescued him and is restoring him to health. The Christian asks why, and the Muslim replies, “Because God put you in my path.”
Who is my neighbor? It is the person God puts in your path today. Haddon Robinson said, “Your neighbor is anyone whose need you see, whose need you are able to meet.”
What does a good neighbor do?
We know that the priest and the Levite were not good neighbors. They ignored the plight of someone who was directly in their path. What would a good neighbor do?
Obviously the Samaritan is the model of true neighborliness. Consider his actions here:
a) He took notice – “when he saw him, he took pity on him.” Everybody saw the victim lying beside the road. It must have been hard to miss; blood on the road, evidence of a scuffle, a leg protruding from the bush. Let’s face it: we can all see when someone is hurting. Not everyone takes pity on those in pain. A good neighbor notices and is moved in his or her heart to reach out.
b) He got his hands dirty – “He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.” As soon as he touched the man, he got involved. There was no turning back here. The messes of other people’s relationship troubles, financial woes, and personal misfortunes scare us. It gets too complicated and we feel inadequate to help. “What can I do?” we say. If nothing else, get dirty by listening.
c) He was personally inconvenienced – “Then he put the man on his own donkey…” He walked so the man could ride. Are we willing to walk so that others can ride? What that means is being willing to be inconvenienced. It may mean that we sacrifice our hobbies to be a friend.
d) He paid a price – “he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.” The sacrifice can be costly. It may cost you money, time or even reputation to be a friend to the wounded among us. We may even have to give up our “fun” relationships to be a neighbor who really makes an impact.
William Law made a lasting impact upon 18th century England with his book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. In it, Law urges this Christian that every day should be viewed as a day of humility. And how does he suggest that we do this? By learning to serve others. Law understood that it is with the discipline of service that one gains humility. If we want humility, he urges us to, “give in to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow-man, cover their frailties, love their excellences, encourage their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, be compassionate in their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and agree to do the lowest offices to the lowest of mankind.”
What is the defining mark of a neighbor?
So far what we have talked about sounds a lot like “doing.” If there is something more what is it? What defines a good neighbor, a good Christian?
When Jesus asks the lawyer who the real neighbor was in the story, he answers not by saying “the Samaritan”, but by identifying him as “the one who had mercy.”
It is curious that “mercy” is used here instead of “grace.” Grace is giving good things to people that don’t deserve it. Mercy is withholding punishment from those who do deserve it. We have to remember that the Jews treated the Samaritans really badly and that the Samaritan would have been justified in letting the Jew rot.
The interesting thing about mercy is that it is given to the undeserving. In our judgment of those in trouble we often excuse ourselves by saying they got what they deserve. Clean up your own mess. You made your bed now lie in it. She fooled around and now she’s pregnant…see!
If there’s a difference in this story between doing to impact others and something else, the something else is a heart that has been changed and been taught the meaning of mercy. Mercy helps those who got themselves in trouble. Even those people, or especially those people. Whichever.
What is the one thing that matters most?
The story of the Good Samaritan is followed by a complimentary story of Martha and Mary. Jesus is visiting the girls’ home and Martha is busy preparing food while Mary listens to Jesus. It really helps to answer the question of impact if we look closely.
Martha scolds Mary for not helping and implores Jesus to make her get up and do something. Jesus replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.” What is the one thing? Many have debated the one thing and few agree. I will suggest one possibility and it is this: Relationship.
The one thing that matters is a relationship with Jesus Christ. But we know that a relationship with Jesus does not end with him and me. If I follow Jesus then my relationship with him will affect all of my relationships. It has to if I truly know Jesus. This changes everything. It substitutes busyness for true service; programs for people. People are why we teach Sunday School. People are why we do missions. The Church is for People not programs. And our society has taught us the opposite that relationships are not as important as other things: TV, work, hobbies, and so on.
Michael Wilcock wrote: “The way of Jesus is one of devotion and dedication, both in following him and in heralding him. But the way is not…a matter of assiduous ‘religion’ and frenzied service, of busyness and incessant good works. It means not achievement, but commitment; not activities, but attitudes; not quantity, but quality.”
In short, if you are too busy for relationships, you will not make an impact on your world for Christ. If you are too busy then you need to evaluate your life and ask some tough questions.
Concluding thoughts
This church is the Shepherd’s Gate to the community of Kleefeld. We as undershepherds are called to go out and gather sheep that have wandered away and guide them to the Kingdom of God. Our work is to help Jesus change hearts that have been damaged by the negative aspects of our culture.
The problem is that the church that fails to change fails to impact the culture of change. It becomes a dinosaur, a memorial to a world that no longer exists. So, on the one hand, while it protects those within its walls from overwhelming stress, on the other hand, it becomes biblically and spiritually irrelevant. That which is to be the salt of the earth turns tasteless, and its light flickers dimly if at all. (Aubrey Malphurs)
To make an impact in our community and leave a lasting and effective impression for Christ means that we must be open to getting a little dirty with the problems around us; it means trading church culture for life-changing faith; it means building relationships outside of our usual circles.
The question is: Do we want to make an impact on others for Jesus?
AMEN
