Love your neighbor

The earthquake in Haiti has brought out the best and worst in human behavior. I have not had much opportunity to watch any video footage until we came back from outreach on Tuesday. The scenes of all the dead bodies and injured bodies waiting for medical help are heart wrenching. Many nations have responded to the needs of the people yet distributing the goods has been a huge problem because of the chaos of the people along with the desperation they feel having gone without food and water for several days. Organizing a relief effort in this country is nothing less than a miraculous endeavor. In crisis situations like this. fighting, looting, vandalism are unfortunately taking place. In one situation there were more military soldiers on the scene trying to control the distribution of the food items than there were volunteers available to help. It is a chaotic situation in many areas and we need to pray that the enemy who incites this type of behavior will be bound. Pray for the relief workers as well who are subject to many stressful and dangerous situations. Poverty can drive horrible behavior as has been witnessed in Haiti. The distribution of relief supplies is a great challenge especially in a nation that has been plagued with poverty for years. In spite of all the evil that is happening there is also a lot of goodness and kindness being extended to the hurting families.. As always people ask at times like this “Where is God?” Some have claimed that the earthquake is a punishment for Haiti’s practice of voodoo and their abandonment of God. I struggle with this characterization of a vindictive God who uses such devastating tragedies to destroy lives. This is not the God I serve, for He is a God of love and compassion. He is suffering with the people, comforting them through his body of believers who are there ministering to the hurting. The people of Haiti do not need to be judged or condemned by the church for all the evil that has happened in their country, they need to see the love of God for them in the hour of their need. This nation has been shattered by what has happened but with this shattering also comes an opportunity to rebuild the nation through a demonstration of the love of God. People respond to love much more quickly than they ever will to judgment and condemnation. We cannot shame people into the Kingdom of God. Shame is a result of being judged by someone. We feel shame when we have not measured up to their standards, it is pushing someone down diminishing any worth they may have. God is not in the shame business. When Jesus confronted the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11)he could have made the woman feel horrible for her behavior, he could have shamed her and told her she deserved what was happening to her in the humiliation that the religious people were so eager to place upon her. The religious leaders wanted him to throw the book at her, make her pay the penalty for her sin. Yet Jesus did not do what they wanted him to do. He confronted the self righteousness of the leaders by making them examine themselves to see if they were perfect enough to throw the first stone. They all had beams in their own eyes and were not qualified to be the judge of the woman. Only God can be the true judge of anyone because he alone knows the thoughts and motivations of the people. Jesus did not condemn the woman to death, in fact he said “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” John 3:17 states that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it but to bring salvation. Jesus in his love was telling her she had another chance to do what is right. She did not need to continue to commit adultery; she could be free to become the person God created her to be. This is the message of love that God wants to share with the world. It is His love at work in us that brings about the changes and transformation that we need. His Kingdom is a kingdom of love. When we are walking in His love, being controlled by his love we will respond to a fallen world as Jesus responded to the woman caught in adultery. I think this woman knew what she was doing was wrong, adultery is not core value in any society. What she did not know was that she did not need to continue to practice adultery, there was something so much better for her. She needed to be awakened to the idea that the life she was living was so far short of what God had for her. When we walk in love we want to draw out the best in the person and help create a picture of all they can be when Christ takes control of their lives. Love looks at a fallen person and extends mercy and grace to them while holding before them a vision of what their life could be and what they need to do to make it become a reality. The religious leaders had no interest in the woman as a person who had needs. They only saw a sinner who was deserving of death. Jesus saw a woman who obviously was committing a sin and he knew why she was doing it. In our limited understanding we can only speculate her motivations. Maybe she did it because of a need that was not being met in her life. Perhaps that need was money, attention, affection, maybe she was forced to do it, there could be a lot of reasons why she did what she did. Only the woman could answer the question of why. When we try to answer it we go from being an observer of behavior to a judge. We enter into territory that is forbidden to us. But to me the bottom line was she was living beneath what God had created her to be. Her sin was destroying the image of God in her life. Her sin was holding her down and keeping her from truly living in freedom and real love that God wanted her to experience.
Our lives need to reflect this love to the world. It is far too easy to be judgmental and condemning of people. It takes no effort on our part to speak words of condemnation and shame to people who are caught in the web of sin. But it takes, effort, sacrifice, money and time to reach out in love to people who are like the woman caught in adultery. Mother Teresa was once told by a man who visited her ministry of caring for the poor, sick, dying, and rejected people of India, “I would not do this for a million dollars.” Mother Teresa’s response was, “I would not either.” Her admonishing and instruction to all of her workers in the ministry was to do everything in love. This is the love that the world needs to see demonstrated through our lives and ministry.
As we drove back from San Pablo we passed through Chimultenango . There is a section of the road in town that has several cantinas. Standing in the doorway are the prostitutes that work there. Prostitution is legalized in Guatemala if you did not know. As we drove by them the thought came to my mind, “I wonder if anyone is reaching out to these women? Are there any Christians who are praying for them, visiting them and helping them leave a lifestyle that is so far below what God created them to be?” What is the church doing to extend the love of God to these women?
When I was in Fiji on outreach we spent time talking with the prostitutes, transvestites and homosexuals that stationed themselves along the highway close to our hotel. We would talk with them, bring them some food and let them know that God loved them and that we were interested in them as a person. The final week we took them to lunch at a nice restaurant. We asked them what they wanted to do with their lives and virtually all of them had a profession in mind other than prostituting themselves for money. We encouraged them to put their faith in God and allow Him to meet every need they had and make them what He had created them to be and do. None of them wanted to spend the rest of their lives doing what they were doing. Not many people reached out to them and most people treated them badly. It was a prime opportunity for believers to extend the love of God to them, a love that can bring transformation of their lives.
Jesus commanded his disciples to love their neighbor as they loved themselves. Have you ever looked at another person and saw yourself in them? We are all fallen people and if we can see ourselves in others we can reach out in love to them because of the love that God has given to us. The challenge for each of us to is seek out those who are living lifestyles that contrary to the image and nature of God and love them with God’s love through our words and actions toward them.
What do these men have in common?
Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV), Pol Pot, Idi Amin Dada, Rhuollah Khomenini
Many people would recognize them as being listed in the top ten evil men in history. But the thing that all have in common that is the most important is that they were loved by God.
When we look at the most evil and vile people, we have to see them as people who God loves and wants to save. For many people the first response is to kill these people, punish them for all the evil they have done but our response should be one of love toward them and a desire to see their lives redeemed by Christ.
God wants to transform our minds to respond in love to every person he has created. Leave the judging to Him, He is the only just judge. Our focus has to be love that will lead to redemption and restoration of a fallen life. This does not mean that they will not be accountable for what they have done in the courts of law on earth. But our focus must always be on loving that person and showing them that God loves them and can change them.
In the musical Les Miserables there is a scene that exemplifies the extreme love we need to demonstrate to others.
"We get another glimpse of extreme love in the musical Les Miserables, in which a priest allows a vagrant, Jean Valjean, to stay in his home, only to get knocked unconscious and be robbed. The next day, the authorities catch Jan Valjean and drag him before the priest. They say Valjean claimed that the priest had given him the silver goods in his bag. And the priest instinctively, beautifully, says, "I am so thankful you have come back, as you forgot the candlesticks." As the guards release Jean Valjean, the priest whisspers in his ear, "With this, I have ransomed your soul."(P. 284 Irresistible Revolution)
God is challenging us tonight to be Apostles of His love to a world that is hurting. His love demonstrated through us is the only hope for change. Who will you love that seems beyond redemption? What actions will you take to let that person know how valuable and loved he or she is?