For the Love of Christ

James 2:8-18

January 17, 2010 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

Chris Heuertz is the international director of Word Made Flesh, an organization that helps the world’s poor. He tells of an experience he and some friends had one night while walking the streets of Kolkata. They stumbled across a person lying under a filthy, fly-infested blanket. A three-foot trail of diarrhea was making its way toward the gutter. Either the person under the blanket was dead or dying.

His pal Josh tapped the body on the shoulder to see if the person was dead. The body moved. Josh pulled the blanket down from the face that it covered to see a helpless man about 22 years old, visibly stunned by their approach. As soon as he realized they were there to help him, he began weeping uncontrollably. A crowd gathered. He kept crying.

One friend, Sarah, grabbed a bottle of water and some newspaper. She began cleaning the young man, wiping the diarrhea off with the newspaper and rinsing him with water. They asked his name. Tutella Dhas. He was lost, afraid, alone. His body was a leathery-skinned skeleton. He continued to cry.

They tried to get a taxi, but none would stop. No one wanted to help. Two more friends, walking down the street just then were able to find a taxi. They took Tutella with them and headed off to Mother Teresa’s House for the Dying.

Chris lifted his head and caught sight of a church and its sign less than five feet from where they found the dying Tutella. The sign read, “All Are Welcome Here.” It may have been what inspired someone to drop Tutella in front of the church. But was he welcome? People from the church watched as they helped Tutella, yet the gate remained closed. If all were truly welcome, then why was a man dying at the front door of the church? Why didn’t anyone come out to help him? The closed church gate, he said, reflected his own closed heart and our closed Christian communities.”[Christopher L. Heuertz, Simple Christianity, IVP, 2008, pp. 61-62].

Is Our Church Gate Open?

This story touched my heart because it is all too true of many churches. Churches talks about welcoming all people, they talk about helping the hurting, and even talk about reaching out to the lost. But the reality is that the gate is closed.

This is not a new problem. Look at James 2 and we see that they were not welcoming. They welcomed the rich people, but not the poor people. They treated people differently depending on their appearance, their status. James told them that if they were going to live by the Law of Moses, they needed to obey all the laws. They needed to treat rich and poor alike. [Lev. 19].

Now that these people were followers of Jesus, James said they needed to obey Jesus’ command – Love your neighbor as yourself. James wrote in verse 12, “So whenever you speak, or whatever you do, remember that you will be judged by the law of love, the law that set you free.” They needed to show their faith in Christ by their actions.

Churches today often don’t welcome people who are not like them, or people who make them feel uneasy. We want the church to be a comfortable place. We think we know who God would want in our church – and it certainly wouldn’t be some of “those folks.”

However, from the Day of Pentecost on, the church of Jesus Christ has been diverse. The story is in Acts 2. God sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples and people from many nations believed in Jesus and also received the Holy Spirit. That’s when God opened the gates of the church and invited everyone in.

God has begun a great work in this church. We are diverse in many ways. We have been a welcoming community of believers, but we aren’t perfect. We don’t always respond the way Jesus wants us to.

When visitors come into this building to worship with us, they see one congregation. They see people from many nations, races, classes. They see people enjoying being together. Yet do they feel welcome?

Do we wait for someone else to greet them or welcome them? Do we stand around and watch others reach out to them. Our response to the visitor tells people whether or not they are welcome here in this church. Are the gates of our church open?

Are the gates of our church open so that we can go out to those in need in our neighborhood? It’s not enough to reach out to only those like us.

What can we do to help the people in Haiti? They don’t need more volunteers using up what resources they have. They need money. There’s an insert in today’s bulletin for World Relief. Or you can put money in an envelope and mark it for Covenant World Relief and we will send it to them. Whatever you can give is more than they have right now. Consider how you can help.

Don’t forget that there are people with needs right in our neighborhood, our city. We cannot, as followers of Jesus Christ, ignore the poor, the sick, the hurting. We cannot ignore the children who are at risk or the elderly? How can we make sure that the gates of our church are open?

Is the Gate of our Heart Open?

Perhaps the bigger question is: are the gates of our hearts open? The church is made up of people. Jesus has called each of us to love God and love others.

The only way we can do this is to surrender ourselves to God and pray for the Holy Spirit to put God’s love in our hearts. Then we will want to reach out to others with the love of Christ. Then we will want to love our neighbors.

Jesus told his disciples, in John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

James said, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? … Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” [James2:14,18].

Faith in Christ and love for others is why the Chris and his friends from Word Made Flesh stopped to help a dying young man when not even church people did.

· How can we call ourselves Christians if we won’t go and do what Christ would do for us?

· How can we claim Jesus as our Lord when we don’t obey his command to love and serve others?

Love for God and others is not just a concept in our minds. Love is an action. Love is shown to others by the way we treat them.

Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 to show his fellow Jews that being Jewish wasn’t enough.

◊ Jesus said they must share his love with others.

◊ Jesus said they must serve others with the compassion and kindness he had shown them.

◊ Jesus said they must welcome all people.

Jesus was saying that telling people we love God and others isn’t enough. We must show our love for God and others by serving as Jesus served and love those who Jesus loves. Through our acts of loving service for others they will see the love of Christ. Others will see that faith in Christ transforms people into loving servants for Christ.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:35-36, “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.”

After Jesus told the parable of the Samaritan who cared for the man left for dead on the road, he asked the teacher of the law which of the three was a neighbor to the wounded man. The lawyer said, “The one who had mercy on him.” And Jesus replied, “Go and do likewise.” [Lk.10:37].

Jesus says to us, “Go and do the same.” Go and serve those in need. Serve someone in our church, in your family or someone on the street or at work. If we have experienced the love and mercy of Jesus Christ in our lives, then “for the love of Christ” we must show love and mercy to others.

Conclusion

One of the B.C. Comic strip characters is Wiley, a poet with one leg.

Here is his poem, Things I Am Thankful For.

I’m thankful that I have one leg,

to limp is no disgrace.

Although I can’t be number one

I still can run the race.

It’s not the things you cannot do,

That make you what you are.

It’s doing good with what you’ve got

That lights ‘the morning star.’

[Johnny Hart, I Did It HIS Way (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2009) 69].

The truth is:

◊ Everyone here can do something good for another person.

◊ Each person can offer kindness and love to another.

◊ Every one of us can serve others in some way.

◊ Everyone here can treat others the way you want others to treat you.

Each of us is able to do something to show the mercy and love of Jesus to another person.

So, live the Golden Rule: “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you.” [Mt. 7:12].

Always serve others as you would like them to serve you.

Today and every day, “for the love of Christ” serve others. Amen.

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This sermon is copyright ©2010 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.