18th September 2005 - 6.30pm
Disciple Tears A6
LESSONS: John 11:17 - 36; Romans 12:9 - 21
The truth can be hard to bear.
Five times over the past week, I have been told I am putting on weight.
Three things struck me about this immediately.
1. The mystery of how it is okay for a woman can say that to a man, but not the other way around.
2. The fact that it is true, I am putting on weight.
3. That people are very sensitive about their looks.
It was as I was thinking about why we are so sensitive about our outward appearance, that my thoughts then turned towards the time and effort we spend making ourselves beautiful in physical and cosmetic ways.
Good fashionable clothes.
All kinds of creams and lotions to improve our complexions.
Eye shadow and lipsticks - not me, I hasten to add!
An expensive hair cut and hair spray – certainly not me (no hair)!
A good aftershave, and all the rest!
But IS all this really ‘beauty’ to God?
It reminds me of the man who said to a portrait painter:
"I want you to do me justice!"
The artist replied, "It's not justice you need, it's mercy!"
And if you think about it, we do need mercy before God.
I'd maintain, the only portrait God is interested in is the one He can see through the windows of our eyes.
And if we're honest, we are often a mess inside.
Deep down we're often NOT beautiful to Him.
My first ministerial appointment was in the Colchester Methodist Circuit.
About 12 years ago, we had an art exhibition at my largest church - Wimpole Road.
One of my favourite paintings was by a local artist.
Now I'm not an artist, but I was captivated by this particular piece.
I wouldn’t call it a beautiful painting – it was quite dark in its shading, but what grasped me
were the eyes of an old wrinkled and worn woman.
This portrait drew you in to EYES that showed the depth and beauty of the person inside.
They were eyes of love.
They belonged to a woman who had heard and also responded to St. Paul's words in
Romans 12v15 to: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."
Or as in some translations: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep."
As I looked at the painting of the saint, Mother Teresa,
it made me consider: What is beauty in God's sight?
I decided the answer was quite simply, LOVE!!!
Here in this woman was a compassionate love that cared for the physical and spiritual well-being of ordinary people; a love that was prepared to identify with fellow human beings and rejoice with them, and also weep holy tears with them.
The quality of love can make the most hard bitten and unattractive soul on the outside,
BEAUTIFUL to God within.
The kind of BEAUTY we should be looking for in our messed up lives.
In our Epistle lesson, Paul was telling Christians how they should behave.
He was teaching them what it meant to LIVE beautiful lives of love!
(Romans 12,9-10)
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves".
And I could give you countless verses from the Bible that are from God’s word about love.
For example, in Luke's Gospel chapter 10, Jesus quoted O.T. words:
"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 neighbour as yourself". (Luke 10v27)
Firstly, love God in response to His love for us.
Secondly, let His love possess your very being that it overflows, so that we love our neighbours above ourselves.
We see this in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Jesus answers the lawyers question about the identity of his neighbour.
In the story, human need is demonstrated as being more important than adherence to ritual laws, or racial prejudice.
The Samaritan is unlike the priest and the Levite!
Why? Because his compassion is NOT impeded!
The love of God flows through him.
He allows himself to be deeply touched by the plight of a beaten and dying, fellow human being.
He was a person who could obviously: "weep with those who weep";
he was someone who could shed holy tears, like Mother Teresa;
he was someone who could see
the misfortune of another,
and come along side that person in love.
I wonder if, as God looks into our eyes, so to speak, He sees beautiful lives of true love?
Lives of wholly devoted followers of Christ;
Lives full of the sort of love that allows us to be broken for the sake of others.
In the Old Testament (Job 30v25), when Job was suffering greatly, he
defended his righteousness by saying:
"Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?".
I believe Job's eyes would have radiated an inner beauty.
Jesus, of course wept holy tears, too!
He was moved by Lazarus's death and to see Mary's mourning.
He felt love and deep compassion.
It's the shortest verse in the Bible and one of the most powerful, "Jesus wept" - just as
he wept over Jerusalem and in the garden of Gethsemane.
It makes me wonder what Jesus' eyes would've been like.
Franco Zefferelli, chose eyes carefully when he picked Robert Powell to play Jesus in his epic film.
It was just a shame they were film-star-blue.
The ladies may swoon, but were those the right eyes?
Yes, they were piercing and soul searching, but did they reflect Jesus' beautiful, but tough life, that was still full of compassion?
Our Lord had time for people: the sinner, the outcast, the sick, the diseased, the possessed, the Gentile, the woman, the you, and the me!
If we're not beautiful to God inside, it's because we haven’t put ourselves right with God and haven’t been deeply inspired by the love of God.
To be beautiful inside, all we need to do is:
Turn towards God’s love and away from ungodly living.
Recognise our tendency to selfishness and sinfulness.
Ask Jesus to forgive us through the power of His cross.
Embrace Him as Lord of our lives.
And open our hearts to his healing and sanctifying spirit.
The good news of Jesus is that the most ugly of lives can be made beautiful and holy by
the transforming power of God.
That’s at the heart of our faith and our hope for the world!
Now, if you believe that truth but still fail in compassion, it’s because God has more to do in our lives and that we haven’t truly embraced what it means to follow Jesus to love's cross.
Don’t feel guilty about it – just feel the challenge and know God will help you to deepen the compassion in your life as you give thanks for Jesus.
So, once we’ve been put right with God, how can we practice compassionate Christianity?
Well, we can reflect seriously about our response to Paul’s teaching:
"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."
Let’s look at how with God's help, we can be more loving towards our friends and neighbours –
whoever they may be?
Let's to look at two practical things we can do.
1. We can share our relative wealth.
Something that is perhaps pertinent as we enter into a new Methodist Year and approach Harvest – we should reflect on our stewardship.
St. Paul includes a quotation from Proverbs 25v21,22 in his passage on loving conduct:
"If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, if he is thirsty give him water to drink".
As Christians we must allow ourselves to be moved by the plight of others, just as Jesus did!
These verses from Proverbs are talking about “enemies”, it should make us realise that we sometimes don’t even give to people who haven’t done us any harm.
But God calls us to be “cheerful givers”.
This could mean NOT turning away from the harsh realities of life; not turning off the T.V. when we're uncomfortable.
When we see starving children on our screens;
When we see bodies floating in stinking disease ridden water;
When we see blood soaked streets following a bombing;
When we see people dying slowly of aids;
It could mean NOT reaching for the zapper (remote control)!
Sometimes, our love means we should be broken and allow ourselves to weep holy tears of sadness and pain.
It could mean, that we are inspired by progress being made by a charity or by medical research, we allow ourselves to rejoice at the triumph of love in action, and feel the urge to give continued support and encouragement.
I remember when Frances and I were first accepted as students at Cliff College, someone was so overjoyed that we were following the Spirit’s leading and that it had been recognised by the Church, that that person gave us money to help us financially.
We were moved by the way it was given: An envelope was dropped through my letter box with cash in it. The only message was, “To Tony and Frances – Jehovah Jireh!”
'Jehovah Jireh' means ‘The Lord our Provider’.
"Rejoice with those who rejoice; … as well as … weep with those who weep."
I wish I could’ve seen that person’s eyes as they put the letter through the box – whoever they were?
We must use our common sense and share our relative wealth, as the Spirit leads us.
We can't give to all!
However, we should prayerfully and sacrificially give as the Lord leads.
We can, and should share our relative wealth out of love and gratitude!
But finally:
2. We can allow our lives to become complicated and even get our hands dirty.
This involves a deep attitude of heart and mind.
It is easy to be so focused in our lives that we don’t allow for the grey areas – or the things that are messy.
We can become happy when things are black and white, but uneasy at anything that may mean our lives are less rosy.
Love means opening our eyes to the needs of those around us.
Love means travelling the extra mile, allowing the needs of others to intrude into our plans and routine.
Love means rolling up our sleeves.
Love means seeing people, as real people needing love - and that's hard!
When I was on placement as a Chaplain at Pucklechurch Remand Centre.
I met a murderer for the first time.
At least, as far as I know, I met a murderer for the first time.
The newspapers had branded him “a beast” – and I didn’t like my thoughts as I went to meet him.
Surprisingly, as we met the other side of the cell door, I found he was quite ordinary – a fellow human - broken – full of regret and in need of love and help.
As I sat in his cell and looked into his eyes, I was deeply moved.
I did not see the eyes of a wild animal, but the tears of a repentant sinner – holy tears.
I pray I will never stereo type people again.
In our Gospel lesson, all the Levite and the Priest could see was a problem.
The Samaritan saw a neighbour - a man!
If we follow Jesus, we have to learn to get inside another's skin, as it were:
Sick around us. The unlovely. The poor. The disabled.
The homeless. The yob.
All real people.
But, the truth is, that we protect ourselves from the problems of those around us.
We accumulate money, possessions;
a certain character and personality,
and a certain self-image of ourselves: "I am this sort of person".
We develop a fear that inhibits us from identifying with those who are different, but need our love and compassion.
Other people can become problems or causes.
We keep a safe distance - a middle class respectability.
We kid ourselves that we have nothing in common with them.
St. Paul writes in Romans 12v16: "Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited".
"Don't be snobbish", would be the Tony Miles translation.
Remember, "there but for the Grace of God go I."
How would we want people to love us if we were in their position?
Someone once put it: "Folks got to cry together before dey is friends!"
The trouble is that we worry about becoming broken with others - who will pick up OUR pieces?
Yet, we're called to share Christ's suffering and also his resurrection; to share the sufferings of others, and know the power of God in our lives.
When we share someone's cross we are on Holy ground.
We bring into our lives and theirs, the POWER of God!
As we follow Jesus' example, God works powerfully in His world.
It's then that we can rejoice with others.
And sometimes even rejoicing can actually be hard!
It's hard NOT to envy, but to share pleasure with the person who is in esteem, or who has been helped.
It's difficult to congratulate another on success, especially if their success occurs at a time of disappointment to us.
I once had a student minister with me on placement, a good friend called Wesley Hampton.
Wesley is quite a bit younger than me, and very able.
We both took services in the Circuit and, in the evening, we met up at my largest church where he’d preached in the morning.
I’d had a difficult morning service with very little response - after taking ages to prepare.
Matters were made worse when my senior steward said to me, "It was wonderful having Wesley in our pulpit this morning. He was a breath of fresh air – just what we needed, a refreshing change!"
I found it hard to be happy for him at that moment!
A silly example, but it illustrates that it's hard to rejoice with others, as well as to weep.
But this is our calling as Christians!
So let us allow ourselves, with God's help, to identify with people
around us: "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."
For Saint Paul in Romans 12v21 says we are:
“Not to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”.
Amen.
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Blessing
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God of infinite grace and mercy,
Help us to see need with clarity;
to reflect thoughtfully;
to weep tenderly;
to act lovingly;
and to give generously.
We want to be your faithful servants
who make a difference in this fragile and troubled world.
So, as we leave this place of worship,
may we be sustained by the heartbeat of your creative love;
may be inspired by your Son’s wisdom and compassion;
and may we be renewed by your Spirit’s healing and enabling power.
All for the sake of your kingdom
Amen
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Copyright September 2005 Rev. Anthony D. Miles
